Description

Prospero’s Black Box is a one-person clown show that had its world premiere last summer at the Hydrama Center in Greece to critical acclaim. This solo show is written and performed by Proboscis co-artistic director Jeff Mills,  directed by James Donlon, music composed by James Connolly, and projections designed by Dwight Bellissimo.  Prospero’s Black Box explores the absurd connection between Shakespeare’s Prospero and Google’s Geoffrey Hinton as they wrestle with the power of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.  A Black Box is an algorithm that is so complicated that even its creators don’t understand how it works. In real life, computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton (considered the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence) recently resigned from his senior position at Google, because the AI technology he created is a danger to humanity. At the end of the Tempest, Prospero also resigns his power and gives up his magic.  In this highly participatory solo show (the audience plays a huge role in the storytelling) the clown tries to solve the black box problem of being human with hilarious and provocative results.