Theatre UAB Assistant Professor Vessela Warner, Ph.D., is the dramaturg for “EcoCentric,” the latest cross-genre, multi-media creation of the Overground Physical Theatre Company.
Warner teaches theater history, dramatic literature and special topics, including dramaturgy, in the UAB Department of Theatre. Dramaturgy is the broad art of writing, researching, developing and managing theater scripts and the process of producing a play, including exploring the world of the play, advocating for and assisting in all aspects of the production.
As dramaturg for “EcoCentric,” Warner has researched and written the original script along with Antonia Katrandjieva, who conceived, directs and choreographs the play.
“Overground Physical Theatre is an experimental, multicultural group of artists who make socially and spiritually engaged productions in the genres of dance-theatre and multi-media performance,” Warner says.
According to the press release for the play, “’Ecocentric’ is an experimental work which combines dance, theater and video artists from all over the world to reconsider the notion of mankind’s ‘homecoming’ to the Earth. Using allegory, fantasy and postmodern wit, the performance presents the existential struggle of 11 contemporary women who live disconnected in an apartment building managed by a mysterious doorman, singing elevator and mythical garbage-collector. Uprooted from the natural environment and trapped in a consumerist world, the characters become kinetic signs of absurd speech, movement and sound: an ‘animated oxymoron’ which represents their incomplete lives and artificial reality. As the women travel through real and imaginary spaces in search of their lost identities, their physical bodies turn into vessels of wisdom and happiness. Read more about the play and the company on the Overground website.
“Ecocentric” will be performed June 21-22, 2012, at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center in New York City.