Directed by Sarah Hughes
Co-Devised by Sarah Hughes & Laurie Churba with the ensemble
Dartmouth College
February 2023
With: Kabir Beotra, Lucy Biberman, Giovanni Adelchi Colalillo, Dawn Lim, Jamie Nicholson, Alice Inacio Oliveira, Ford Springer, Rhett Williams, Carl Ufongene, and Elaine Xiao
Costume Designer Laurie Churba
Sound Design & Original Music Ben Scheff
Environmental Design Michael Ganio
Stage Managers Lucy Biberman & Jamie Nicholson
Production Manager Brianna Parry
Choreographer Elaine Xiao
Fight Choreographer Paul West
Harpist Christian Henrich Jr
Assistant Director Kabir Beotra
Dramaturg Cypress Toomey
Transcriber Kate Budney
In 1348, people survived a plague by telling stories. 700 years later, can these tales still help us? In Boccaccio's The Decameron, a group of young people quarantining from the Black Death tell increasingly wild, hilarious, debaucherous and moving tales to keep hope alive. In this adaptation, students hunkered down in an abandoned classroom mash up music, dance and their own interpretations of the original text, rewriting the canon as they explore questions of translation, censorship and storytelling as a means of survival.
This Winter 2023 MainStage Production was a site-specific, devised work created with the students over the course of the semester with leadership from Sarah Hughes and Professor Laurie Churba.
Photos by Rob Strong.