The Orphan Sea
By Caridad Svich
Directed by Eunice Ferreira
Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater at Skidmore
College
The Skidmore College Department of Theater is pleased to announce the premiere of a multilingual version of The Orphan Sea by Caridad Svich, 2012 Lifetime Achievement OBIE award winner. Director Eunice Ferreira, Skidmore theater professor, innovatively infuses the play with multiple languages, song, poetry, film and dance to invite audiences on a metatheatrical journey.
Synopsis: The Orphan Sea is a multimedia theater
experience that weaves the myth of Odysseus and Penelope with global stories of
migration. With the playwright’s permission, Ferreira and a diverse cast of
actors created the multilingual version in rehearsal. As playwright Svich
describes, “This is a story of us, here, now, and also of who we were once.
It is a story of those that cross rivers and seas and those that wait for them,
of a lover who searches for one lost years ago, and of someone called Penelope,
who may be waiting for someone called Odysseus.”
About the Playwright: Caridad Svich is an internationally
celebrated playwright and translator. Her numerous awards include the 2012 Obie
award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. Svich has been closely involved
with this production, collaborating with Ferreira and the cast in rehearsal to
bring this production to life. Svich delivered a public talk to the Skidmore
and Saratoga Springs community at the Tang Museum in October. On Thursday,
December 1st she will participate in a post show discussion. “I have
always been intrigued with the plays of Caridad Svich and by her impassioned
writings on art and activism,” explains Ferreira. “I knew that I wanted to work
with multiple languages to diversify and expand the global scope of theater
making at Skidmore. The first playwright I contacted was Caridad Svich.”
FROM THE DIRECTOR: In
rehearsing The Orphan Sea, director Eunice Ferreira asks: “How do we
respond to global crises of displaced people and environmental threats on our
Facebook news feed? What does it mean to cross digital, linguistic and physical
borders?” Born to parents who immigrated to the United States, Ferreira explains
that the play evokes notions of migration, exile, diaspora, refugees and border
crossings. “While riffing on the myth of Odysseus and Penelope, we hope to take
audiences on a multilingual, metatheatrical journey across time and geographies
of space using installations of song, poetry, film and dance. The Orphan Sea
draws on myth to bring the global past, present and future into collision.”
Ferreira’s research centers on global performance and identity. In addition to
directing, she teaches a range of courses that engage theater with history,
translation, theory, race/ethnicity, and culture.
Tickets: $12 general admission and $8 for students and
senior citizens.
To reserve seats, call the Skidmore Theater Box Office at
(518) 580-5439, email boxoffice@skidmore.edu
or find us online on Facebook or at skidmore.edu/academics/theater/