The Theatre Department at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) will perform Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of a famous Chinese fable, The White Snake, from April 6 through April 8. The tale follows the White Snake, as she transforms herself from a serpent into a beautiful woman and ventures through the human world with her friend, the Green Snake, finding love and discovering what it means to be human. The performance will include aerial dance from students in HSPVA’s Dance Department and live music from students in the Instrumental Music Department.

“We chose The White Snake to fulfill a long-standing dream of collaborating with the Instrumental Music and Dance Departments in our black box theatre space,” says Theatre Department Chair and White Snake director Cynthia Ogden. “We wanted to have creative input from all three art areas. The White Snake has started conversations on campus, across departments, about cultural exploration versus cultural appropriation, and we hope our production extends this line of inquiry into the community.”