Portfolio

Conceived and directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | original text by Morgan McNaught | Co-Created with Fides Krucker, Delhi’s Guild of the Goat, and the Walkabout ensemble

A family history dream play inspired by true personal narratives of the performers. Each performer traces something of where they come from and asks what is needed to come together. Developed in Chicago with performances at Chicago Parks District, Victory Gardens’ Prince Trust Hall, Chicago Physical Fest, Links Hall, and the University of Chicago.

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Conceived and directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | Co-Created with Fides Krucker and the Walkabout ensemble: Alex Benito Rodriguez, Cooper Forsman, Dana Murphy, Katie Mazzini, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Nigel Brown

An avant-garde cabaret in a cafe at the edge of the world. Inspired by American pop and jazz standards, the poetry of Gertrude Stein, and Anne Carson's essay The Gender of Sound, one critic proclaimed that The Brink! “makes fierce poetic sense of love, loss, and media. The physicality of the thing is gorgeous and exhilarating.” Developed with a Creation Fund Award from the National Performance Network and presented at Links Hall, the Cricoteka Centre in Krakow, the 8th International Theatre Olympics in Mumbai and New Delhi, and Steppenwolf Theatre’s 1700 stage.

To see a video trailer click here.

Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | dramaturgy by Kendra Miller | Created and performed by Nigel Brown, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Al Evangelista, Cooper Forsman, Katie Mazzini, Kendra Miller, Dana Murphy, and Paul Scudder. Delhi performances included Amba-Suhasini Jhala and Anirudh Nair.

Rhythmic, muscular, and surreal, THE WILD licks at the wounds left by the man-made rifts between body and love and reason. Beginning with the Greeks, the performers re-enact fragments of The Bacchae before deconstructing a party of wealthy elites in a miasmic excerpting of Charles Mee’s Global Warming. In a bacchanalian frenzy of longing for spirit and for belonging in a group, this performance examines what happens to people when institutions crumble and deities fail to show up.

THE WILD was presented in 2014 as part of Steppenwolf Theatre’s Garage Rep Series; in 2015 at Chicago Physical Theater Festival and Ball State University; and in 2016 at Columbia College and at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav Festival in Delhi, India.

Co-directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli and Dana Murphy | Stilt choreography by Kristina Isabelle | Scenic elements by Studio Gang Chicago | Original text by Morgan McNaught | Original music by Cooper Forsman

A stilt dance spectacle featuring interactive scenic design by the renowned architecture firm Studio Gang. A dynamic flock of technicolor colossi explore the deep human connection to place through a celebration of impermanence, remembrance and change.

Presented in 2018 by Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks and Pivot Arts.

Directed by Jessica Thebus and Gabriel Thom Pasculli | Original text by Sarah Ruhl and Morgan McNaught | Dramaturgy by Regina Victor

An outdoor family pageant weaving together mythic tales of nature gods and true stories of environmental justice. A PERSEPHONE PAGEANT creates an immersive spectacle about the Great Lakes, their history with Chicago, and the great victories and challenges associated with their preservation. Presented in 2017 by Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks, the University of Chicago’s Performance Lab, and the Ragdale Foundation, in partnership with Chicago’s Persephone Project.

Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli with choreography by Kristina Isabelle and original music by Cooper Forsman, Sam Allyn and Stephanie Pasculli. Adapted from the Tz'utujil Mayan story shared by Martín Prechtel in his book The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun. Performance text adapted in English by Isaac Fosl-van Wyke and in Spanish by Enid Muñoz.

Tall Girl and the Lightning Parade is an immersive, celebratory outdoor parade performance in English and Spanish with live music, dance, masks, and stilt-walkers. The story tells about Tall Girl’s escape from her domineering sky parents and her magical courtship with the iridescent Hummingbird Boy. Tall Girl and the Lightning Parade was presented in 2016 by Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks and by the University of Chicago’s Performance Lab with free performances at Washington Park, Walsh Playground Park, and La Villita Park, with a special appearance at the Villapalooza Street Festival.

Presented by Trap Door Theatre, Chicago

Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | Dramaturgy by Kendra Miller | created with and performed by Al Evangelista, Cooper Forsman, Cortney McKenna, Gabriel Thom Pasculli, Kendra Miller, Nigel Brown, Paul Scudder, Lauren Vogel

An ensemble of Fausts moves together in desperate pursuit of greater knowledge, but the ferocity of Faust’s desire to understand corrupts the very objects he studies. An encounter with the devil spins the doctor into an intoxicating world of chaos and doubt. When Faust sells his soul to the devil he believes it to be worthless, but it is the devil who must convince him otherwise. Utilizing music, action and imagery Core of the PUDEL interprets one’s struggle to reclaim his own soul.

Presented by Oracle Productions

Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | text adapted by Emma Stanton, Nigel O’Hearn, and Gabriel Thom Pasculli from Chuck Mee’s Full Circle

An American woman abroad is mistakenly left holding the newborn child of the First Secretary of the Community Party as the Berlin Wall comes crashing down. In the confusion of revolution, she decides to escape the chaos and corruption to raise the child in the safe embrace of the West. When the baby's mother returns to challenge the true maternity of the child, CIRCLE-MACHINE paints the conflict as a question of Capitalism's self-proclaimed supremacy in the world. Don't miss this frenetic, World Premiere adaptation that borrows its story from FULL CIRCLE by Charles Mee, which borrows from the 13th century Chinese zaju play, "The Chalk Circle", which also inspired Bertolt Brecht and a host of other artists throughout the ages.

Presented by Red Tape Theatre and Walkabout Theatre at the Broadway Theatre, Chicago.

Text by Emma Stanton, Morgan McNaught, and Lucas Baisch | Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli | Original music by Lucia Thomas

Inspired by the collision of Euripides’s Trojan Women and Checkov’s The Cherry Orchard, Mother of Smoke examines the threat of losing one’s home, the promise of safety, the crumbling of the American Dream, and the work of picking up the pieces.

Presented by Vox Theatre at Cherry Lane Theatre, NYC part of the NYC Fringe Festival

Written by Kate Mulley | Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli

Set in London in the early 1960’s, The Reluctant Lesbian explores gender, race and sexuality on the brink of the patriarchal establishment’s decline.