Darwin talks back in ASU Herberger MainStage Season’s original work, Dreaming Darwin

Who
The ASU School of Theatre and Film in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

What
Just in time for Charles Darwin’s birthday, the ASU School of Theatre and Film presents its New Works Series workshop production of Dreaming Darwin, Feb. 11–19. February 12 marks the 202nd anniversary of the birth of the Darwin, the British naturalist who is characterized as one of the most important and influential thinkers of the modern age. To further mark this occasion, Lance Gharavi and Jake Pinholster, School of Theatre and Film professors, assembled a team of talented artists to create Dreaming Darwin.

“It’s a revolutionary new work of theatre – a kind of fantasy on a theme of Charles Darwin,” Gharavi says, who also directs the production. “This entirely unnatural confection is a live-action hallucination on the life, impact, and ideas of the man whose theories formed the very foundation of the life sciences.”

Dreaming Darwin explores the interior life of Darwin as he struggles with life, death, and the implications of his own theories with a series of real and imagined figures – a superhero, economists, novelist Ayn Rand and several other wild animals.

This New Works Series workshop production follows a successful 2009 staged reading of Dreaming Darwin, and is the next step in the evolutionary process of creating a play. The New Works Series is a highlight of ASU School of Theatre and Film’sMainStage Season, where master students, faculty and guest artists from across the nation premiere their projects. Workshops and staged readings give the audience an opportunity to experience a play that is in development.

Where
Prism Theatre, 970 E. University Drive, Tempe, AZ. The theatre is on the northeast corner of Rural Road and University Drive, behind Cornerstone Mall in the ASU Performing and Media Arts building on the ASU Tempe campus. Free parking is available in front of the theatre.

When
Feb 11–12 and Feb. 17–19 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 13 at 2 p.m.

Cost
All tickets are $8. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit: http://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/events/viewevent.php?eid=594

Public Contact
Herberger Institute box office, 480.965.6447
ASU School of Theatre and Film, 480.965.5337 
http://mainstage.asu.edu

The School of Theatre and Film in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University provides a comprehensive range of courses in performance and directing; design and production; new work development; theatre and performance studies; film; and theatre for youth. Its Theatre for Youth program is nationally ranked in the top three and the dramatic writing/playwriting program is ranked 15th among public institutions by U.S.News & World Report. To learn more about the School of Theatre and Film, visit theatrefilm.asu.edu.

Media Contact:
Laurie Trotta
School of Theatre and Film
480.965.3381
laurie.trotta@asu.edu