The Weavers, a production directed by Jay Scheib and presented as part of the #socialclimatechange series. Image courtesy of MIT Theater Arts.
#socialclimatechange
2025–26 CAST Faculty Grant & Performance Prototype Series
Reimagining civic discourse through technology-forward theater
About
Jay Scheib’s #socialclimatechange transforms the theater into a space for meaningful civic engagement through a series of technology-forward, studio-scale performance prototypes. The project centers students alongside professional artists and programmers, harnessing virtual production, motion capture, and real-time game-engine effects to reimagine how repertory theater can play a vital role in cultural and civic life.
The project’s research goal is developing functional workflows for live performance that embrace mixed reality tools—what Scheib calls “overpainting atoms with bits and atoms”—in service of discourse-catalyzing events. At a time when truth and civic discourse face unprecedented challenges, #socialclimatechange uses an array of mixed reality technologies to promote inclusion, stir conversation, and meaningfully rehearse potential futures through brilliant texts.
Schedule
Upcoming Events
Gerhart Hauptmann’s The Weavers
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 / 7:00pm
Thursday, October 1, 2026 / 7:00pm
Friday, October 2, 2026 / 7:00pm
Saturday, October 3, 2026 / 2:30 and 7:00pm
MIT Theater Arts Building W97
345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
The Weavers, a new extended reality (XR) performance of Gerhart Hauptmann’s 1912 Nobel Prize-winning play, traces the plight of laborers whose work, sense of faith, and humanity is pressed to the brink of starvation by the unstoppable march of mechanization, automation, and the utter collapse of empathy.
More information and registration
The Weavers is presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Theater Arts as part of MIT Future Fest.
Past Events
Stan Lai’s A Dream Like a Dream 如夢之夢
November 13–22, 2025
MIT Theater Arts Building, W97-160
345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Meteor of the Chinese contemporary theater, Stan Lai’s 賴聲川 A Dream like a Dream, 如夢之夢 is the expression of a whole experience in finest detail through the eyes of over 100 characters on-stage, off-stage, back-stage, and beyond. From Shanghai to Paris and back. Paths intertwine and aspirations collide along a spiral littered with life in an epic and immersive meditation on our most unexpected and unfathomable desires, passionate loves, losses, jubilance, loneliness, and laughter.
Directed by Jay Scheib
Performed by MIT students and members of the MIT community
Collaborators
Jay Scheib is a director, author, and adapter of plays, operas, ballets, and hybrid live art performance events. He is internationally known for genre-defying works of daring physicality and the integration of new technologies in live performance.
Biography: Music and Theater Arts
Website: jayscheib.org
MIT students enrolled in in 21T.100 Theater Arts Production and 21T.A16 Beyond Immersive Performance
Credits
Presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts.