Edmundson, Spitz & More Set For Wilma Theater's THE METAMORPHOSES Panel 6/1

The Wilma Theater welcomes a distinguished group of speakers on Monday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. for The Metamorphoses of Sigmund: Freud and His Afterlives, a panel discussion in conjunction with the East Coast premiere of Hysteria, by Terry Johnson. Directed by Jiri Zizka, the production brings the theater's 30th anniversary season to a close and runs May 13 through June 14, 2009.

Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dalí's historic meeting brought together two of the most influential and dynamic minds of the early 20th century. This symposium will feature several noted panelists who will explore and examine the legacies of Freud and Dalí and how their work has lived on in psychology, art, and popular culture. Panelists include Dr. Salman Akhtar of Jefferson Medical College; Mark Edmundson, author of The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days; Ellen Handler Spitz, author of Image and Insight: Essays in Psychoanalysis and the Arts; and Moore College of Art and Design Professor Jonathan Wallis whose most recent essay on Dalí appears in The Dalí Renaissance and was presented in a symposium at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Dalí exhibit.

Symposia tickets are free for all Hysteria ticket-holders and $10 for those without Hysteria tickets. Seating is limited. For tickets, call the Wilma Box Office at (215) 546-7824 or email tickets@wilmatheater.org. The Wilma Theater is located at 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.wilmatheater.org.

Set in London in 1938, Hysteria springs from Freud's fanciful mind as he juggles unexpected visits to his home by the famous surrealist painter Dalí and a mysterious young woman named Jessica who can't seem to keep her clothes on. The tables are turned as Freud soon finds himself the subject of Jessica's own bizarre form of psychoanalysis while Dalí's surreal imagery creeps into his dreams and consciousness. Called "an utterly hilarious and brilliant show" by The Sunday Times of London, Hysteria is full of mistaken identities, dazzling surprises, and sheer Freudian slips.

Dr. Salman Akhtar holds a professorship in Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College where he is also Director of Adult Outpatient Services. Akhtar is also a poet and published author. He has published 6 volumes of poetry in English and Urdu and authored or edited more than 30 books on diverse topics in psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. He is a highly sought public speaker and has addressed audiences at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Emory, and other major universities as well as the United Nations.

Mark Edmundson, a Professor at the University of Virginia, is the author of The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days, Towards Reading Freud: Self-Creation in Milton, Wordsworth, Emerson and Sigmund Freud, and others. He is a contributing editor of Harper's and Raritan and an Advisory Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. His book Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference was a New York Times Notable Book in 2002. Professor Edmundson's awards include a Guggenheim "Genius" Grant, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and The Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural Change. He has received awards from the Virginia Arts Council and the Keats/Shelley Association.

Ellen Handler Spitz is a writer, lecturer, and scholar who currently holds the Honors College Professorship of Visual Arts at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she has taught interdisciplinary seminars in aesthetics, literature, psychology, and the visual arts since 2001. She has taught and/or lectured in England, France, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Russia, Canada, India, and the Peoples Republic of China. She is the author of Art and Psyche, Image and Insight, Museums of the Mind, Inside Picture Books, and The Brightening Glance. With several colleagues, she co-edited Freud and Forbidden Knowledge and Bertolucci's The Last Emperor: Multiple Takes. She has published numerous articles, chapters, and reviews in a wide variety of venues ranging from scholarly peer-review journals, such as the Journal of Aesthetic Education and American Imago, where she is a member of the editorial board to public newspapers, such as The New York Times Book Review and The Baltimore Sun.

Jonathan Wallis, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Moore College of Art & Design, specializes in recent art that integrates science and religion. He has published articles and chapters in books on Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Mariko Mori, and Jackson Pollock. His writings on Dalí investigate the artist's interests in science and mysticism, especially during the post-surrealist years. His most recent essay "Holy Toledo!: Saint John of the Cross and the Life and Work of Saint Dalí" appears in The Dalí Renaissance (2008).

The Wilma Theater's Symposium Series is supported by The Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant, with additional support from the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards were created to support exemplary arts organizations to pioneer effective practices to engage more people in high-value arts activities.

The Wilma Theater's 30th Anniversary Sponsor is Rohm and Haas. Sporting Club at the Bellevue is a Season Sponsor. Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue is Artistic Lead Sponsor.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.