High Diplomacy 1969

BAM ushers in 2024 by presenting a season that honors the power of artistic community. See program details and learn how to purchase tickets!

When Alvin Ailey and a small group of African-American modern dancers first took the stage in 1958, appearing at New York City's 92nd Street Y, the engagement was for one night only—but it turned out to be the start of a new era in the performing arts. Mr. Ailey became one of the groundbreaking greats in African American history, while the work of his Company grew beyond the limits of the stage to encompass education at all levels, community outreach and cultural diplomacy. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater now embodies six decades of achievement, celebrating the human spirit with performances that unite and inspire all.

At its annual gala event, Celebrate Colburn, the Colburn School will honor renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and acclaimed architect Frank Gehry with the Richard D. Colburn award, for their exemplary achievements and contributions to the worlds of classical music and the performing arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Celebrate Colburn takes place at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday, April 22, 2018, at 7 p.m., followed by a post-performance dinner at a location to be announced.

Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2014, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival opens its 2015 season in June.

May 26, 2015 - (Becket, MA) Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2014, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival opens its 2015 season in June. Highlights of Festival 2015 include Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a special dance and radio stage production starring Ira Glass, host of This American Life; the return of Nederlands Dans Theater 2; the world premiere of American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Daniil Simkin's INTENSIO; Cuban contemporary ensemble Malpaso Dance Company, performing with GRAMMY Award-winning pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble; and the launch of Martha Graham Dance Company's 90th Anniversary, including a world premiere by eminent choreographer Mats Ek. 

Although the legendary Duke Ellington passed away on May 24, 1974, nearly 40 years ago, his fame and stature continue to grow and blossom. Just this past year alone, After Midnight, a big band musical featuring all-Ellington music in a tribute to Harlem's famous Cotton Club, opened on Broadway and is one of the favorites for winning a TONY Award this year; an SRO audience cheered the hundreds of students who participated in Arranging Ellington, concert of Ellington's sacred music, at Carnegie Hall this past March 23; and the Duke Ellington Center Big Band is finalizing plans for concert tours of France and the US during the upcoming year.

The 19th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films' celebrated annual showcase of the newest and best in contemporary French film, sweeps across screens at The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Soho Rep has again extended the New York premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present a Presentation …, directed by Eric Ting, this time to December 16. Tickets to the American premiere of Nature Theater of Oklahoma's epic serial Life and Times: Episodes 1-4-a Soho Rep production presented by The Public Theater as a special engagement of the Under the Radar Festival 2013-are now on sale. And Soho Rep announces the production that will conclude its 2012-13 season: the world premiere of Lucas Hnath's A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, directed by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson (April 30 - May 26, 2013).

Mercedes Ellington, President of The Duke Ellington Center For The Arts, has announced that the 114th Birthday of her grandfather Duke Ellington will be celebrated with two events this year -- today, April 28, and Monday, April 29 (the Duke's actual birthday).

Mercedes Ellington, President of The Duke Ellington Center For The Arts, has announced that the 114th Birthday of her grandfather Duke Ellington will be celebrated with two events this year -- on Sunday, April 28, and Monday, April 29 (the Duke's actual birthday).

Soho Rep has again extended the New York premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present a Presentation …, directed by Eric Ting, this time to December 16. Tickets to the American premiere of Nature Theater of Oklahoma's epic serial Life and Times: Episodes 1-4-a Soho Rep production presented by The Public Theater as a special engagement of the Under the Radar Festival 2013-are now on sale. And Soho Rep announces the production that will conclude its 2012-13 season: the world premiere of Lucas Hnath's A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, directed by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson (April 30 - May 26, 2013).

Soho Rep has announced its fall-winter 2012-13 mainstage productions on the heels of its twice-extended, immensely acclaimed world premiere of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, adapted by Annie Baker and directed by Sam Gold. This fall and winter, the 13-time OBIE-winning theater will introduce New York audiences to two more highly anticipated new works, by artists whose careers Soho Rep has nurtured: Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, directed by Eric Ting; and Nature Theater of Oklahoma's epic musical serial, Life and Times: Episodes 1-4 a Soho Rep production presented by The Public Theater as a special engagement of the Under the Radar Festival 2013. Soho Rep's 2012/13 season is produced in association with John Adrian Selzer. (The theater will announce its spring production later this fall.)

CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, former UMass professor and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair, playwright and gay-rights activist Martin Duberman, Iran hostage crisis negotiator Ulric Haynes Jr. '52, chemist David K. Lewis '64, New York Public Library President and former Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx, acclaimed narrative nonfiction writer John McPhee and hit songwriter Jim Steinman '69 will all receive honorary degrees from Amherst College during its 191st Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 20, at 10 a.m. on the school's main quad. Amherst President Biddy Martin will deliver the address during the May 20 ceremonies, and seven of the eight honored guests will speak to the approximately 443 members of Amherst's Class of 2012, their families and friends and the college and Western Massachusetts communities in a series of conversations that are free and open to the public on Saturday, May 19. The schedule of discussions with the honorary degree recipients is available on the Commencement website, www.amherst.edu/commencement.

As is frequently noted by lovers of strong book musicals, part of the brilliance of Sherman Edwards (score) and Peter Stone's (book) 1776, their 1969 Broadway tuner about the efforts of John Adams to convince the continental congress to vote for independency from Great Britain, is that the audience walks into the theatre knowing full well how it's going to end, and yet the authors (and history) keep you on The Edge of your seat wondering how the devil it's going to happen. With a unanimous vote necessary ('So that no colony be torn from its mother country without its own consent.') and Pennsylvania's John Dickinson leading the arguments for property-owners whose personal economy is protected by loyalty to the crown and South Carolina's Edward Rutledge keeping the deep south unified in favor of individual states rights that protect their practice of slavery, June of '76 concludes with half the congress against independence.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Tuesday, April 21, 2009.