Phil Soltanoff: An Evening With William Shatner Asterisk

William Shatner’s image from the original Star Trek series speaks on the subject of art in the 21st Century and then proceeds to take questions from a live audience. Phil Soltanoff (director), Rob Ramirez (systems designer), and Joe Diebes (writer) have created a dynamic, video Shatner puppet by meticulously cataloguing everything William Shatner ever said on Star Trek.  Together, the artists attempt to bravely make Captain James T. Kirk expand our universe.

Most work theatrical works still hold to a model where the actor is the center of the theatrical universe. An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk considers a post-human theatre, exploring the possibilities that occur when the principle player is technological and acts in symbiosis with human performers. Furthermore, celebrity images function as the raw material: the main character is created by overtly chopping images together to construct authentic discourse via contrived, second-hand means.

This project was funded in part by the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.