The 2014-2015 Process Series will feature seven new artistic works-in-development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, beginning Aug. 21.
All performances are at 8 p.m. Shows are free to the public, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door. The series offers audiences an opportunity to examine the creative process as artists and performers explore new ideas. Audience feedback following each performance is vital to the continued growth of the works.
“For our seventh season, the Process Series will bring together performers and scholars from several different departments at UNC and from all over the country to present works from a variety of disciplines, from videography to hip-hop to interactive theater,” said Joseph Megel, founder and artistic director. “This exciting year of incredibly diverse works explore a uniquely human experience, and we hope our audiences grow, engage and participate in the discussion.”
In partnership with UNC’s year-long focus on the Word War I centenary, the series will feature three new works investigating themes and untold stories of WWI and its legacy.
The season also includes a new “in-house” play reading series in partnership with the department of dramatic art and PlayMakers Repertory Company. For more information on the readings, visit http://processseries.unc.edu.
Performances include:
“Dolly Wilde’s Picture Show”
Script by Rebecca Nesvet
Incorporating images from “Oscaria/Oscar”(1994), SPIR Conceptual Photography (María DeGuzmán and Jill Casid)
Aug. 21 and 22
Studio 6, Swain Hall
Combining live performance, multimedia and the photographic series “Oscaria/Oscar” (1994), by SPIR Conceptual Photography (María DeGuzmán and Jill Casid), “Dolly Wilde’s Picture Show” tells the story of Oscar Wilde’s supposedly identical niece, one of the First World War’s first female “motor-drivers.” Dolly Wilde’s notorious heritage and the outbreak of war give her unprecedented purpose and freedom, but also burden her with demanding ghosts. Traversing the no-man’s-land between memory and photography, the 19th century and the 20th, Dolly struggles to build a revolutionary life in the ruins of history — as did her postwar generation.
“The New Generation Project: Contemporizing the African American Art Song and Negro Spiritual”
By Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister
Sept. 5 and 6
Rehearsal Room, Kenan Music Building
In an effort to preserve America’s arranged Negro spiritual and introduce unknown African American poets through art songs, internationally known sopranos Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister are pioneering “The New Generation Project.” Through the project, they are commissioning new works from dozens of composers and poets to create a new songbook that confirms the contemporary relevancy of the art song and spiritual traditions.
This performance was rescheduled from the 2013-2014 season.
“Ice Music”
By Brooks de Wetter-Smith, Lowell Liebermann and Carey McKinley
Sept. 12 and 13
Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Center
“Ice Music” is a multimedia work for chamber music ensemble, video and dance. It creatively explores various aspects of ice — its structure, power, fragility and its interaction with animal life and human presence. Inspiration for “Ice Music” comes from de Wetter-Smith’s trips to Antarctica, the High Arctic and explorations within glacial ice. Through its constantly shifting nature, ice underscores an undeniable connection we all share in our history as a species.
This performance was rescheduled from the 2013-2014 season.
“Over the Top”
By Vanessa Gilbert and David Higgins
Oct. 10 and 11
Studio 6, Swain Hall
“Over the Top” takes on the Great War with levity and gravity as a performed, scaled history of World War I with a game for the audience. Hosted by a fictional last-living WWI veteran, “Over the Top” presents a garden party whose guests are personifications of the nation states involved in World War I, playing out their changing relationships and allegiances. Once Austria-Hungary throws the first lawn dart, the audience becomes mobilized as participants so they, too, can play War.
“King of the Yees”
By Lauren Yee
Nov. 6 and 7
Swain Hall, Studio 6
Take any Chinese last name, and there exists a corresponding “family association” with branches in each major American city: Chinese men’s clubs were formed over a hundred years ago after the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association. And now Lauren is writing a play — about legacy, obsolescence, and the great and powerful house of Yee. Amid a backdrop of crumbling Chinatowns and all-too-lifelike museums, Lauren races through history, space and the fourth wall to find her father’s story and chronicle this disappearing piece of American culture.
“Geomancy: Divination by Geography”
By Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. and Elisabeth Lewis Corley
Feb. 13 and 14, 2015
Studio 6, Swain Hall
Soldiers on the Western Front spent months or years in small geographical areas; they lived in the earth and knew every tree and rubbled farm. Their survival depended on their ability to read the land, and then on their ability to take precise actions to eliminate any threat. Using texts from a poem cycle by contemporary poet Elizabeth T. Gray Jr., World War I period texts ranging from poetry to trench songs to military instruction manuals and field maps, “Geomancy: Divination by Geography” explores how those actions morph into ritual and how our sense of safety depends on our deepest connections.
“Beat Making Lab: In Performance”
A new performance by Pierce Freelon and Stephen Levitin aka Apple Juice Kid
March 20 and 21, 2015
Studio 6, Swain Hall
Since 2012, musician/educator/activist Pierce Freelon and producer/DJ/drummer Stephen Levitin aka Apple Juice Kid have led the Beat Making Lab, an international music and cultural exchange program that promotes innovative collaboration and social/entrepreneurial impact. The exceptional artists will work with past Beat Making Lab participants from around the world to develop a new performance fused with audience participation that demonstrates the impact of music, art and activism.
The Process Series is sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the College of Arts and Sciences; the departments of communication studies, art, music, English and comparative literature, dramatic art, African, African American and diaspora studies; and the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.
Process Series 2014-2105 season: http://processseries.unc.edu/performances/14-15-season/
Institute for the Arts and Humanities: http://iah.unc.edu
