Theater Arts Associate Professor Jay Scheib wins Obie Award - MIT News Office 6/15/12 2:21 PM massachusetts institute of technology search engineering science management architecture + planning humanities, arts, and social sciences campus video press Theater Arts Associate Professor Jay Scheib wins Obie Award Honored for his production of World of Wires Music and Theater Arts today's news May 23, 2012 multimedia Aircraft engineered Share with failure in mind MIT Theater Arts Associate may last longer Professor Jay Scheib, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, received a coveted 2012 Obie Award — off- broadway's highest honor for his production of World of The production of World of Wires. The Obies, or Off- Wires Photo: Dominick Reuter Broadway Theater Awards, Photo courtesy of Jay Scheib are annual awards given by New design approach tailors The production of World of Wires planes to fly in the face of likely The Village Voice to selected Photo courtesy of Jay Scheib failures. theatre artists and productions worthy of distinction. Researchers find building seismic strain in Azerbaijan Scheib — a director, designer and author of plays, operas and installations — is June 14, 2012 internationally known for works of daring physicality, genre-defying performances and Study identifies enzymes deep integration of new technologies. needed to mend tissue damage after World of Wires is the final installment of the multidisciplinary Simulated Cities / Simulated inflammation System performance trilogy he developed at MIT. The trilogy is centered on collaborations June 14, 2012 with disciplines outside of traditional performing arts idioms such as civil engineering and similar stories urban planning, computer science and artificial intelligence, aerospace and astronautics. Music and Theater Arts Robert Lepage dazzles The first work, Untitled Mars (This Title May Change), simulated Mars on Earth, coupling Associate Professor Jay Scheib MIT community during material from the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah with the science-fiction visions of spectacular campus Photo: Naomi White Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem and Kurd Lasewitz. The second work, Bellona, Destroyer of residency April 24-26, 2012 Cities, simulates a world that has become stuck in a loop of civil upheaval through Samuel related May 2, 2012 R. Delany's monumental novel Dhalgren. The final work, World of Wires, models one McDermott Award Earth inside of another Earth by borrowing heavily from the fictional backbone of computer Jay Scheib recipient Robert Lepage science and artificial intelligence. It is a performance about the unveiling of a computer collaborates and simulation so powerful that it is capable of simulating the world and everything in it. Music and Theater Arts converses with students W.O.W was adapted by Scheib after the film Welt am Draht by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; during campus the screenplay is based on the novel Simulacron-3 by American science fiction writer School of Humanities, residency Arts, and Social Science April 26, 2012 Daniel F. Galouye. Four from MIT win ARCHIVE: "Scheib wins prestigious Guggenheim Video: Watch a clip of World of Wires 2011 Guggenheim fellowships Fellowship" April 17, 2012 Reeling from the reality of people living their lives inside of machines, the play is an all- Jamshied Sharifi ‘83 bets-are-off homage to the startling possibility that you too might be ones and zeroes in recognizes the Arab someone else's programmed world. World of Wires is also inspired by the works of Oxford tags Spring with commission University Professor Nick Bostrom, including his compelling paper, "Are You Living in a http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/jay-schieb-wins-obie-award.html Page 1 of 2 Theater Arts Associate Professor Jay Scheib wins Obie Award - MIT News Office 6/15/12 2:21 PM Computer Simulation?" for the MIT Wind arts Ensemble March 15, 2012 Directed by Scheib, the sold-out three-week engagement in January 2012 at the Kitchen awards, honors and in New York featured Sarita Choudhury, Mikéah Ernest Jennings, Rosalie Lowe, Jon fellowships Morris, Ayesha Ngaujah, Laine Rettmer and Tanya Selvaratnam. The scenic design was by Sara Brown (a lecturer in theater arts at MIT), the costumes by Alba Clemente, the faculty sound design by Anouschka Trocker, lighting and video by Josh Higgason, and camera by music Jay Scheib. The stage manager was MIT alumna Susan Wilson '08. Kasper Sejersen and Laine Rettmer were the assistant directors, and Tanya Selvaratnam was the producer. theater World of Wires garnered an array of rave and insightful reviews, interviews and preview alumni/ae articles including: David Cote's review in Time Out New York; AndrewAndrew's insta- staff review Papermag; Ben Brantley's review in The New York Times; Alex Zafiris' interview in BOMB; Scott Macauly's interview in Filmmaker Magazine; and Carmen García Durazo's review in Guernica, among others. 4 Comments Log in to write comments mainekick - Congrats Jay Scheib 2012-05-25 05:15:23 Jay is so diverse and multi talented. Well deserved! MIT news | 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 11-400 | Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 | 617.253.2700 | TTY 617.258.9344 twitter | rss | contact | about the mit news office | terms of use | comments | Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/jay-schieb-wins-obie-award.html Page 2 of 2 The 2012 Obie Award Winners By Village Voice Staff, published: May 16, 2012 The 57th Annual Obie Awards were given out at a ceremony tonight, May 21st, at Webster Hall in the East Village. The awards were presented by acclaimed stage actors Eric McCormack, Grace Gummer, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Justin Bartha, Leslie Odom Jr., Lily Rabe, Michael McKean, Tonya Pinkins, Topher Grace, and Tracee Chimo. Best New American Play (with $1,000 prize) Amy Herzog 4000 Miles Performance: Cherise Boothe Milk Like Sugar (Playwrights Horizons and the Women's Project) Steven Boyer Hand to God (Ensemble Studio Theatre/Youngblood) Sweet and Sad Ensemble: Jon DeVries, Shuler Hensley, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, & J. Smith-Cameron (The Public Theater) Gabriel Ebert and Mary Louise Wilson 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center Theater) Jim Fletcher Sustained Excellence Santino Fontana Sons of the Prophet (The Roundabout Theatre Company) Linda Lavin The Lyons (The Vineyard Theatre) Susan Pourfar Tribes (Barrow Street Theatre) Playwriting: Kirsten Greenidge Milk Like Sugar (Playwrights Horizons and the Women's Project) Direction: Richard Maxwell Early Plays (The Wooster Group and St. Ann's Warehouse) Jay Scheib World of Wires (The Kitchen) Design: Mark Barton, sustained excellence of lighting design Mimi Lien, sustained excellence of set design Matt Tierney and Ben Williams, sound design The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (New York Theatre Workshop) Special Citations: Mark Bennett, Denis O'Hare, Lisa Peterson, & Stephen Spinella An Iliad (New York Theatre Workshop) Erin Courtney & Ken Rus Schmoll A Map of Virtue (13P) Elevator Repair Service Sustained Excellence Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra No Place to Go (The Public Theater/Joe's Pub) Steven Hoggett, Martin Lowe, & John Tiffany Once (New York Theatre Workshop) Daniel Kitson It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later (St. Ann's Warehouse) Ross Wetzsteon Grant: ($1,000) Youngblood (Ensemble Studio Theatre) Grants: The Bushwick Starr ($2,500) The Debate Society ($2,500) Lifetime Achievement: Caridad Svich The numbers "Summertime,” performed by Joshua Henry and Sumayya Ali from the cast of Porgy & Bess, and “Raglan Road” performed by David Patrick Kelly from the cast of Once, were entertainment for the evening. The ceremony kicked off with two numbers from newly minted Obie winner Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra from their show No Place to Go. The Obies were judged by a committee of seven: Brian Parks, Obie Awards Chairman and Arts & Culture editor of The Village Voice; Michael Feingold, chief theater critic for the Voice, two-time Pulitzer finalist, dramaturg, and Obie Chairman Emeritus; Alexis Soloski, a Voice theater critic as well as contributor to The New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and BBC Radio, plus theater professor at Columbia University; Annie Baker, Best New American Play Obie winner in 2010 for her plays Circle Mirror Transformation and The Aliens; Anne Kauffman, accomplished director, instructor, and 2007 Obie winner for her direction of The Thugs; José Rivera, two-time Obie Award winner for his plays Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot; and Helen Shaw, a theater critic for Time Out New York and a past Obie judge. Her writing has also appeared in The Village Voice. Village Voice publisher Josh Fromson, editor-in-chief Tony Ortega, Arts & Culture editor Brian Parks, the judges, the entire marketing and promotion staff of The Village Voice, and the outside staff and volunteers for the 57th Annual Obie Awards all joyously congratulate this year's winners. Page 2 Lurking inside every experimental-theater auteur is a film director itching to light, shoot and edit a movie's every pixel (just ask Richard Foreman, who chucked playwriting for Final Cut and an editing suite). Even though film can be just as collaborative (and compromised) as the stage, cinema dangles the promise of total control. So Jay Scheib is trying to have his cake and eat it, too: In his latest, heavily mediated assemblage, World of Wires, he trails behind his performers with a video camera, feeding strikingly composed, deep-focus images to monitors and screens. Normally, I go to the theater to evaluate language, acting styles and set design; I don't find myself admiring canted close-ups or photojournalistic jitter. Not that ordinary theatrical values aren't also part of the experience. Scheib bases his loopy, spaced-out script on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1973 television miniseries, Welt am Draht, itself drawn from Daniel F. Galouye's 1962 sci-fi novel, Simulacron-3 (both precursors to such simulation-or-reality works as The Matrix).