Andrew W. Mellon News

Joanie Schultz, Artistic Director, today announced details of the Company's 2018-2019 Season.

The Performance Garage announces its new residency program, the Dr. RJ Wallner DanceVisions Residency, and its inaugural awardee, Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet. The program was designed by Executive Director Jeanne Ruddy in order to support a Philadelphia dance artist who exhibits exceptional talent. It provides the selected artist with rehearsal space, technical and marketing support, professional mentorship, and a performance venue in order to create and premiere new works. The inaugural year is supported by a generous gift from Dr. RJ Wallner.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents the return of New York-based SITI Company in the West Coast premiere of the theater is a blank page, a much-heralded collaboration with celebrated visual artist Ann Hamilton. The site-specific performance and interdisciplinary installation, which blends elements of theater, visual art and literature, will run from Saturday, April 28 to Saturday, May 12 at Royce Hall. Tickets for $119 are now available online at cap.ucla.edu, via Ticketmaster, by phone 310-825-2101 and at the UCLA Central Ticket Office.

Green Space is pleased to announce a diverse roster of new/emerging artists for its signature programs this May. Take Root will present an evening of work by Brush/McGrath (works) and Brynne Billingsley & Artists on May 18th and 19th, and Fertile Ground showcases the creative output of multiple dance artists on May 20th.

The New York Philharmonic has named Barbara Haws Archivist and Historian Emeritus for her leadership role in the creation, curation, and expansion of the Philharmonic's extensive Archives for almost 34 years. She will retire from the Philharmonic in August 2018 and pursue a doctorate in musicology when she matriculates at New College, University of Oxford, in October.

Three national organizations - The Sphinx Organization, New World Symphony, and the League of American Orchestras - have partnered to create the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS), a field-wide initiative with the long-term goal of increasing diversity in American orchestras. Supported by a four-year, $1.8 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, along with additional financial and programmatic contributions from America's orchestras, the Alliance will offer a holistic and personalized array of support to Black and Latinx musicians to develop their audition skills, increase their participation in auditions, and ultimately, increase their representation in orchestras.

Passover: a performance-ritual by Obie-winning writer/composer Rick Burkhardt and commissioned by thingNY; presented by Fort Point Theatre Channel. Performance: Sunday, May 27, 2018 @ 7:30 pm, Midway Studios, 15 Channel Center Street, Fort Point, Boston. Free. For more information: www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org.

Peak Performances presents the U.S. premiere of Esta Breve Tragedia de la Carne (This Brief Tragedy of the Flesh), Spanish writer, director, and performance artist Angelica Liddell's encapsulation of Emily Dickenson's morbidly beautiful understanding of the human condition. Liddell's confrontational work has been embraced with standing ovations at a number of festivals (d'Avignon and d'Automne in France, Vie in Italy, and Theatre Vidy-Lausanne in Switzerland), and met with the type of critical enthusiasm reserved for rising legends.

Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Spinning, a collaborative musical work written and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe (Anthracite Fields, 2015), and conceived with "cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser, with multimedia projections by innovative artist Laurie Olinder (May 10-13). Commissioned by Peak Performances and culminating their season of works by women, Spinning considers the essential labor of spinning thread-work once performed by hand by women-paying homage to the human dignity of this "women's work."

Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance have announced a new co-presenting partnership that will consolidate contemporary dance productions under one roof at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 2018-19 season, Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance will present 11 dance ensembles for Philadelphia audiences: Circa, Spectrum Dance Theater, Jessica Lang Dance, Caleb Teicher & Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance Heginbotham, Union Tanguera + Kate Weare Company, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, BODYTRAFFIC, and Parsons Dance. Subscriptions to the 2018-19 season dance series are on sale now at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900. Single tickets will go on sale in July.

 American Lyric Theater concludes the 10th Anniversary of its nationally acclaimed Composer Librettist Development Program this season with InsightALT: Opera in Eden, a one-night-only concert featuring three new one-act operas written by ALT Resident Artists, hosted by composer/librettist Mark Adamo and producing artistic director Lawrence Edelson.

This summer, 20 years since its celebration of Tchaikovsky, the 29th annual Bard Music Festival once again trains its focus on one of Russian Romanticism's most seminal composers, with a two-week, in-depth exploration of “Rimsky-Korsakov and His World.”

Composer and performer Joan La Barbara has been mining the life and work of Joseph Cornell for many years. In this free with Museum admission performance she presents selections from her epic song cycle 'The Wanderlusting of Joseph C.' along with 'Windows' and 'Habite par ses reves et les phantasms.'

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces the cast and creative team for its production of Songbird, a musical written by Michael Kimmel, with music and lyrics by Lauren Pritchard, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. The choreography is by Marc Kimelman. Music direction and additional arrangements and orchestrations are by Kris Kukul. The production will run June 9 - July 1, 2018. Songbird is presented by special arrangement with Allison Bressi and Diana Buckhantz.

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.

Pittsburgh CLO is proud to announce the cast of the Pittsburgh CLO premiere of PERFECT WEDDING by Robin Hawdon, May 10 - August 12, 2018 at the CLO Cabaret. Tickets for this international hit farce are now available online at CLOCabaret.com, by phone at 412-456-6666 or in person at the Theater Square Box Office.

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.  

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents Ephrat Asherie Dance: Odeon on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 7:30pm.

Next month ODC Theater provides an early kickoff to the summer with the seventh anniversary of its signature dance festival. Highlights include a West Coast premiere from filmmaker and choreographer Yara Travieso, the Bay Area solo debut of Toronto native Belinda McGuire and a world premiere from Kiandanda Dance Theater.