CAP UCLA Presents Brooklyn Youth Chorus SHE IS CALLED: DEAR STRANGER  

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance presents She Is Called: Dear Stranger, a media-rich web experience launched Saturday, April 24, 2021, at sheiscalleddearstranger.org. For more information on engaging with or supporting the arts and artists presented by CAP UCLA, visit support CAP UCLA.

She Is Called is an original choral theater production being developed for the stage by Brooklyn Youth Chorus under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Dianne Berkun Menaker. Over a multi-year artistic development process, the young artists of the Chorus are collaborating with established theater artists to present commissions by contemporary composers that address themes of gender and identity.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chorus is presenting the first phase of the project, She Is Called: Dear Stranger, via a media-rich website experience. The website features newly commissioned choral works, photos, recorded letters and poetry from the singers, inspired by the songs' themes and the singers' perspectives and experiences.

The production features new compositions from four celebrated composers - Nathalie Joachim, David Lang, Alev Lenz and Shara Nova - and features significant artistic contributions from the singers themselves. In collaboration with the students are four theater artists - Janani Balasubramanian, Charlotte Brathwaite, Sunder Ganglani and Tareke Ortiz - who, through ongoing workshops, worked with the Chorus to bring this ambitious project to life.

She Is Called: Dear Stranger is an exciting new production from Brooklyn Youth Chorus that presents the deep and rich perspectives of young people as they investigate gender, identity, community, and connection during this fraught time in our history.