Red Willow
a ritual of preparation for resistance
Created by Control Group Productions
An expeditionary performance taking guests on a 2½ mile journey through South Platte Park starting from Carson Nature Center parking lot 3000 W Carson Dr, Littleton, CO 80120
Performance times calibrated to sunset and twilight
March 20 - April 4, 2026
Red Willow is a ritual preparation for resistance, shared with audiences over a 2½-mile journey through the woods at dusk.
Through live performance and participatory rituals, we work to galvanize ourselves into responsibility and action, confronting surging fascism, climate catastrophe, and escalating brutality against people and land. In dialogue with Ukrainian defenders, Indigenous Resistance, climate action, syncretic mythologies, and the Land, Red Willow invites us to face ourselves with the question of what world we believe in and how we engage in a fight for it—without losing ourselves.
Red Willow continues Control Group’s exploration of Land and Seasons within our treeline works series, following After The Flood (June 2021), Canopy (October 2022), and Bitter Moon (December 2023). It meets the Land not as deified Nature, but as a partner in the struggle and a victim of violence.
Let us consider what it means—and what it requires—to stand up and confront evil without giving in to its tactics.
Creative Team
Concept & Direction: Patrick Mueller
Ensemble: Nicholas Caputo, Adam Gildar, Michael Gunst, David Ortolano
Visual Design: Irene Joyce
Sound Design: Nicholas Caputo
Source Material
This work draws inspiration from:
Bruno Latour
Martin Shaw
Nick Estes
Timothy Snyder
Alongside the myth of Parzival and the Fisher King, and the legacy of Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) by Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky—a performance so disruptive it famously sparked a riot.
These voices and stories sit beneath the work, offering context, tension, and deeper echoes for those who wish to explore further.
