Full Out Formula in “I Think It Could Work”/Photo: Johanna Austin
Marc Frost, co-founder and executive director of the Physical Theater Festival, says he learned something from last year’s presentation of “Un Poyo Rojo,” a virtuosic performance from Argentina in which two men in a locker room take the audience through a preening, strutting, flirtatious, riotous journey of a relationship that is at turns competitive and tender, all without uttering a word. “A lot of dance folks came to that show. Word got out, however it does, and I met a lot of people from the dance world there.”
The lesson was the crossover between dance—inherently a form of physical theater—and the broad umbrella of performance Frost and co-founder and artistic director Alice da Cunha curate and present each year. In its thirteenth season (June 1-7), the Physical Theater Festival will present a piece at the Dance Center of Columbia College. It’s a new partnership for the festival and a step up in house size from Theater Wit, where most of the festival takes place. Frost says he is finding fresh opportunities to connect with Chicago’s dance community. “It’s storytelling through movement. This is a more dance-centric year in many ways.”
The Dance Center debut is “Los Regalos” by Compañia de Teatro Físico from Peru. Teatro Físico specializes in mask theater, another first for the festival. “Physical theater is this umbrella term that can include mime and puppetry and circus, but we’ve never had a mask theater,” Frost says. “This show tells the story of a family, and it’s all wordless. We’ve seen a number of submissions from mask theaters over the years and it’s so hard to translate on video. We’re not at a scale where we can travel the world to view works so it’s all video submission for us. This one just cut through.”
Da Cunha says they had been considering bringing “Los Regalos,” which has toured Europe and been running for about a decade, to Chicago for several years and this will be the company’s U.S. debut. “When we look at our headliners, we have some asks,” she says, “that they’ve performed internationally, that they’ve had excellent reviews and that they can set up quickly and have logistical means to perform with us.”
When a company from Belgium was forced to cancel at the last minute due to a performer injury, a local circus company fit the festival criteria. At Theater Wit, Chicago-based Full Out Formula will present “I Think It Could Work,” which has won accolades abroad, including at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The members met at training at a circus school in Philadelphia, but made Chicago their home. “It was one of the great coincidences,” da Cunha says of tapping Full Out Formula to join the bill. “Friends had been telling us about their show, so they were on our radar, and we didn’t have to compromise in anything because they had everything we look for.”
A Little Bit Off, hailing from Portland, Oregon, will present “Beau and Aero,” a vaudevillesque clowning duo that Frost says is their family-friendly show, but will play to all audiences. “We’re programming Sunday morning, but we also have them on the Wednesday night show because they have cross-appeal. They can do it all. It’s almost Abbott and Costello meets modern-day comedy sensibility.”
One half of last year’s dance-acro-clowning crossover hit “Un Poyo Rojo” returns to Theater Wit with “Apocalipsync,” a solo show he created during the pandemic. Luciano Rosso’s extensive training in dance, music and theater is evident in his magnetic stage presence, finely tuned timing and bodily pliability and control—including his face, which stretches from deadpan into grimaces, grins and cross-eyed mugs in flawless rhythm. Da Cunha tells me he’s a TikTok star: “My son’s best friend was laughing at his phone and there was Luciano with seven million views. I was like, ‘Guys! That’s the same actor in “Poyo Rojo!”’”
Another solo performance strikes a serious chord. Sora Baek’s “Sell Me: I Am from North Korea” tells her personal story of crossing from North Korea into China as a teenager, voluntarily selling herself to procure medicine for her ailing mother. Baek has performed the piece for the United Nations and Amnesty International. Frost says, “I would wager most people here have not heard a story like this one.”
“And it’s such a human one,” da Cunha adds.
The festival is also providing dedicated space for local companies with the “Made in Chicago” program, also at Theater Wit. Director and performer Insékta will present “Matadora (W.I.P.),” an exploration of suppressed Latine rage and how it is expressed through the body. They share the bill with theater collective LegLand who will, according to the description of “The New F-Word,” ask the audience “what’s so cool about sitting in a smoky room anyway?”
Da Cunha says the Physical Theater Festival wants to create scaffolding for Chicago-based companies to hone their work and also perform internationally. “The requirements, similar to dance, are different from the requirements to make a written play. For physical theater, you need time and space. We are trying to expand these opportunities.” This scaffolding is built from partnerships, which Frost says has been the theme of the festival this year. Pivot Arts and the Wirtz Center at Northwestern University provided residency for Insékta and Filament Theater did so for LegLand. The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center and Instituto Cervantes all helped bring “Los Regalos” to the festival. And then there’s the new partnership with the Dance Center of Columbia College, which Frost says he hopes will be multi-year.
“We’re inspired by the great models like the [Chicago International] Puppet [Theater] Festival,” Frost says. “I think we’re in a moment of growth because of community partners.”
“It’s a community event,” da Cunha adds. “We love friends meeting and telling each other about shows, we love artists meeting audiences. It’s a time to gather and have fun and enjoy the shows.”
Physical Theater Festival at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, and the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 South Michigan, June 1-7. $19-$40. Tickets and info at physicalfestival.com.
