Venue Information

The Ragdale Ring Summer Performance Series will be outdoors and located behind (west of) Ragdale House, designed in 1897 by renowned Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw as a summer retreat for his creative family. The area of the Ragdale Ring is mowed lawn and includes some uneven terrain.

Additional activities may take place at other locations on campus, and Ragdale staff and volunteers can help direct you. Pathways between buildings include paved, crushed limestone, and stone. Ramps are installed at building points of entry and exit. Building restrooms are available.

Smoking and vaping are not permitted anywhere on the Ragdale campus, including all buildings and outdoor spaces, except in the main parking lot near the ashtray.

To request an access service please email info@ragdale.org a minimum of 72 hours before the event.

Parking and Shuttle Information

Parking and shuttle service between downtown Lake Forest and Ragdale’s campus (1230 N Green Bay Road, Lake Forest, Illinois) will be available, with updates posted online and details emailed to ticket holders by April 2026. Shuttle service will also be available to Metra riders and local residents. Limited parking is available on Ragdale’s campus and is not guaranteed.

For GPS mapping purposes, Ragdale House is located at 1230 North Green Bay Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045.

Metra Riders

Metra riders should use the Union Pacific North service (UP-N) between Chicago and Kenosha and ride to the Lake Forest stop (691 N. Western Ave., Lake Forest).

Metra riders are welcome to use the free shuttle operating from the Oakwood lot, a 5-minute walk from the train station.

Walking to Ragdale from the Metra station takes about 25 minutes.

Program Notes‍ ‍

About Circle of Apathy, House of DOV Project Statement

Circle of Apathy is a collaborative performance project by Chicago-based dance ensemble House of DOV and music group Family Junket. This two-act devised ensemble work is an environmental study that explores the cycles of growth and disintegration intrinsic to nature. The images in the work are also metaphors for how it feels to navigate the current and cyclical ecosystems of dance, environmentalism and activism in our country.

Through creative process, we’ve sought to understand our own place within the greater ecology of our landscape, and to experience the human body as a metaphor and microcosm of the natural world. Our hope is to activate our audiences to a greater sense of responsibility, belonging and connection to the land they live on through touring to outdoor venues (with indoor options) across the Midwest region.

During a duration of approximately 90-minutes (with no intermission), various scenes unfold in an atmospheric and abstract story of transformation. Seven dancers and five musicians work together to build physical structures which increase in precarity as the group strives toward expansion. The movement consists almost entirely of ensemble partnering, with very little phrasework. The performers work in redefined unison: not simultaneous and identical, but together and toward a common goal, as with a congregation singing or protesters marching. The music is dense soul with moments of ambience: voices wail, altered by a vocal pedal; saxophone, flute and violin harmonize over precomposed loops; djembe, drum kit and percussion punctuate echoing acoustic piano. The piece is built from a deep improvisational lexicon and interest in play, polyrhythm, dynamic contrast and durational studies of nature.

In Circle of Apathy, something new emerges from a crumbling landscape over and over. Towers, ships, land-bridges and mountains are built and destroyed in inevitable cycles of growth and disintegration which performance curator Peter Taub (formerly of MCA Stage) described as “hypnotic.” Dancers push against seemingly immovable forces, find new hand and footholds, and creep forward like a vine up a brick wall. A woman walks through an increasingly dense wood until the brush closes around her entirely. When all paths disappear from sight, a figure steps blindly forward, trusting that there will be a stepping stone beneath their foot.

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About House of DOV & Drew Lewis

House of DOV (www.houseofdov.com) is a movement-based performance ensemble from Chicago, IL, led by Drew Lewis. Our namesake is Benjamin Dov Lebowitz, Drew’s ancestor who immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900’s, escaping pogroms. The ensemble exists as a vehicle to explore Drew’s own creative work and heritage, and to provide talented yet under-represented Chicago dancers with opportunities for paid work in performance and practice. Our vision is of a dance field that celebrates diversity of genre, body-type, race and gender, and our mission is to be a changemaker in the local dance conversation while engaging with global discourse through touring.

Since our inaugural performance at the Adler Planetarium (Finalist for the Chicago Reader’s Best of 2021) House of DOV has performed throughout Chicago. We’ve received commissions for original works from The Steppenwolf Theatre and The Arts Club of Chicago, and we’ve been in residence at Chicago Cultural Center, Ragdale, The Schoolhouse (Coloma, Michigan), and The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. @houseofdov

Drew Lewis is a performer, choreographer and educator originally from Oak Park, IL. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts in 2016. Drew has performed extensively with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Little House Dance, C-LS, Project 44, Attack Theatre, The Joel Hall Dancers, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in projects by Lucy Riner and Erin Kilmurray. As a choreographer, Drew has created works for DanceWorks Chicago, Common Conservatory, Loyola University, Skidmore College, Hyde Park School of Dance and many others. He has served on faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA and at Common Conservatory in Chicago, IL. Most recently, Drew was awarded a two-year Fellowship by the Arts Club of Chicago for 2025-2026, marking the first time in history a dance artist has received this role. @lildov__

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About Family Junket

Family Junket is the collective voice of Chicago-based musicians who are also social workers, teachers, farmers, dancers, writers, painters, photographers, and performance artists coming together to create healing spaces, community, and parties. As a band, they play lush, unpredictable compositions featuring horns, strings, percussion, vocal interplay, and an improvisational spirit. Their debut album, Did you tell the bees?, released May 2025 with features in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and City Cast Chicago (WBEZ). @musicformyfamily

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About Well-Balanced Dads

Well-Balanced Dads is a family-friendly comedy about two dads navigating life after their kids leave the nest. Through partner acrobatics, audience interaction, and a lot of cringey Dad-isms, Dick and Dale take the audience on a camping adventure, complete with a beloved minivan, cheese sticks, and spooky ghost stories. This hilarious duo plays with levity while weaving in deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity, and their own relationships with their fathers. Well-Balanced Dads is created and performed by Britt Anderson and Richie Schiraldi.

Britt Anderson is a theatre maker, curator, and performer that has worked in Chicago since 2012. She earned her MFA in European Devised Performance from Arthaus Berlin (formerly LISPA) and Columbia College Chicago, and she trained in silks, tightwire, and partner acrobatics in the Actors Gym Professional Training Program. Her favorite roles include: original devising and touring member of Theatre Unspeakable’s The American Revolution (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Edu), founder/co-curator of Heels Over Head: A Physical Variety Show, curator of Scratch Night by Physical Festival, writer of Whisper Theatre’s Wild Women, and adjunct theatre professor at Columbia.

Richie Schiraldi, originally from Salisbury Mills, NY, is a theatre-creator with focuses in movement, dance, physical comedy, and partner/group acrobatics, as well as a freelance circus and clown artist. He has a jack-of-all-trades training in most ground-based circus skills, though his specialties are acrobatics, cyr wheel, and clown. Richie is also a member of Aura Curiatlas, a physical theatre and dance company. Richie has an extensive technical background, mostly within scenic carpentry and stage management. He has taught circus and physical theater to humans of all ages through CircEsteem, Actors Gymnasium, and as a freelance teaching artist. Outside of Whisper, he is currently working on an international farce show, Le Taste of Jean-Pierre,  with Jelle de Wit and Brittany Price Anderson, and with Luna Nove Theater on White Stag.