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CMU performance to be 'beamed' to Qatar
Nathan the Wise
When: 1 p.m. Saturday.
Admission: Free.
Where: Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland.
Details: 412-268-2407.
Alice T. Carter is the theater critic for the Tribune-Review. She can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7808.
Beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, digital video technology will transmit the live performance of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama's production of "Nathan the Wise" to members of Carnegie Mellon's Doha-based branch campus and guest students and faculty from the University of Qatar as it's being watched by a live audience in the Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland.
Edward Kemp's new adaptation of G.E. Lessing's 18th-century drama "Nathan the Wise" compellingly makes the case for the shared humanity of Muslims, Christians and Jews. The power of reconciliation prevails as Nathan argues that human fellowship is more important than blind adherence to an unknowable truth.
"The impulse of the play is to alert us, in the face of increasing religious and political polarization both foreign and domestic, that we are more than our cultural and ethnic labels," says Elizabeth Bradley, head of the School of Drama and a strong advocate of pluralistic exchange in the arts.
Following the performance, members of the audience in Qatar and Pittsburgh can join in a moderated talkback that may be an historial first.
Michael Chemers, a dramatic literature professor at Carnegie Mellon who is acting as a liaison between the two campuses believes this may be the first time that a live broadcast of a play performance has ever been attempted by a drama school.
Chemers expects the discussion will be lively and informed.
"It's a common misconception that dramatic art doesn't exist in Islamic countries. Qatar, for example, has a thriving and popular theater community, so we anticipate a sophisticated and interested audience for our transmission," says Chemers.
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