Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Will Present the World Premiere of THE MINGHELLA PROJECT

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in association with BODYTRAFFIC will present the world premiere of The Minghella Project, a heartfelt tribute to the late Oscar-winning writer/director Anthony Minghella (1954-2008), who wrote the texts for the four dance works that comprise the piece. The Wallis' first original dance production, The Minghella Project features its 2019/2020 Company-In-Residence, BODYTRAFFIC, on April 18, 19, 29 and 30, and May 1 and 2, 2020, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The Minghella Project brings to the stage for the first time four works set by noted choreographer Jonathan Lunn to a series of original texts for dance that he collaborated on with Minghella. The four works, spanning twenty years, include Hang Up, Mosaic and Self Assembly, which have previously been performed individually, and We Swim, a world premiere. In addition to BODYTRAFFIC, The Minghella Project, features actors held close to Minghella and Lunn, who became friends while attending university in England in the 1980s. Minghella wrote and directed The English Patient (Academy Award for Best Director), The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, among other major acclaimed films. Lunn is particularly known for skillfully incorporating language into his choreography. The Guardian states," "Lunn reminds us that communication in dance is only partially about reading meanings; more importantly and more rewardingly, it's about being moved."

"With this production, we are honoring Anthony Minghella and his brilliance as a writer," says Lunn. "His four original texts for dance - the only ones he ever wrote for dance - illuminate different nuanced aspects of the human condition, shining a light on Anthony's extraordinary insights into relationships and human behavior. I am so grateful for my decades-long friendship with him and for the gift of his remarkable words. Although each text was created to be a stand-alone work, The Wallis' Artistic Director Paul Crewes recognized their significance as a collection and urged me to tie them together to create an evening-length program, suggesting I collaborate with BODYTRAFFIC on the development of The Minghella Project. It has been deeply inspiring process."

"Anthony Minghella was a giant in the field of cinema and Jonathan Lunn has long been acclaimed in the dance world," states Crewes. "Together they created an unusually visceral and powerful connection between spoken word and movement. Given The Wallis' deep commitment to fostering dance locally, nationally and internationally and L.A.'s significance as the film capital of the world, it seems particularly fitting that The Minghella Project, which brings the human experience into sharp focus and features L.A.-based BODYTRAFFIC, is The Wallis' first original dance production."

Lunn notes that Minghella's own voice is a featured aspect of the production. In 2006, just two years before his death, Minghella recorded himself reading Self Assembly, a tongue-in-cheek "manual," akin to instructions for assembling flat-pack furniture, on how to construct a relationship, which became the featured audio track for the work. "Hearing Anthony's voice resonate is incredibly powerful and makes it feel like he's in the room with the dancers," explains Lunn.

The text for the first work they created together in 1987, Hang Up, devised as a telephone call between a couple, uses a sound score recorded by actors Juliet Stevens (Truly, Madly, Deeply, Infamous) and Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones, The Crown) as the audio bed for a dance duet that explores the spoken and unspoken layers of the text.

Mosaic, created in 1990, is a work about accumulation and patterns that features live narration, as does We Swim, written by Minghella in 2006 but only now being choreographed by Lunn. It explores a human's darker instincts and is being set for the first time as part of The Minghella Project. "So there are actually two connected world premieres - the first is The Minghella Project itself and the other is the world premiere of the specific work We Swim," says Lunn.

BODYTRAFFIC made its Wallis debut in 2018. Founded in 2007 by Lillian Rose Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, BODYTRAFFIC has surged to the forefront of the concert dance world, recruiting great talent from around the globe to create world-class contemporary dance by distinctive choreographic voices. In 2015, BODYTRAFFIC was selected by the Obama Administration to be cultural ambassadors for the United States via DanceMotion USAa??, a dynamic cultural diplomacy program that supports United States foreign policy goals by engaging international audiences through educational opportunities, cultural exchange, and performance. BODYTRAFFIC has also served as cultural ambassadors for the United States in Israel (2015), South Korea (2016) and Algeria (2017).

Tickets, $39 to $99, are on sale now. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/Minghella.