By Sabrina Nacci |
Contributor
The AU Department of Communication and Theatre Augusta’s spring production of “Moving Photographs: A Vanishing Georgia” opens Thursday, March 21, at the Maxwell Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
The show was adapted, written and directed by Assisant Professor Melanie Kitchens O’Meara and her students. Her students worked closely using various writing exercises as they interpreted the photographs. They collaborated with O’Meara throughout the writing and creative process in her classes and rehearsals.
The production uses pictures from the Georgia Archives’ “Vanishing Georgia Collection.” As the performers bring the pictures to the stage, “students use performance to interpret, celebrate and interrogate Georgia’s ‘vanishing’ history and culture,” O’Meara said.
The pictures in the archive were collected by Georgia historians, an archivist and a photographer in a re-purposed school bus. The team announced they were coming to the different towns and counties across Georgia, and families would bring their personal, private photographs to share with the team. The pictures were scanned and then given back to the owners.
This allowed families to share their histories and memories of their own lives and historical events impacting Georgia. The pictures in the archive allow individuals to experience life, culture and the history of Georgia digitally, and the show now allows audience members to “dance” through the archive as they learn about “Georgia’s Vanishing History.”
The production mostly focuses on Richmond County photographs, but photographs from across Georgia are featured in the archive and show.
When audience members arrive, they will begin their experience with the archive in the lobby of the theater as they see the various photographs from the collection.
The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. on March 21-23 and at 3 p.m. March 24. The performances will be located at the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre on the Summerville campus.
Augusta University and East Georgia State College students get into the show for free. Tickets cost $10 for the general public, $7 for alumni, military and seniors, and $5 for Augusta University and East Georgia State College faculty and staff, students and children.
For more information, contact Sabrina Nacci at snacci@augusta.edu
The Bell Ringer 