The Process Series: New Works in Development presents its 12th season, Crossing Boundaries.
Crossing Boundaries offers audiences an opportunity to experience performances that question society’s expectations and transcend norms in search of a more just society. A cornerstone of the 2019-2020 season celebrates the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the 19th Amendment Project. This project will support the development of four UNC faculty pieces centered around the theme of women’s political voices in a shared program in February.
The Process Series, housed in the department of communication, is dedicated to developmental presentations of new works-in-progress; this year’s series includes eight dynamic professional, faculty and student projects debuting on campus beginning Oct. 10.
Founded by artistic director Joseph Megel, the mission of the Process Series is to illuminate ways in which artistic ideas take form and to offer audiences the opportunity to examine the creative process and give their feedback as artists and performers explore new works.
“For 12 years, the Process Series has crossed boundaries, leapt over a multitude of silos and interrogated the notion of borders,” Megel said. “We seek to connect art forms, disciplines, academic departments, and performing and visual artists from around the globe, all in service of the creation and development of new cutting edge and interdisciplinary performance.”
Offered in partnerships with PlayMakers Repertory Company, the department of dramatic art, Carolina Performing Arts, Arts Everywhere and the College of Arts & Sciences, all performances are free to the public.
This year’s producer is Heather Tatreau, who teaches dance in the department of exercise and sport science and who has created three evening-length experimental dance-theater pieces for the university. She also regularly choreographs site-specific dances in the Chapel Hill landscape.
THE PROCESS SERIES 2019-2020 FULL PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: CROSSING BOUNDARIES
Theatrical Translation as Creative Process:
Four staged readings of newly translated plays.
October 10th – 12th @ 7:30p.m./October 13 at 1:30p.m. – Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, Studio 101
As part of a conference on international theatrical translations, the Process Series presents staged readings of new plays in translation on four consecutive nights including iPlay by Bernhard Studlar (Austria), Inching Toward Yeolaha by Sam-Shik Pai (South Korea), Hotel Good Luck by Alejando Ricaño (Mexico), and Dust by Saverio La Ruina (Italy).
As One – Panel Discussion / Open Rehearsal
Directed by Tracy Bersley with Music by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell & Kimberly Reed
October 30th at 7:30 p.m. – Person Recital Hall
In this workshop of the chamber opera, As One, two voices share the part of a sole transgender protagonist, Hannah, and trace the experiences from her youth in a small town to her college years. This workshop will be a physical and vocal exploration of how one character can live in two bodies. We will also be exploring voices from the local trans community and their intersection with this story.
Critical Distance
Written by Cristina Luzárraga
Directed by Alejandro Jose Rodriguez
November 8th & 9th @ 7:30pm – Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, Studio 101
This new play is a dark comedy that pits two women from different backgrounds against each other. Inez, a white/Latina art history graduate student meets her match when she encounters Felicia, a black security guard at the Guggenheim Museum who calls it like she sees it.
19th Amendment Project
By UNC Faculty
February 27th & 28th @ 7:30pm – CURRENT ArtSpace
UNC faculty-artists create interdisciplinary performance centered around the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, exploring the power of women in politics. Four faculty projects will be presented in this shared program.
ATLAS
By UNC students under the direction of Marc Callahan
March 5 @ 3:30pm & March6th @ 7:30pm – HIll Hall, Moeser Auditorium
A reimagining of Meredith Monk’s opera, Atlas. Music professor, Marc Callahan, guides his MUSC 212 students to devise a new work inspired by Monk’s tonal landscape. Together with Tarish Pipkins and Susan Harbage Page, ATLAS uses story-telling, puppetry, and scene work to tell the story of a boy and his dog crossing the southern border into the United States.
The Game
Written by Dasan Ahanu
March 20th & 21st @ 7:30pm – Swain Hall, Studio 104
In this hip-hop musical, two men choose a quaint spot to meet for a game of chess each year. This year, the men have chosen Durham, N.C., as the place to play the game. The pieces are human lives, the board is a city on earth, and strategy is simple … don’t lose.
The Jesus Piece
Written by Howard Craft
April 24th & 25th @ 7:30pm – Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, Studio 101
Promise Jones, an injured teenage runaway, stumbles into the campsite of three homeless men who take her in and nurse her back to health. All hell breaks loose when the son of a local wealthy developer is found bleeding in an alley. Ultimately the men must decide whether to abandon Promise, turn her over to the police or protect her.
Survival, Economies, Music
Written by Toshi Reagon
May 1 & 2 @ 7:30 pm- Venue TBA
A new musical by Artist-in-Residence and Mellon DisTIL Fellow, Toshi Reagon. This work is part of a series focusing on migration/immigration as a way we engage with survival, economies and music.
Learn more: Process Series 2019-2020 season: https://www.processseries.unc.edu/.
