11-12 Season
Poetic Portraits of a Revolution
The Empowerment Project sent nationally recognized spoken word poets and youth educators Will McInerney and Kane Smego along with project translator and interpreter Mohammad Moussa and professional photographer and videographer Sameer Abdel-khalek to Egypt and Tunisia from June 15 – August 9. The team collected oral histories, capturing photographs and video, and creating poetic reflections that depict the sights, sounds, and emotions of life in both countries during this time of transformation. Poetry and recordings from their journey have been featured in radio segments broadcast nationally on the American Public Media show “The Story” with Dick Gordon, as well as on the WUNC program “Morning
Dates
September 9 & 10, 2011
Location
Gerrard Hall
Edition.” All of the material gathered during the trip will contribute to create a photography and poetry installation, a book publication, a film production, and this theater performance. The goal of this project is to provide a glimpse into lives of the Egyptian and Tunisian people in order to raise international awareness and understanding of their journey towards self-determination, and to bring back the knowledge and experiences gained during the study of these movements with the hopes of transforming our own communities.
Painting the Town:
A Rock 'n' Roll Life and the Souls of Four Great American Cities
By Django Haskins
Django Haskins writes, sings and performs in a work based on his new book about traveling in a band and songs based on those experiences. Haskins, a solo performer and the lead singer and songwriter of Durham/Chapel Hill-based band, The Old Ceremony, presents his experiences performing in and traveling to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta.
Dates
January 20 & 21, 2012
Location
Gerrard Hall
Scar Tissue and Thisability
By Gabriel Rivas Gomez
These are two new short plays by Gabriel Rivas Gomez with guest director Jorge Huerta. Gomez has been called a fresh, young theatrical voice with his plays offering an unflinching look at the epic nature of some painful relationships.
Scar Tissue follows a heart surgeon whose own heart is metaphorically in disrepair. Her latest patient, a veteran, has her asking questions and opening old wounds. Scar Tissue’s companion play, Thisability, features Zuli, a teen with cerebral palsy whose body has never worked right.
Dates
February 29 & March 1, 2012
Location
Kenan Theatre
Feeling as though she has always been looked at differently, she joins a teen rock ‘n’ roll competition in hopes of finding out what it’s like to be a star. These two plays will be read together with the same cast of actors.
Harvesting Pomegranate Dreams:
By Tori Ralston and the Theater of Performing Objects
A cast of puppet dreamers emerge from within a veil and twist, turn and blow their way through ancient wisdoms on mothering, war, migration, birth and death. Based in Carrboro, N.C., and founded by Ralston, Theater of Performing Objects is a puppetry and object theater company with a specialization in marionettes, shadow puppets, Bunraku and found object puppets.
Dates
March 16 & 17, 2012
Location
Historic Playmakers Theatre
Who Do You Think You Are
Created by SITI Company
A new work by SITI Company, Who Do You Think You Are is inspired by the newest breakthroughs in neuroscience, particularly the discoveries in neuroplasticity. This smartly conceived theatrical exploration of the principles of brain science uses the structure and aesthetics of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film Katzelmacher as a jumping-off point to create a society that is complex, repressed and verging on domestic violence. SITI will present a public showing of Who Do You Think You Are, which has grown out of conversations between Anne Bogart, the founder of SITI Company, and UNC faculty member R. Grant Steen in 2007.
Dates
May 18, 2012
Location
PlayMakers Repertory Company