Erez Dessel (Live Accompanist) is a pianist, composer, educator, and curator. He currently lives in Chicago, where he can be found leading his own groups, as well as playing in groups led by drummer Tim Daisy, saxophonist Ken Vandermark, and a variety of other improvisers. Dessel’s music is centered around exploring improvisation, graphic notation, and polyrhythmic structures. He frequently works with cassette tapes, and is currently developing ways to paint with the piano using charcoal, pastel, paper, and linen. He also curates Night School, a performance art/improvised music series at Agitator Gallery. As an educator, he led his quartet to perform and teach in over 50 workshops in the Boston area, and was also selected to bring his group to the Virginia Arts Festival to lead a week of masterclasses in public schools and community spaces. After graduating from NEC in 2020, Dessel moved to Savannah, GA to accept the position of music director at the Savannah Music Festival Jazz Academy, Savannah’s first and only free after-school youth jazz program. Dessel studied at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he worked with a host of jazz luminaries including Billy Hart, Ethan Iverson, and Jason Moran. While in Boston he performed regularly, including at the Celebrity Series festival Jazz Along the Charles, the Isabella S tewart Gardner Museum, and Wally’s Jazz Club.
Surrender to the magic with this “moving” performance
Theatre Y invites you to our upcoming production of The Wiz Walk--a remix of The Wiz that takes audiences on an odyssey through the North Lawndale neighborhood. Newly relocated to North Lawndale, Theatre Y has been working closely with a group of West-side kids for the past 16 months. We decided to turn our annual summertime “walking performance” (a.k.a., Camino Project) over to them this year, letting them choose the story and route while deploying our adult ensemble to support their vision. The result is an all-ages ensemble performing an all-ages show! Conceived by our Youth Ensemble under the guidance of mentor/performer Marvin Tate, devised by the entire Theatre Y family, and featuring original songs by composer/pianist Sharon Udoh, The Wiz Walk takes dual inspiration from L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the 1978 movie adaptation, The Wiz, which featured an African American cast.
Performances start and end at Theatre Y on 3611 W Cermak Road and include a meal. The walking portion covers less than half a mile and steps off rain or shine. Tickets are free, but spaces are limited, so we recommend reservations—available at theatre-y.com. The Wiz Walk is co-directed by Nadia Pillay, Kaleb Jackson, and Melissa Lorraine; co-written by Marvin Tate, Sharon Udoh, and the youth ensemble. Henry Wilkinson designed the set. Sharon Udoh composed all original music with the youth. Erez Dessel is the live pianist/accompanist.
This production is supported by The Walder Foundation, Bright Promises Foundation
and Theatre Y’s Members.
Special Thanks: Sharon Udoh, Clay Bowman, After school Matters, The parents of our ensemble, Wanda Noris, Shedd Park, Terreon’s Back, Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick, Alderman Michael Rodriqueiz, Shari Lopez, Robert Newman III, Alderwoman Monique Scott, CBS 2, Dontaejah Smith, Catalyst, Patricia McMillen, Emily Bragg, our board members, Marvin Tate, Jonathan Kelly, Evan Hill, Shelia McNary, Rachelle Zola, Marissa Charvez, North Lawndale community, Little Village community, Walder Foundation, Dan Simborg, Bryan Bricknir, Trish VanderBeke, Jonathan Berti, Erez Dessel, and Maxwell Gantner
Theatre Y is a Chicago-based international incubator that creates connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration. Since 2006, Theatre Y has been a point of convergence for diverse activisms, and all of the uncomfortable conversations that happen as a result. Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine and the Theatre Y ensemble are committed to continuously re-thinking the practice of theater as a tool of liberation and a revolutionary practice, bringing Theatre Y to venues ranging from LaMaMa’s historical theater to Illinois prisons. As an organization committed to prison abolition, Theatre Y is in partnership with men serving natural life sentences on arts campaigns towards reparative justice for the incarcerated and continues to innovate in the fight for social justice. Theatre Y, which is now in its 17th year of experimental productions, challenging international content, and a member-based FREE theater model, occupies a unique place in Chicago’s theater community.
Theatre Y productions are offered to the public free of charge thanks to our members. THEATRE Y is a Chicago-based Free Theatre, sustained through an NPR-like membership model, that serves to manifest imagined realities, living global citizenship to better understand our shared humanity.
