Buskirk-Chumley presents 'The Welcome Table'

Music, dance, puppets and pie will come together to entertain the Bloomington community Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

Malcolm Dalglish’s “The Welcome Table” will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets for the event are $18 and $25.

The hour-long event, aimed at celebrating the dark of winter, will feature Dalglish’s new vocal band Ooodoo, Moira Smiley’s ensemble Voco, puppetry by Sam Bartlett, body percussion, street theater and more.

Operators of the theater, the private non-profit organization BCT Management Inc., present events several times a year. Danielle McClelland, the theater’s executive director, submitted the proposal for “The Welcome Table” and is managing the event along with Dalglish.

“We want people to really feel a part of the community and be inspired to participate in ArtsWeek and arts in general,” said Maarten Bout, Buskirk-Chumley marketing director.

“As cliché as it sounds, it really does bring the town and gown together,” Bout said.

Out of the 12 to 14 events the Buskirk presents each year, McClelland said at least one or two each feature a local artist. This year that artist is Malcolm Dalglish.

“I was aware of Malcom’s work, and I admired it greatly,” she said. “I thought his work went well with the ‘Arts and the Environment’ theme of ArtsWeek.”

McClelland said Dalglish’s work not only references the natural environment but also community environment.

A decade of collaboration will bring Dalglish, Smiley and Joshua Kartes on stage as the vocal ensemble the Ooolites. Dalglish said their contemporary vocals replicate that of village folk singing around the world, including loud strong harmonies. He also said the event will include stories of winter told through choreographed dance and Wendell Berry poetry about land and nature.

The show’s finale, Pie R Pie, begins at the Buskirk, then the crowd makes its way into the street to begin a march along the B-line Trail to the Showers Common. Bloomingfoods pie will be served around a bonfire.

“There is something about gathering around a warm fire that brings people together,” he said.

Dalglish said he always thought it was wonderful feeling the thick ice of Griffy Lake but that he wanted to bring the wild warmth into the heart of downtown.

“The whole idea of the show is to take the magic and excitement you have in the dark winter and approach it as people approached it for hundreds of years,” Dalglish said. “It is not expressed in video screens or cell phones but in the woods with ice storms or skating on the lake with snowball fights.”