The following call for proposals went out on various platforms to artists…

This cartoon is one of those pre-internet memes that was circulating back when we first started producing theatre. We all met in a 1980 university production of Jean Genet’s The Balcony. That same year Ronald Reagan was first elected President, but we were mostly unconcerned with politics back then; it was rarely part of the conversation.

Today, the country has changed, but it was also partially an age thing. Only the young and the naive would think they could form an enduring theatre company with nothing more than a sense of camaraderie and a shared enthusiasm for a playwright. The following year we mounted our first show, christening ourselves “Thieves Theatre” in honor of Genet, and producing his play Deathwatch at Illinois State Penitentiary.

We think we loved this cartoon because it simultaneously mocked and celebrated the bravado of our enterprise. But resurrecting this image today feels somehow more ominous; gone is our sense of lightheartedness. Our country has changed. We have changed. Through our long life in theatre, we have matured into the conviction that the performer’s body is the primary site of political intervention. The personal IS political.

For Project Ritual Cabaret 2025, we are soliciting original proposals that explore the nature of “resistance” and “defiance”… how they facilitate transformation — on the personal, societal and human level. We ask you to creatively engage with the current (inter)national cultural and political provocations. Art as dissent… from quiet, persistent acts of survival to thunderous, transformative rebellion.

This call goes out to performance artists, actors, musicians, (butoh) dancers, puppeteers, performers from the variety arts, and beyond… to present an original performance, a Last Great Act of Defiance, between 5 and 15 minutes in length. Both individual and ensemble proposals are welcome.