Upintheair Theatre's The Array performances muse on the theme of First Contact, December 3 to 5

Interdisciplinary works imagine a postpandemic future and more in the second annual series

SPONSORED POST BY UPINTHEAIR THEATRE

House of Rice presents the short work Connection Error at The Array.

Upintheair Theatre’s second-annual interdisciplinary series, The Array, will muse on the theme of First Contact when it streams online from December 3 to 5 at 7:30 pm each evening.

The event showcases four new short works, commissioned from the interdisciplinary groups House of Rice, rice & beans theatre, Popcorn Galaxies, and Hunters, Tricksters & Mystics.

They’ve developed these 15-to-20-minute works over a two-month span, exploring a range of possible futures unfolding from 2020.

First Contact between humans and aliens is a long-standing trope of sci-fi, often as a veiled metaphor for the ongoing impacts of Western colonization. This year’s theme comes with added significance in these socially distanced times, as society dreams of a post-pandemic future where human beings can socialize freely again.

Presentations will include drag performances vignettes about navigating human contact in a socially distanced future, the pitfalls of virtual contact from an Indigenous viewpoint, a return to a nondigital communication mode, and a meditation on the loss of physical contact.