Derek Spencer: Field of Flesh
- September 6-28, 2024
- 7PM & 8:30PM Select Dates
- RSVP Required
Leisure presents Field of Flesh, a new immersive performance by director and artist Derek Spencer running from September 6-28, 2024.
A small audience sits at an overflowing dinner table with a cast of loosely-connected family members. Dinner is about to be served, but between the cognitive decline and Tik Tok brainrot, no one seems to remember why we’re together, who’s cooking, or how we’re all related. Through parodic exchanges with the audience, the performers perforate the boundaries between flesh and food, other and self, care and codependency. Meanwhile old age and death loom large in the corner. Ultimately, Field of Flesh asks whether our culinary culture supports us in moments of crisis, and how we might rid ourselves of an anxious attachment to tradition and nostalgia.
This performance was conceived by Derek Spencer and devised by an ensemble cast with support from Leisure. Development was further supported by the OBRAS Foundation. It is Spencer’s Chicago directorial debut.
Field of Flesh will run for 65 minutes at 7PM and 8:30PM on select dates.
Reservations are required and available on fieldofflesh.eventbrite.com.
Artists & Credits
Derek Spencer
derekaspencer.com / @abstract_sentimentalism
Derek Spencer is a Chicago- and LA-based director and artist. He makes ensemble works across performance, film, and installation. He is the founding artistic director of Ceaseless Fun, an LA immersive theater ensemble known for They Who Saw the Deep (2018), Everyone Agrees it’s About to Explode (2020), and Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Regan (2017), among other productions. His first film, Personally I Find it Rude to Be Boring, will premiere this September at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Ensemble
Nigel Brown
Carmia Imani
Mackenzie Jones
Katie Mazzini
Brian Shaw
Elijah Valter
Austin Winter
Assistant Director
Corin Wiggins
Set Designer
Gillian Butcher
Costume Designer
Kate Grube
Producer
Derek Spencer
Associate Producers
X. A. Li
Estlin Usher
Graphic Design
Jens “Yence” Wagner