Oakland Theater Project Continues 2021 Drive-In Season With World Premiere Theatrical Adaptation Of T. S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND
This show is the first production in California to get approval from Actors Equity Association during the pandemic to produce live theater with an audience.
By: Stephi Wild Mar. 25, 2021
Oakland Theater Project's innovative 2021 Season of drive-in theater continues April 9-May 16 with the world premiere theatrical adaptation of T. S. Eliot's epic poem The Waste Land. This show is the first production in California to get approval from Actors Equity Association during the pandemic to produce live theater with an audience - made possible by the innovative drive-in theater model.
Adapted for the stage by John Wilkins and directed by Michael Socrates Moran, the production features award-winning actor and playwright Lisa Ramirez in a solo performance that combines an outdoor stage under Oakland's skyline, dynamic video projection, and an immersive theatrical soundscape to embody Eliot's exploration of uncertainty and loss in the midst of a changing world, the fracturing of the self, and the possibility of renewal.
Oakland Theater Project's production is not just a recitation of the poem, but a rethinking of what the theater can do given the conditions of our present pandemic. Presented as a drive-in performance in the parking lot of The Oakland Theater at FLAX art & design in Downtown Oakland, the production offers the power and immediacy of live theater from the safety of one's own vehicle. As you experience a super-charged solo performance right in front of your vehicle, the sounds of the show are transmitted over FM radio into your car's speakers, allowing guests to remain safely in their cars.
In this new adaptation for the stage, Lisa Ramirez plays the poet/the prophet/the people - whose own self begins to disintegrate with the progression of the poem. In a time where what we thought we knew is no longer possible, the production invites audiences to experience a complex reflection of the world, both in the figure of the poet, and the surrounding environment.
Dynamic and alive, T. S. Eliot's epic offers an exploration of the fragmenting of an old order and the reconstruction of a new one-and of the self. Written in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic and the First World War, Eliot's masterful poem is an exploration of the world he lost, and a powerful reflection of our own time. Poised in an uncertain space between the return to a pre-pandemic world or something quite different, The Waste Land asks: Where do we go from here?
Tickets: $25-50 online, additional pay-what-you-can tickets available; no door sales, online only at oaklandtheaterproject.org/waste-land, or by calling 510.646.1126.
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