Walkabout Theater’s U.S. Premiere of “THE BRINK! or Nobody’s Ever Kissed Me Like That…” Runs Through March 30th

Walkabout Theater Company and Links Hall, in association with the National Performance Network, is pleased to present the U.S. premiere of THE BRINK! or Nobody’s Ever Kissed Me Like That… In a cafe at the edge of the world, on the brink of existence, the Walkabout ensemble is dying to sing and dance, to draw the curtain on our last-ditch desires, and to reveal the transformative beauty of our shadow selves. Fresh from its preview performance at the Cricoteka Centre in Krakow, Poland, THE BRINK! will run for three weekends only at Links Hall before traveling to India for the 8th International Theatre Olympics in Mumbai and New Delhi.  With its signature style, Chicago’s premier laboratory ensemble presents an entirely new work that asks with ardor and brass, “What happens now… here on the brink?”

Directed by Artistic Director Thom Pasculli, THE BRINK! will play March 15 – 30, 2018 at Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are on sale now at walkabouttheater.org. 

The Brink! is created and performed by Walkabout ensemble members Nigel Brown, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Cooper Forsman, Dana Murphy, Katie Mazzini, Thom Pasculli and Alex Rodriguez. Musical, irreverent, and full of wonder, THE BRINK! responds to that moment when the ground beneath us shifts too quickly and the world suddenly seems unrecognizable. Drawing from iconic American pop and jazz standards, the poetry of Gertrude Stein and Ann Carson’s The Gender of Sound, the ensemble slides past the edge of reason in this unfettered encounter with the stranger inside. 

Presented as part of the National Performance Network Creation Fund Initiative, THE BRINK! was developed in partnership with Links Hall, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Dartmouth College/VoxFest and the Cricoteka Centre in Krakow, Poland. Following its run at Links Hall, THE BRINK! will be presented as part of the 8th International Theatre Olympics in Mumbai and New Delhi, India from April 6 – 8, 2018. 

THE BRINK! production team includes: Fides Krucker (vocal specialist), Ken Urbina (lighting design), Cooper Forsman (sound design), Myron Elliot (costume design), Michael Saubert Jr. (weapon specialist), Claire Bauman (asst. director), Dina Klahn (stage manager) and Auriel Jones (asst. stage manager). 

About the Director

Thom Pasculli (Director) is the Artistic Director of Walkabout Theater and specializes in developing physical and laboratory theater, actor training and exchange. Past projects include creating a performance tour and international symposium in South Africa, an intensive street performance program for high school students in Colorado, and most recently a festival of innovative new works-in-progress for theater professionals at Dartmouth College called VoxFest. Thom has directed Walkabout’s touring productions of The Wild (Steppenwolf Garage, Physical Fest Chicago, Ball State University, New Delhi’s Bharat Rhang Mahotsav Festival) and The Brink! (Dartmouth College, the Cricoteka Centre in Krakow, Links Hall); Walkabout’s outdoor summer spectacles, Beach Party at the End of the World, Tall Girl and the Lightning Parade and A Persephone Pageant (co-directed with Jessica Thebus); and Walkabout’s co-production with Red Tape Theatre, Mother of Smoke. Other Chicago credits include Core of the PUDEL (Trap Door) and Circle-Machine (Oracle Productions). Currently Thom teaches movement and acting at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago.   

About Walkabout Theater Company

Walkabout produces three streams of programming: free outdoor phenomena focused on community engagement and unique artistic collaborations; world-premiere, touring performances created by the ensemble; and training workshops investigating techniques of co-creation. 

Radically process-oriented, Walkabout is distinguished by a deep investment in the creation of each ensemble project, in the personal and artistic development of each of its eight ensemble artists, and in the cultural and artistic advancement of ensemble practice. 

Committed to its itinerate nature, as well as to the principles of encounter and exchange, Walkabout presents work across Chicago with regular excursions in the US and abroad.  In its partnerships with the Chicago Parks District, DCASE, the Chicago Performance Lab, the University of Chicago, Pivot Arts, and others, Walkabout has brought free public performances and spectacles to neighborhoods in the North, West, Central, South and Far South regions of Chicago.  The company’s recent ensemble works have toured internationally and premiered in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Garage, Links Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center. Walkabout has created international collaborations with support from the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund, the Network of Ensemble Theaters and the National Performance Network.   

THE BRINK! is a National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN) Creation and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Links Hall in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, VoxFest/Dartmouth College, the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor Cricoteka and NPN. For more information: www.npnweb.org. This work was made possible in part by the ongoing support of the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts Fund, and the Illinois Arts Council.  

About Links Hall

Links Hall is located at Constellation (3111 N. Western Avenue) in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood. Links Hall encourages artistic innovation and public engagement by maintaining a facility and providing flexible programming for the research, development and presentation of new work in the performing arts. Learn more at www.linkshall.org.