Passion with Tropes

A meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ by IU Jacobs School of Music composer Don Freund, PASSION with Tropes will begin a new life as an immersive and interactive multidisciplinary work, May 20 and 21, on the stage of the Ruth N. Halls Theatre on the IU Bloomington campus. As part of the production concept, the audience sits with the performers throughout the event. A conversation with the artists will take place on the stage, at the end of the show.

Conceived and initiated by Jacobs Professor Carmen Helena Téllez, the recipient of the 2010 Tracy M. Sonneborn Professor Award, the production is a co-creation by some of the most distinguished artists working at Indiana University today, including Robert A. Shakespeare, Professor of Lighting Design for the Department of Theatre and Drama, who is internationally renowned for his poetic virtual scenographies and for his iconic Light Totem at the IU Art Museum;  digital artist Margaret Dolinsky, an Associate Professor at the Hope School of Fine Arts, who has emerged as one of the most significant artists creating CAVE Automatic Virtual Environments in the world; and Susanne Schwibs, a film maker at IU’s Radio and TV, who was recently nominated for the regional Emmy for her film Harp Dreams, currently syndicated nationwide by PBS. The production also includes choreography by IU Professor Elizabeth Shea, who has a distinguished track record of projects using digital technology.

PASSION with Tropes is one of Freund’s most significant compositions – a musical collage in which he presents the scriptural story of Jesus’ physical, spiritual, and mental suffering, interspersed with commentaries by iconic poets and thinkers through the ages, who question and marvel at His decision to die for mankind.  Originally written in 1983, the work has been substantially revised for this “immersive theater edition.”

A professor of composition at the Jacobs School of Music, Freund describes the work as a “meditation on life, as defined by suffering and death and love.”

“It’s about music, about time, about the theatre experience, about sounds, about words, about beginnings and middles and ends, about confusion and frustration and desire, and about God who became human and finite in order to taste all these things, and find a love that no all-knowing Eternal Being could feel.”

With support from IU’s New Frontiers in Arts and Humanities Program, the Jacobs Choral Department, the Department of Theatre and Drama, and Téllez’s recent fellowship with Indiana University’s Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities, the production of PASSION with Tropes explores the synergy between highly expressive vocal and instrumental writing and digital technology to create an immersive sensory environment. The audience members will sit among the performers, be completely surrounded by images and sounds, and – at times – become participating elements of the theatrical experience.

PASSION with Tropes will be performed by the soloists from the Jacobs School of Music’s Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, the St. Charles School Children Chorus prepared by Sandra Freund,  and actors from the Department of Theatre and Drama, with narration by the veteran actor Gerard Pauwels. The production is directed by Jonathan Courtemanche, the celebrated young director, with the experienced technical direction of Paul Brunner and advanced digital visualization developed by Ed Dambik. Carmen Helena Téllez will conduct.

WHAT: Don Freund’s PASSION with Tropes, an inter-disciplinary production of immersive and interactive theatre.
WHEN: Friday May 20 and Saturday May 21, 7:30pm
WHERE:  Ruth N. Halls Theatre, 275 N.Jordan Avenue, Bloomington IN 47405
TICKETS: General Seating: $15, Students: $10.Tickets are available at the IU Auditorium Box Office