Can a robot write a play that reflects the world in the times we live in? Find out at the stage reading of a play created fully by a computer. Follow the story of the married couple Ivan and Nina, whose lives become deeply impacted by incoming war. Permeation is the second play generated by artificial intelligence—a mix of love tragedy, war drama, and espionage thriller.
Artists, scientists and university students in Prague joined their forces for the second time to explore creative collaboration between a man and artificial intelligence. The stage reading, presented at the 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival in world premiere, is outcome of two years of work on a unique project supported by The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TACR). At the start of this project there was a question whether AI can write a theater play. Using artificial intelligence during creative process and collaboration of a man and AI poses numerous unsettling questions beyond the field of art and invites for wider social debate.
Permeation, Czech Republic. Playwright: Artificial intelligence. Project author: Tomas Studenik. Director: Erwin Maas. Cast: Jade Radford, Christopher Domig, Joshua Echebiri.
Free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required. Masks are required inside the venue.
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is dedicated to the people of Ukraine fighting for their independence. 🇺🇦 Suggested donation ($10) will be used to support Ukrainian refugees. All collected funds will be donated to People in Need, a Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in helping people in emergencies all over the world.
Project partners: THEaiTRE, TACR (The project TL03000348 THEaiTRE: Artificial Intelligence as the Author of the Play is co-financed with state support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the ETA Program 3); Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics at the Computer Science School, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Czech Republic; CEE Hacks; Prg.ai; Theatre Faculty, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Czech Centers.
ABOUT
ERWIN MAAS is a New York based theatermaker, curator, educator and international arts advocate from the Netherlands with extensive international experience across a variety of creative and community contexts. In New York, he directed numerous productions Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway as well as Site Specific. More so than touring fully made productions, he is especially passionate about developing new or existing works with local artists and/or communities and has done so all around the world. His directing work ranges from plays by contemporary playwrights to devised, interdisciplinary immersive projects, opera, music theater & dance with performances for all ages. He is the Co-Executive Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), Fellowship Director for International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), and Programming Director of Origin Theatre Company. He teaches at CUNY Brooklyn College's MFA Performance & Interactive-Media-Arts Program. Erwin is a member and/or serves on the Artistic Advisory Boards of Theater Without Borders, Georgetown University's Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics, ISSUE Project Room Brooklyn, First Nation Spiderwoman Theater, and DecadesOut, an organization at the intersection of Arts-Science-Policy.
CAST
JADE RADFORD (JASMINE) is a Brooklyn based actor born and raised in New Orleans, LA. Regional Theater includes Cadillac Crew (Yale Rep u/s), Pipeline (Cleveland Playhouse), Love's Labours Lost (The Acting Company), The Mecca Tales (Sheen Center). Film/TV: Orange is the New Black (Netflix), Chicago P.D., Hightown (STARZ), Queen of the Desert (Short Film). Education: BFA SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theater Arts.
JOSHUA ECHEBIRI - THEATER: Lizardly (Media Art Exploration / New York Live Arts), Free Shakespeare in the Park: Merry Wives (The Public Theater), Romeo N Juliet (virtual) (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun, (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Something Happens for Joe, (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Soft (Williamstown Theatre Festival); TELEVISION: The Good Fight, Seasons 5 (Paramount+). BA: Dartmouth College. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting.
CHRISTOPHER DOMIG is an actor and director in New York City. Recent acting credits include: The Waste Land: A Performance/Installation at FringeNYC, English World Premiere of Dirt in New York (59E59, 4th Street Theater), Edinburgh (Gilded Balloon), Vancouver (Pacific Theatre), Berlin (ETB), and London (Arcola Theatre). 3 times NYIT Outstanding Actor Nominee, Outstanding Actor Award, FringeNYC, Recent Film: Ava (dir. Tate Taylor, opposite Jessica Chastain) Recent TV: Blue Bloods, Boardwalk Empire, Black List, Law & Order: SVU and Blindspot. BFA: Wheaton College, MFA: Southern Methodist University.
ABOUT THE 2022 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Under Pressure is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Czech National Trust, Terezin Music Foundation, Trap Door Theatre, and Yara Arts Group.
The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary, and Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.