Who: Igor Golyak, Wang Chong, Annie G. Levy
What: Artist conversation
Where: ArtsEmerson, HowlRound
When: Wednesday, August 19, free with RSVP, 10:00 am
Why: Back in June, I called Arlekin Players’ virtual interactive play State vs. Natasha Banina “the future of online productions.” On August 19 at 10:00 am, ArtsEmerson’s Together Apart Series will present a live conversation between Arlekin Players artistic director Igor Golyak, who directs the one-woman show — which stars his wife, Darya Denisova, and which you can still catch here — and Théâtre du Rêve Expérimental artistic director Wang Chong, moderated by theater maker and Emerson artist-in-residence Annie G. Levy. Golyak and Chong will focus on the place of theater during a pandemic.
In his Online Theater Manifesto, Chong writes, “The ancient Greeks probably could not have imagined that the public forum they called theater would still exist more than two thousand years in the future. They absolutely could not have imagined that, more than two thousand years later, a plague like the one in their play Oedipus Rex would suffocate theater. Performances have stopped; venues have closed; theater has disappeared. . . . In this world, theater artists can start from scratch with just their bare hands. We can define all time and space; we can control all language and symbols; we can create all the currents and futures. In this world, it is easier for us to find the Dionysian spirit or the ‘immediate theater’ imagined by Peter Brook.” The talk will have live captioning and ASL interpretation, and the audience is encouraged to ask questions.