BAR HARBOR — What do computers, the Civil War, a utopian world and rock music have in common?
That question will soon be answered on stage in Bar Harbor, where the avant-Americana musical “Futurity” will be performed live at College of the Atlantic’s Thomas S. Gates Jr. Community Center. Shows run Friday, March 10, through Sunday, March 12, with a nightly show at 7 p.m., along with a 1 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 12.
“Futurity” looks back to the Civil War to raise contemporary questions about the role of technology in visions for liberation. At the center of the performance is the Steam Brain, a thinking machine conceived and designed to bring an end to human suffering.
“Audiences will grapple with the violence of American life and the promise of a future bending towards justice. They’ll also be attending a rock concert,” said co-director and College of the Atlantic (COA) music professor Jonathan Henderson.
“They will see the Steam Brain come to life before their eyes, and they might think about how our increasing interrelationship with digital technologies will shape our ways of being in the coming years,” Henderson explained. “There will be more questions asked than answered.”
Written by César Alvarez and The Lisps, “Futurity” explores human and mechanical imagination. It centers on mathematician and early computer scientist Ada Lovelace and a Union soldier, Julian Munro, together dreaming about utopia during the Civil War. It examines both the brutality of war and how violence can be wielded in the pursuit of justice and freedom.
As Julian marches south with the Union army, he and Ada develop plans for the Steam Brain, a thinking machine that will bring about a new kind of human-machine imagination.
“Futurity” is the work of COA students enrolled in a three-credit, term-long course called Futurity: A Production Monster Course, taught and co-directed by Henderson and COA Woodward & Newman Chair in Performing Arts Jodi Baker. Students have collaboratively researched and developed the performance, taking on all aspects of production, including acting, singing, movement direction, tech, design, stage management and dramaturgy.
COA’s staging of the production benefits from a collaboration with electroacoustic sculptor Mark Dixon, whose one-of-a-kind musical instruments feature in the role of the Steam Brain.
The cast and crew include: Elena Brotz, Kaia Douglas, Ellie Gabrielson, Sadrac Hernandez, Margit Hardi, Simone E. Le Page, Hanako Moulton, Ninoska Ngomana, Isaiah Osborn, Halei Trowbridge, and Pigeon Voigt. The band includes: Ihosvanni Cabrera Naranjo, Sorrell Lord, Adrian Lyne, Eun-Jae Norris, Jeremy Powers, Paul Thurber, and Dean Unger. Tanvi Ravi Koushik and Anna Parsons are dramaturgs. Pierce Jenkins and Sarah Ottinger are stage managing.
“This is the largest scale work of theater we’ve produced in my time here at COA,” said Baker. “It’s an incredible piece of work built by an extraordinary group of students. Putting something like this together in eight weeks has been a terrific challenge, and incredibly fun. We are all very excited to share it.”
Admission is free but reservations are required and can be made at futuritycoa.brownpapertickets.com. Masks are required and will be available for all performances.
