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The Odyssey 2016 (PAST SHOW)

Friday, November 11, 2016 - 12:00am to Sunday, November 20, 2016 - 12:00am
Mainstage
Digital Arts Research Center 108

The Theater Arts Department invites audiences to a collaborative adaptation of the ancient Greek epic in an experiential, multi-venue presentation.

Homer's The Odyssey began as an oral narrative, sung by a bard to a friendly assembly, a musical story told to strengthen shared communal bonds and inscribe history into memory. Our artistic team honors this tradition by created a living series of performance "islands" (tableaux vivants, installations) to answer the project's core questions: What does it mean to be a hero? How do we define the rules of society and how do we view those of societies different than ours? How do we interact with different cultures, and what are the roles of women, heroes, and "others" in our contemporary world? The Odyssey entwines in its storytelling its culture's history, nostalgia, fears, aspirations, violence, and moral values. Our project looks at how these issues still charge today's art and literature.

Part 1: The play begins in a transformed space inside the Mainstage Theater, launching Odysseus’ 10-year journey at sea. Part 2: We move to the Digital Arts Resource Center (DARC) and adjoining spaces, where spectators will be tempted to listen to the Sirens, risk their lives with Circe, and linger with the Lotus Eaters. Part 3: The event concludes in the Dark Lab black box theater, where we find Odysseus returned home but forever changed.

The production combines students and professionals, including Theater Arts MA students, Digital Arts and New Media MFA students, UCSC undergraduates, and artists including actor Danny Scheie, actress Nancy Carlin, set designer Kate Edmunds, and three Arts alumni dsigners: composer Eric Parson (Music), costume designer Christina Dinkel (Theater Arts), and choreographer Dor Cosby Atkinson (Theater Arts). Collaboratively adapted from Homer. Directed by Kimberly Jannarone.

Friday–Sunday, November 11–13 and
Thursday–Sunday, November 17–20
Thu, Fri, Sat at 7:30PM
Sun at 3:00PM

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Tickets $12-$15 on sale here.

Doors open 30-minutes prior to performance.