Presentation/Discussion Direct from the Bayreuther Festspiele

Director Jay Scheib and Video and AR Designer Joshua Higgason on the vision and the challenges behind the recent Parsifal premiere

RSVP here

Every year thousands of Wagner and classical music fans migrate to the small town of Bayreuth in upper Bavaria to experience Richard Wagner’s operas in the theater he conceived especially for them. The Bayreuther Festspiele has always been a place where tradition meets innovation, and this summer has been no exception. The premier of a new staging of Richard Wagner’s 1882 Parsifal aka Bühnenweihfestspiel on July 25th marked the first venture into augmented reality (AR), expanding Wagner’s Gesamtkunst vision to a new level and inspired by a visionary prompt from Bayreuth director Katharina Wagner. 
 
Director and MIT theater professor Jay Scheib shares his vision for this new Parsifal production. His presentation covers the inspiration behind the production as well as the technical and institutional challenges along the way. He is joined by Video and AR Designer Joshua Higgason. 

Part of the conversation series Our New England Partners in Germany, in which we invite our partners in New England to share insights into their current or ongoing projects in Germany.
 

Jay Scheib Jay Scheib is internationally known for genre-defying works of daring physicality and the integration of new (and used) technologies in live performance. 
He was named Best New York Theater Director by Time Out New York in 2009, and one of the 25 theater artists shaping the next 25 years of American theater by American Theater Magazine, and is a recipient of the MIT Edgerton Award, the Richard Sherwood Award, a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG fellowship, an OBIE Award for Best Direction, and the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. 
He is a Professor for Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he teaches in the Program for Theater Arts. 

Joshua Higgason is a designer of performances, creating unique live experiences for events, concerts, opera, and theater. He designs video and projections, interactive media, sets, and lighting. He started working in experimental theater and art with some groundbreaking companies, and has continued developing into a unique voice in the world of immersive media driven experiences. He currently teaches Performance Media, Interactive Design for Live Performance, and Lighting Design at MIT.   

Back