Taye Diggs Headlines Work & Show Festival, March 14-31

Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College will present its annual Work & Show Festival, beginning March 14th. This outgrowth of their ten year old Artist-in-Residence program will feature new work by eight artists representing dance, theater and music.   One piece, me, myself and lie, is co-created and performed by Broadway and film star Taye Diggs.

The program for the series is as follows:

March 14-15, 2007, 8pm
Rob Reddy/Rob Reddy's Small Town
The Book of the Storm
"Presenting the world premiere of saxophonist/composer Rob Reddy's hour-long composition, The Book of the Storm. The four-movement piece will be performed by the new 19-piece ensemble Rob Reddy's Small Town, featuring  some of the most respected musicians in New York. Reddy explains the inspiration for the piece.  'Many cultures have stories of a 'great flood' (Noah and the ark in Genesis, Matsya in the Hindu Puranas, Deucalion in Greek mythology and Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh), and we recently saw the near death of a major American city by a modern-day storm that left thousands ignored and displaced.  The piece is also inspired by the metaphorical storms of social, political and economic oppression, as well as the personal struggles creative artists face in today's world.'  Saxophonist and composer Rob Reddy was in the first graduating class at the New School jazz program. His recording have appeared on Songlines Recordings, Koch Jazz, Knitting Factory Records and his own label, Reddy Music," state press materials.

March 16-17, 7pm
Christal Brown/INSPIRIT
Sixteen Stories
"INSPIRIT's first venture into dance theatre is a multimedia tapestry of narratives. Through dance, video, spoken word and text, the company portrays 16 distinct stories; tales of the lives of people who have in common only the concrete borders of an apartment building. This is a dance about environment, perspective, and the essentially human desire to thrive regardless of circumstance. The dance will feature several original compositions from musician Daniel Jose Older, poetry from Nikki Giovanni as well as original poetry, and video supplements to this narrative dance. Christal Brown (choreographer, educator, performer, writer, activist) is a native of Kinston, North Carolina.  She has danced with companies including Chuck Davis' African-American Dance Ensemble, Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks,  Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Urban Bush Women.  She founded  INSPIRIT in 2001."

March 19, 26-27, 2007, 7pm - free
Lynn M. Thomson/America-in-Play
From Sea to Shining Sea: American Landscapes  [March 19]
Yankee Doodles:  From Crackerbarrel Philosophers to Silk Crooks [March 26]
Tall Tales, or Performing Democracy  [March 27]
"For nearly two years, a dozen writers have investigated a neglected legacy from America's popular drama created between 1776-1914. Now, the playwrights, building on and responding to this precious cultural inheritance, create short new plays, to be presented over three evenings.  This series of  readings seeks to explore the shared national identity of We, the People in contemporary stories. Participating playwrights include Erin Courtney, Les Hunter, Ruth Margraff, Dominic Taylor, Anne Washburn and Gary Winter. Lynn M. Thomson is a dramaturg, director, and teacher devoted to the development and production of new American plays. She has worked with companies including the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Circle Repertory Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, New Dramatists, and The Drama Department. She is currently an Associate Professor of Theater at Brooklyn College. She is perhaps best known as the dramaturg for the hit musical Rent."

March 23-24, 2007, 7pm: Double Bill
Pedro Ruiz
Passages of Love - Pasajes de Amor
"This new dance piece explores the private world that exists within each of us of love lost and love found. Inspired by both Spanish and South American music and culture, Passages of Love capture's the joy and pain of romance. Through dance, romance in all its emotional expression - passion, despair, joy and fulfillment - is dynamically expressed and portrayed in a series of vignettes. Passages of Love is a contemporary dance fusing ballet, modern and Latin dance forms into a spirited and vivid image of Hispanic-American culture. Choreographed and performed by Pedro Ruiz and company.  Bessie Award winner Ruiz has choreographed critically acclaimed, full-length ballets inspired by his native Cuba for companies including Ballet Hispanico, Chicago's LUNA NEGRA Dance Theater, and Boston Arts Academy. "

Mei-Yin Ng/MEI-BE Whatever
Cinderella Toe Jam II: Royal Pink
"Inspired by The Lotus Lovers by Howard S. Levy, which documents the custom of foot binding in China, Mei-Yin Ng has created a new full-length dance piece that explores concepts of female beauty and the position of women in different cultural settings, and how these concepts relate to the body and to movement. Royal Pink explores restriction through the body, resulting in a dance that reveals an unusual and unexpected beauty-the transformation of body, lives, movement. The original music has been composed and will be conducted by Matt Rocker. Choreographed and performed by Mei-Yin Ng and company. Mei Yin Ng founded MEI-BE Whatever Company in 2002 as a collective for the interaction of artists from diverse fields. She has been presented in New York at DTW, La Mama Etc, P.S. 122 and Movement Research."

March 30-31, 2007, 7pm : Double Bill
Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs/dre.dance
me, myself and lie
"A dance work divided.  It is structurally broken into two main sections and eight subdivided sections.  The piece is built to work as a whole, or to be pulled apart, leaving each vignette to serve as it's own mini-work.  Artistically, the thirty-minute work deals with identity, focusing on our inner definitions of 'self', versus what we display to the world. Childhood friends from Rochester, Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs have worked together for over seventeen years. Dre.dance was founded in 2004 and has been seen at venues including  Joffrey Ballet School and  Complexions Contemporary Ballet's 2007 Joyce season  Diggs is best known for his film work which includes Rent, Chicago, The Wood, and Brown Sugar and TV shows including 'Kevin Hill,' 'Daybreak,' and 'Ally McBeal.'"

Deganit Shemy
Yod
"This dance piece choreographed by Deganit Shemy explores the inner microcosmos of five women with hidden rules and roles. Born and raised in Israel, Deganit Shemy studied plastic art at the Kalisher School in Tel Aviv. In 2002 she won the coveted Ministry of Culture Prize for Young Choreographers. She moved to New York in 2005 where her work has been seen at the Harkness Dance Center, DTW, Movement Research and Dance New Amsterdam."

Tribeca Performing Arts Center's Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program enables emerging and established theatre artists – writers, directors, choreographers, and composers – to create and develop a new work. The residency takes place on site in Tribeca PAC's two theatres and spans a ten-month period. Public showings of the work in process and the opportunity for a fully produced presentation at the annual WORK & SHOW FESTIVAL are significant components of the residency. The program is made possible, in part, by contributions from the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, corporate, foundation, and individual support.

Work & Show Festival runs March 14 - 31. Tickets to all shows are $10, unless otherwise noted. Tribeca Performing Arts Center is located at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at 199 Chambers Street. For tickets or more information call 212-220-1460 or visit www.TribecaPAC.org.

Photo of Taye Diggs by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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