Ritual & RHYTHM
PULSE Theatre Chicago presents:
RITUAL & RHYTHM | an immersive reading series.
Ritual & Rhythm serves as a fundraiser for its 2026 Mainstage.
Featuring
CITY OF WATER | July 10-12, 2026
a new work by Isis Elizabeth
Directed by Lo Williams
RHYME DEFERRED | July 17-19, 2026
By Kamilah Forbes w/ Chadwick Boseman
Lyrics by Chadwick Boseman
Directed by Aaron Reese Boseman
Additional Lyrics by
Oberon K.A Adjepong x Jabari Exum
Performances:
Fridays & Saturdays at 7pm
Saturdays & Sundays at 3pm
$25 Tix at
www.pulsetheatrechicago.org/events-tickets
SYNOPSIS
CITY OF WATER |Set during the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, City of Water is a work of poetic realism following a former emcee and her teenage daughter as they navigate survival in a system failing them in real time. When a dangerous piece of her past resurfaces with an opportunity that could change everything, she must choose between escape and survival, while her daughter imagines a world beyond the heat.
RHYME DEFERRED | A hip-hop reimagining of Cain and Abel, Rhyme Deferred follows two brothers — one a fading mainstream star, the other an underground prodigy — locked in a battle over artistry, integrity, and survival within a predatory industry.
ABOUT RITUAL & RYTHYM
Rhythm and ritual are the foundation of this festival’s form and function. We are interested in how repetition, music, movement, and language create containers for memory, grief, joy, and release. Rhythm lives in breath, in heartbeat, in the cadence of speech; ritual lives in what we return to; habits, traditions, survival practices, and acts of care.
These readings are not static presentations, but living environments. Audience and performer share space in a way that blurs observation and participation. Through heightened language, hip-hop aesthetics, and embodied storytelling, we investigate how ritual can hold pain without spectacle and how rhythm can guide both rupture and healing.
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