T. Jones News

My distant cousin Walter Elias 'Walt' Disney had a knack for turning everything into perfection, or at least practically perfect in every way. He took the mean, cranky nanny from P.L. Travers' book "Mary Poppins" and turned her into a saint. He excised two of the four Banks children, allowing the cutest ones to remain in the story. Travers' nanny couldn't dance on rooftops, didn't have adventures with Bert, didn't win at the horse races and couldn't sing. Travers was Australian; they take pride in being able to endure aggressive crocodiles, harsh deserts and appalling alloparenting. For those of us in the northern hemisphere who prefer our protagonists to be a bit on the spoonful of sugar side, Disney's Mary Poppins is just the ticket.

Dallas Theater Center continues its exciting and conversation-provoking 2012-2013 season with the regional premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. This unique experience will transport audience members into the thrilling and aggressive world of professional wrestling, complete with a wrestling ring, while weaving a story of power and class in America. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity runs at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre tonight, October 19 - Sunday, November 11.

As the latest initiative of National YoungArts Foundation's (YoungArts) ongoing work to help increase arts education and awareness, YoungArts has begun distributing copies of Pursuing Your Passion: Lessons from YoungArts MasterClass, a study guide booklet and 2-DVD set, free of charge to middle and high schools nationwide.

The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Unemployment has risen to 24%. Gas is now $42 per gallon. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, continue to mysteriously disappear at the hands of the unknown.

Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. (Bacardi USA) announced today that National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) , a non-profit organization, has acquired the iconic landmark Bacardi Tower and Museum building complex in Miami, Florida. In an act of civic and cultural philanthropy, Bacardi has conveyed the property to YoungArts at a significant reduction of its market value, ensuring that an important part of Miami's architecture, social and cultural fabric will be preserved and honored. Bacardi has always maintained a core philosophy that design, art and architecture reflect a quality of life and the quality of the superior spirits brands produced and marketed by the company.

Antonio Brown, whose work was the centerpiece of EXPLORE DISCOVER (9/22/12) has great potential as a choreographer. Though it might be incumbent upon a local reviewer to extol his work, it would not be a service to him or his audience. Brown is just developing a style and dance philosophy that will take years and maturity to polish, and needs honest evaluation to help him on his path. Verb should be praised for giving the young man a chance to ply his creativity and give him a chance to experiment.

Check out this photo preview from TWO AND A HALF MEN, Thursday, Oct. 18 (8:30-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Dallas Theater Center continues its exciting and conversation-provoking 2012-2013 season with the regional premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. This unique experience will transport audience members into the thrilling and aggressive world of professional wrestling, complete with a wrestling ring, while weaving a story of power and class in America. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity runs at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre Friday, October 19 - Sunday, November 11.

As the country prepares for the 2012 presidential election, Texas Performing Arts welcomes one of America's premiere artists, Laurie Anderson, performing her intimate but volatile piece, Dirtday! Anderson looks at politics, theories of evolution, families, history, and animals in this riotous and soulful collection of songs and stories. As Anderson says, "Politicians are essentially story tellers. They describe the world as it is and also as they think it should be. As a fellow story teller, it seems like a really good time to think about how words can literally create the world."

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center announced today that Donna Walker-Kuhne has joined its senior management staff as Vice President, Marketing. Acknowledged as the nation's "foremost expert on audience diversification" by the Arts & Business Council, Ms. Walker-Kuhne is an accomplished arts administrator and adult educator who has devoted her professional career to increasing the accessibility and connection to the arts by the nation's rapidly growing multicultural population. She has begun her tenure at NJPAC on a part-time basis, coming aboard full-time in November.

New York Live Arts' Ford Foundation Live Gallery is currently featuring CROWD (for Bill T. Jones), a commissioned, site-specific work by artist Donald Baechler. Before Live Arts visitors enter the theater and third floor studio space, they will encounter Baechler's monumental mural. A large-scale paper collage constructed directly on the wall, the work is on view now through January 2013. Members of the press are invited to the view the work at an opening reception on Tuesday, September 18th, 6:30 - 7:30PM. New York Live Arts' 2012-13 presenting season opens the same night, starting at 7:30pm, with Voices of Strength: Dance and Theater by Women from Africa.

In addition to talks by the Met's extraordinary curators, conservators, and educators, the wide-ranging 2012-13 season of performances features Warhol Today, events complementing the exhibition Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years; Framing Beethoven, the string quartets performed by the Endellion Quartet and talks on the composer; The Sau Wing Lam Collection of Violins played by the Salome Chamber Orchestra; jazz great Charles Lloyd, rock legend Patti Smith, Bill T. Jones, Fareed Zakaria, David Linley, and more.

Broadway's new musical CHAPLIN begins previews tomorrow at 8pm and opens September 10 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Meet the cast below!

As the country prepares for the 2012 presidential election, Texas Performing Arts welcomes one of America's premiere artists, Laurie Anderson, performing her intimate but volatile piece, Dirtday! Anderson looks at politics, theories of evolution, families, history, and animals in this riotous and soulful collection of songs and stories. As Anderson says, "Politicians are essentially story tellers. They describe the world as it is and also as they think it should be. As a fellow story teller, it seems like a really good time to think about how words can literally create the world."

Carolina Performing Arts (CPA) at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) today announced the addition of an exceptional two-night program to the performance season of The Rite of Spring at 100. Presented at 8pm on Friday, April 26 and at 9pm on Saturday, April 27,Myth & Transformation by the renowned Martha Graham Dance Company will bring to a conclusion the performance season of this unprecedented nine-month festival celebrating the centennial of the premiere of the Stravinsky-Nijinsky-Roerich masterpiece.

The return engagement of the award-winning production Fela! is set to close after 32 performances at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre tonight, August 4.

Wolf Trap welcomes the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Delaware Rockers George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Motown Legends the Temptations and the Four Tops, Two Consecutive NSO Performances and the Return of the Golden Dragon Acrobats from China, tonight, July 31-Aug 5. See full details below.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors, which runs from July 25 to August 12, will feature 100 free performances across the plazas of Lincoln Center.

When the original Broadway production of Fela! closed in January of 2011, Zuccotti Park was little more than a block-long plaza where Wall Streeters would enjoy a bit of lunchtime sun.  For now, at least, the park has pretty much returned to that status, aside from the tourists taking photos of themselves at the spot now famous for birthing the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Patriotism seems to be a running theme in the Houston theatre scene this summer, and each piece is just as mesmerizing as the one before it. Generations: A Theatre Company's fantastic contribution to this summer's theme of patriotism is Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman's Wild West, rock anthem filled musical BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.