Chapel Hill, NC (The Tao of Glass)

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Tickets from $10–$62. See details below.

What is the essence of creativity? Where does an idea come from? What do our dreams say about our personality? And finally, what remains of our dreams, what remains of us?

Tao of Glass is a partly autobiographical play from the great actor, puppeteer, and director Phelim McDermott and the New York composer Philip Glass. For decades, McDermott has been engaged with the works of the inventor of minimal music whose music has been a source of inspiration.

Philip Glass is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential musicians and composers of the present day, who, starting in the US, shaped the musical avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century. Phelim McDermott has staged several of his operas in highly acclaimed productions, most recently for the English National Opera in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

For Tao of Glass, an intensely personal stage meditation on the power and influence of Glass’s music, the 86-year-old has composed ten new pieces for the most personal collaboration between the two artists yet. In it, they address the end of life as well as its beginning with wit and coarseness. Here, the wisdom of Taoism meets the findings of psychology. A funny, sad, warm, and all-embracing evening that accomplishes one thing above all: It celebrates the power of theatre.

“Every so often your eyes will fill with tears, for there is only so much that the human heart can hold within it.”

The Guardian