Carson McCullers Sings About Love

Singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, composer Duncan Sheik and director Kay Matschullat are in residence at EMPAC in January to explore the sound challenges provided by a music-theater piece that combines songs with conversation. Designers Louisa Thompson and Lenore Doxsee will also work with the director to experiment with set and light elements, creating a piece that floats in time and moves between forms. The informal work-in-progress showing will include songs and text from the show, with a chance for discussion with the artists. In Carson McCullers Sings About Love, Suzanne Vega, in the role of Southern writer Carson McCullers, presents her theory of love, divulging the secrets of the human heart. McCullers often repeated “Nothing human is alien to me” – a quote from the ancient Roman playwright Terence; her own story, as well as the stories of her characters, run the gamut from touching to terrifying. As she speaks and sings her way through this labyrinth of love, we experience the comedic Carson, the pained Carson and the provocateur she became. Accompanied by a guitarist and pianist who also take on characters, Vega moves seamlessly from spoken word to song and back again. She channels McCullers in a way that reveals the meeting of two souls through a work of art. Carson McCullers Sings About Love will premier at New York’s Rattlestick Theater, David Van Asselt, Artistic Director, in April of 2011.