Andrew W. Mellon News

In three years, Perseverance Theatre playwright-in-residence Vera Starbard has developed legendary worlds in prehistoric Tlingit country, adapted Jane Austen for Alaska village life, and interviewed dynamic Alaska Native leaders for biographical stories. Through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Perseverance Theatre will be continuing its partnership with Starbard for at least three more years. The Mellon Foundation has extended Starbard's National Playwright Residency Program with Perseverance through June 2022, administered in partnership with HowlRound.

ODC, a cultural, creative, and community hub comprised of a world class dance company, a presenting theater, and a dance school, announces Sima Belmar as its new Writer-in-Residence, effective immediately. 

Carnegie Hall today announced the launch of its new online Digital Collections, inviting the general public to search, explore, and download more than 80,000 recently digitized historic items from its archives for the very first time. This initial preview, drawn from the Hall's legacy collections, offers a window into the richly diverse history of events at the Hall since its opening in 1891, with an emphasis on the Hall's earliest decades. It includes Carnegie Hall concert programs from 1891–1925; flyers; photographs; correspondence; newspaper clippings; autographs; booking ledger pages; and a select number of promotional films. The goal of this digital initiative is to provide broader public access to the Hall's archival collections, providing a new way for people to engage with Carnegie Hall's history and share it with others.

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) presents the world premiere of Yanira Castro I a canary torsi's Last Audience October 16-20, 2019, commissioned as part of the Live Feed Residency Program. In the spirit of communal work built upon artist and audience collaboration, Last Audience is collectively navigated and embodied by every person in the theater. Each night, the performance is preceded by COMMUNE, a free public meal hosted by Castro and special guests to share dishes, poems, stories, and dance.

Irish Arts Center and Baryshnikov Arts Center join forces again to present the U.S. premiere of Colin Dunne's Concert, in which he takes on the widely influential Irish fiddle player Tommie Potts' iconic—and notoriously choreographically challenging—1972 album The Liffey Banks, armed with an LP, tape recorder, portable speakers, and sheets of flooring. Choreographed and performed by Dunne, and created in collaboration with director Sinéad Rushe and composer and sound designer Mel Mercier, Concert, which The Irish Times, in a five-star review, described as “warm, funny, respectful, and irreverent,” comes to Baryshnikov Arts Center November 14-16.

CPR - Center for Performance Research announces Felicia B Avalos, Gabriella Carmichael, Dasa Grgic, J'Sun Howard, Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone + zaybra, and Isaac Spector as the 2019 Fall Movement Festival artists.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's 45th Anniversary Season kicks off with the Philadelphia premiere of Obie Award Recipient Adam Bock's meticulously crafted drama A Small Fire, starring two-time Tony and Emmy Award winner Bebe Neuwirth. The play will be directed by Joanie Schultz, former Artistic Director of the WaterTower Theatre in Texas, and also known for her work in Chicago at The Goodman, Victory Gardens and Steppenwolf Theatres. Producing Artistic Director Paige Price and Managing Director Emily Zeck are excited to welcome Neuwirth and a cast of nationally and locally renowned actors to star in the season opener. Previews begin October 18th, Opening Night is Wednesday, October 23rd, and the show runs through November 10th. Single tickets range from $25-$74 and 3-play subscriptions start as low as $48, available now at the box office, online at philatheatreco.org or by phone at 215-985-0420.

To celebrate the culmination of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Latinx Play Project (LxPP), OSF will host a panel discussion featuring five veteran Latinx playwrights as they discuss the joys and challenges of working in professional theatre today, finding artistic home, and making work that speaks to the times we are in. The discussion will take place on Sunday, September 29 at 10 a.m. at Carpenter Hall and also be livestreamed by Howlround. 

The Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan has been awarded a four-year, $1.14 million grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support 'High Stakes Art,' a project designed to enhance exhibitions and programming at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery.

From the award-winning writer of Your Healing is Killing Me, blu, and The Panza Monologues, Virginia Grise returns to Tucson with Their Dogs Came with Them, a new play about the destruction and displacement of a Mexican-American community, roaming dogs, quarantines, earthmovers and ancient voladores.

The pioneering International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to NYU Skirball for two performances of George Lewis' Soundlines on Friday, October 18, 2019 and Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 7:30pm. Following the group's critically acclaimed, sold-out run of David Lang's the whisper opera in 2018, Soundlines features two premieres by composer and MacArthur Fellow George Lewis: the NYC premiere of Lewis' Soundlines: A Dreaming Track and the New York premiere of P. Multitudinis. Building on a decade of collaborative work, the International Contemporary Ensemble, George Lewis, Steven Schick, and Jim Findlay's Soundlines is a monodrama in the style of a radio play that explores and confronts the relationships between self, identity, and personal journeys within complex social constructs.

The first season in JACK's new, larger space a?" located just four blocks from its original home a?" features a torrent of talent, with new plays by Amina Henry, T. Adamson, Melisa Tien, Kate Kremer, James Ijames, and Jaber Ramezani in collaboration with Shadi Ghaheri, new dance work by Zachary Tye Richardson, Amanda Szeglowski, Niall Noel Jones, Justin Allen, Nia & Ness, mayfield brooks, as well as concerts featuring Shelley Hirsch, Pascal Niggenkemper and more. The season, running October 2019 through March 2020, serves as a sampler of some of the most arresting artists in the current performance scene.

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) presents the world premiere of Yanira Castro I a canary torsi's Last Audience October 16-20, 2019, commissioned as part of the Live Feed Residency Program. In the spirit of communal work built upon artist and audience collaboration, Last Audience is collectively navigated and embodied by every person in the theater. Each night, the performance is preceded by COMMUNE, a free public meal hosted by Castro and special guests to share dishes, poems, stories, and dance.

Theatre Horizon, a professional theatre company located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce that arts leader and theater director Nell Bang-Jensen will join the company as Theatre Horizon's new Artistic Director. Current Artistic Director and co-founder Erin Reilly will transition to a new fundraising role at Theatre Horizon.

New York Live Arts, in partnership with Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, presents Rashaad Newsome's multifaceted BLACK MAGIC at New York Live Arts (Live Arts), Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC), and Icebox Project Space (Icebox), September 12 - November 30, 2019. The project includes an exhibition at PPAC, installation at New York Live Arts, and performances at Live Arts and Icebox. BLACK MAGIC is a holistic reflection on agency, Blackness, and the futurity of intersectional identities and oppression.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director) will host a one-night only special event celebrating the upcoming season with the 43rd Art & Action Gala Dinner on Thursday evening, October 10, 2019 at The Golden Unicorn Restaurant in Chinatown (18 East Broadway at Catherine Street). Erin Quill and Henry Yuk return as Master of Ceremonies.

Chicago-based dance theater company Lucky Plush Productions, led by founder and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads, returns to Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre this fall as part of Steppenwolf's LookOut Series with the world premiere of Rink Life.

The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance kicks off its fall season with the BlakTinX Performance Series from September 25 to November 23, 2019. This annual multidisciplinary festival inaugurated in 2002 celebrates art and performance by Black, Latinx and artists of color. The festival opens with the prolific choreographer Maria Bauman-Morales (formerly of Urban Bush Women) and features premiere dance works by contemporary choreographers.BAAD! is located in a neo gothic style building at 2474 Westchester Avenue. For tickets and information call 718-918-2110 or visit www.BAADBronx.org.

Today, Pace University announced the launch of a new program, a?oeWriting for Diversity and Equity in Theater and Media Arts Fellows Program,a?? supported by a three-year grant of $585,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Eligible undergraduates majoring in one of several Pace arts and humanities programs will be selected as Fellows, with the aim of developing diverse and inclusive voices in media and the performing arts. The first class of Fellows will be selected this fall.

Due to box office success, California Shakespeare Theater extends the world premiere of House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar through September 8, 2019 at the Bruns Amphitheater adding two more performances on September 7 at 8 pm and September 8 at 4 pm.