A Question of Survival: Adaptation/Abstraction in Performance
7th Annual Graduate Theatre Syndicate Symposium
By Karie Miller, PhD Student and Syndicate President
The Syndicate Symposium, A Question of Survival: Adaptation/Abstraction in Performance was held on March 4-5, 2016 in the Drake Performance and Event Center. The symposium featured a collection of scholarly paper panels interrogating issues of culture and gender, delivered by local and visiting graduate scholars. The paper panels alternate with performances and staged readings of adaptive work by Ohio State undergraduate and graduate artists, including but not limited to a South Asian dance presentation with live music.
Our keynote speaker was Mickle Maher, who is a founding member of Theatre Oobleck. As counterpoint to the Department of Theatre's production of Stupid F---ing Bird, Mr. Maher presented An Apology for the Course & Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening (which TimeOut Chicago named "One of the 10 Best Plays of 2009") with fellow Oobleck artist and longtime collaborator Colm O'Reilly. About the piece:
"A lean, tragicomic version of the Faustus story, An Apology…presents Doctor Faustus in the last hour of his final night on earth – irritated, whining, drunk, and repentant of nothing save his failure to keep a proper diary. Over the course of this hour, he rails against his silent servant Mephistopheles and tells the fantastic tale of his life—a life filled with wonders, as well as an immeasurably vast evil."
