From Producing Artistic Director, Bree Luck:
We humans share nearly 99 percent of our DNA with Pan troglodytes—chimpanzees—and it shows. Our hands, faces, and bodies aren’t really so different. But what can go unnoticed is our common biochemical and emotional inheritance. In times of distress, chimps experience a surge of testosterone and tend to exhibit competitive and even aggressive behaviors toward one another. But when our equally close cousins Pan paniscus—bonobos—are threatened, their bodies produce cortisol, and they reach out to other bonobos for help. When they sense that another ape is suffering, they join hands with them. And when given a choice, they prefer to share food, even with strangers.
These are stressful times in Charlottesville. 2018 has already been filled with strife and anxiety as we recognize, name, and attempt to address issues of racism that have been quietly (and not so quietly) pervasive for generations. Add to that mad increases in health care costs, uncertain economic times, and an increasingly chaotic and divisive political climate, and we humans face the choice between empathy and aggression every day.
It is a risky time to live here, and so we must do what humans can do like no other animal: make theater. Because theater brings us together like nothing else, in ways we recognize and in those that are utterly subconscious and physiological. Recently Dr. Joseph Devlin, Head of Experimental Psychology at University College London, completed a study which showed that audience members’ heartbeats synchronize when watching live theater. According to Devlin, “Experiencing the live theatre performance was extraordinary enough to overcome group differences and produce a common physiological experience in the audience members.”
This Live Arts season focuses on the voices that we don’t normally hear in American theater. Nearly 80% of our scheduled productions are written or conceived by a woman or person of color—reversing the ratio that we normally see. And I am confident that our hearts will join in unison as our neighbors, colleagues, friends, and teachers all take the stage to give voice to the living forces that keep us together.
In this Section
- Production History
- 1990-1991 Season
- 1991-1992 Season
- 1992-1993 Season
- 1993-1994 Season
- 1994-1995 Season
- 1995-1996 Season
- 1996-1997 Season
- 1997-1998 Season
- 1998-1999 Season
- 1999-2000 Season
- 2000-2001 Season
- 2001-2002 Season
- 2002-2003 Season
- 2003-2004 Season
- 2004-2005 Season
- 2005-2006 Season
- 2006-2007 Season
- 2007-2008 Season
- 2008-2009 Season
- 2009-2010 Season
- 2010-2011 Season
- 2011-2012 Season
- 2012-2013 Season
- 2013-2014 Season
- 2014-2015 Season
- 2015-2016 Season
- 2016-2017 Season
- 2017-2018 Season
- 2018-2019 Season
- 30 IN 30: A Live Arts Retrospective
- Production History