Talk It Out: SLABBER 2020 - Dis/Ease: Contagion and Pandemics in Our World and Its Stories

Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 8:00pm
Zoom

The Wesleyan Theater Department presents a "Talk It Out" interdisciplinary, open virtual conversation around the issues framed by their October production of "SLABBER 2020" - how pandemics and contagion play out in our world and in our stories. Is it possible to come close to someone without ever leaving your chair?

Discussion will include "SLABBER 2020" Director and Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl; Chair of the Science in Society Program, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Sociology, Environmental Studies, and the College of the Environment, and Coordinator for Sustainability and Environmental Justice Anthony Hatch, whose work examines health systems, medical technology, and social inequalities; Chair of the Environmental Studies Program, Huffington Foundation Professor in the College of the Environment, Professor of Biology, Environmental Studies, and Integrative Sciences Frederick Cohan, whose research and writing explore infectious disease and human environmental impact; and Wesleyan student dramaturgs on the "SLABBER 2020" production team: Will Blumberg '22 and Nathan Baron-Silvern '21. Facilitated by Luna Mac-Williams '22.

Sponsored by the Creative Campus Initiative of the Center for the Arts, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the Theater Department.

"SLABBER 2020"
Friday, October 16 through Sunday, October 18, 2020 at 5:30pm
Center for the Arts Courtyard
FREE! For Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff. RSVP required.

Performance start time may vary and will be communicated after registering for event.

Rain dates: Friday, October 23 through Sunday, October 25, 2020 at 5:30pm

"Things that don't normally belong together—like a blood cell and memory, a bacteria and a longing—are trying to come together under my skin."

An open-air, interactive, socially-distanced performance brings the audience directly into the research and experiments of a group of people who are trying to identify a mysterious condition, known only as “Slabber.” A slabber is the machine in soapmaking factories that cuts soap into slabs. This performance asks the Wesleyan community to consider notions of social and physical contamination, and whether it's possible to come close to someone else without ever leaving your chair. Originally created by the interdisciplinary theater duo PearlDamour, the work will be re-devised by a Wesleyan ensemble for the current socio-political moment.