Mission
Walkabout Theater Company is a collective of writers, performers, directors, designers and visual artists that have come together out of a mutual desire and compulsion to develop original work through the collaboration and exploration of varied mediums. We believe that theater at its best is a transformative experience for both audience member and performer. Through theater we grapple with humanity’s questions seeking glimpses of that which is greater than ourselves.
Company
Seth Bockley is a Chicago-based playwright, director and performer. His writing credits include February House, a collaboration with lyricist and composer Gabriel Kahane for The Public Theater, which will premiere at The Public in spring of 2011; Ask Aunt Susan, to be produced this fall as part of the Goodman’s New Stages Amplified series; adaptations of George Saunders’ short stories “CommComm” (commissioned by the Goodman Theater through its Ofner Prize and further developed by New York’s Page 73 Productions), and “Jon,” winner of the 2008 Equity Jeff Citation for Best New Adaptation; as well as The Twins Would Like To Say for Dog & Pony Theatre Co., and Laika’s Coffin and Winter Pageant 2010 for Redmoon Theater, where he spent two years as a directing apprentice through New Generations program through Theatre Communications Group (TCG). As a director, credits include Jason Grote’s Civilization (all you can eat) for Clubbed Thumb (Summerworks 2011), and Jon and Grote’s 1001 for Collaboraction, along with numerous Redmoon events and spectacles. In August, he will begin a collaboration with Mexico City-based clown artist Artús Chávez through TCG’s Global Connections: On The Road grant, which he was awarded with Devon de Mayo.
Dani Bryant is an actor, teaching artist, and food blogger. Dani originally hails from Gatlinburg, TN, but has called Chicago home for four years. Dani studied acting at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts and received her BFA from The Hartt School of Theatre. She’s performed her one woman show, ‘Binge’, at the UofC Summer INC program, the Around the Coyote Festival, the ChiFringeBinge, and StudioBE. Dani has also performed with, Hartford Stage, Collaboraction, Piccolo Theatre, Cabaret Vagabond, Adventure Stage Chicago, and Walkabout. Dani is a founding member of Cabaret Vagabond as well as an artistic ensemble member with Adventure Stage Chicago and Walkabout Theater.
Loren Crawford is a playwright, performer, filmmaker and educator. Her stage plays include Prelude: The Life and Work of Katherine Mansfield, Missing Memaw, Dye Frye & Wicked John and The Devil published by New Plays, Inc., Mama: A play for Voices , The Unembarrassed Mind with Stephan Mazurek and most recently The People Could Fly. As a performer she has worked with Itinerant Theater Guild, Walkabout Theater, Next Theatre, Piven Theatre and XSight! Performance Group. She has worked extensively throughout Kentucky as an artist-in-residence developing and directing original work with students as well as designing and implementing an after-school theatre program for youth at risk. In Chicago she has taught theatre, humanities, language arts, writing and ecology at Triumphant Charter School. With Stephan Mazurek she formed Ruffian Pictures whose first full-length documentary “Under Kentucky Skies: 25 years of the Kentucky Music Weekend” has become a staple of KET, Kentucky’s PBS station.
Shawn Escarciga is a performer with a background in physical theater and improvisation. He is a graduate of the theater studies program at Emory University and has also trained in mask work/physical theater at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. In Chicago, he has performed with Collaboraction, Red Tape Theatre, Point of Contention Theatre and Walkabout Theater. He is currently training at IO and teaches improv with Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop.
Michael Karrys (Business Manager) is a writer, software consultant, and businessman. He worked for 15 years as the MIS manager of Polak and Skan and currently has his own office software and accounting firm, Karrys Computing Inc.. If you ever have an emergency and need to call 911, you can partially thank Mike for a quick response time.
Stephan Mazurek is a director and visual designer for the theater as well as a Director of Photography, Photographer and a Filmmaker. For Walkabout Theater Stephan has created and directed the world premiere of Goldbrick, music and lyrics by Jon Langford, written by Loren Crawford and produced by Walkabout Theater and Collaboraction (at The Building Stage). Other Walkabout credits include: An Unembarrassed Mind (Storefront Theater); Voyaging (co-production with Lucky Plush at the Atheneum Theater); Downsize (fourteen-month run in twelve bathrooms throughout Chicago, [world premiere in Steppenwolf Garage Men’s Room], plus productions in Brazil and Argentina); People Can Fly (Vittum Theater); Prelude (Chopin Theater) and Missing Memaw (Louisville, Chicago and Edinburgh Fringe Festival)m all world premieres. Stephan Mazurek served as director of photography for the feature length documentary,Louder Than a Bomb, which will have its world premiere, 3-26-10 at the Cleveland International Film Festival. Stephan has designed projections for The Tempest andCherry Orchard, both directed by Tina Landau, Sonia Flew (Jeff Nominated) directed by Jessica Thebus, the 2009 Steppenwolf Gala and Of Mice and Mendirected by Michael Patrick Thornton all presented at Steppenwolf. Recent projection designs include: Second City Theatricals’ Reverie: Simply Unspeakable at the Montreal Just for Laugh’s Comedy Festival, directed by Dexter Bullard, the late/great Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright’s Better Late featuring John Mahoney presented at Northlight Theater and the Galway Arts Festival, directed by BJ Jones. Next up on the design front, Sarah Ruhl’s Late: A Cowboy Song at Piven.
Nina Sallinen, a founding member of Walkabout Theater Company (with Kristan), is an actress from Finland. She’s worked both in Finland and America, as well as Italy , France and Norway. Nina has acted in 53 theater productions now, including WalkAbout’s: Poor Poor Lear (one -woman show), The Kingdom of Earth and Offspring of the Cold War. Other Chicago credits include work with European Rep., Buffalo Theater Ensemble, Running With Scissors and Dolled Up Productions. In Finland, worked with a number of different companies ,including the National Theater of Finland, and was a series regular for two different comedy variety shows on Finnish television. Now she lives in L.A with her husband Chris and their son Andrew. BUT she still will give her wise advice about everything concerning Walkabout Theater Company. And she will support whatever WalkAbout Theater Company does. And she will fly back to steal good roles!
Kristan Schmidt (Karrys) (Founding Artistic Director) has been developing, directing and producing new work since the success of that first darn puppet experiment about thirty years ago. A former member of the original Organic Theatre in Chicago, she directed Walkabout’s first two productions, Poor, Poor Lear and Kingdom of Earth. She is always on the look-out for what a theater event can be.
Emma Stanton (Artistic Director) is an actor and playwright. She sought theater training at Boston College, the British American Drama Academy’s London and Oxford programs, and at Double Edge Theater in Ashfield, Massachusetts. In Chicago, she has worked with Redmoon Theater, Collaboraction (of which she is an associate), Red Tape Theater, American Theater Company, Livewire Theater, About Face Theater, TUTA Theatre Company, Dramatis Personnae, and Walkabout Theater. Her plays have been read, work-shopped, and produced by Dramatis Personnae, Collaboraction, Strange Tree Group, and American Theater Company. She has written three full-length plays, two one-act plays, and eight ten-minute plays. In 2009, she was a recipient of the Civic and Arts Foundation Playwriting Award for Emerging Artists.
Mac Vaughey is a lighting and set designer. Walkabout credits include An Unembarrassed Mind and Any Illusion. Other experiences include design for Chicago’s Gift, Wing and Groove, and Victory Gardens companies, as well as the Actor’s Theater of Louisville, KY.
Joe Zarrow is a playwright and actor. He has performed his original solo shows Dead White Men in Bed and Hold Me, Drill Me, Kiss Me in Chicago, New York, Washington, Providence, and Winnipeg, and was seen in Chicago most recently in Theater Seven’s Chicago Landmark Project as Edward Brennan, the man who invented Chicago’s street numbering system. He works as the Development Coordinator for Collaboraction at their new home in Wicker Park’s Flat Iron Arts Building. Walkabout premiered his site-specific farce, The Pigeons, in April 2010.
