Medea

April 11–28, 2024
Presented by La MaMa in association with CultureHub

Press
New York Theatre Wire

 

Medea is a borderless Tekhne Epic for live audiences in person and online conceived by La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory Company, CultureHub, and Zishan Ugurlu. The epic tells the story of Medea, a refugee whose reality is shattered when she learns of her and her children's looming exile, investigating parallels between the myth and the current refugee crisis by collaging real stories, ancient tongues, and hackable audiovisual systems. 

A major part of the production is a reimagining of La MaMa’s Medea which was originally composed by the late Elizabeth Swados with direction by Andrei Serban for the company’s celebrated 1972 presentation. The work is experienced in three parts, and the stark, embodied performance is counterpoint to the rich media and technology landscape. 

Presented in La MaMa’s recently-renovated 74A E. 4 St. building, Medea unfolded across 3 floors and leveraged the building-wide data network to break past the walls of the theatre. Using custom-built interactive technologies, an online audience affected audio, video, and lighting elements throughout the show. The in-person and online versions followed the same story, but distinctly different iterations, allowing audiences to attend both experiences for a deeper look into the world of the production.

Medea was developed within Experiments in Digital Storytelling and was presented as part of Great Jones Repertory Company’s HUMANISMO PROJECT: ANCIENT FUTURE SERIES, a series that examines our current era of uncertainty, isolation, and public unrest, looking to ancient stories to imagine alternative futures for humanity.

View the program.


CULTUREHUB TEAM
Sangmin Chae – Creative Technologist
DeAndra Anthony – Technical Director
Mattie Barber-Bockelman – Producing Director
Billy Clark – Artistic Director
Online Experience Platform – LiveLab Broadcaster
Developed by CultureHub
Developers – Aidan Nelson, Shawn Van Every, Yuguang Zhang
Online Interactions – MORAKANA (Tiri Kananaruk, Sebastian Morales)
Sound Design – TJ Park
Audio Production – Live Park NYC
Livestream Audio – Live Park NYC
Pyrotechnician – Dakota Silvey

PERFORMERS
Arthur Adair, Mattie Barber-Bockelman, Buffy, Sheree V Campbell, Katherine Paola De La Cruz, maura nguyễn donohue, George Drance, Bejunior Fallon, Sara Galassini, Cary Gant, John Maria Gutierrez, Onni Johnson, Ammiel Kaufman, Morgan Medina-Wild, Valois Mickens, lim mui, eugene the poogene, Kiku Sakai, Kim Savarino, evan ray suzuki, Juan Pablo Toro, Christopher Wild, Mia Yoo with Ali Arian Molaei, David Grimaldo, Frida Guevara, Roberto H., Federico Mallet Flores, Edafe Okporpo

CREATIVE TEAM
Directed by Zishan Ugurlu
Performed by the Great Jones Repertory Company
Adapted from the original 1972 Medea Composed by Elizabeth Swados and Directed by Andrei Serban
Conceived by La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company, CultureHub, and Zishan Ugurlu
Music Director – Bill Ruyle
Lighting Design – Joe Levasseur
Technology, Media, and Projections Designed by CultureHub
Dramaturg – Morgan Jenness
Immigration Dramaturgy Consultant – Alexandra Délano Alonso
Research Assistants – Grace Kelly, Begüm Inal
Spanish Translations – Kristal Uribe
Production Stage Manager – Patrick Dunning
Assistant Stage Manager – Sheree V. Campbell
Interns – Lily Donovan-Wirth, Max Langen, Neal Medeiros, Emily Sciaino, Genevieve Simon, Luca Henzler
Press Representative – Sam Rudy Media

MUSICIANS
Percussion – Bill Ruyle
Violin – Heather Paauwe
Cello – Nick Swensen


Workshops, research, and interviews have occurred with recent migrant communities coming into New York City. Some of the organizations involved in the project are Make the Road New York, the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, and the New York State Youth Leadership Council. 

The livestream was produced using LiveLab Broadcaster, a browser based low-latency livestreaming platform that allows for real time interactions with online audiences. The open-source project is supported and used by CultureHub and NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. It has been used by CultureHub and La MaMa in the following productions: Take 21 (2022)A Few Deep Breaths (2022)Fractals of Prometheus (2023) and Downtown Variety Ukraine Edition (2023).

PROJECTS