Arvada Center to Present 'SAMUEL BECKET & CLYFFORD STILL' on 4/14

The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities will present Samuel Beckett & Clyfford Still: Uncommon Perspectives in the Late 1950s, a talk and live reading of Beckett's radio play Embers on Monday, April 14, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theater. The evening is presented in partnership with the Clyfford Still Museum in support of its exhibition 1959: The Albright-Knox Art Gallery Exhibition Recreated. Tickets are $10 - $15. To purchase call, the Arvada Center Box Office at 720-898-7200 (tickets are not for sale online).

Presented as an intimate evening of live theater and discussion, the program begins with an introductory talk by Amanda Giguere, Ph.D., a lecturer from the CU Boulder, Department of Theatre and Dance. She will lead the audience back to the late 1950s, a time when American culture was rapidly changing and people reaped the benefits of a healthy post-war economy. During that period, a group of artists including author Samuel Beckett, visual artist Clyfford Still and others, continued to experiment with non-realistic and abstract techniques. Giguere will discuss Beckett's impact on the theater, his resonance with other artistic experiments in visual arts, music, and dance, and will set the stage for the live reading of Beckett's radio play, Embers.

Following Ms. Giguere's talk the audience will experience a live stage reading of the radio play Embers. The reading will be directed by Laura Jones and performed by Robert Michael Sander (Henry) and Kate Berry (Ada). In the late 1950s, when Clyfford Still and his fellow Abstract Expressionists were at the height of their popularity, theater artists were struggling to move past the constraints of Realism - and perhaps none succeeded so well as Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett, whose seminal work Waiting for Godot had premiered in 1953. In the radio play Embers, originally broadcast in 1959, Beckett's minimalism is reduced to voice and sound only, as Henry - a writer and storyteller - recollects and tries to interpret the key figures and details of his life.

The Clyfford Still Museum will also host the Arvada Center's Samuel Beckett & Clyfford Still: Uncommon Perspectives in the Late 1950s, on Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for this event can be purchased through the Clyfford Still Museum by calling 720-354-4880 or going to www.clyffordstillmuseum.org.