Upper West Fest, Featuring Bway Stars, Runs 4/28-5/14
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 21, 2006
Joan Allen, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Cerveris will be among the celebrities taking part in the opening day ceremonies
of Symphony Space's Upper West Fest on Friday, April 28th. The festival
will run through Sunday, May 14th.Congressman Charles Rangel, jazz star Jay Leonhart, Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, Carmen de Lavallade and many more will also appear at the ceremonies."The Upper West Fest will be the largest
collaborative arts event ever presented on Manhattan's Upper West Side,
celebrating the unique music, dance, film, literary, theatre, visual
arts, and family programs presented from 59-116th streets. The Upper
West Side has long been distinguished by its wealth of arts
institutions as well as its world-class restaurants and designer
shops," according to press notes.Upper West Fest will open on
Friday April 28 with a press conference including many celebrities from
the arts and government, as well as a "Great Day On the Upper West
Side" photo opportunity of they and other festival participants. More
information will be announced shortly.With 22 cultural
partners Upper West Fest, will celebrate the one-of-a-kind arts events,
including many world premieres, taking place during the two week period
of the festival. Upper West Fest cultural partners include the American
Museum of Natural History, the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the
Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, New-York Historical Society,
Barnard College Department of Dance, Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
Children's Museum of Manhattan, the Hayden Planetarium, the InterSchool
Orchestras, Jewish Community Center, Lincoln Center, Makor/Steinhardt
Center, Manhattan School of Music, Melting Pot Theater Company, New
Musicals In Concert, Columbia University, New York Society for Ethical
Culture, Runaway Theatre Company, SanscriticCenter, Shadowbox Theatre
Company, Symphony Space, Summer On the Hudson and World Music
Institute.
The more than fifty events during the Festival will include Symphony Space's The Dance Sampler,
a 12-hour marathon on Saturday April 29, showcasing the depth and
breadth of contemporary movement, featuring kid's dance, up-and-comers,
works in progress by established companies such as MOMIX and
Comlexions, video dance and even a screening of Walt Disney's Fantasia; world
premieres with Ned Rothenberg's acclaimed ensemble Sync, presented by
the World Music Institute; the Melting Pot Theatre Company's Preludes:
New Musicals In Concert series; A Medieval Arts and Family Workshop and
also Playground For the Sun: A Family Stained Glass Workshop at
Cathedral of St. John the Divine; American Streamlined Design: The
World of Tomorrow, the most comprehensive exhibit of American Modernism
in consumer and industrial design ever presented, at the Bard Graduate
Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture; Through
A Jewish Woman's Lens, the works of Jewish women photographers, at the
JCC of Manhattan; the rarely-performed French opera Cendrillon at the Manhattan School of Music; Selected Shorts: The Lives of Women with Jane Fonda,
a selection of readings that explore women's inner lives and public
struggles, including a reading by Jane Fonda from her autobiography, My Life So Far at Symphony Space; and much more.
An
additional feature of the Upper West Fest will be $25 Festival Passes,
entitling holders to purchase one ticket at any particular Upper West
Fest event and receive their second ticket to the same event free
(offer may vary depending on the event).A new website -- www.upperwestfest.com --offers full festival information on the first annual Upper West Fest. Visit www.symphonyspace.org for more information.
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