The Muhlenberg Theatre Association presents CORPS, an original dance-theatre fable
March 29-April 1, Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance Information & Tickets 484-664-3333 or www.muhlenberg.edu/ticketsTuesday, March 20, 2007 01:59 PM
CORPS, an original dance-theatre work conceived by Chris Shepard '07, blends movement and text in an exploration of what it is that decides who we are as compared to how we are remembered. Inspired by the life and death of Patient Zero and the storytelling of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," CORPS reveals a haunting and evocative examination of the relationship between infection and stories as the legacies we leave behind. Directed and choreographed by Chris Shepard '07, with costumes by Annie Simon '05 and set and lighting design by Lily Fossner, the work unveils a world-a sea-where the infamous figures still remembered in this world reside. The criminals, the villains, the artists all sail on this sea for, as far as they know, an eternity. It is this sea that CORPS examines.
A unique dance-theatre experience, CORPS creates a sensory spectacle through live creative artistic elements that are all completely student-driven. Musicians Brian Kirchner '07, Christi Razzi '07, and Andrew Grimm '07 create the musical soundscape with piano, violin, cello, melodica, and viola de gamba. The stage area is transformed into this mystical sea through visual concept of the show, with a set including an enormous mast and sail and a William Turner-inspired painting covering the floor. Known as "the painter of light," Turner's paintings capture the struggle between the beauty and violence of the sea that CORPS brings to life. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," while seemingly a Christian epic or a maritime fantasia, is inextricably caught up in its own storytelling. The curse of the Mariner to continue to share his horrific story for what seems an eternity cannot be ignored and compels us all to question our own roles as storytellers.
Coleridge's companion on this journey is Gaetan Dugas, whose name meant nothing to most Americans before 1987 and still means nothing to many, but the ominous figure of Patient Zero can never be separated from the devastating events with which it is attached: the early years of AIDS in America. In the early 1980s researchers for the CDC began researching an epidemic among specific populations-such as intravenous drug users, Haitians and, most notably, gay men-in metropolitan areas such as New York, Miami, and San Francisco. With no funding they worked to find the keys to unlocking this previously unheard of mystery. They found one in Patient Zero, a man to whom they thought they could trace forty of the first two-hundred cases in gay men on both coasts and who became the supposed man that brought AIDS to America. It was not until 1987 when Randy Shilts' revealing book And the Band Played On was published that Patient Zero's real name was revealed: Gaetan Dugas.
Coleridge and Dugas's view of the world is the world of CORPS. The eternal sea holds the passion, anger, tension, and truths of all those who traverse it. Imagine that the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the supposed Patient Zero of AIDS in America, Gaetan Dugas, sail together on this sea. It is this relationship that CORPS explores. By putting into contact characters with as diverse histories as Coleridge and Dugas, as well as Christopher Columbus and Judy Garland, CORPS examines how their narratives intertwine in the afterlife. CORPS continues the creator's exploration of storytelling, identity, and American-ness and asks the question: what is at the heart of the legacies we leave?
Box Office Information
CORPS is onstage in the Studio Theatre of the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance from March 29 to April 1. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and seniors, $8 for teens and youth. The box office in the Trexler Pavilion is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, at 484-664-3333. Tickets are also available online at www.muhlenberg.edu/tickets.
