Audition for the Botany of Desire!

When I first read The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan’s book on the co-evolution of humans and plants, it did not immediately strike me as a stage play. The main characters are, after all, potatoes, tulips, marijuana and apples. This is not stopping the Arts Research Center at UC Berkely, which is adapting it into a full-fledged theatrical production with director Alex Harvey and composer John Gromada.

They’ve put out an open casting call for 2 women and three men who can sing, dance and act. “We need a group prepared to fearlessly embrace the  disparate styles of the piece,” reads the flyer, “Ensemble members will play a wide variety of roles, from kitschy frontier festival re-enactors to authentic 1806 Northern Territory immigrant settlers (Disneyworld to Deadwood). Roles run the gamut from contemporary Connecticut gardeners to a mythological Dionysian chorus of the Bakkai. ”

 Art beyond the endless parade of narrative nonfiction has yet to be truly incorporated into the sutainable food movement, so while totally weird, I’m excited to see just what this production might turn out to be like. Read the flyer after the jump.