In 2017, I had an idea for a promenade, site-based performance about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Hardly the first creator with an interest in the Exposition, I utilized resources in my final year of undergrad at Northwestern University to tell a story about cultural memory and the violence engrained in physical structures during the gilded age: an era marked by booming industrial production, an agitated workforce, and gender norms on the precipice of explosion.

I took inspiration from several source texts/media, including:

• Spectacle in the White City: The Chicago 1893 World’s Fair by Stanley Appelbaum

• Expo: The Magic of the White City by Brian Connelly & Mark Bussler

• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson