About this show
WASTED LIGHT is an opera about meaning making, near ancestry, false promise, time passing, space passing, and billboards. It is sung, spoken and played with smallness and hospitality.
Performed by:
Hannah Bureau
Rebekah Dotzel
Ethan T. Parcell
Kenan Serenbetz
Alec Watson
About Ethan T. Parcell
Ethan T. Parcell is a composer, artist and educator based in Chicago. His work explores ideas of smallness, hospitality, and union, and is realized primarily through composition and drawing. His compositions have been performed throughout the US and Canada by various soloists, ensembles, and youth organizations. A passionate educator and advocate for young people, Parcell has been a teaching artist with Sistema Ravinia, The Olive Tree Arts Network, New Music School, and many other Chicago institutions. He is the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra's first ever composer-in-residence, where he has developed a large body of experimental music for young musicians. He is an active performer in experimental music and theatre, and is the founder of both the opera ensemble Focus Group LLC and the comedic ragtime group The Duck Brain Anniversary Band. Parcell appears on dozens of recordings as a percussionist, clarinetist, guitarist and singer, both as a collaborator and leader. His handwriting, iterative drawings, and opera libretti have been exhibited in group shows in the US, Malta, and Mexico, and published in three literary magazines. Parcell is a two-time resident of Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and recipient of support from Pivot Arts and 3Arts Chicago. He received his BM in Composition from the Boston Conservatory under Andy Vores, Curtis Hughes, and Jan Swafford.
About Focus Group LLC
Focus Group LLC is an experimental opera ensemble formed in 2016 by Ethan T. Parcell. They have released recordings of four full length operas by Parcell: WORLD RECORD in 2018, WASTED LIGHT and WITNESS REUNION (with the Elgin Youth Symphony) in 2019, and most recently THE NEW COUNTY CHORUSES in 2021, a collaboration with Chicago actor Errol McLendon. Their work has been described as “quiet in volume but large in scope” and “far-reaching but incredibly personal, an accumulation of life’s modest details that works, paradoxically, to distill what it means to be alive.” Its members are: Hannah Bureau, Rebekah Dotzel, Eric Hollander, Ethan T. Parcell, Kenan Serenbetz, and Alec Watson.
Content Advisory
Steppenwolf does not offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects (such as strobe lights or theatrical fog) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please contact the box office at 312-335-1650.