Clark Sterling News

The Joyce Theater is thrilled to welcome back LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO for a special three-week holiday engagement, December 16 - January 4. The season will feature two different programs, each with a Joyce premiere, performed by the primo ballerinas that have made this troupe the world's foremost all-male comic ballet company. To purchase tickets, please call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or via the internet at www.joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street) in Chelsea.

Following the popular and critical success of Alladeen (2003 Next Wave Festival) and Super Vision (2005 Next Wave Festival), Obie award-winning, New York-based The Builders Association returns to BAM with the New York premiere of Continuous City. Poignant and thought-provoking, this multimedia theater work investigates how networking technology both encourages and hinders human interaction and relationships.

Flemish director Guy Cassiers makes his American debut with Sunken Red-a multimedia theater work created in collaboration with and performed by one of Europe's leading stage actors, Dirk Roofthooft.

In a nouveau cirque work poised at the intersection of physical theater, modern dance, and waking dreams, France's Compagnie 111 makes its BAM debut in Les sept planches de la ruse (The Seven Boards of Skill) in a joint production with Scenes de la Terre. Conceived and directed by French director Aurelien Bory, this U.S. premiere is inspired by tangram-an ancient Chinese geometric puzzle composed of seven tiles that can be manipulated in a nearly infinite number of combinations. Developed in the industrial city of Dalian, China, where it premiered in 2007, Les sept planches de la ruse has toured across France and to Portugal. After the BAM engagement, the production will travel to additional cities in France, as well as to the UK and Hungary.

As part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival, BAM welcomes the return of U Theatre, one of Taiwan's most celebrated theater companies, in Meeting with Bodhisattva-a music-theater work that depicts an individual's journey toward becoming a Bodhisattva or 'enlightened being' in Buddhism. This U.S. premiere features a whirlwind of drumming, martial arts, Buddhist chanting, and Chinese operatic dance.

A composer, performer, violinist, and band leader, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) seamlessly blends classical music, funk, rock, and hip-hop into a unique musical vision.

As part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival, BAM presents the U.S. debut of Iceland's Vesturport Theatre in a critically-acclaimed production of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck. With haunting original music by cult rocker Nick Cave and Bad Seeds' Warren Ellis, this U.S. premiere is directed by rising-star Gísli Örn Gardarsson and is a joint production of Vesturport and The Reykjavik City Theatre. Woyzeck premiered at The Reykjavik City Theatre in 2005 and was presented at London's Barbican Theatre in 2005 as part of their Young Genius series where its sold-out run received critical acclaim. The production returned to the Barbican in 2006, traveled to Spain in 2007, and will tour to South Korea in May 2009.

Flemish director Guy Cassiers makes his American debut with Sunken Red-a multimedia theater work created in collaboration with and performed by one of Europe's leading stage actors, Dirk Roofthooft.

Oakland East Bay Symphony presents a concert version of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Follies. On Saturday, May 3, a panel discussion on the themes of Follies will take place at the Veteran's Memorial Building on 200 Grand Ave.