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Event
WOLF
Co-directed by choreographer/performer Jennifer Allen & writer/performer/media-artist Deke Weaver with sound composed/designed by Chris Peck
http://www.unreliablebestiary.org
WOLF is Deke Weaver's third performance in his life-long project, The Unreliable Bestiary a performance for each letter of the alphabet, each letter represented by an endangered species or habitat.
In September 2013 people were loaded onto buses and driven 40 minutes out to a little forest in the middle of the Illinois cornfields. During the bus ride, park rangers gave video-accompanied talks about wolves. The rangers told some stories and sang some songs and taught people how to howl. They told the people on the bus about the pack of wolves that had been released into the tiny forest and about their contact with the first recorded Star Wolves on our planet. The buses arrived at the small forest just as the sun was going down. The audience was divided into four herds. The rangers led the Bison, the Deer, the Elk and the Moose on silent walks through the woods, everyone's eyes peeled for wolves. The herds made their way to the Ground Zero source of The Energy: a barn filled with The Dance, The Sound, and The Story that pulled the threads together.
The live event at The Art (Monday March 17th, two shows, 6pm and 8pm) distills the sprawling 2013 piece into a one-man presentation part live performance, part cinematic documentation.
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Praise for the September 2013 WOLF
"WOLF was a singular and haunting experience."
-Richard Powers National Book Awardwinning author of The Echo Maker
"WOLF was among the most ambitious works of art I have ever experienced."
-Matti Bunzl Artistic Director, 2013 Chicago Humanities Festival
"What a gift you all made that night! I felt like we shared a wild, vivid dream strange and resonant."
-Audrey Petty McSweeney's editor of High Rise Stories: Voices From Chicago Public Housing
"Each installment of Deke Weaver's Unreliable Bestiary has been more incredible than the last. Perhaps it's the brilliant story telling, or maybe it's Weaver's performance presence. WOLF is one of the most moving and profound and completely immersive theater experiences I've ever had. It somehow taps deep into your own childhood psyche to give you an empathic and fantastic connection to the animal kingdom that just doesn't go away."
-Jonathan Fineberg scholar, curator, author
"WOLF left the sort of images that linger from a Tarkovsky film, multisensory moments one reaches to secure in the brain before they disappear."
-Kevin Hamilton Artist & Researcher, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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DEKE WEAVER director, writer, video, performer
is a writer, performer, designer, and media artist. His performances and videos have been presented in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Europe, and the United States at experimental theater, film/video, dance, solo performance, and broadcast venues such as Channel 4/U.K., the Sundance Film Festival, the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center, The Berlin Video Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art/LA, The Moth, and many others including livestock pavilions, night clubs, backyard sheds and living rooms. He has been a resident artist at Yaddo, Isle Royale National Park, HERE, Ucross, and the MacDowell Colony. His work has been supported by commissions, fellowships, and grants from Creative Capital, the city of San Francisco, the states of Illinois and New York, the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and other public and private foundations. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with appointments in the School of Art and Design and Department of Theater.
JENNIFER ALLEN codirector, choreographer
has been creating densely layered performance works described as "enigmatic thoughtful and compelling" for the past 15 years. Her work has been seen all around NYC as well as venues on both coasts and Chicago's Millennium Park. She enjoyed residencies through PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) and The MacDowell Colony. As a performer in NYC she worked with many influential artists: John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono and DD Dorvillier to name a few.
CHRIS PECK composer/sound design
is a Michigan-born composer investigating the peculiarities of listening and perception through a diverse practice that includes works for large untrained groups, interdisciplinary performance collaborations, and improvisation with the computer. His dancing has been described as "awkwardly beautiful" by The New York Times. His frequent work with dance has included scores for RoseAnne Spradlin, Eleanor Bauer, John Jasperse, David Dorfman, Milka Djordjevich, Jeanine Durning, Ming Yang/Dance Forum Taipei, Abby Yager, and others. Chris is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia.
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LocationThe Art Theater Co-op (View)
126 W. Church St.
Champaign, IL 61820
United States
Categories
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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Contact
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