Matt Smith News

WHAT: Public Beta, NEW INC's second annual end-of-year showcase Public Beta takes its name from the world of rapid prototyping in software development and the ethos of the tech mantra “release early, release often,” Public Beta offers NEW INC's members a lab-like environment in which to test their ideas and present their work, developed over the past twelve months, to the broader public. Over the course of two weekends, the rotating showcase will present new products, virtual reality experiences, installations, and performances that have been incubating this past year.

'Old Angel Midnight is one of the great delights of the boundless improvisational world. Jack Kerouac's ear is peerless, manifesting structures otherwise impossible. A masterpiece of the mind freed to fly. Read it aloud, for yourself, 'for the sake of reading, and for the sake of the Tongue . . . Let's hear the Sound of the Universe, son.'—Clark Coolidge, poet & jazz musician, author of 88 Sonnets and A Book Beginning What and Ending Away

SAN FRANCISCO (July 22, 2016)—San Francisco Opera's 2016–17 Season opens Friday, September 9 with a gala performance of Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier in a new production by Sir David McVicar. Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti leads a stellar cast, including three international stars making their San Francisco Opera debuts in the demanding lead roles: South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee in the title role, Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi as Maddalena di Coigny and Georgian baritone George Gagnidze as Carlo Gérard. The opening night festivities are distinguished by San Francisco Opera Guild's glamorous Opera Ball 2016: La Révolution et L'Amour and BRAVO! Club's Annual Opening Night Gala. The opening of the Company's 94th season also marks the beginning of Matthew Shilvock's inaugural season as General Director. Shilvock is the seventh General Director in the Company's history.

OAKLAND, CA, July 21, 2016 -- The Black Choreographers Festival (BCF) has announced the program for its annual BCF Summer Series, featuring works by emerging and established African and African American choreographers, as well as pre-professional youth dancers. Featured artists include Gregory P. Dawson, director of dawsondancesf; Chris Evans in collaboration with Byb Chanel Bibene and musician David Boyce; Antoine Hunter, director of Urban Jazz Dance Company; Pat Taylor, director of JazzAntiqua Dance Ensemble; Latanya Tigner and Colette Eloi with Dimensions Dance Theater; and Kendra Barnes, artistic director of the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble and BCF co-director. The BCF Summer Series runs August 26 - 28, 2016 at the Laney College Odell Johnson Theater: 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $10 to $50, with discounts available for youth, students and seniors. To purchase, visit bcfhereandnow.com or call 888-819-9106. 

Adelaide Festival Centre today revealed new contemporary 10 year anniversary programming for this year's OzAsia Festival which runs from 17 September - 2 October. OzAsia Festival is Australia's leading international arts festival presenting the best theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts from across Asia.  This year's program features an impressive array of performance works by contemporary Asian artists who are pioneering work in their field. Performers congregating for the Festival come from a far-reaching and diverse number of Asian countries including Japan, India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Cambodia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Israel.

Nimbus Dance Works seeks male and female company and apprentice dancers for the company's 2016-17 Season. Dancers should have professional experience and excellent modern and ballet technique. Nimbus seeks professional dancers who are: committed to working at a high technical level; adventurous collaborators; responsible group members; interested in community impact through the arts. 

July 20, 2016 (BOSTON, MA)—Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen announced the 2016–17 season roster for Boston Ballet II (BBII), the second company, which will be comprised of 14 dancers. Both new and returning BBII dancers will perform together for the first time in First Look, a new program featuring a range of works curated to reflect the main Company's diverse repertoire. Select Boston Ballet School Summer Dance Program (SDP) students will also perform alongside BBII company members in this one-day-only performance. First Look takes place on Saturday, July 30 at 3 pm in Boston Ballet's grand rehearsal studio at its South End headquarters, which transforms into an intimate, state-of-the-art black box theater.

Some 70 works from The Met collection—ranging from 19th-century 'rogues galleries' and photographs of crime scenes to work by contemporary artists inspired by criminal transgression—are featured in this installation. Highlights include Alexander Gardner's documentation of the events following the assassination of President Lincoln; rare photographs by Alphonse Bertillon that are precursors of the modern mug shot; and a vivid selection of vintage news photographs of the Depression-era gangster John Dillinger, Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, and Patty Hearst captured by bank surveillance cameras in 1974. Also included are works by artists who have drawn inspiration from the criminal underworld, including Richard Avedon, Larry Clark, Walker Evans, John Gutmann, Andy Warhol, and Weegee.

Sarasota Opera – Thrilling music, exciting new voices, and compelling theater will launch Sarasota Opera into its 58th Season of presenting grand opera on the south Florida gulf coast, the first season in 28 years to not include any operas by Giuseppe Verdi.

From world renowned author, ecologist and explorer Michael Charles Tobias comes a new and shattering novel that contemplates and internalizes the most appalling, inexplicable tragedy in human history: the Holocaust. Tobias does so in a manner no other writer has ever envisioned.

The next guest for The Atelier with Alina Cho will be Olivier Rousteing, Creative Director of Balmain, on Tuesday, October 18, at 6:30 pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rousteing will join journalist Alina Cho for an intimate conversation about how he revived Balmain, relying on the house's tradition of artisanal excellence while creating a new modern silhouette and offerings for Balmain's diverse, young 'army.'

Fremont, CA, July 19, 2016 – Prosperity and success are just within reach: The Power Of Home Numbers: Personal, Business, Sports AstroNumerology Readings by Jesse Kalsi is a trusted resource for people coast-to-coast. A successful real estate broker, Kalsi combines his Eastern background with practical experience to help people thrive in every aspect.

BUFFALO, NY - The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will present a free performance at 7 PM Wednesday, July 20, in the bandshell at Clarence Town Park, 10405 Main Street. Excellent opportunities for photos and video exist.

Celebrating 45 years since Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's seminal musical first hit the stage, Jesus Christ Superstar returns to London in a powerful new production directed by Timothy Sheader.  Check out an exclusive look below!

What:  The Met will explore the power of objects large and small at The Met Fifth Avenue this Friday, July 22, from 5 to 9 p.m., during MetFridays: Extreme Measures. 

Based on the classic 1989 film and with a 2014 Drama Desk Nominated score by Laurence O'Keefe (Legally Blonde, Bat Boy) and Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness!), the Maine Premiere of HEATHERS the Musical centers around the microcosm of Westerberg High. The Heathers--the hottest and cruelest girls in all of Ohio--rule the school with an iron, well-manicured fist. But when misfit Veronica Sawyer upgrades to their status and then rejects their regime for a new boyfriend, the dark and sexy J.D. has plans to put the Heathers in their place. Check out a first look at the production below! 

BUFFALO, NY - The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shakespeare in Delaware Park will present a free performance at 7 PM Tuesday, July 19, on the brand-new Shakespeare in Delaware Park stage on Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park. Excellent opportunities for photos and video exist.

CHICAGO (July 14, 2016) – The Chicago Dancing Festival, the nation's largest dance festival, proudly announces repertoire for its 10th annual series with George Balanchine's Concerto Barocco (performed byPennsylvania Ballet in its Chicago Dancing Festival debut), Alexander Ekman's Episode 31 (The Joffrey Ballet, originally commissioned in 2013), Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain (The Joffrey Ballet) and a new work by world-renowned choreographer Randy Duncan set to an original score by five-time Emmy Award-winning, Chicago-based composer Andy Mitranas as part of Chicago Dancing Festival's first-time collaboration with Chicago Dancers United, among program highlights. This year's event will present five unique programs in five days across Chicago's top downtown venues - the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, the highly anticipated return to the Auditorium Theatre, and for the first time at Navy Pier in celebration of the Festival's 10th anniversary - August 23-27, 2016.

(New York, July 14, 2016)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today a promised gift from the collection of Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi of eight paintings by contemporary Aboriginal artists from Australia. These abstract works, dating from 1991 to 2011, will be integrated into the holdings of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Based in Seattle, Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi have been studying and collecting Aboriginal art together since 1991. They have traveled extensively across the Australian continent developing personal relationships with the artists and communities whose work they collect. Through their long-term interest and engagement with Aboriginal art and culture, Kaplan and Levi have helped bring this extraordinary material to the attention of audiences in North America and beyond.