Theatre alums Wulfekuhle and Gervais perform in NYC production of "Battle of Angels"

four actors on a stage in a play about the 1930s

Anna Wulfekuhle (Class of '16) and Dylan Gervais (Class of '15) performed in Tennessee Williams' Battle of Angels with NYC-based physical theater ensemble Blessed Unrest in September 2021. Blessed Unrest devises original pieces and reconstructs established texts through collaborative processes, including consistent training in the Viewpoints and Suzuki, both methods taught at WWU.  Anna and Dylan met Blessed Unrest's Artistic Director (and director of this play) Jessica Burr through workshops at Western and at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, which WWU theatre students attend annually.

Blessed Unrest began work on this production in early 2020, but like all productions at the time, the pandemic interrupted the process. In true experimental theater fashion, the production evolved during the shutdown- the ensemble spent the first weeks of rehearsal in a recording studio (the sound designer's Harlem apartment) so that the entire text could be edited into a soundscape. With that soundscape, movement rehearsals began in a studio where the ensemble created a vocabulary of gestures and movement to build the physical storytelling for the stage. The final piece was a physically exhausting, 93-minute drama with all ensemble members present onstage. It ran for a weekend in New York City at The New Ohio Theater before traveling north to Provincetown, MA to headline the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival.

Images

Above: Anna Wulfekuhle, foreground left. Dylan Gervais, background right.

First image below: Dylan Gervais on the right, higher in photo.

Second image below: Anna Wulfekuhle, left.

two actors in a noir setting. One seated, one standing.
Two actors in thirties dresses squint at something far away, one holds binoculars.

Authored on

Nov 22, 2021 4:40pm