This new collaboration is a theatrical fantasia drawing on the legends of Aladdin, which span from the Silk Route of 8th-century Asia to the digital animation studios of 20th-century California. Set in New York, London, and Bangalore, India, Alladeen explores globalization through the realm of high-tech corporate telecommunications and reflects on how cultures have historically borrowed, stolen, and reinvented one another’s stories and signs. Looking at International Call Centers, where primarily Indian operators often "pass" as American, the Alladeen project explores how we all function as "global souls" caught up in circuits of technology and how our voices and images travel from one culture to another.

Alladeen is a large-scale cross-York-based ensemble The Builders Association and the London-based company motiroti. Directed by Marianne Weems and co-conceived and designed by Keith Khan and Ali Zaidi in collaboration with The Builders Association, Alladeen features a cast drawn from both companies. It combines electronic music, new video techniques, an architectural set, and live performance to explore the myth of Alladeen, better known as Aladdin--the Arabian Night's tale immortalized on page, stage and screen.

Alladeen highlights the philosophical issues of media and technology as they impact global culture, and bridge the first world with the third world. Specifically, the piece looks at the contemporary phenomenon of international call centers where Indian operators are trained to flawlessly "pass" as Americans (as featured in The New York Times, March 21, 2001). The performance explores how we function as "global souls" caught up in circuits of technology, and how our voices and images travel from one culture to another.

The performance alternates the contemporary world of the call centers--a web of technology in which the performers are operators--with spectacular, colorful fantasy sequences drawn from the Aladdin story and using the aesthetic of the early Hollywood and Bollywood Orientalist films.

The Builders Association creative team includes longtime collaborators Jeff Webster and Heaven Phillips, as well as new company members, Rizwan Mirza and Tanya Selvaratnam (performers); Jennifer Tipton (light designer); Dan Dobson (sound designer); Christopher Kondek and Peter Norrman (video designers); Jeff Morey (video designer and website designer and programmer); Peter Falherty (video designer); and Nick Schwartz-Hall (production manager). It also includes dramaturg Norman Frisch, who has collaborated with both companies in the past. The motiroti team includes Keith Khan and Ali Zaidi along with performer Jasmine Simhalan, and Indian film industry professionals. The celebrated composer Shrikanth Shriram (whose recordings are distributed internationally as "Badmarsh & Shri") has contributed some music for the piece. Kim Whitener is acting as Executive Producer for the project. Penny Andrews is working with motiroti as Producer (UK).

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