Spring Forward

Co-director and Event Coordinator

May 21, 2021
Hutchinson Courtyard, The University of Chicago

Directed by Frank Maugeri and Rebecca Husk
Mask art by Jimmy Grimes
Masks fabricated by Ellie Terrell and Eleanor Kahn

Student Team:

Circus Ambassador: Lilly Hackworth
Costume Ambassador: Carolyn Johansen
Design Ambassador: Emily Her
Music Ambassador: Angelie Miranda
Performance Ambassador: Sophia Balabanova-Gebreab
Poetry Ambassador: Renee Wehrle

Photos by Saverio Truglia

Rebecca acted as Event Coordinator and Co-Director for Spring Forward, part of The University of Chicago’s Winterfest. Spring Forward was a large, socially-distant-yet-immersive spectacle designed to bring students together to fight isolation due to the Chicago winter and Covid-19. The event featured dance, drumming, silk and fire performers, and transforming props such as masks with hidden inner worlds and a 2 story woman in a projected dress.

Because of the aforementioned crisis, Rebecca had to manage a team of student authors through multiple date changes, audience and cast limitations, and far too many zoom rehearsals. Despite these difficulties, Spring Forward featured several workshops with internationally renowned artists and scholars, and masks designed in London by Jimmy Grimes.

Description from Winterfest Website: ”Under the creative direction of Frank Maugeri, Lecturer in Theater & Performance Studies and celebrated designer of artistic pageants, processions, and celebrations, Spring Forward aims to be a hopeful collaboration between creative teams of students, art faculty, and prominent artists for the design and construction of large-scale masks, culminating in a conditions-appropriate procession and pageant, with music, circus, poetry, dance, song and more.”