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January 30, 2001
ENVIRONMENTAL OPERA BIOSPHERIA TO PREMIERE MARCH 8 AT UCSD
Biospheria, a multi-site environmental opera, will be presented at 3 p.m. March 8-11 and 15-18 on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. The performances are free and open to the public. Biospheria is based on the phenomenon of Biosphere 2, a self-contained, artificial ecosystem located in Arizona in which eight people lived for two years in the early 1990šs. Biosphere 2 was touted on its launch in 1991 as a "living art form" in addition to being a prototype Mars colony and a vehicle for investigating holistic theories of ecology. The project quickly became embroiled in controversy with the "discovery" by investigative journalists that the project's founders were not "real" scientists but rather a theater company/commune with alleged cult tendencies. Eventually, its owner, Ed Bass, hired Columbia University to manage the facility as a more conventional hard science research center. It is also a popular tourist attraction. Production creators/organizers are Steven Ausbury and Anthony Burr, both UCSD graduate students. "Biospheria will investigate some primary themes of Biosphere 2šs utopian pursuit," Ausbury says. "On a local level, the work will explore the blurring boundaries of art, science and everyday life and the dynamics of a closed community." The UCSD campus will become an allegorical stand-in for Biosphere 2. Audiences, in costumes and wearing headphones, will move from site to site visiting a sequence of live tableaux and interacting with performers, sets and objects. The soundtrack, heard through the headphones, will include verbal excerpts from faux biospherian diary entries within computer generated simulations of natural environmental sounds (birds, frogs, water etc). Each site will represent a historical moment in the lives of Biospherians. "We are taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on practices from experimental theater, sound art, installation art, masque and avant-garde opera forms," Burr says. On March 10
at 6:15pm, a panel discussion, "Cultivating Utopia," will address issues
of utopia and popular science. Panelists will be Constance Penley,
Hillel Schwartz, and Dr.Roy Walford, eminent gerontologist and the
physician inside Biosphere 2's first mission; moderated by Adriene
Jenik. This will be followed by a public reception.
Exhibitions and Conferences Leading up to the actual event we have constructed smaller scale components of the opera. These allow for the development of a working method in relation to situational specificity. To this end, the company has already completed two installation works dealing with correspondences between the central themes of the project and specific sites in San Diego and Southwest. The first project was an installation at Sushi Performance and Visual Art in January of 2000 which explored the hothouse economics of the Ballpark Redevelopment Plan and its relationship to the closed system capital and ecological economy. A hallway space was transformed into a hybrid science project/new age shrine with a nod to the material refuse of overdevelopment. Next we produced a videotape which presented a more lyrical and apocalyptic take on the utopian dimension of local housing developments at the edge of the desert. The tape was presented at "Visceral and Virtual," Performance Studies International's 6th annual conference in Tempe, Arizona in March of 2000. We have also delivered a presentation/lecture
at "Growing Things: Biotech, Nanotech, and Eco-Meat Art" an art and
science symposium at the Banff Center in June of 2000.
CREATED BY: Steve Ausbury and Anthony Burr LIBRETTO: Coco McPherson, Cynthia Farar, Billy Lux, Constance Penley, Nancy Reilly-McVittie & Gil Bios VOICES: Adriene Jenik as Adelaide, Shahrokh Yadegari as KD, Ayse P. Saygin as Samantha, Stephen Cope as Gil, Al Rubottom as Will, Loie Michael as Dixie CHOREOGRAPHY / DANCERS: Bekkah Walker, Jana Larson, Julie Wyman, Jee Young Sim, Joel Murphy, Deb Fisher, Shane Hope PERFORMERS: Theater of the Mad Cow: Jennifer Wang, Kerry Drake, Lennox Miller, Kumiko Nayama, Miriam Padolsky, Howard Buckstein SCENE DESIGNER: Hector Perez APPAREL DESIGNER: Itsaso Petricorena COSTUME ASSISTANT: Tina Lee, Suhua Wang ANIMATION: Rachel Mayeri LIGHTING DESIGNER: Yo Shao Ann GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Don Hollis, Karen W. SET ASSISTANTS: Linhchi Tang, Michael Bedar, Mark Siekierski PHOTOGRAPHY: Diane Meyer
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