New Season, New Director Set For Kingsborough Performing Arts Center

Kingsborough Performing Arts Center's 2010-2011 season of Music, Dance, Theatre, Literature, and Family shows is now on sale and with a new season brings a new executive director and a new vision for Kingsborough's oceanfront performing arts center.

Anna Becker, whose 20+ years of experience in performing arts administration includes founding and directing an award-winning performance series in Westchester, as well as producing the long-running off-Broadway hit "Life In A Marital Institution (20 years of monogamy in one terrifying hour)." Becker took over as Executive Director of Kingsborough Performing Arts Center this summer and has been spending her time talking with a wide variety of community members to launch a new season - and new vision - that can serve community residents, students, and the nearby Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island communities.

"It is a very exciting time here at KPAC as we take a fresh look at the mission and talk to our varied communities" stated Anna Becker, Executive Director. "It has been a real privilege hearing about life inside and outside the Kingsborough gates and I have especially enjoyed talking with our audiences about what they hope to see at the Performing Arts Center. For that reason, we decided to throw a Season Opening Concert and Party on September 26th; it will be a wonderful opportunity to meet more of our neighbors and friends and let them know about the master performing artists we will be bringing in from all over the world to perform at Kingsborough."

The 2010-2011 season reflects KPAC'S commitment to present world-class artists in music, dance, theatre, literature, and family shows in exclusive Brooklyn engagements. The coming season of classic and classical performing arts will offer performances by companies who set the standard in their field, such as Soledad Barrio's Noche Flamenca from Spain, St. Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre from Russia, London's Tall Stories, and the upper west side's Symphony Space (with founder Isaiah Sheffer and guest star Tony Roberts). Prices are a fraction of what audiences would find elsewhere and several sneak previews of upcoming premieres will be offered free of charge.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Tickets are on sale as of September 1, 2010. The box office is located at:
Kingsborough Performing Arts Center, Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY.

Box Office Hours: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
To order by telephone: (718) 368-5596

To order online or to download a season brochure, visit:

www.Kbcc.Cuny.Edu/PerformingArtsCenter
There is ample, free parking on the campus.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

Kingsborough Community College Founded in 1963, Kingsborough Community College, a college of the City University of New York (CUNY), has provided half a million students with liberal arts, applied science, and career education. Our 70-acre waterfront campus is on Manhattan Beach, at the extreme southern end of Brooklyn. The college's mission is to respond to the educational, cultural, and economic needs of our students and our community.
Kingsborough Performing Arts Center brings artistically and culturally diverse, multi-disciplinary performances from masters of the form to the varied communities within and surrounding the college. We strive to create an environment where the arts are an accessible and integral part of life, and the Arts Center is a community gathering place for interaction and inspiration. We offer performances in theatre, dance, literature, and music, as well as family shows. Our schooltime shows welcome classes from local public and private schools, a majority of which serve economically-disadvantaged or special needs populations.

Kingsborough Performing Arts Center's Executive Director, Anna Becker, has produced for theatre, television and film for more than 20 years. Most recently, she was the founding producer of the award-winning Insights & Revelations Performance Series in Westchester that has presented the work of award-winning off-Broadway companies such as The New Group, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, and LAByrinth Theater ,with actors such as Michael Cumpsty, John Shea, Dennis Boutsikaris, Florencia Lozano, Matthew Arkin, Ron Leibman, and others. Becker produced the 2008 long-running off-Broadway hit, "Life In A Marital Institution (20 years of monogamy in one terrifying hour)" at 59E59 Theaters and then SoHo Playhouse. Previous positions include serving as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund. Major special events conceived and produced by Ms. Becker include the city-wide Race for the Arts and A Celebration of the Actor at the Joseph Papp Public Theater with Kate Burton, Charles Busch, Charlayne Woodard, and Julie Halston.

2010-2011 SEASON

KINGSBOROUGH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

SEASON OPENING CONCERT & PARTY:
Featuring The Matt Herskowitz Trio Sunday, September 26 at 3 p.m

Live Music * Ticket Give-Aways * Refreshments *

The versatile and virtuosic jazz pianist Matt Herskowitz and his trio will perform works from their newest CD, Jerusalem Trilogy, for this free season-opening concert and party. Presented in collaboration with Carnegie Hall's Neighborhood Concert Series, a program of the Weill Music Institute, sponsored by Target.

Hearing such technique from you almost ruined my day...I'd better retire now... - Dave Brubeck

DANCE SERIES:
American Ballet Theatre's ABT II Saturday, November 6 at 8 p.m. $30

ABT II presents the next generation of world-class ballet with twelve dancers hand selected from around the world by American Ballet Theatre. The company will perform highlights from their repertoire.

"One of the great dance success stories in recent years..." -The New York Times

St. Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. $30

Saint Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre's founder and director, Marina Medvetskaya, is a disciple of the legendary premier danseur and choreographer, Vakhtang Chaboukiani. She is the former Prima Ballerina of the Tbilisi State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she danced all the leading roles in the classical and contemporary ballet repertoire, as well as working with Alexander Plesetsky and the Bolshoi's Mikhail Lavrovsky. Her company is also the Amber Necklace Winner for Competition in Kalingrad in 1999. The artists in her company, many of whom have been in trained in the exacting classical technique of the Kirov Ballet's Vaganova Ballet Academy, have previously danced with the finest ballet companies of St. Petersburg, including the Kirov, The Maly and the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre of the late Askold Makarov.

A great pleasure...a classical purity that is rare today in American Ballet." - The New York Times

Soledad Barrio's Noche Flamenca Friday, April 29 at 8 p.m. $30

The award-winning Noche Flamenca has become Spain's most successful touring company. Formed in 1993 by Martin Santangelo and his Bessie award-winning wife, Soledad Barrio, the company's performance highlights include regular seasons in New York City and Buenos Aires, performances in Greece and Egypt, annual tours to North America, and the company's 2002 and 2009 tours to Australia. Hailed by critics everywhere for its transcendent and deeply emotional performances, Noche Flamenca is recognized as the most authentic flamenco touring company in the field today. All aspects of flamenco - dance, song, and music - are interrelated and given equal weight in the presentations of Noche Flamenca, creating a true communal spirit within the company - the very heart and soul of flamenco.

Her dancing evokes an entire vocabulary of fire: blazing, scorching, flaming, smoldering, incandescent! - Ballet Magazine

THEATRE SERIES:
Frank Ferrante in An Evening With Groucho Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. $25

Award-winning actor/director/playwright Frank Ferrante recreates his PBS, New York and London acclaimed portrayal of legendary comedian Groucho Marx in this fast-paced 90 minutes of hilarity. The two-act comedy consists of the best Groucho one-liners, anecdotes and songs including "Hooray for Captain Spalding," and "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady." The audience literally becomes part of the show as Ferrante ad-libs his way throughout the performance in grand Groucho style. Accompanied by his onstage pianist, Jim Furmston, Ferrante portrays the young Groucho of stage and film and reacquaints us with the likes of brothers Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Greta Garbo, Marx foil, Margaret Dumont and MGM's Louis B. Mayer.

Marvelous! - Newsday

Symphony Space's Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret Saturday, April 16 at 8 pm. $25

Symphony Space's The Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret, New York City's only political cabaret series, features songs, sketches and poetry on all the issues New Yorkers hold dear. Always funny and often moving, these original evenings created by Symphony Space's Artistic Director Isaiah Sheffer with producer Martin Sage are guaranteed to get you talking and laughing. Regular Follies performers include Ivy Austin, David Buskin, Nora York, The Chalks, and more. Musical Director, Lanny Meyers.

The performance at Kingsborough will be a "Best of Thalia Follies" evening. Nothing is sacred in The Follies: Everything from the upcoming mid-term elections - where they'll cut through the hot air and get right to the heart of all the empty promises- and the American obsession with diets and wellness, where they musically devour everything from Ayurveda to Zabar's - gets a winking examination.

Hilarious! - The Village Voice

MUSIC SERIES:
Everything The Traffic Will Allow: The Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman

Starring Klea Blackhurst & The Pocket Change Trio

Saturday, November 6 at 8 p.m. $25

This acclaimed show is Klea's loving tribute to the songs made famous by the legendary stage personality Ethel Merman. The concert highlights what is arguably the greatest body of show music ever written for a single performer featuring such songs as "I Got Rhythm" from Girl Crazy, "You're the Top/Blow Gabriel, Blow" from Anything Goes, and "There's No Business Like Show Business" from Annie Get Your Gun. This is not a recreation of Ms. Merman, but a paean to the great Broadway legend and serves as a potent and happy reminder of Ethel Merman's sheer, undeniable importance to both the history of twentieth century entertainment and to the unbridled jubilation of show business at its best.

"We were watching a real talent, a performer we knew could delight us without ever singing a note that had once been commandeered by Ethel Merman. We were not in thrall to the past: we were watching an interpretation of it that turned into something new." - The New York Times

Zalmen Mlotek's 100 Years of Yiddish Musical Theatre

with Daniella Rabbani and the New Yiddish Chorale

Sunday, December 12 at 3 p.m. $25

Join one of the world's most acclaimed authorities of Yiddish song in a musical journey that was hailed as the "runaway hit" of the Berkeley Jewish Music Festival. This elegant piece by National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene's artistic director, Zalmen Mlotek, celebrates the Jewish musical accent in American theater. Beginning with the origins of the Yiddish theater in the wine cellars of Rumania, you will hear operetta arias, humorous vaudeville ballads, backstage renditions of Fiddler on the Roof, and more. With simultaneous English translation on a large screen.
Wonderful...by turns moving, funny, informative and thoroughly entertaining... - Yiddishkayt L.A.

Symphony Space's Music For A Changing World Saturday, May 7 at 8 p.m. $25
The internationally-acclaimed Colorado Quartet, a ground-breaking ensemble for nearly three decades that was catapulted onto the scene by back-to-back wins at the Banff International String Quartet and Naumburg competitions, with guest artists JoAnn Sternberg (Clarinet) and Margaret Kampmeier (Piano), take a musical journey from Eastern Europe - with the riveting folk dance rhythms of Poland's Witold Lutoslawski and the soulful irony of Russia's 20th century master, Dmitri Shostakovich - to the open-spirited Americanism of Aaron Copland and contemporary composter (and the evening's host) Laura Kaminsky.

A pre-concert conversation between Kaminsky and the first violinist is included in the program.

These four women are the musical equals of any string quartet in the world. That's a bold statement, but the musicians have the goods to back it up. - The Seattle Times

LITERATURE IN PERFORMANCE:
Symphony Space's Selected Shorts: Funny Food Fictions

Saturday, October 16 at 8 p.m. $25
With Isaiah Sheffer, Tony Roberts, and Maria Tucci

Symphony Space and Public Radio's immensely popular celebration of the short story will serve up a menu of funny food fictions. Featuring Broadway, film, and television star Tony Roberts, Tony-nominee Maria Tucci, and beloved host Isaiah Sheffer reading hilarious tales of food and love by award-winning authors T. Coraghessan Boyle, M.F.K. Fisher, and "Yinglish" comic book master and animator Milt Gross.

Selected Shorts is the angel of the short story. - David Sedaris

INSIDER'S LOOK:
Audiences can sneak a peek behind the scenes and witness great new works in development by award-winning companies; talking with the artists and hearing them reveal their insights into the creative process.
Godlight Theatre Company Thursday, December 9 at 7 p.m. FREE

Godlight is developing two world premiere stage adaptations here at KPAC this season - the multi-award winning, magical, and gleefully macabre The Pilo Family Circus by Australian Author