Summer Session Offers 'Leonardo'

WEDNESDAYS

Summer Session Offers Multi-Media Event

Leonardo:Anatomy of a Soul, a multi-media performance event created this 
past January by MIT artists in residence from the Pilgrim Theatre 
Research & Performance Collaborative, will be presented on six 
Wednesdays during MIT's Summer Session.

The performance explores the bridge between art and science, using the 
notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci as its text. It evokes his passionate 
observations of the human body, the flight of birds, the movement of 
water, military strategies, painting, music, and engineering. 

Projections from Athenian-born computer artist Yanna Logothetis act as 
counterpoint to the text and action. Sound sculptor David Atherton's 
digitally sampled score transforms the bells, lutes and liturgical 
chants of Leonardo's world.

Boston Review critic Jonathan Lipsky discussed Pilgrim directors Kim 
Mancuso and Kermit Dunkelberg as working in the manner that approaches 
theater as a method of investigation. He also said "Throughout the play, 
a parallel is drawn between the scientific and artistic explosion of 
Leonardo's era and our own. And out of the collage of sound, movement, 
imagery, and words, an attempt is made to grapple with the tension 
between human aspiration and technological advances."

Performances begin tonight (June 13) and continue June 20 and 27, July 
11, 18, and 25. All are at 8pm in Killian Hall. Priority seating will be 
given to Summer Session students. All available seats will be offered to 
the general public at 7:45pm, at a price of $10.  Information: x3-2101 
or Pilgrim Theatre: 723-2170.

The work was premiered at the Experimental Media Facility (The Cube) 
last January. The cast includes students and staff from MIT as well as 
Kim Mancuso and Kermit Dunkelberg, directors of Pilgrim Theatre and 
veterans of the international theatre company of the Second Studio, 
Wroclaw, Poland. In August, Leonardo: Anatomy of a Soul will travel to 
the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland under the sponsorship of the MIT 
Summer Session and the Office of the Arts. It is also touring Cape Cod 
and Martha's Vineyard this summer.