Paths of Migration, Chapter II: Sea Seed

Project Description:

“Paths of Migration: Chapter II” is the second part of an ongoing collaboration between a leading experimental theatre company in Los Angeles and the UCR campus community. In the winter of 2014, UCR professors Erith Jaffe-Berg and Susan Ossman initiated a collaboration between the ovation-award winning Son of Semele Ensemble (SoSE) and the UCR campus community to create a full-length play that explores the topic of the repeated migration (serial migration) experiences of people who have lived in several countries throughout their lives.

In a period of increased globalization, mobility and connectivity, what do we know about how living in different cultural, political environments makes us who we are? What might we learn about the world by exploring experiences of people who have immigrated not once but several times? SOSE director Matt McCray and UCR Professor Erith Jaffe-Berg and SOSE ensemble members address these issues. Their performance draws on Susan Ossman’s book Moving Matters, Paths of Serial Migration and the work of artists generated through The Moving Matters Traveling Workshop, a mobile platform for creative activities whose first meeting was held at the Culver Center in 2013.

The project utilizes a collaborative, co-creational approach which invites the audience to intervene and react to the performance, and thus play a role in shaping the full-length play. Part I was presented in November 2014 and Part II will be presented on January 4th, 2016, at the Culver Center of the Arts, in downtown Riverside.

Organizers:

Erith Jaffe-Berg, Theater, Film & Digital Production
Susan Ossman, Anthropology & Global Studies
Jeff Sacks, Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages
Juliette Levy, History
Stephen James, Anthropology graduate student

Artists:

Beatriz Mejia-Krumbein
Hilletje Bashew
Melina Bielefelt
Don Boughton
Matthew McCray
Paula Rebelo