“My family always loved Door County. Even before we became year-round residents, we visited every summer we had the chance (I remember the shocking moment that I discovered people actually lived here), but our roots were never planted quite as deeply as the friends, classmates and co-workers whose families had been planted here, summertime or year-round, for generations.”

“Now in its second year, the question for DKAF was what our question had always been -- how do we fit here? Was there room for us in this community, was there interest in this community for contemporary arts festival of this kind?”

The third year of the five-day Door Kinetic Arts Festival (DKAF) is slated to begin next Monday, but before festivities kick off, there was one important detail yet to be decided: what will the official cocktail be? Festival founders Alan Kopischke and Eric Simonson tasked New York Times cocktail writer Robert Simonson with the important duty. You might ask, why should a festival have an official cocktail? Robert would respond, “well, why not?” Touché, sir.

BAILEYS HARBOR, Wis. (WFRV) - Eric Simonson’s third Door Kinetic Arts Festival starts Sunday, June 10, for a kaleidoscopic week of activity at Bjorklunden lodge.

Simonson’s career spans multiple arts, as does the festival he founded to nurture creative output by professionals of varied fields – theater, film, dance and literature among them.

The digital revolution in film has opened up filmmaking to new techniques, lower budgets, and easier ways to share those films. Short films, freed from the need to fit more structured formats, can experiment and play, taking only as much space as they need.

Filmmakers from all over the world have found our fest. We hope you will find us, too, and enjoy our films, readings, workshops and dance.

“Rainn Wilson, hosting a screening of Thom Pain, a film version of the Pulitzer-winning play, promises to be a festival highlight. There will also be a slate of animated, short and Wisconsin-made films along with staged readings, workshops and a cocktail contest.”

"We want to grow DKAF. We don’t want to overtake Door County, but we want to have a presence in Door County."

"Iconic Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi may seem to have no connection to Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.

But there is one exception.

It has to do with theater."

"Star of NBC’s “The Office” Rainn Wilson and his wife Holiday Reinhorn will take up residency in Baileys Harbor this summer as a part of the third Door Kinetic Arts Festival."

"Rainn Wilson, famous for his portrayal of Dwight Schrute on hit TV series “The Office,” is coming to the Door Kinetic Arts Festival in June. Also coming to the festival is Wilson's wife, Holiday Reinhorn, a noted author and short story writer."

A nnumber of Chicago artists will head to Door County, Wisc., this summer for the Door Kinetic Arts Festival.

Eric Simonson, Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member and founder of the festival, has announced the lineup of creative artists and projects for the second fest, featuring world-premiere projects. 

BAILEYS HARBOR, Wis - Door Kinetic Arts Festival returns this week to encourage creativity among established artists of stage, screen and the visual arts.

Cutting to the quick of an interview with founder Eric Simonson answering this: For the artists in the festival, what’s in it for them?

Simonson: “What we’re giving them is a space to focus on a particular work that they are working on. You could argue the point that they get that anyway – all they have to do is make that space. But, as any artist will tell you, many times that just doesn’t happen. Things get in the way. Life gets in the way. We give them a designated time and a designated place, which is, I think, a very inspirational place to create. We give them the opportunity.

“We bring their artists – the artists they want to collaborate with – all together in one space where everyone’s mind is set on one particular project. What we want to do is take that project one step further, one big step further to fruition. They get to see it in front of an audience, perhaps for the first time, which gives them invaluable feedback. We also give them a time when they can meet other artists, perhaps in different mediums, and exchange different ideas. And that may influence what they’re working on, but it also may influence them on future projects.”

Oscar-winning Lombardi playwright Eric Simonson has assembled an exciting new lineup of creative artists and projects for the second Door Kinetic Arts Festival (DKAF) at the Björklunden campus of Lawrence University. The week-long festival, June 13-18, entertains Door County residents and visitors with world premieres of innovative new short films, play readings, stunning dance performances, a red carpet, and public workshops on the creative processes behind stage combat and the development of new dance, theatre and musical theatre works.

The Door Kinetic Arts Festival returns for its second year, and the success and connections built the first time around have allowed us to connect more deeply with the Door County community this year.

One example — our new Wisconsin block of short films attracted several quality films with local ties that made the cut.

DKAF was founded last year by Oscar-winning filmmaker Eric Simonson, a part-time Fish Creek resident, after numerous conversations he and I had about how Door County is an ideal place for artistic retreat, contemplation, collaboration and invention. Natural beauty, a supportive community of intellectually curious people and a rich population of creative individuals combine to inspire artists to reach new frontiers.

We decided to harness that unique combination of assets. Simonson was among the first Lawrence University student summer employees when Björklunden first hosted classes more than 35 years ago. Throughout his impressive career (Academy Award, Tony Award nomination, Princess Grace Award, developer of major new works in film, television, theatre and opera), Simonson has returned to Door County and Björklunden for quiet contemplation and inspiration.

The Mentalist's Jeffrey Hatcher, who wrote the book for the Broadway musical Never Gonna Dance, will be represented at the Door Kinetic Arts Festival with a reading of his new play Strongman's Ghost.

Directed by Oscar-winning playwright Eric Simonson, the play concerns a strongman military dictator—under threat of a coup, an invasion, and a publishing deadline—who chooses to kidnap a writer.

Rooming House opens with lights and sound coming up slowly, allowing audiences’ eyes and ears to adjust to the familiarity of the relationships and the immediacy of the conversation, which easily slips between English and Spanish. After a few personal anecdotes about everyday people who do life-endangering acts, the example of Orpheus looking back at Eurydice is raised and variously interpreted. The ensuing game of whodunit (inspired by the board game Clue) turns the myth into a live-action game in which the ensemble considers individual culpability and psychological states within the stages—or “rooms”— of decision-making. 

"...it doesn't feel to me that the sculpture inspires kineticism as much as kineticism inspires the sculpture.

The General is the dictator, the strongman of the title. He is blunt, swaggering, insecure, brutal, but not without some limited charms and just enough sensitivity to allow one to feel at least momentarily sympathetic to him.