BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV to Make U.S. Premiere This Spring at BAC

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) presents the U.S. Premiere of the solo theater work BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV, based on poems by the late Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, and performed by actor and BAC artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov. The one-man show was created for Baryshnikov in collaboration with Alvis Hermanis, noted Latvian director of The New Riga Theatre.

Conceived by Hermanis, who credits Brodsky among his significant artistic influences, BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV draws from a selection of poems spanning nearly 40 years by the great Russian poet, who settled in the United States in the early 1970's. Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, and served as his adopted country's Poet Laureate in 1991 and 1992. Brodsky and Baryshnikov, who met in New York City in 1974, were friends for more than two decades until Brodsky's death in 1996.

BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV is an emotional journey deep into Brodsky's visceral and complex compositions. In Brodsky's mother tongue, Baryshnikov recites a selection of his long-time friend's poignant and eloquent works. Baryshnikov's subtle physicality transports the audience into Hermanis' reverent imagining of Brodsky's interior world.

The production, which marks the U.S. debut of The New Riga Theatre, and Baryshnikov's first performance at BAC since 2010, will run March 9-19, 2016 at BAC's Jerome Robbins Theater (450 West 37th Street). Performances will take place March 9-12, Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM; March 13, Sunday at 2PM; and March 15-19, Tuesday through Saturday at 8PM. The running time is 90 minutes. Tickets are $40 in the orchestra and $35 in the balcony. All performances of BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV are sold out. Box Office information about BAC presentations is available at bacnyc.org or 866-811-4111.

BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV is performed in Russian with English surtitles. Translation is by Jamey Gambrell. Set design is by Krist?ne Jurj?ne, lighting design is by Gleb Filshtinsky, and sound design is by O?egs Novikovs and Gatis Builis.

BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV premiered at The New Riga Theatre in October 2015. The project is a co-production of The New Riga Theatre and Baryshnikov Productions. BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The staging of BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV has been included in Boris and In?ra Teterev's arts programme TÊTE-À-TÊTE 2015.

BRODSKY / BARYSHNIKOV is based on the poems of Joseph Brodsky. Copyright © 2015, The Estate of Joseph Brodsky. All rights reserved.

Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1940 and emigrated to the United States in 1972. He began writing poetry in the 1950s but his works were not published in his native country until the 1990s. Five books of his poetry in Russian were published abroad: Ostanovka v pustyne (1970; revised 1989), Konets prekrasnoi epokhi (1977), Chast' rechi (1977), Novye stansy k Avguste (1983), Uraniia (1984), and Peizazh s navodneniem (1996). As an émigré he published three books of poetry in English:SoForth(1996),To Urania(1988), andA Part ofSpeech(1977). On Grief and Reason,his second collection of essays, was published in 1996. His first collection of essays, Less Than One (1986), received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986, and three of his essays have appeared in The Best American Essays. A long essay on Venice was published in English as Watermark in 1992. He is also the author of two plays, Marbles (1989) and Democracy! (1990,1993). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987 and served as Poet Laureate of the United States for 1991 and 1992. He was Andrew Mellon Professor of Literature at Mount Holyoke College. He died in January, 1996. His Collected Poems in English were published in 2000. His poems in Russian are available in multiple editions from Lenizdat Publishers. A comprehensive scholarly edition of his work in both languages is in process. The Joseph Brodsky Memorial Fellowship Fund was founded in 1996 to implement the effort of his last years to create a Russian Academy in Rome.

Born 1948 in Riga, Latvia, Mikhail Baryshnikov is considered one of the greatest dancers of our time. After commencing a spectacular career with the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he came to the West in 1974, settling in New York City as principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT). In 1979 he joined New York City Ballet, where he worked with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. A year later he was appointed artistic director of ABT where, for the next decade, he introduced a new generation of dancers and choreographers. From 1990-2002, Mr. Baryshnikov was director and dancer of the White Oak Dance Project, a modern dance company he co-founded with choreographer Mark Morris. In 2005, he launched Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) in New York City, a creative space for presenting and nurturing multidisciplinary artists from around the globe. Under his leadership as artistic director, BAC's programs serve more than 700 artists and 22,000 audience members annually. Mr. Baryshnikov is an Academy Award-nominated actor, and a photographer whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. His photographs have been featured in publications such as Aperture and Vanity Fair, among others. His published work includes the book Merce My Way (2008). Among Mr. Baryshnikov's many awards are the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Honor, the Commonwealth Award, the Chubb Fellowship, the Jerome Robbins Award, and the 2012 Vilcek Award. In 2010, he was given the rank of Officer of the French Legion of Honor.

Born 1965 in Riga, Latvia, Alvis Hermanis was recently named among the ten most influential European theater personalities of the last ten years by DU Magazine Swiss periodical for arts and culture. Mr. Hermanis currently works with major European theater companies, including Burgtheater Vienna, Schaubuehne Berlin, Munchner Kammerspiele, and Schauspielhaus Zurich; and in opera houses including La Scala Milano, State Opera Berlin, and La Monnaie Brussels. He has staged operas at the Salzburg Festspiele since 2012, and will continue in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. His most recent staging there was of Trovatore featuring Placido Domingo and Anna Netrebko. His most recent opera premiere was La Damnation de Faust with Opera de Paris, featuring Jonas Kaufman in December 2015. In 2018, he will direct a new staging of Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival. Mr. Hermanis's theater productions have been presented at major theater festivals ranging from Avignon to Edinburgh, and have toured to more than 40 countries. His many accolades include the Europe Prize New Theatre Realities, the Stanislavsky Award, two Golden Mask Awards (Moscow), Max Reinhardt Pen (Salzburg Festspiele), Nestroy Preis (Austria), and the Konrad Wolf Award (Germany). He has been artistic director of The New Riga Theatre since 1997.

The New Riga Theatre is a state repertory theater founded in 1992, led by artistic director Alvis Hermanis since 1997. The Company is comprised of 23 actors. The New Riga Theatre is located in a historical building in the center of Riga. The productions are presented not only on the mainstage (470 seats) but also on other stages, including venues outside the theater building. The New Riga Theatre has performed at major festivals around the world, including Avignon, Edinburgh, Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Festspiele, Holland Festival, BITEF, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, and, to date, has toured to more than 200 towns and cities in 40 countries, both in Europe and overseas. For more information, visit www.jrt.lv.

Baryshnikov Productions is designed to bring the distinctive voices of innovative directors, choreographers, and artists to the world's most well respected stages. Under this umbrella, the company has produced and toured the White Oak Dance Project (1990-2002), Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and the Patient (2004-06), Beckett Shorts (2007), In Paris (2010-12), Man in a Case (2013-14), and The Old Woman (2013-14). Current touring productions are Brodsky/Baryshnikov and Letter to a Man, directed by Robert Wilson, which premiered at the Festival di Spoleto in July 2015.

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC's opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC's activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information, visit www.bacnyc.org.