Outsourcing is such a hot topic that it has now inspired a play. The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts are collaborating for the first time around Alladeen, the internationally acclaimed multimedia play on outsourcing call centers to India.

On April 6, Tuck’s Center for Digital Strategies, in partnership with the Hopkins Center, will host “Inside Outsourcing,” a panel discussion to explore the business, social, and ethical implications of outsourcing to developing nations. The panel will be followed by Burning the Midnight Oil, a provocative documentary on the making of Alladeen. The Alladeen theater troupe will perform at Dartmouth at 8 P.M. on April 9 and 10 in The Moore Theater. A spotlight discussion with cast members will immediately follow each show.

Directed by co-creator Marianne Weems, Alladeen interweaves live theater, hi-tech video, electronic music and spectacle in a brilliant examination of how technology and globalization impact human beings in the worldwide marketplace. In the surreal call centers in Bangalore, India, Asian phone operators are trained by studying American accent and modulation, tele-etiquette, and popular culture to pass as Americans and serve U.S. customers. In a world where virtual relationships are possible, Alladeen questions the ethics and ramifications of corporate outsourcing and how it affects our global society.

bq. “Today’s artists are exploring globalism in fascinating ways, increasingly reaching far beyond national and ethnic borders,” says Margaret Lawrence, director of programming for the Hopkins Center. “They’re often on the vanguard as new political and social issues come to the fore. Looking at the issue of outsourcing through the eyes of an extraordinary artistic team is quite exciting, and we’re pleased to engage in this wonderful partnership with the Center for Digital Strategies.”