October 5, 2005

Music, multimedia visuals, drama converge to reveal the modern “hero journey”
Production at NSU's Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center will benefit theatre arts scholarships for teens

FORT LAUDERDALE-DAVIE— Three Nova Southeastern University graduate students will present The Human Adventure: resurrecting the memory of love, an original production featuring live music, multimedia visuals, drama and dance, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 and 15 in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center in Davie.

Proceeds from the show will benefit scholarships to the Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts, a nationally recognized non-profit organization which holds summer and after-school arts production programs locally and in Sweden. Students from these programs will perform in the show and work behind the scenes.

Highlighting key concepts of sociology, psychology, and spirituality, The Human Adventure is a modern exploration of the “hero journey,” a theme popularized by American author and mythological theorist Joseph Campbell ( The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949) and Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.

“The production will open your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to a very personal story of self-actualization that we all experience,” said co-director Melissa Axel, who attended Berklee College of Music and was on staff at Berklee's Heavy Rotations Records/Epic. Directing alongside Axel are former PBS Nightly Business Report director Cassie Allen Barrett and Yvette Navarro, a former Univision and WPBT broadcast designer.

The production is the equivalent of a master's thesis in NSU's Interdisciplinary Arts Program. Students were responsible for all script writing, technical production and visual projections , as well as finding a way to finance the show. They are being assisted by 12 graduate students from La Sapienza University of Rome who took a two-week graduate course in art, culture, and spirit with Artistic Director David Spangler, of NSU's Fischler School of Education and Human Services.

The Interdisciplinary Arts Program at NSU's school of education is designed to help visionary and conceptual artists expand their knowledge, skills, experience and entrepreneurship in the arts in a nurturing learning environment.

Tickets are $20 for general seating and $10 for students, seniors, and groups of eight or more. Sponsorship opportunities available. Call 954-262-8363.