Goat Island was a collaborative performance group based in Chicago, Illinois and founded in 1987.^[1] They toured internationally and made nine performance works before disbanding.^[2] In 2006 they announced The Lastmaker (2007) would be the last work that they would create as a company, and the final performances were held at Swain Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in February 2009.

As their final project, they created a film based on The Lastmaker, published under the title A Last, A Quartet a collection of films,^[3] which also contained previous films made by Goat Island.

In 2019, the Chicago Cultural Center hosted a cross disciplinary retrospective: goat island archive – we have discovered the performance by making it.^[4] The event included an exhibition, archives, a performance series, and symposia.^[5]

Members

Goat Island members have included:

• Karen Christopher (1990-2009)
• Joan Dickinson (1988-1990)
• Matthew Goulish (1987-2009)
• Lin Hixson (director, 1997-2009)
• Mark Jeffery (1996-2009)
• Greg McCain (1987-1995)
• Timothy McCain (1987-1995)
• Antonio Poppe (1995-1996)
• Bryan Saner (1995-2009)
• Charissa Tolentino (2008)
• Litó Walkey (2002-2009)

Performances

• Soldier, Child, Tortured Man (1987)
• We Got A Date (1989)
• Can't Take Johnny to the Funeral (1991)
• It's Shifting, Hank (1993)
• How Dear To Me the Hour When Daylight Dies (1996)
• The Sea & Poison (1998)
• It's an Earthquake in My Heart (2001)
• When will the September roses bloom? Last night was only a comedy (2004)
• The Lastmaker (2007)