.jpg)
Washington and Lee University will welcome scholars and artists to campus for its 17th National Symposium of Theater in Academe on March 21-22.
The symposium is co-organized by Domnica Radulescu, founding director of the symposium and the Edwin A. Morris Professor of French and Comparative Literature at W&L, and Carolyn Wingrove-Moore, administrative assistant for W&L’s departments of computer science, data science and comparative literature.
The title of this year’s symposium is “Myth, Magic, Madness,” and will feature creative workshops and discussions, dramatic readings and stage productions of Tjaša Ferme’s “Bioadapted” and Radulescu’s “The Town with Very Nice People.” All events are free and open to the public and will be streamed online at https://go.wlu.edu/livestream.
Ferme’s “Bioadapted” will be performed on March 21 at 7 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons. This piece is a reenactment investigative documentary that explores what our future might look like if artificial intelligence propagates (AI) in unethical ways that don’t serve the common good. In exploring the complexities and dangers of AI, the play also employs text generated by GPT-3 and one actor will wear a haptic vest and receive movement instructions from an EEG (electroencephalogram) headset.
On March 22 at 6:30 p.m., the symposium will host an immersive workshop production of Radulescu’s recent play, “The Town with Very Nice People,” in the Center for Global Learning atrium.
The workshop takes an iconoclastic look at immigration in America, romantic relationships and professional development against the backdrop of quasi-closed academic communities and bigoted citizens. The audience will follow Roxana, an immigrant academic and successful writer, in her journey through different places and situations that more often than not turn out to be closer to an American nightmare than the American dream, until she reinvents the town into a place of vibrant diversity. The award-winning play made its world premiere at the studio theater of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York City in October 2023. The symposium’s production of “The Town with Very Nice People” is sponsored by the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York, Immigrant Literature LLC, and W&L’s Office of the Provost.
This year’s symposium is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College, the Glasgow Endowment, the Center for International Education, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, the Office of the Provost, and the departments of computer science, physics and engineering, and cognitive and behavioral science.
