美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Encounter' Brings The Sound Of The Amazon To Broadway

'The Encounter' Brings The Sound Of The Amazon To Broadway 

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The best way to enjoy this next story is if you listen through headphones. It's about "The Encounter," a new Broadway show. It uses three-dimensional sound effects to take the audience deep into the Amazon. Jeff Lunden reports.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE²: Every audience member at "The Encounter" gets a pair of headphones.

SIMON MCBURNEY: OK, I'm just going to test your headphones, just check them. And Helen's going to put us in your right ear. OK, and now I'm going to take a walk across this 2.6 pounds of electrified³ pate⁴ that we call our brain. And now I should be somewhere in your left ear.

LUNDEN: That's Simon McBurney, who conceived, wrote and stars in the show. It sounds like you're in a rainforest, but it doesn't look like one. The back wall is covered with the kind of foam⁵ tile you'd see in a recording⁶ studio. There's a plastic table and chairs, some microphones and cables, a lot of water bottles and something that looks like a mannequin head - eyes, nose, ears on top of a microphone stand.

MCBURNEY: What I wanted to do is put the barrier up and say, right, there's going to be nothing on stage that's organic, nothing that is going to remind us or suggest the most biodiverse area of the planet.

LUNDEN: Before you know it, Simon McBurney has taken the audience into the Amazon basin for an incredible story about one American man's encounter with a tribe called the Mayoruna. His sound designer Gareth Fry went to the rainforest with that same head we see on stage. It has a microphone in each ear and records binaural, or three-dimensional, sound.

GARETH FRY: It's a really sort of great way of putting an audience in the Amazon rainforest or other places we've taken the head to. It creates a great relationship between audience and performer. For him to be able to whisper into your ear creates this sense of intimacy⁷ with Simon.

(SOUNDBITE OF BROADWAY SHOW, "THE ENCOUNTER")

MCBURNEY: He walked around the back of its enormous roots, and then somehow on the screen of his mind - hey, buddy⁸, you're not alone. He had the sensation of presence and then almost instantaneously saw a young man in the forest, naked, two parts of red uruqu on his cheeks.

LUNDEN: The story McBurney tells is about Loren McIntyre, a National Geographic⁹ explorer and photographer. In 1969 he made contact with the Mayoruna, the cat people who some thought were extinct. Author Petru Popescu wrote "Amazon Beaming," a book about the late McIntyre's experiences on which the play is based.

PETRU POPESCU: When he met them they were hiding from civilization. And he met them all alone, therefore he could not leave them. He was in a state of virtual hostage situation.

LUNDEN: Some members of the tribe were hostile while some were friendly. And for the six to seven weeks McIntyre was lost in the rainforest with them, he became convinced he was having telepathic communication with the tribe's chief, says Simon McBurney.

MCBURNEY: What that communication is I can't really vouch¹⁰ for. All I can tell is his story of what that communication was, which was a nonverbal communication in which he had the sensation he was being communicated with.

LUNDEN: And we can hear it through the 3-D audio. At one point, McIntyre is kind of running for his life around the perimeter¹¹ of the village while he hears the chief in his mind.

(SOUNDBITE OF BROADWAY SHOW, "THE ENCOUNTER"

MCBURNEY: (As Loren McIntyre) Nine, 10, 11 laps.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Barnacle) I want to survive. I want you to survive as well.

MCBURNEY: (As Loren McIntyre) I ran on and on.

LUNDEN: McIntyre called the chief Barnacle for the warts¹² around his legs and ankles. Barnacle drove the tribe, starving and exhausted¹³, to a place in the forest where they would perform a cleansing¹⁴ right.

MCBURNEY: These people are in the process of creating a ritual to go forward in time in order to arrive at a time where there will be no white people, where they can begin again because as far as they're concerned, the approach of white people signals the death of their environment.

LUNDEN: "The Encounter" explores a lot of ideas about the environment, about consciousness, about the stories we tell ourselves and others. When Simon McBurney was preparing the show, he went to the Amazon and met with members of the Mayoruna.

MCBURNEY: And they were very touched. And they said it's incredibly important that you tell this story, but you must also say that we, the Mayoruna, exist.

LUNDEN: And McBurney says that's his aim. "The Encounter" will run on Broadway through January, then go to Ann Arbor¹⁵ and Los Angeles. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 electrified   

v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋

参考例句：

• The railway line was electrified in the 1950s. 这条铁路线在20世纪50年代就实现了电气化。
• The national railway system has nearly all been electrified. 全国的铁路系统几乎全部实现了电气化。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 pate   

n.头顶；光顶

参考例句：

• The few strands of white hair at the back of his gourd-like pate also quivered.他那长在半个葫芦样的头上的白发，也随着笑声一齐抖动着。
• He removed his hat to reveal a glowing bald pate.他脱下帽子，露出了发亮的光头。

5 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

6 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

7 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

8 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

9 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 vouch   

v.担保；断定；n.被担保者

参考例句：

• They asked whether I was prepared to vouch for him.他们问我是否愿意为他作担保。
• I can vouch for the fact that he is a good worker.我保证他是好员工。

11 perimeter   

n.周边，周长，周界

参考例句：

• The river marks the eastern perimeter of our land.这条河标示我们的土地东面的边界。
• Drinks in hands,they wandered around the perimeter of the ball field.他们手里拿着饮料在球场周围漫不经心地遛跶。

12 warts   

n.疣( wart的名词复数 )；肉赘；树瘤；缺点

参考例句：

• You agreed to marry me, warts and all! 是你同意和我结婚的，我又没掩饰缺陷。 来自辞典例句
• Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! 用那样糊涂蛋的方法还谈什么仙水治疣子！ 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

13 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

14 cleansing   

n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词

参考例句：

• medicated cleansing pads for sensitive skin 敏感皮肤药物清洗棉
• Soap is not the only cleansing agent. 肥皂并不是唯一的清洁剂。

15 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。