NOVEMBER 5, 2009 ISSUE
Lees-McRae Interactive Theatre Project November 17 and 18
Performance students Kadey Ballard, Austin Perry and Laurel Wilde take part in workshops to help develop a script for the Interactive Theatre Project.Lees-McRae College performance students will present an interactive theatre project incorporating theatre, poetry, song and movement at Evans Auditorium on campus Tuesday and Wednesday, November 17 and 18, at 7:30 p.m. each night. Admission is free.
“The primary goal of the work is to create a piece focused on some issue of social justice and community that they feel like affects them as college students,” said Tessa Carr, director of the project.
The students have engaged in an elaborate creative process of narrowing down topics for their script, which they will present in a forum theatre scene using the “Theatre of the Oppressed” method. The actors will perform the scene involving a major conflict to the audience. The actors will then perform the scene again, inviting audience members to replace the afflicted character on stage and to come up with different outcomes.
“The concept in doing this is the social activist work that you create for the community in which you live,” Carr said. “We wanted to give students the opportunity to have a very different type of experience within performance.” Performance can directly address community needs and serve as an educational tool, she added.
Works of poetry, song and movement will be performed as context around the theatre pieces, she said.
About 14 students have been working on the project, including a few who are acting as playwrights and dramaturges, conducting research for the project.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Carr said. “They have just been an outstanding group of students to work with.”
The entire performance will be performed without an intermission and last 90 minutes at the longest, Carr said.
For more information, call the Lees-McRae box office at 828-898-8709.
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