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‘It’s Our Space, but It’s Their Show’ A new outdoor performance venue outside of Williamsburg, Raven Wolf Productions, plans to provide a place for everyone. BY AVERY GREGURICH
I
f you want to accidentally start a performance venue amidst a pandemic, it’s best to start with a barn. Put it outside of the city a few miles where it’s quiet, on four acres of Iowa prairie, most of it pasture for horses, with plenty of places for people to park. That’s how Nathan and Susan Kula started Raven Wolf Productions, an outdoor performance venue which will host the Awful Purdies on June 19 for the group’s first live show since before the pandemic hit. Tickets are $15. “We took a break from performing in October 2019 to work on our 4th studio album and never expected the break from live performance to last 20 months,” Awful Purdies’ Katie Roche said in an email. “We’re brushing off the dust, and in our 15th year as a band, are looking at this as a fresh start, deeply appreciative of the perspective that such a long break gave us.” Like many, the Kulas spent the first few months of 2020 staying at home. They started converting a large part of their century barn into a bar and event space for their friends and family to gather in, once it would be safe enough to do so. “Our house is an old farmhouse, and it’s made up of lots of little rooms, so there’s no good place to sit and talk to 10 people,” Nathan Kula says. The Kulas are both musicians who perform together in the nautical folk band A Rogue Wave. In the midst of their remodeling, and the continued, sometimes permanent, closures of area venues, they quipped that the only way they could get back to performing in front of an audience would be to build an outdoor venue. “We had joked about how we should just have an outdoor stage. We thought that it would be funny that the only way we could get our band to play out is to build an outdoor stage for us to play on,” Kula said. “And then, if other bands
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Jordan Sellergren / Little Village
felt comfortable, we would invite them in and whoever we could get to show up, that’s who we’d play to.” And so, off the side of the bar that they had constructed in their barn, they built a stage that “faces nothing but cornfields,” and holds a simple sign that says “Raven Wolf Stage.” They held their first official show on April 17, a split bill between their own band and the Iowabased Irish trio Blame Not the Bard. That day, 75 people showed up. There were even more at the next show a month later, and within a few weeks, Raven Wolf Productions had booked events every month until October. (See sidebar.) Quickly, the Kulas added event insurance to their space, and while it is currently “Bring Your Own Refreshments,” they are looking at expanding into being able to offer food and beverages. Kula says they never had a conscious plan for the stage, just that they knew that this part of the area was in desperate need of a place for art and music, particularly an outdoor space where people could still gather safely. “I lived in Iowa City for 19 years before we moved out here, and I just loved the music scene. I loved playing at the Yacht Club, at Gabe’s, at Public Space One. Being in Williamsburg after a couple of years, I mean, you’re just bored out of your mind,” Kula says. “There’s no live theater around here, there’s no inspiration for creativity around here—and I know for a fact, talking to the guys who work at the hardware store and the people who work with my wife at the veterinary
Devin Hendricks
UPCOMING EVENTS The Awful Pudies with Big Begonias Raven Wolf Productions, Williamsburg (105 Welsh St), Saturday, June 19, 6 p.m., $15 Riverbottom
Alisabeth Von Presley
Ramblers and Cedar
September 25
County Cobras July 17
The Savage Hearts October 16
The Feralings with the Ben Schmidt Trio
Prices for later
August 21
shows TBD
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