Contributions - 1970 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 11

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Renee Taylor's MY LIFE ON A DIET, the award-winning, autobiographical comedy written by Taylor and Joseph Bologna, which opens its 12 performance, limited engagement on Friday, April 5 and continues through Sunday, April 14, 2019, in The Wallis's Bram Goldsmith Theater.

The award-winning, autobiographical comedy MY LIFE ON A DIET, starring Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning writer and actress Renee Taylor, will kick off a national tour this spring with three performances at The Gateway, Performing Arts Center of Suffolk County (215 South Country Road, Bellport, NY 11713) on Friday, March 15 at 8pm and Saturday, March 16 at 3pm & 8pm. The tour continues with a limited run at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' Lovelace Studio Theater (9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210) from Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 14. Dates in other cities across the U.S. and in Canada will be announced in the coming weeks.

Matthew Lopez's epic two-part drama The Inheritance was the big winner at the 2018 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards held today (29 January 2019) at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End, hosted by Critics' Circle Drama Section Chairman Mark Shenton.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can will present the 2019 Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund (PCF) concert, one of the most anticipated and reliable launching pads for composers in New York and beyond. The performance is presented as part of Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall (Kaufman Music Center, 129 W. 67th St.) and a New Sounds Live co-presentation with host John Schaefer, streamed live at www.newsounds.org. 

In 1989, Jonathan Larson, a 29-year-old composer, began working on a musical adaptation of Puccini's La Boheme. Set amid the late 1980's, early 90's in New York City's East Village the musical would tell the story of a makeshift bohemian family of artists navigating poverty, homelessness, gay life, drug addiction and the AIDS epidemic.

The 24 Hour Plays announced that they will once again partner with Bennington College in a one-night-only benefit, The 24 Hour Plays: A Bennington Tribute to Nicky Martin and Spencer Cox on Monday, January 21st at 8:00 PM at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City.   

Ballet Hispánico, the nation's premier Latino dance organization, presents Diálogos: Women of Color in the Arts today, January 10, 2019 at 6:30pm at the Arnhold Center, 167 West 89th Street, Studio 10. Admission is free and reservations can be made at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dialogos-women-of-color-in-the-arts-tickets-47854309528.

Spring activities for the Centennial, which continues through all of 2019, include a wide range of performances, film screenings, discussions, education initiatives, community programming, and new works by other artists in conversation with Merce Cunningham's work.

The California Symphony kicks off 2019 with two performances of A TANGO WITH MOZART at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 8pm and Sunday, Jan. 20 at 4pm. Music Director Donato Cabrera leads a free, 30-minute pre-concert talk for ticketholders, starting an hour before each show.

Ballet Hispánico, the nation's premier Latino dance organization, presents Diálogos: Women of Color in the Arts on Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 6:30pm at the Arnhold Center, 167 West 89th Street, Studio 10. Admission is free and reservations can be made at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dialogos-women-of-color-in-the-arts-tickets-47854309528.

Canadian Brass are the grand masters of the holidays, crisscrossing the globe every December, bringing their hallmark gifts of virtuosity and old-fashioned fun. On Tuesday, December 11 at 8:00pm, they come to the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya). Beginning in 1970, Canadian Brass rescued these sometimes-overlooked instruments and placed them center stage. They have entered America's living rooms on The Tonight Show, Entertainment Tonight, and Sesame Street, and when they're back up north, they are called upon to perform for visiting heads of state by invitation of the Canadian government.

The McCallum Theatre presents the Canadian Brass and their program "Christmas Time is Here" on Wednesday, December 12, at 8:00pm. Canadian Brass rings in the holiday season with a program of festive classics and brass standards. With impeccable musicianship, theatrical flair, and heartwarming humor, Canadian Brass is a favorite of audiences across the globe. This chart-topping ensemble has been thrilling audiences for 4 decades - don't miss your chance to see this legendary group live! The game-changing brass quintet Canadian Brass has performed in virtually every major concert hall in the world, been seen by hundreds of millions of people on television, sold 2 million of their albums worldwide, and contributed nearly 600 new works and arrangements to the brass quintet repertoire. 

Last night, Renee Taylor won the annual The United Solo Special Award, which recognizes artists who have made significant recent contributions to solo theatre during the year, for her critically acclaimed autobiographical comedy MY LIFE ON A DIET. Along with Ms. Taylor, this year's nominees included Derek DelGaudio (In & Of Itself), Alison S. M. Kobayashi (Say Something Bunny!), John Lithgow (Stories By Heart), Chita Rivera (An Evening with Chita Rivera) and Bruce Springsteen (Springsteen on Broadway).

It wasn't the Country Music Awards or Grammy Awards at the new Birdland Theater last night but it sure seemed like it. An overflow audience for the Victoria Shaw concert got a surprise as Victoria called up two of her friends who were in the audience……..Desmond Child, and then Kristin Chenoweth each sang a number. Even Jim Caruso who has hosted every famous person on the planet whipped out his cell phone camera for this one.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns to the theater's stage from November 28 - December 30, 2018 for a milestone season. During the Company's Ailey Ascending 60th Anniversary celebration, Artistic Director Robert Battle leads Ailey's 32 extraordinary dancers during this five-week holiday engagement that will elevate a legacy of excellence in artistry with premieres by some of today's most revered and prolific choreographers, including world premieres by Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown; a company premiere by Wayne McGregor; a new production of by Robert Battle; the return of a recent premiere by Jessica Lang, and special performances of rarely seen works by Alvin Ailey himself.

Carnegie Hall today announced that in recognition of a gift of $1 million from legendary jazz producer George Wein and honoring his incredible legacy presenting leading jazz artists at the Hall, The Shape of Jazz concert series will be formally named the Joyce and George T. Wein Shape of Jazz series. The series kicks off this Saturday, November 10, at 9:00 p.m. at a sold-out Zankel Hall performance by Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader, and 2011 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Dafnis Prieto featuring his 17-piece orchestra.

Inspired by a 1970 Federico Fellini film, OLD CLOWN WANTED centers on three aging clowns who compete for a job in a room with no windows and very little furniture, in which theater and circus arts are intertwined in an absurdist, cynical, tender and very funny look at aging and man's fear of uselessness in society. The entertaining and non-stop action in this new translation from the French by Jeremy Lawrence, is appropriately directed by Romanian-born Florinel Fatulescu, who has won numerous theater awards for his daring and innovative style. While the overall production seemed very Italian in nature to me, there was certainly enough Vaudevillian slapstick schtick to keep audiences laughing from start to finish.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2018-19 Celebrity Opera Series continues -Placido Domingo with soprano Ailyn Perez on Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30pm.  Eugene Kohn conducts the orchestra.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

Black Theatre Troupe presents The Super Soul Musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" September 28 - October 14 At Tempe Arts Center. This joyous, modern retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic children's story reflects contemporary African-American culture. After Dorothy gets swept up in a tornado, she finds herself in the fantastical world of Oz.

In 2015, Stephen Petronio Company culminated its 30th anniversary 2014-15 season with a transformation: the launch of Bloodlines. This autobiographical project not only honors the lineage of American postmodern dance, but also traces the influences and impulses that have shaped choreographer Stephen Petronio, an artist uniquely positioned to preserve this postmodern tradition.

Misty Copeland will open the 61st annual Dance Magazine Awards. The evening will honor Ronald K. Brown, Lourdes Lopez(presented by Darren Walker), Crystal Pite, and Michael Trusnovec (presented by Patrick Corbin). A special Leadership Award will be presented to Nigel Redden. Since 1954 the Dance Magazine Awards have recognized outstanding men and women whose contributions have left a lasting impact on dance. This year's Awards will take place on Monday December 3, 2018 at The Ailey Citigroup Theater at 7:30pm.

The Paul Taylor Dance Foundation announced the death yesterday of legendary choreographer Paul Taylor in Manhattan on August 29.