CHICAGO — Scott Illingworth came to DePaul as a BFA acting student, thinking he wanted to be an actor. Now, he is returning to The Theatre School as a director, educator and the creator of the Verbatim Salon project.
The Verbatim Salon is a monthly performance event in New York City featuring verbatim stories from people interacting with the U.S. immigration system. These stories are performed using an in-ear verbatim technique. Actors listen in real time to the recordings via headphones as they speak the words aloud in front of the audience.
The Verbatim team will work with TTS MFA acting students this September, culminating in two public performances on Sept. 26 and 27. These will be the first Verbatim Salon performances in Chicago.
Illingworth, who also received an MFA in directing at DePaul, said his career eventually expanded beyond acting into teaching, directing and new play development.
“I thought I wanted to be an actor,” Illingworth said. “But the truth is, once I graduated, I thought there were these other pieces of making theatre that I think are important to me.”
Today, Illingworth is the associate chair of the graduate acting program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Unlike traditional verbatim theatre, where actors perform transcripts from interviews, in-ear verbatim performers listen to interview recordings through headphones and then perform what they hear.
“The actor is attempting to replicate everything on the recording — the laughter, the pacing, the breath pattern, ‘ums’ and ‘uhs,’ everything they can hear,” he said.
The salon format combines these performances with audience conversations and interactions. Illingworth said the project was created in response to what he sees as an increasingly binary public conversation about immigration.
“So much of the conversation that is happening around immigration on television and in our politics is so binary,” he said. “It's so devoid of the specific humanity of any one person's experience.”
The individuals whose stories are heard are kept anonymous. Their recordings are collected and then edited. The actors do not know who the people are, and after they perform, they lose access to the recording. This allows individuals to share their stories without publicly revealing their immigration status.
Assistant Dean Jason Beck was inspired to bring the project to DePaul when he attended one of their monthly salon performances while in New York City for Theatre School admissions auditions.
“I was very moved by the performance,” Beck said. “It’s such an engaging way to get people discussing our current immigration system and those who are impacted by it.”
Beck said Illingworth’s connection to The Theatre School also made the collaboration meaningful, allowing students to learn from an alum while being introduced to a form of theatre that differs from what they are traditionally taught in their acting training.
“Fortunately, I received a grant from the Vincentian Endowment Fund through DePaul’s Office of Mission & Ministry, which contributed a significant amount of the necessary funding, and The Theatre School is supporting the rest,” Beck explained.
DePaul MFA acting students will participate in a two-day workshop with Illingworth and co-producers Raquel Chavez and Dela Meskienyar, learning how interviews are collected and prepared before starting the in-ear performance technique.
Illingworth said he hopes the project will also create space for Chicago communities affected by immigration to share and reflect on their experiences.
“I think any of these visits for us are not just about sharing the tools and sharing the stories we’ve already collected,” he said. “We are also sharing them in communities that are impacted and creating a space through these salons to let the community speak to the impact they are experiencing.”
The public salons will take place Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. at The Theatre School and Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. at Raven Theatre. The events are free to attend with a reservation.
Reservations can be made here.
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