The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, CUNY, will host the first Academic theatre symposium that focuses on Arab dramaturgy, Towards Arab Dramaturgies, on September 27th and 28th, 2018. This symposium will feature research papers, artist talks and roundtable events. The sessions and papers will be compiled in a publication that will be generated from the discussions at the convening.
Show Time! The First 100 Years of the American Musical is created, written, and performed by Ben West, a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award. Developed over the past four years from more than twenty archives in more than ten states, Show Time! features over two dozen songs in an electrifying live-action documentary, weaving music and performance through a narrative of world, cultural, and theatre history, telling the remarkable story of this uniquely American art form, charting its evolution from the mid-1800s through 1999. Show Time! will cover seven eras of the American musical: Cosmic Collisions (1866-1899), Birth of an Art Form (1900-1924), Rise of the Golden Age (1925-1930), Golden Age, Part One (1931-1950), Golden Age, Part Two (1951-1970), Fall of the Golden Age (1971-1980) and Growing Pains, or Identity Crisis (1981-1999).
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, The City University of New York, curated by Andrew Kircher in collaboration with Frank Hentschker.
Returning to New York after his recital series of Schubert sonatas last spring, pianist Shai Wosner takes the stage with friends and colleagues in four chamber performances across the city-one each month from October to January. Throughout his career, he has embraced chamber music as an essential aspect of his artistry, to be pursued alongside performance as a soloist in recital or with orchestra. Now, this season, New Yorkers have the opportunity to experience his passion for chamber music over several different programs, all within a short window of time this fall and winter. The music of Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) is featured most prominently, including works written for duo, trio, quartet, and quintet ensembles. Additional composers on the programs are Cecile Chaminade, Schumann, Mozart, and contemporary American composer William Bolcom, who this year celebrates his 80th birthday.
In this collaboratively-created play by blossoming theater company TV, the ensemble unpacks the longing one can feel for another time and place, whether real or imagined: childhood, years without war, early human history, a time when everyone enjoyed the outdoors and raised chickens and heard gossip from the neighbors, when strawberries were tiny and sour. With choral odes by Deepali Gupta, this whimsical show hops millennia in its exploration of what once was or never was at all.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of four Honorees who will receive the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, and a special Honors distinction for a work of art and its co-creators. Recipients to be honored at the 41st annual national celebration of the arts are: singer and actress Cher, composer and pianist Philip Glass, Country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. This year, the co-creators of Hamilton-writer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and music director Alex Lacamoire-will receive a unique Kennedy Center Honors as trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents the annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).
UnsungMusicalsCo. and The York Theatre Company announced today a partnership for the next three years for UMC's Show Time! Trilogy. UnsungMusicalsCo. (UMC) focuses on researching and developing prescient projects that explore the vibrancy of the American musical theatre canon, and how past works influence the artists and repertoire of today and tomorrow.
California Shakespeare Theater continues its 44th Season with the West Coast Premiere of Everybody, a sparkling new riff on the 15th-century morality play The Summoning of Everyman by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whom the New York Times calls "one of this country's most original and illuminating writers.' A finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Everybody is Cal Shakes' second official offering under the New Classics Initiative (NCI), exploring what it means to be a classical theater in the 21st century, and to allow living writers to expand our classical canon. Directed by Nataki Garrett making her Cal Shakes debut, Everybody plays July 18 - August 5 at the Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda. Low-priced previews take place July 18-20; Opening Night is July 21. Tickets (ranging from $20?$92) are available through the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666 or by visiting www.calshakes.org. Ticket prices are subject to change without notice.
The fifth edition of The Americas Film Festival of New York (TAFFNY), June 7-15, 2018, showcases feature films in fiction and documentary as well as shorts and animations that represent the rich diversity of cultures, languages and stories of the Americas. The Festival begins Thursday June 7, 6:30pm, at the Instituto Cervantes (211 East 49thStreet) with the New York premiere of Handia by Spanish directors Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi. Handia, which means Giant in Basque language, is a touching drama about the tough life of mid-19th century traveling circus 'freaks'. 'An uneasy universe with complexity, subtlety, emotion and truth,' according to Carlos Boyero of the newspaper El Pais. The evening wraps up with a cocktail reception in the courtyard of Instituto Cervantes. All screenings are free and open to the public and foreign language films are subtitled in English.
On Sunday, May 27, 2018 at 4:00pm, the pioneering International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) presents a program of works by composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir highlighting her unorthodox use of the piano. ICE pianist Cory Smythe, a champion and commissioner of Anna's solo music, is in the center of National Sawdust's stage, circled by the audience, with the audience encircled by ICE musicians, immersed in the music. Conductor Steven Schick, a longtime ICE collaborator, leads the ensemble. This performance is part of ICE's year long participation as a National Sawdust 2017-18 Artists-in-Residence. This project is supported by Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology program.
As part of the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the International Play Festival will showcase play readings by ten voices from around the globe. With playwrights hailing from four different continents, the Festival aims to enrich awareness of global dialogues, by bridging American audiences and international theatre-makers. All readings will be followed by a discussion with the playwright and director.
The Kitchen presents Sasquatch Rituals, a cycle of performance ritual installations initiated by Sibyl Kempson and her 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co., tracking and responding to her consuming experiences as an investigator for the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (April 24-28).
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is happy to announce the full line-up of its annual PEN World Voices International Play Festival. As part of the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the International Play Festival will showcase play readings by ten voices from around the globe. With playwrights hailing from four different continents, the Festival aims to enrich awareness of global dialogues, by bridging American audiences and international theatre-makers. All readings will be followed by discussion with the playwrights and directors.
UMC will present an exploratory reading of select scenes and songs from the new musical The Bergen Letters on Monday, April 2nd at 6pm at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. The cast will include Traci Bair, Nick Corley (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, You Can't Take It with You), Rachel de Benedet (Catch Me If You Can, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Becky Gulsvig (Beautiful, School of Rock, Legally Blonde), Aaron Ramey (The Visit, Bridges of Madison County), Danny Rutigliano (Holiday Inn, Born Yesterday) and Morgan Weed (American Psycho, First Wives Club).
The Bergen Letters is an original musical telling the story of a closeted female college professor in the 1950s, who, though married with a child, finds herself falling for a young female grad student.
Widely recognized as a leading Schubert interpreter, pianist Shai Wosner performs the composer's last six piano sonatas over three evenings in his recital series Schubert: The Great Sonatas at the 92nd Street Y, April 13, May 4, and May 11, all Fridays at 9:00 p.m. This series is the centerpiece of the 92nd Street Y's Soundspace series Schubert: Epic and Intimate in the venue's Buttenwieser Hall.
The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm. The organization will honor renowned opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe with the NYCHORAL Music Excellence Award for her contributions to the musical profession, as well as Sylvia R. Hoisington who is celebrating her 50th season with the chorus. Produced in partnership with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the evening's showcase performance will feature soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Ben Bliss, both of whom will be participating in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Cosi fan tutte from March 15 to April 9, 2018. Members of the NYCHORAL Chamber Ensemble will also perform. The evening will feature a silent auction of unique items and experiences. The program is as follows:
