The Communication Studies Department’s “Green Eggs and Noise” is bringing the legendary works of Dr. Seuss to life with a mix of contemporary twists.
The performance runs through Sunday in the HopKins Black Box theatre. It is described as a look at people’s relationships with the technologies of sound.
Raquel Polanco, director of “Green Eggs and Noise” and University Graduate School professor, said she considers technology much more than just laptops, but also more abstract devices such as language and writing.
She described a scene in which she fuses these different technologies by using the story-telling of “Green Eggs and Ham” with abstract movements and the use of iPhones.
Polanco said the piece is inspired by Seuss’ works, but it’s not an adaptation of his stories.
“Children’s literature, because kids are just learning to read and are becoming familiar with language, that sort of literature asks us to look at language and literature in ways that maybe we’ve forgotten how to or we don’t pay attention to the same way children do,” Polanco explained. “And I was wanting to experiment with that on stage.”
Polanco said she chose to pay homage to Seuss because of his use of wordplay and rhythms and his ability to bring life to commonplace objects and occurrences. She also appreciates the depth of his stories that is often overlooked.
“Especially in ‘The Cat in the Hat’ and ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!,’ there’s a lot of ‘in here’ versus ‘out there’ that I think is interesting on stage but also interesting in thinking about,” she said. “Mental space versus the beyond, domestic space versus outside of that space and what sort of things can happen in particular kinds of spaces. He sort of challenges and defamiliarizes our notions of what goes where.”
She said the costumes and props symbolize this theme of inside versus outside. The entire set and cast is decked in purely black and white save for a vibrant red and aqua door. The door is utilized by the Cat in the Hat character to distinguish the outside from inside.
She said the play also incorporates other art forms such as a drip painting, a nod to Jackson Pollock. “Green Eggs and Noise” blends together various multimedia forms such as sound art, performance, literature, video and painting.
Emily Mistrzak, an actress in the performance and communication studies graduate student, said she hopes the piece gets students to look at pop culture in a different and unusual way.
Michael Buster, a fellow performer and communication studies junior, said he didn’t want to give any methaphors away and urges audiences to decipher the meaning on their own.
Polanco said the performances will vary each time because there is a scene in which the actors improvise a sound poem using household objects.
In that same notion, Polanco encourages students to attend “Green Eggs and Noise” because of live performance’s sense of community and the fact that no two performances are ever the same.
“There’s something really magical about live bodies on stage under the lights. It’s really something special, you know, as soon as it begins, it’s ending. It can never be that again,” she said. “Whether you love the performance or not, I think that liveness and that experience of an audience getting together and being communal with other people is something really important, fun and valuable.”
“I think children’s literature, because kids are just learning to read and are becoming familiar with language, that sort of literature asks us to look at language and literature in ways that maybe we’ve forgotten how to or we don’t pay attention to the same way children do…and I was wanting to experiment with that on stage.”
What: “Green Eggs and Noise”
When: March 20-23 at 7:30 p.m and March 24 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: HopKins Black Box Theatre , 137 Coates Hall
How much: Free, but donations are encouraged
