Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Department of Theater and Dance (DOTD) concludes its 2018-19 Main Season series with “AreUR?” This science-fiction cautionary tale will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, April 24-27 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28 in the Dunham Hall Theater.
The play is reminiscent of Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot” and Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and was made into the hit movie, “Blade Runner.” “AreUR?” was adapted by Erick W. Ruckh, PhD, director in the Office of the Provost; is directed by Chuck Harper, MFA, DOTD chair and professor; and is performed by SIUE students.
Inspired by Czech playwright, Karel Čapek’s “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots),” this tantalizing and shocking play is the brain-child of Ruckh, Harper and Igor Crk, PhD, chair and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. The play deals with questions regarding artificial intelligence and what truly defines a human being.
“Many of you may believe that you have souls, while others may believe that they have minds that embody personalities,” said Ruckh. “Either way, most of us hold to the idea that our self-identity is of a complexity and uniqueness that make it irreducible to the material stuff of our bodies. We live in contradiction.”
“That was just the beginning of the collaboration and the end of ‘simple,’” added Harper. “The what-ifs began furiously piling up. What if we rewrite the entire play to reflect current theory on consciousness and artificial intelligence?”
“We dove into difficult and provocative reading on computer coding, Nietzche, Hebrew myth, and mind sciences,” Harper elaborated. “We devised new scenes and brainstormed performance ideas. We spent countless hours in the Dunham dance studios mining our collective physical imaginations creating an utterly new world inspired by the ideas and images that Čapek laid out a hundred years ago.”
General admission is $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens, non-SIUE students with a school I.D., and all SIUE faculty, staff and retirees. SIUE students with a valid school I.D. are admitted free. To purchase tickets, visit the DOTD Box Office inside Dunham Hall or call (618) 650-2774. For directions and parking, please visit SIUE’s website at www.siue.edu\maps.
For additional information about the production, visit the DOTD website at siue.edu/artsandsciences/theater.
SIUE’s Department of Theater & Dance presents four plays and one dance concert during its October through April season. All productions are open to the community at large. The Department of Theater & Dance is part of the College of Arts and Sciences at SIUE.
Photo courtesy by Valerie Goldston:
SIUE students (L-R): Margaret Sommerhof, sophomore; Kayla Bush, junior; Oliver Bacus, junior; Michael Ezell, senior; and Jenna Heng, sophomore.