SEASON 28 | MAY 2016

Privacy Settings:
A Promethean Tale

Conceived and Directed by Heather Barfield
Devised by the Ensemble
Presented by The VORTEX
View photos from the production here.
 

What would you do if you had to choose between privacy and security? Who holds the master key to open the back door to your private life? Hackers and lawyers, government agencies and law enforcement, data miners and marketing executives, identity thieves and credit bureaus--all are interested in who you are, what you reveal, and what you believe is secure. Privacy Settings: A Promethean Tale is an ensemble-devised interpretation of the Ancient Greek play Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus and based loosely on the actions and punishments of contemporary whistle-blowers, advocates for digital privacy rights and perversions of American civil liberties. Privacy Settings offers a “surveillance fun house” with opportunities for unique interactive experiences.

We live with black boxes attached to our hips as 21st-century technology and human dignity collide. Data perpetually emits our habits and desires as bits and bytes are hoarded in top-secret shelters. Surpassing the foreboding fictions of "Big Brother" and "Skynet," we are firmly planted in the era of information overdrive. In June 2013, notorious whistle-blower Edward Snowden exposed what some may have suspected all along: "They" are watching you.

Production TEAM

Conceived and directed by Heather Barfield. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony. Set Design by Ann-Marie Gordon. Costumes by Pam Fletcher Friday. Sound Design by Chad Salvata. Video Design by Sergio R. Samayoa. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley.

This project is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company and by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.