“Manufacturing Mischief” Puppet Play by Pedro Reyes
Friday, April 27, 2018 at 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Building W79, Simmons Hall
229 VASSAR ST, Cambridge, MA 02139
“Manufacturing Mischief” Created by Pedro Reyes, Inaugural Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology
Directed by Meghan Finn
Written by Paul Hufker
Produced by The Tank
Free and Valid ID required
Run time: 1 hour, no intermission
All attendees must present a valid ID (license, passport, or MIT ID) to enter Simmons Hall.
Manufacturing Mischief is a puppet play by Pedro Reyes, the inaugural Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Artist in Residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), directed by Meghan Finn, written by Paul Hufker and produced by The Tank. During his residency, Reyes taught “The Reverse Engineering of Warfare: Challenging Techno-optimism and Re-imagining the Defense Sector”, which took a critical stance toward the effects of technology on current political discourse, democracy, wealth distribution and world conflicts. As part of his residency, Reyes met Professor Noam Chomsky and proposed creating a play featuring Chomsky as the protagonist. Reyes has integrated theater into his repertoire since 2008, often using handmade puppets from Japan, inspired by the Bunraku tradition. Reyes’ puppet plays include The Permanent Revolution (2014) on the life of Leon Trotsky and other political satires featuring key figures in the history of philosophy, such as Karl Marx and Adam Smith.
In Manufacturing Mischief, the character of Noam Chomsky finds an antagonist in Ayn Rand, who has never been taken seriously in academia, yet continues to be read widely and is a source of ideologies associated with Trumpism. Elon Musk is a technocratic hero today, in the tradition of Henry Ford and Steve Jobs. These and other characters are brought into the play by a Deus ex machina called the Print-A-Friend, an apparatus where a book is put in and out comes the author. Using comedy to address political discourse and the dilemmas that Artificial Intelligence and late capitalism pose in the Anthropocene era, this show will delight kids, academics, and nerds alike.
Free and open to the public, reservations required. All attendees must present a valid ID (license, passport, or MIT ID), no exceptions.
Please arrive by 5:45pm, after which point any unclaimed seats will be released to stand-by.
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School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS)
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Free, Registration Required, ID Required
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