Blind Boys of Alabama, Pilobolus, Sundance Shorts and More Set for 2015 Columbia Festival of the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts is pleased to announce its 2015 Summer Festival, featuring diverse free and ticketed events including film, dance, comedy, theatre, art exhibitions, a concert performance by GRAMMY-winning music legends, Blind Boys of Alabama, and a free weekend of outdoor entertainment for the whole family.

The Cross Currents 2015 Summer Festival runs June 12 through 27, beginning with a Free Opening Weekend on the Lakefront in Columbia Town Center. Over 16 days attendees will see the return of familiar favorites and a variety of talent appearing at the Festival for the first time. Cross Currents is a blend of contemporary artists filled with electrifying performances and fascinating hybrids like global sensation Pilobolus, fusing modern dance theatre and acrobatics, and Hot Club of San Francisco: Cinema Vivant, celebrating imagination with vintage silent film and live gypsy swing. The 2015 Summer Festival will conclude with The Best of The Second City, the legendary sketch and improv group of comedy's best and brightest.

For a complete 2015 Summer Festival Schedule, visit columbiafestival.org.

Ticket will be available for sale to the public on May 4. Supporters of Columbia Festival of the Arts can purchase guaranteed, pre-sale tickets prior to this date. For additional information about tickets, or how to become a Festival supporter, visit www.columbiafestival.org or call 410-715-3044.

2015 LINEUP:

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

Jim Rouse Theatre

Friday, June 19, 8 pm

Winners of six GRAMMY Awards, and honored with numerous Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music and have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans over 60 years. They are known for crossing multiple musical boundaries, and have appeared on recordings with Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, k.d. lang, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson, Susan Tedeschi, Aaron Neville, to name a few. They have made appearances on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Grammy Awards, 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, and their own holiday special on PBS.

Tickets: $35-$55

PILOBOLUS

Jim Rouse Theatre

Thursday, June 25, 7:30 pm

Founded in 1971, Pilobolus has built its fervent and expanding international following by showing the human body to be the most expressive, universal, and magical of media. Pilobolus maintains its own singular style, evolving interplay with shapeshifting, shadowplay, and other explorations, while actively collaborating with the best and brightest minds from all conceivable professions the world over. The results of these collaborations has proven amazing feats can be achieved, and Pilobolus has been recognized for its developments in dance and multimedia art. Based in Washington Depot, Connecticut, in recent years Pilobolus has transformed from avant-garde dance company into an international entertainment brand featured on the likes of Oprah, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Academy Awards. The company has explored worlds as disparate as advertising, publishing, film, and music videos (Pilobolus was nominated for a 2012 GRAMMY Award for the video for OK Go's "All Is Not Lost"). Pilobolus achieves all this without ever losing sight of their core mission: to make art that builds community. (Contains partial nudity.)

Tickets: $45-$60

THE BEST OF THE SECOND CITY

Jim Rouse Theatre

Saturday, June 27, 8 pm

Fresh, fast, and always spectacularly funny, Chicago's legendary sketch and improv comedy theater returns to Columbia Festival of the Arts with The Best of The Second City. This must-see show features the best cutting-edge satire, revues, sketches, and songs from their 55-year history made famous by superstars like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, and more. For decades The Second City has launched the careers of generation after generation of comedy's best and brightest.

Tickets: $25-$40

HOT CLUB OF SAN FRANCISCO: CINEMA VIVANT

Smith Theatre, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Saturday, June 20, 8 pm

The Hot Club of San Francisco continues the tradition of fine French Gypsy Jazz performed on string instruments. Imagine yourself in the idyllic French countryside in the 1930's. Sometime before dark, a gypsy caravan sets up camp in a field outside of town, luring the locals out for an evening's fun. The wanderers travel with a film projector, pointing it at the side of a barn. As the images flicker to life beneath the stars, gypsy musicians play their guitars and fiddles, matching every movement on the screen with characteristic virtuosity, passion and humor. Reviving this lost entertainment, the Hot Club of San Francisco presents Cinema Vivant, an evening of vintage silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing.

Tickets: $35

THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: SHORTS ON TOUR

Monteabaro Hall, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Sunday, June 21, 1 pm & 5:15 pm

A wide variety of story and style, the 2015 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is an 83-minute theatrical program of six short films that won awards at this year's Festival, which over the course of its more than 30-year history has been widely considered the premier showcase for short films and the launchpad for many now-prominent independent filmmakers. Including fiction, documentary and animation from around the world, from wild comedy to quiet poetry.

Tickets: $15

BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME

By Casey Wimpee

Studio Theatre, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Saturday, June 20, 8:15 pm

Sunday, June 21, 1:45 pm

Performed in near complete darkness, Butcher Holler Here We Come brutally weaves histories, friendships, crooked politics, audacious hopes, eerie dreams, criminal addictions, and fervent spirituality in a complicated Appalachian community. Following a cave collapse, five coal miners struggle to survive the dwindling supply of oxygen, the lack of food and water, the unraveling sense of passing time, and, even more threatening, their own competing natures. Two performances of this new American play will be offered.

Tickets: $20

SPROUT FILM FESTIVAL

Presented in partnership with The Arc of Howard County, The Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council & Howard Community College

Monteabaro Hall, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Sunday, June 21, 3:30 pm

Poignant, beautiful, humorous, and thought provoking short films created by, for, and about individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). This unique afternoon of unforgettable stories related to the field of I/DD fulfills Sprout's mission to make the invisible visible. In addition to screening the films, the director and creator of the Sprout Film Festival, Anthony Di Salvo, will conduct a talkback with the audience.

Tickets: $15

THE STOOP STORYTELLING SERIES: KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

Smith Theatre, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Friday, June 26, 7:30 pm

Guided by the motto, "Everyone has a story. What's yours?" The Stoop's mission is to showcase the extraordinary stories of "ordinary" people. Returning to the Columbia Festival of the Arts for a fourth time, The Stoop Storytelling Series is a popular event in the Baltimore area in which 7 people get 7 minutes each to tell a true, personal tale on a shared theme in front of a live audience. This event features the theme "Kitchen Confidential": stories about cooking, eating, and assorted food issues.

Tickets: $15

MAX SILVESTRI

Smith Theatre, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College

Friday, June 26, 9:30 pm

Max Silvestri is a comedian, writer and actor living in Brooklyn, and was just named "a comedian you should know" by Vulture. New York Magazine called him, "One of the Ten Comedians People Find Funny," and Paste Magazine featured him as one of their "Ten Favorite Comics." Max has appeared on VH1, History Channel and Fuse, and recently completed production on the forthcoming FYI series The Feed, which he hosts along side Top Chef's Gail Simmons and Marcus Samuelsson. Max has worked as a writer on FUSE's Funny or Die Presents: Billy on The Street, Comedy Central's Onion SportsDome, and regularly contributes to Eater.com, Food & Wine Magazine, GQ, and Grantland. This summer will see the release of his stand up comedy album "King Piglet."

Tickets: $25

FREE EVENTS:

FREE OPENING WEEKEND ON THE LAKEFRONT
Columbia Town Center Lakefront
Friday, June 12, 5 pm - 11 pm
Saturday, June 13, Noon - 11 pm
Sunday, June 14, Noon - 7 pm

This weekend-long event on the Columbia Lakefront includes live music, kids' entertainment and crafts, an invitational fine arts and crafts show and sale, festival food fare including Maryland wine tastings and Brew Zone, strolling performers, and a variety of activities for all ages. Included among the lineup of bands performing on the Lakestage are Ocho de Bastos, Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band, Pigpen Theatre Company, and the U.S. Navy Band Commodores.

EXHIBITS, RECEPTION, AND IMPROV
Presented in partnership with the Howard County Arts Council
Howard County Center for the Arts
Thursday, June 18, 6 pm

See two stunning exhibits in the Howard County Arts Council galleries, step into the black box theatre for an uproarious performance by the All-County Improv Troupe, and roam the Resident Artists' open studios to see their work and process, all while enjoying light refreshments.

MARYLAND STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Monteabaro Hall, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College
Saturday, June 20, 3 pm

In cooperation with Howard County Public Schools, the Columbia Festival of the Arts, and the MD Student Film Festival, Howard Community College showcases local and regional films from high school, college and other students. Winning films will air on HCC-TV which serves hundreds of thousands of viewers in the Baltimore, MD-Washington DC corridor and represents only the best in arts and educational access.

WORLD POETRY PARTY
Presented in partnership with HoCoPolitSo and Columbia Association
Studio Theatre, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College
Friday, June 26, 7 pm

Poets and literary lovers read and recite their own works, and the works of famous international poets, both in English and in the poets' native languages. A reception will follow.

Columbia Festival of the Arts - Founded in 1987, Columbia Festival of the Arts is Howard County's largest ongoing arts event. Columbia Festival of the Arts presents four weekend-long arts festivals throughout the year, comprised of both free and ticketed events, featuring world-class performances, exhibitions, concerts, family activities, master classes, workshops and community dialogues. The Festival brings together the arts community, businesses, local schools, and individuals to create events that shine a spotlight, not only on the arts, but also on the Howard County community as a Maryland showplace. For more information, visit www.columbiafestival.org.