Artist in Residence: The Civilians: Make me Feel (Mighty Real)
Artist in Residence
Originally Aired: Monday, March 13, 2023
Overview
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT – FREE LIVESTREAM AVAILABLE
The Civilians is a theater company that creates ambitious and exuberant new theater that creatively interrogates our lived experience. To kick-off the residency, The Civilians present “Make me Feel (Mighty Real),” an evening of improvised scenes and music using AI-generated content. With ChatGPT, they will create entire worlds and characters in the moment, weaving together narratives and bringing to life scenes and music that have never been seen or heard before.
As part of the evening, Artistic Director Steve Cosson will engage in a conversation with “Aging Homosexual,” the bot he created in his own image, as they parse art, politics, and the meaning of life.
Participants include performers Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maya Sharpe, Cindy Cheung, Robert Johanson, Heath Saunders, Jennifer R. Morris, and Jill Sobule (remote), writer Colleen Werthmann, composer and sound designer Christian Frederickson, music director Wiley DeWeese, and video designer Attilio Rigotti.
*Purchase VIP seats for the best view of the stage and guaranteed seating in the first two rows! VIP IS SOLD OUT
Founded in 2001, The Civilians is dedicated to ambitious and exuberant new theater that creatively interrogates our lived experience; questions and tests the stories that shape our world; and awakens new thinking and perceptions. Its signature work is “investigative theater”—projects created through field research, community collaborations, and other methods of in-depth inquiry. Shows originated with The Civilians include Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, cited by The New York Times as the “4th Best Play of the Past 25 Years,” and Lucas Hnath’s Dana H., recently on Broadway and included in Top 10 of 2021 lists by The New York Times and Time magazine. Other shows include José Rivera’s Another Word for Beauty, and many works with composer Michael Friedman: Gone Missing, Pretty Filthy, Paris Commune, and more.
The Civilians has participated in several BAM Next Wave Festivals, has been produced at many major regional and Off-Broadway theaters, and was the first theater company to be Artist-in-Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. With Ghostlight Records, The Michael Friedman Recording Project is creating nine albums of our founding member’s works. The company sustains a number of artistic programs including new work development, a cabaret series for new musicals, the R&D Group new work lab, the online journal Extended Play, and more.