Traveling more than 4,400 miles, students from the University participated in a study abroad program combining their learning with multiple performances in France and Scotland.
In July, Associate Professor of Movement Nick Erickson and 14 students travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform their derived work called “SAVAGE/LOVE.”
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and consists of more than 50,000 performances of more than 3,000 shows in more than 250 venues all across Edinburgh.
The students came together to develop this work which consisted of spoken word, acting, dancing, aerial art and live video.
“SAVAGE/LOVE” takes the play created by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin, and uses its original poems, music and film to create the work performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last July.
“What we did, was we adapted the text, which is a collection of about 19 poems, that all were real or imagined moments in the spell of love,” Erickson said. “They’re all thematically connected. There wasn’t an overarching narrative or a story or a plot like you would normally expect in a regular stage play.”
As the script was a conglomeration of pieces that were alike, but not strung together, the structure lent itself to presentation through the various methods of performance that were incorporated, Erickson said.
Every two years, Erickson accompanies a group of students on this study abroad program to Europe. This is the fifth show Erickson took to Edinburgh.
Erickson uses the first year between trips to select the next performance pieces. The year before the trip, students are brought together through classes and workshops with creative and technical directors to devise the show from the ground up.
“Theatre is a collaborative venture,” Erickson said. “Much of the work was developed early on and intimately with a projectionist and lighting designer … and the costume designer.”
Erickson largely attributes the choices to the ability to creatively experiment with various aspects of the show. The most experimental part of the show was the use of live video, Erickson said, where performers would hold video cameras and their livestreamed image would be projected behind them, allowing the audience to view the scene from a different angle.
The 14 students who participated in the study abroad program spent a week in France, while the rest of the time was spent in Edinburgh rehearsing and performing the show. The 14 students were not all theatre majors but had majors ranging from pre-med to business to communication studies.
“I allowed for every student on the trip to showcase the best that they have to offer,” Erickson said. “What has always been my challenge is that I have to work with the students who sign up.”
The students who participated in the study abroad program got to learn about the history of the cities they visited as well as explore the cities in their free time.
“To develop this new sense of themselves as global citizens,” Erickson said of a major goal of his study abroad program.
“We learn a lot through books and through lectures and through experiences here in America, but it’s only when we travel abroad … and when we really immerse ourselves in other cultures … that we realize how profound it is to be on a planet where everything is now so interdependent.”