PATCHWERK PAIRED

Year: 2022
Location: Lake Forest, Illinois
Status: Finalist
Project Team: Rekha Auguste-Nelson, Isabel Strauss, Farnoosh Rafaie

Patchwerk recalls the first Ragdale Ring as it stakes out space for new voices.

One stage is elevated and planted in grass like the 1912 original. Directly adjacent, at an inverted, sunken stage, performers lay claim to the historic ground of the Ragdale audience, who stood "three feet below stage level, surrounded by a retaining wall." Hemmed in by the earth, this “living room” has a similar, secluded and intimate aspect, furnished with handmade quilts that could travel to Chicago for related performance events.

Ultimately, Patchwerk is borne of energy invested in what is already present. At the end of the Ring season, the native soil—excavated to carve out the sunken stage, then piled to form the elevated stage—will be put back, and the lawn reseeded.