SCRATCH NIGHT
Curated by Kevin Michael Wesson with Fat Theatre Project, Alonso Galue, Michele Stine, Laurel Johnson, Kevin Aoussou & Gretchen Hasse
Monday, July 15th at 7pm
70 minutes with no intermission
Age Guidance: 14+
* If these prices are a barrier for you and you need a "pay what you can ticket" email us at info@physicalfestival.com with the subject line PWYC
About SN
Scratch Night is a curated showcase of works-in-progress featuring innovative local theatre makers. Scratch Night features 6 previews of original contemporary, visual, and physical theatre by different Chicago artists to foster their development. Produced by Kevin Michael Wesson Scratch Night aims to provide a social space for community, conversation, and collaboration.
Scratch Night Line Up:
Fat Theatre Project
Alonso Galue
Michele Stine
Laurel Johnson
Kevin Aoussou
Gretchen Hasse
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Eileen Tull (Fat Theatre Project)
Eileen Tull (she/her) is a Chicago-based storyteller, theatremaker, poet, educator, and one-woman-show person. She has performed throughout the country, from San Francisco to New York City, including in the SF Fringe, New Seeds Festival, United Solo, the Cincy Fringe, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and the Dallas Solo Festival. Her work has been seen all over Chicago at Is This A Thing?, Serving the Sentence, Theater Wit, Stage Left, Broken Nose Theatre, Loose Chicks, Chicago Danztheatre, and Fat Theatre Project, a newly formed creative collective that she heads. Too Fat To Run will play at Chicago's Yippie Fest, the Elgin Fringe Festival, and more dates to come!
Alonso Galue
Alonso Galue (Venezuelan, b. 1994, Chicago Based) BFA at University of Los Andes, is a multidisciplinary artist whose experimental use of traditional painting and sculpture articulates speeches on labor, existential crisis, and totalitarianism. Pulitzer Prize Jerry Saltz commented on Galue’s work as “a strong voice of the future.”, and 60WRD/MIN Art Critic Lori Waxman said his work brings the humanity that we need.
Alonso Galue (Venezuela b.1994- Trabaja en Chicago) Licenciado en Artes Visuales de la Universidad de los Andes, es un artista multidisciplinario cuyo uso de la pintura y escultura tradicional articula discursos sobre trabajo, crisis existenciales, immigracion y totalitarismo. El ganador del Pulitzer Prize y critico de arte Jerry Saltz considera su trabajo como “Una fuerte voz del futuro”, y la critico de arte del 60WRD/MIN Lori Waxman dijo: “Su trabajo trae la humanidad que necesitamos.”
Michele Stine
Michele Stine is an actor, clown, and puppeteer. They spend time digging through trash and alleys for materials, much to her mother's dismay. Michele has performed with Rough House Theatre, Filament Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Puppet Studio, Lifeline Theatre, Emerald City Theatre, Collective SUMM, and some other companies too. They like cheese-its and ice cream and talking about theatre audience experiences and considerations. Michele thinks that “bios” are strange because it’s short for biography but we were given a word count of 150 words or less. Seems like not enough, but here we are. Are we at 150 words, yet? Oh, the show! Yes, okay, al(o)ne is a full length show, currently in development with a full production this Fall/Winter. She’s looking for a choreographer to help make their dancing more extreme. Exciting! Word count: 140.
Laurel Johnson
Laurel (they/them) is a multidisciplinary, experimental performance artist, based in Chicago. They studied theater, modern dance and writing at Bennington College in Vermont, and have studied devising and performance with Pig Iron, Chicago Dramatists, and The Neofuturists. Their work is largely autobiographical, frequently scientific, and often explores the themes of trauma and disability, and how we invent ways to find beauty, find each other, play and survive, even in our darkest, most painful moments. Highly visual, visceral and vulnerable, their work incorporates many art forms: integrating poetry, movement, clown, and audience interaction, with video projections, animations, and dynamic lighting. Follow them on instagram @lllaurelllaurelllaurelll.
Kevin Aoussou
Kevin Aoussou (he/him/his) is excited to make his Chicago Physical Theater Performance debut with the Physical Theater Festival. He is an alumnus of the National Theater Institute, Winthrop University, the Arvold Warner Inaugural Teacher Training Program, as well as a recent graduate from Northwestern University MFA Acting program. He is currently an Associate Director with Still Point Theatre Collective, and the Founder of The Local Lab Co. a Chicago based collaboration collective. Follow him on instagram @ayokev247 and @thelocallabco (J.C.2016)
Gretchen Hasse
Gretchen is a Chicago-based storyteller working in comics, video, animation, murals, and installation. She co-founded Agitator Artists’ Co-operative in 2017, and since then curation has also been a crucial part of her practice.
Gretchen’s documentary videos for social justice campaigns have educated policy makers, informed the general public, and inspired new activists. Her narrative videos have screened nationally and internationally. She publishes her ongoing graphic novel, Freaks’ Progress, in monthly installments online and in print through Activator magazine out of Springfield, Illinois. In 2021, she published the first two volumes of Agitator Comics!, an open-theme compilation.
Gretchen received her MFA in Film, Video and New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the summer of 2022 she completed a two month residency at Buinho Fab Lab in Messejana, Portugal, where she focused on fabrication and robotics. She is the recipient of a 2021 Make A Wave nomination-based grant from 3Arts in Chicago; a 2022 VIDA: Women in Literary Arts Fellowship for Writing Residency at Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, Tennessee; and a 2022 Esteemed Artist Grant from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). She teaches drawing and writing at Saint Xavier University in Chicago.
THE CURATOR
Kevin Michael Wesson (he/they) is a proudly unrepresented puppeteer/deviser based in Chicago, originally from Tampa, FL (B.A. theatre arts, University of South Florida). Recent credits as a physical theatre performer include: Leonardo! & Christmas Carol (Manual Cinema), “Where we go together” or The Flashlight Play (Theatre Nobody), Dog or Cats; Augmented Body (Steppenwolf LOOKOUT), House of the Exquisite Corpse I-III (Rough House Theater), All is Blue & Yellow (Collective Summ), Elements of Style (The Neo-Futurists),The Dr. Seuss Experience (Kilburn Live). His works have been mentioned in American Theatre Magazine, No Proscenium, The Puppetry Journal, NPR, and nomination for the National Puppet Slam. A firm believer in DIY ethos, they currently organize works-in-progress & community programming for the Chicago-based puppet theatre company, Rough House Theater, the performance art company, Stop Motion Plant, and the experimental free theatre outfit, Theatre Nobody.