Bard of the Night
Walken Schweigert is a queer/trans poet, actor, musician, composer and director from St. Paul, MN.
Walken Schweigert is a queer/trans actor, musician, composer and director from St. Paul, MN. A 2019 Jerome Foundation Fellow, he is a 2009 graduate of the Dell’ Arte International School for Physical Theatre, and a 2006 graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts Education (Theatre Major). He has worked with the Taller Xuchialt and Ronda de Barro in Leon, Nicaragua (2005-2007); toured with and been mentored by Stacy Klein and Carlos Uriona of the internationally renowned Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA (2012-2016); and has busked on the streets of 11 countries. He has facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed workshops across the Americas, and co-founded the all-transgender theatrical/dance/circus ensemble entitled the Gay Unicorn Triplettes (2010-2012).
A classically trained violinist, he has been part of over a dozen musical ensembles of varying genres, from klezmer to string metal. Currently, he performs with the poetic-folk band Buffalo Weavers (Saint Paul, MN) and the occult-inspired, baroque-horror, Detroit-based band CRUNE. Walken has performed across the country, from the streets of Portland, OR, to the Appalachian Mountains, to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
In 2008 he founded the Unseen Ghost Brigade, an ensemble that toured an original piece of street theatre down the Mississippi River in 2010 on a raft they built themselves. In its next incarnation, the ensemble was renamed Children of the Wild to produce Schweigert’s first opera The Wastelands, which premiered in 2016 and toured across the country for three years. In 2017 Children of the Wild became Open Flame Theatre, and moved to Philadelphia Community Farm, in Osceola WI, where the theatre and Schweigert are in residence indefinitely. Walken was also recently a recipient of a JFund Award from the American Composer’s Forum for the composition of his second opera, The Garden, which was scored by CRUNE and produced by Open Flame Theatre and Philadelphia Community Farm, where it premiered in September, 2021.
Walken is currently a student at United Theological Seminary, studying paganism, theology in the arts and Queer and Trans Theologies. His most recent opera was commissioned by the Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center in January, 2023.
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