(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.)  – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Art Spiegelman will present WORDLESS!, an “intellectual vaudeville show” created in collaboration with composer Phillip Johnston, at the ’62 Center at Williams College on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, at 7:30pm. WORDLESS! is a stage-show hybrid incorporating slides, a talk, and a musical performance. The performance looks at the history of comics and their capacity to be interpreted by the brain as wordless messages. The music, all-new scores written by Johnston, will be performed live by a sextet. Click here to view an introductory video for WORDLESS!

Tickets are free but reservations are required; for tickets, call the ’62 Center box office at 597-2425, Tuesday through Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Art Spiegelman is a cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate, as well as a historian and theorist of comics. Named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2005, Spiegelman’s work has been translated into more than 25 languages. Maus, a father-son memoir about the Holocaust, has had an enormous effect on the comic medium, and garnered Spiegelman a Pulitzer Prize.

Phillip Johnston is best known for his work as a jazz composer and his work with groups including the Microscopic Septet, Big Trouble, and Transparent Quartet. In addition to his work with jazz, Johnston has composed music for film, theater, dance, and the concert hall. In particular, he writes music for silent films, most recently Lotte Reineger’s 1927 animated feature, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed.”

WORDLESS! was originally commissioned by The Sydney Opera House for GRAPHIC.

This event is sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies and The Book Unbound. The Book Unbound is a yearlong initiative centered around the theme of books, libraries, and information, in conjunction with the opening of Sawyer Library.