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01.14.09

Contact: Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts, Sally Corbett, sacorbe@emory.edu, 404-727-6678; Jessica Moore, jkmoore@emory.edu, 404-727-1687  

EVOLUTION IS FOCUS OF ARTIST COMMISSIONS AND FESTIVAL AT EMORY UNIVERSITY DURING DARWIN BICENTENNIAL IN FEB. 2009  

Feb. Evolving Arts Festival includes David Neumann, Eve Andrée Laramée, John Walch, Matthew Maguire, Ken Weitzman, Out of Hand Theater, Lisa Paulsen and Lori Teague

Evolution is the focus of new artistic explorations by internationally-known commissioned artists and regionally-known artists in the Feb. 2009 “Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival.” The festival features public presentations of various artists’ work timed to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (Feb. 12, 2009), and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” in 2009. Commissions and grants totaling $44,250 were awarded in spring 2008 by the recently established Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts (CCA). Funding from the Emory University Creativity & Arts Strategic Initiative (C&A) led by University Vice President & Secretary Rosemary Magee supported the awarding of the four commissions and the two project grants. Each artist or group’s new work is generated from themes explored alongside scientists at Emory’s Computational and Life Sciences Initiative Oct. 2008 “Evolution Revolution” symposium. The “Evolving Arts” festival offers new play readings, a sculptural installation and new dance compositions. Recipients of Emory’s “Evolution Commissions” - coincidentally all New York-based artists - are choreographer David Neumann, visual artist Eve Andrée Laramée and playwrights Matthew Maguire and John Walch. “Evolution Project Grant” awardees are Emory Dance Program faculty member Lori Teague and Theater Emory Playwriting Center Director Lisa Paulsen in collaboration with Out of Hand Theater Company, Theater Emory and playwright Ken Weitzman.

In anticipation of the Feb. festival, Leslie Taylor, Executive Director, CCA, says, “The evolution project and festival are a provocative first experiment for the Center for Creativity & Arts. We immersed actors, choreographers, writers and a sculptor in the latest theories and debates on our origins and introduced them to E.O. Wilson, Frans de Waal and other great science minds of our time. I’m eager to experience the art they will generate, and hope it sparks broad public conversation.”

The artists attended the symposium organized by Emory’s Computational and Life Sciences Initiative in Oct. Speakers included Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University; Olivia Judson, evolutionary biologist, author and New York Times contributor; Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology faculty and administrators Carol M. Worthman, David Lynn, Nicholas V. Hud, Michelle Lampl, Ichiro Matsumara, Todd Preuss, Leslie Real, Frans B.M. de Waal, Rosemary Magee and others. The symposium delved into evolution as a process and as a theory, including how evolutionary inheritance affects emotions, values and psychological make-up; how interaction between genes and environment affects health; and how research into the origins of life provides new knowledge about the nature of life itself.

The Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts (CCA) Committee, a multi-disciplinary group of faculty and staff led by Taylor, solicited commission proposals of up to $10,000 and grant requests from Emory arts departments and faculty of up to $3,000. For more information on the festival’s event times and sites, the artists and their projects, see descriptions below or visit www.creativity.emory.edu.

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NOTE: Some event titles published in the fall have recently changed. The latest titles for works in the festival are incorporated below.

ARTIST AND PROJECT BACKGROUND

David Neumann, choreographer and actor, New York, NY
“BIG EATER (heart of glass)”
Neumann’s choreography has been presented at PS 122 and Dance Theater Workshop and has been commissioned by the Whitney Museum and Symphony Space, where he collaborated with composer Laurie Anderson. He received two coveted New York Dance and Performance Bessie Awards (1991, for performance; 1998, for choreography). Some of his choreography for theater includes works for Mabou Mimes, the New York Shakespeare Festival and The Juilliard School. Neumann has performed in the companies of important contemporary choreographers, including Doug Elkins and Doug Varone. He appeared with Mikhail Baryshnikov at New York Theater Workshop in “Becketts Shorts.”

Neumann’s new commissioned work was made, as he says “while under a spell lit by the profound beauty of Darwin's ideas. And also by the terrifying power and complexity of the mind of the species that can articulate them.” Neumann works with the body, using it to illustrate parts of the mind that words cannot, while he explores the idea that words could be symbols born of mind and articulated by parts of the body. Neumann says “‘BIG EATER speaks, jumps, shouts and glares---all a part of the larger dance we make between other minds and bodies, while having a crack, a shot, a stab, a go at recognizing patterns beneath the fray.”

Eve Andrée Laramée, visual artist, New York, NY, Baltimore, MD and Santa Fe, NM
“Halfway to Invisible”
Laramée’s sculptures, installations and works on paper have been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and in Europe. Her work is included in the collections of the MacArthur Foundation: the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and in numerous others. She is Chair of Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art and has taught at numerous institutions.

Laramée is building on 20 years of exploration of the mutable, triadic relationship between art, science and nature through an installation based on themes from the symposium.

Lori Teague, choreographer and performer, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
“HOW THE HUMAN GOT ITS BIG HEAD”
Teague is Associate Professor of Dance at Emory. She holds an M.F.A. in choreography and performance from The Ohio State University and a certification in Laban Movement Analysis. Since 1982, she has collaborated with dancers, both students and professionals, to create more than 50 works. Her work has been produced at festivals throughout the eastern United States and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has toured with Zivili: Songs and Dances of the Western Balkans of Ohio, Randy James Dance Works of New York, GardenHouse Dance and CORE Performance Company of Atlanta.

Teague’s new work looks at humans at their best and worst. It frames what Teague believes is most important about human evolution - the acceptance of change, variation and difference. She believes that humans “pass through a number of stages of morality as we mature, and we mature over a lifetime, just as we are adapting.” She suggests that human evolution is at its best when people shed their prejudices. Teague is fascinated with the complex emotional traits that influence our survival, such as fear, arrogance, greed and hate. Teague’s work also explores the way these dynamics may impose a reality on the life span of any species. She also explores the question of whether we can imagine our own extinction. She explores the notion of extinction and how it may be part of our interrelatedness with other creatures. Teague’s work examines the way species connect and the effect such collisions may have on power, speed, energy and sensory abilities.

Out of Hand Theater, Theater Emory, Lisa Paulsen, Ken Weitzman
“The Fifth Great Ape”
“The Fifth Great Ape,” a collaboratively-generated theater project being developed in public workshops and readings this Feb. examines the social behavior of the chimpanzee and the bonobo, the two types of apes with DNA that is nearly identical to human DNA. Power, sex, violence, kindness and morality among apes are the subject of study by collaborators: Ken Weitzman (playwright); Out of Hand Theater (an Atlanta-based, nationally recognized theater company started by Emory alumni); Theater Emory (Emory’s theater company comprised of professionals and students) and Lisa Paulsen, Director, Playwriting Center of Theater Emory (PWC).

Out of Hand Theater (OOH), Atlanta, GA: Out of Hand was founded in 2001 by two Emory graduates with the aim of creating work by, for and about the current generation of younger adults. OOH makes live theater accessible and exciting by involving the audience in a new way in each show, as well as through their extreme physical style. They work to make theater as events, giving the audience a stake in the show, such as in a wedding, sporting event or funeral. OOH has been featured in American Theater as one of the hottest companies in the country, in Variety for their innovation in theater and in Theatre Forum for creating bold new American Theater.

Lisa Paulsen, Director, Playwriting Center of Theater Emory, Atlanta, GA: Paulsen joined the Theater Studies faculty in 2001. She teaches acting and acts and directs with Theater Emory. She has co-created and co-teaches a unique playwriting course in conjunction with the creative writing faculty. In 2006, she was named director of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory, which includes the biennial play development lab, “Brave New Works.” Her professional research in acting and directing includes credits at Shakespeare Festivals in GA, CA, UT, OR, TX and six seasons with PCPA Theaterfest.

Ken Weitzman, playwright, New York, NY: Weitzman’s most recent play, “The As If Body Loop,” was produced as part of the 2007 Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre, Louisville, and was directed by Alliance Artistic Director Susan Booth. Ken has taught playwriting at Emory University, UCSD, the Alliance Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Express Theatre, Horizon Theatre, the Alliance Theatre and the Playwrights Project and Young Playwrights Inc. where he was Education and Literary Director. He was awarded the 2003 L. Arnold Weissberger award for “Arrangements”; the McDonald Playwriting Award for “The As If Body Loop”; and the Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright and was a Princess Grace Award finalist. His acting background includes training at the University of Michigan and in New York at the Atlantic Theatre Company.

Matthew Maguire, playwright, New York, NY
“Wax Wings”
Maguire is a Brooklyn-based playwright, director and actor. He has written plays, musicals and operas, including “The Tower”; “The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo”; “Throwin’ Bones”; “Phaedra”; “Chaos”; “The Seven Deadly Elements”; “Eye Figure Fiction” and more. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, a Hammerstein Fellowship, a McKnight Fellowship, a Meet the Composer commission, grants from the Jerome Foundation and J. M. Kaplan Fund and New York State Council for the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts commissions. He won a 1998 OBIE award for his acting in Mac Wellman’s one-man play, “I Don’t Know Who He Was and I Don’t Know What He Said.”

John Walch, playwright, New York, NY
“ Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation”
Walch’s plays include “The Dinosaur Within,” “Circumference of a Squirrel,” “The Nature of Mutation,” “Jesting with Edged Tools,” “Craving Gravy or Love in the Time of Cannibalism,” “Alice Threw The Looking Glass: A Parody of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style,” as well as numerous one-acts, collaborations and shorts. Walch won an award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays; the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award; the Charlotte Woolard Award from the Kennedy Center, recognizing a promising new voice in the American theatre; the Marc Klein Playwriting Award; and three Austin Critic's Table Awards. He was an Alfred P. Sloan playwriting fellow at The Manhattan Theatre Club and a James Michener Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, University of TX, Austin.

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FESTIVAL CALENDAR

NOTE: In addition to events listed below, in late Jan. media may contact jkmoore@emory.edu for additional Evolving Arts events in Feb., including Creativity Conversations and Colloquia. 

“Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival,” Feb. 5-28, 2009, www.creativity.emory.edu. This Feb. 2009 festival is the culmination of four months of work by dancers, actors, playwrights and a sculptor commissioned to create artistic work in response to the current science concepts and debate related to evolution. The artists were exposed to the latest dialog on evolution alongside leading scientists last Oct. at Emory’s “Evolution Revolution” symposium (see www.emory.edu/evolution for details on the science symposium) and have since been busy with their own further exploration of these concepts in their own studios. See dance, visual arts and theater for individual event listings for more details on events. This project is sponsored by the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts, with support from the Emory University Creativity & Arts Initiative.

“Halfway to Invisible: An Emory Evolving Arts Exhibition by Eve Andrée Laramée,” Feb. 5-Mar. 6, 2009, Emory Visual Arts Gallery, 700 Peavine Creek Drive, Atlanta, 30322, 404-727-6315, www.visualarts.emory.edu, free. Opening Reception: Thurs., Feb. 5, 5:30-7:30 p.m. This commissioning project is part of “Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival” and sponsored by the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts with support from the Emory University Creativity & Arts Initiative.

Brave New Works Reading of “The Fifth Great Ape” by playwright Kenneth Weitzman and Out of Hand Theater, directed by Ariel de Man, Fri., Feb. 20, 2009, 7 p.m., Schwartz Center, Theater Lab, 1700 North Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322, free with reservations made by calling 404-727-5050, www.arts.emory.edu. The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory’s biennial Brave New Works new play festival presents this collaboratively-generated theater piece based on primate (and human) social behaviors. This new play reading explores our true nature through our closest relatives in the primate family and offers new ideas and questions about power, sex, violence, kindness and morality. Part of “Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival,” sponsored through a grant from the Emory Center for Creativity & Arts, with support from the Emory University Strategic Initiative for Creativity & Arts. Commissioned by and developed with the support of The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory. This reading is co-sponsored by Emory's Program in Science & Society.

Brave New Works Reading of “Two Evolving Plays,” by Matthew Maguire and John Walch, Sat., Feb. 21, 2009, 5 p.m., Schwartz Center, Theater Lab, 1700 North Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322, www.arts.emory.edu, free with reservations made by calling 404-727-5050. The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory’s biennial Brave New Works new play festival offers two exciting plays readings exploring evolution, science, and human nature:
“Wax Wings” by Matthew Maguire, directed by Megan Monaghan features two teams of scientists who set aside their pure research on the science of evolution when they find common cause in confronting an epidemic.
“Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation,” based on the book by Olivia Judson and adapted by John Walch. This is the first musical adaptation of Olivia Judson’s bestselling book “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to all Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex” - a book formerly adapted for film and television. Part of “Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival,” these plays were commissioned by and developed with the support of Playwriting Center of Theater Emory (PWC) and the Creative Writing Program at Emory University, Atlanta, GA. This project is sponsored in part in by a grant from the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts, with support from the Emory University Strategic Initiative for Creativity & Arts.

“The Evolution Project,” Faculty and Guest Artist Dance Concert, Feb. 26-28, 8 p.m., (Feb. 26, 8 p.m. is an open rehearsal with a talk-back session), Dance Studio, Schwartz Center, 1700 N. Decatur Rd., 30322, free, 404-727-5050, www.arts.emory.edu.As the dance component of the “Emory Evolving Arts: New Works Festival,” Faculty member Lori Teague and New York choreographer David Neumann present works inspired by the Evolution Revolution symposium held at Emory in Oct. 2008. This concert of new choreography is sponsored in part by commissions and grants from the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts with funds from the Emory University Creativity & Arts Initiative. Descriptions of the featured works follow.
“HOW THE HUMAN GOT ITS BIG HEAD,” Teague’s new work, looks at humans at our worst and at our best, framing what is most important about our evolution - acceptance of change, variation and difference.
“BIG EATER (heart of glass),” Neumann says his new commissioned work “was made while under a spell lit by the profound beauty of Darwin's ideas…And, also by the terrifying power and complexity of the mind of the species that can articulate them.”

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