Saturday, February 21. 5pm.
After attending the October, 2008 Evolution/Revolution research symposium, playwrights Matthew Maguire and John Walch (along with Choreographer David Neumann and sculptor Eve Andrée Laramée) began work on an artistic exploration of the themes presented. They return to share the resulting plays-in-evolution.
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 funded by the University-wide Creativity & the Arts Strategic Initiative.
Wax Wings by Matthew Maguire
Two teams of scientists are researching the science of evolution, one on the evolution of viruses and the other on mapping biodiversity patterns. They have to set their pure research aside when they find common cause in confronting an epidemic. Their lives are complicated by emotional upheavals that echo their research. Arguments about having a child have caused one couple to split, yet they continue to work together. Professional and other jealousies threaten to shatter the progress of the other pair. The play explores the question, can we evolve? Can we engineer new life? How high can we fly before the sun melts our wings?
Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation
Based on the book by Olivia Judson
Adapated
by John Walch
Dr. Tatiana, the world’s foremost sex therapist to all of creation, is at it again. Her new book, Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Morning After—builds on the success of her first book and proves an even bigger hit sending Dr. Tatiana on a 50 state book tour, which collides with a national debate on a referendum banning same sex marriage. As Dr. Tatiana makes the case for the biological reasoning behind nymphomania, orgies, and cross-dressing (not to mention cannibalism, incest, and public masturbation) in various insect and animal species, her presence becomes a flashpoint for political and moral agendas. Does she stay on message and risk her own survival? And what of the man she left behind for the tour? Is she too priggish to give into his desire to practice one of the most deviant sexual practices in all of creation: monogamy? As the clock ticks towards election day, so does his patience, and her biological clock. Is making a baby really what she was put on this earth to do?
*Please note: These presentations contain mature content.