AMERICAN DREAM 2.0
In Glorious Collision Vision
By Michael A. Mufson

The American Dream of freedom and opportunity has been a driving force since the founding of our nation.   Embedded in the founding documents and first articulated in the early years of the great depression by James Truslow Adams, each generation has re-imagined the dream according its own aspirations.   At a moment such as this, when our country is so divided, the time is right to examine the past, present and future of the American Dream.   This festival has been a catalyst for our community of artists, educators and students to engage in multiple dialogues and expressions of our American Dreams.   The dialogue now extends to you, our audience.

The impetus to create this festival came from a collision of several circumstances.   First, celebration of the 20 th Anniversary of our Performing Arts Department (see notes from Peter Gach for more details).   Second, preparation for   breaking ground on an expansion of the Performing Arts Complex and redesign of the Howard Brubeck Theatre. Third, answering the call to use our economic resources more efficiently due to the current financial crisis.   With crisis comes opportunity and creativity thrives in the exquisite pressure of crisis.  

As I pondered how to structure such a festival, I considered how to create a coherent artistic experience while providing opportunities for at least fifteen ensembles of Music, Dance and Theatre to perform over three days.   I wondered how to take the audience on an exciting, surprising, thought provoking, festive journey through a performing-art-scape of the American Dream.  

The American Dream is more a journey than a destination.   The shape of this festival reflects the diverse and dynamic experience of the American journey. As the audience travels on different pathways through the same artistic terrain, they will encounter many voices, visions and interpretations of the American Dream.   All these expressions will collide in the experience of each audience member.   In the great spirit of American democracy, each individual will draw her or his own conclusions from the experience.   And along the way, we will all become a community of fellow travelers.

I conceive of this festival in "Collision Vision."   It's the artistic version of a particle collider which sends subatomic particles into high-speed collision to discover what the particles are made of and how they work.   My role in this festival has been to energize a community of artists to generate packets of creative work around a common theme and to drive those packets into a performance collision.   The impact of colliding subatomic particles creates and reveals such mysterious sounding entities as strange and charm flavored quarks, leptons, muons and bosons to name a few.   I marvel to wonder at the infinite combinations of ideas and emotions that will burst forth in our audiences' minds and hearts as our creative energies collide in your experience and perception of our work.