Denver is often a second home for Chowen Photography, and as such I am never surprised with the amount of love and passion the city and her residents have for the Arts. Among the creative pulse is a strong theater and performing arts presence. Recently the mind behind and founder of Visionbox Studio and Denver Academy of Dramatic Arts, Jennifer McCray Rincón hosted a special event for her long-time friend, actor Bill Pullman. The Wild Hunt is a stage performance written and directed by Pullman with collaboration from Phillip Baldwin. The first working performance was given at the EXDO Event Center.
Pullman initially crafted the show as a winter-solstice entertainment for his family, but soon came to find the themes behind it so compelling that he sought out Rincon, and together they created the outline of the project. The Wild Hunt is a northern European myth in which ghostly huntsmen are seen in the dead of winter in pursuit of prey, a vision that usually presaged disaster. Pullman sees parallels with the warnings of environmental disaster in our own time. “The winter solstice is the time when the veil between the living and the dead is thin,” he says, “and this myth concerns appeasing, and connecting with, the ancestor spirits. In this show, there’s a young woman who is in a mental institution,” says Pullman, “and she has visions of the end of things. – Westword – Brad Weismann
During the rehearsal for The Wild Hunt I was able to get a glimpse into what can only be described as a raw construction of the idea Pullman created as it was transformed into a story of visceral proportion. As a former Art major myself, it was refreshing to see someone so successful in mainstream entertainment traveling back to his roots while taking other, eager beginning performance artists along with him in what I can imagine will be an inspiring launch in their careers.
A special thanks to EXDO Event Center and Sie FilmCenter along with the Denver Film Society for allowing me a glimpse into the process. Thank you to Travis Volz and Volz Media, publicist for the event, for hosting me and being my guide.
Bill Pullman The Wild Hunt
