In White America - 1963 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 6

'Bring it On' meets 'Dreamgirls' in the girl-group musical, 'Betty and the Belrays' by William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James, which will be presented by Theater for the New City January 31 to February 17. The piece tells the story of three white female singers from Detroit who struggle to change a racially divided society by singing for a black record label. Book and lyrics are by William Electric Black. Music is by Black, Valerie Ghent (arranger/keyboards for Ashford & Simpson) and Gary Schreiner. Choreography is by Jeremy Lardieri. Director is Mr. Black.

Sundance Institute adds five feature films and a Special Event to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival's robust slate of independent work today, alongside announcing the winner of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, seven Day One films and the Closing Night Film. The Festival will take place in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 24-February 4, 2019. 

Theatre for a New Audience presents About Alice, the world premiere of a new play by Calvin Trillin, inspired by his 2007 memoir of the same name. The production, directed by Leonard Foglia, plays January 8-February 3, 2019 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn). 

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE is not your typical Broadway musical. Director Teresa Sanderson helped me understand that when she explained at a preview that it was originally conceived as an opera. A chamber opera would be more accurate. And it helps to keep in mind the structure of American short stories so popular decades ago.

O'Brien Entertainment has announced the new cast for its remounted production of The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats at St. Luke's Theatre. Adapted for the stage by Jerome Hairston with music by Victor Zupanc, the show is inspired by four of Keats' most beloved stories, including the 1963 Caldecott Award-winning picture book, The Snowy Day.

The Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, a program within the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, is thrilled to kick off our year-long 90 Years of Dance at Wayne celebration with the annual December Dance Concert, December 7 and 8 at Detroit's Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.  This year's show promises diverse and moving works showcasing highlights of dance through the decades. Dance students have the pleasure of working with a variety of talented artists, including invited guests, esteemed faculty, and talented student choreographers.

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) today honored several outstanding female journalists at the 2018 Courage in Journalism Awards luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street. This year's honorees included news agency JINHA founder, Zehra Do?an, U.S. freelance photojournalist, Meridith Kohut, undercover CNN International correspondent, Nima Elbagir, and organized crime reporter and ZETA editor-in-chief, Rosario Mosso Castro. "60 Minutes'" Lesley Stahl also received the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award. Additionally, MSNBC President, Phil Griffin was recognized with the IWMF Leadership Award along with Bloomberg News' Senior Editor, Karen Toulon who was honored with the Gwen Ifill Award.

The Public Theater presents the North American premiere of Girl from the North Country. Written and directed by Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee Conor McPherson with music and lyrics by music icon Bob Dylan, Girl from the North Country weaves the music of our greatest poet-singer-songwriter into a piercing drama about home, heart, and the searching determination of the American soul. This new musical has been extended three times and will now run through Sunday, December 23.

Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella has announced the new artists for the 2018/2019 Season with the addition of Corps de Ballet member Thays Golz and Apprentice Pau Pujol. Additionally, Pennsylvania Ballet II (PBII) welcomes Lucia Erickson, Arnaldo Hernandez, Mine Kusano, Denis Maciel, Carla Yamuza Masip, Cory Ogdahl, Sophie Savas-Carstens, Paloma Berjano Torrado, and Emily Wilson.

The French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural institution, today announced Crossing The Line Festival 2018, featuring leading international artists in a wide-ranging program of events, performances, and exhibitions from September 18 to October 13, 2018. Tickets are now available at crossingthelinefestival.org.

On July 1, 1968, The Band's landmark debut album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to spring from nowhere and everywhere. Drawing from the American roots music panoply of country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk, and rock 'n' roll, The Band forged a timeless new style that forever changed the course of popular music. Fifty years later, the mythology surrounding Music from Big Pink lives on through the evocative storytelling of its songs including 'The Weight,' 'This Wheel's On Fire,' 'Tears of Rage,' and 'To Kingdom Come,' its enigmatic cover art painted by Bob Dylan, the salmon-colored upstate New York house - 'Big Pink' - where The Band wrote the songs, and in myriad descendant legends carried forth since the album's stunning arrival.

Everyone is welcome to join the conversation at Breaking Glass: Hyperlinking Opera & Issues. This free public forum opens a door to frank discussion about race and diversity in opera. Topics will include how art is produced in an increasingly diversified America, and who has the right to tell whose story; the role of art in stimulating public discussion about racism and discrimination; and what roles social justice plays within the artistic mission of an opera company. All are welcome; and People of Color are encouraged to attend.

Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the cast of FROST/ NIXON, the second production of 2018 Mainstage Season, is now in rehearsal in NYC. FROST/NIXON, a play by Peter Morgan, directed by Sarna Lapine, will run June 26 - July 22, 2018. Single tickets are now on sale, and tickets are also still available as part of a Mainstage Subscription. To purchase tickets and subscriptions, call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or purchase online at www.baystreet.org.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director), an award-winning company presenting Shakespeare alongside other classic and contemporary drama at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Downtown Brooklyn, is pleased to announce its 2018-19 season-the 39th since its founding in 1979.

Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the second production in their 2018 Mainstage Season: FROST/NIXON, a new play by Peter Morgan, directed by Sarna Lapine. The production will run from June 26 - July 22, 2018. Single tickets are now on sale, and tickets are also still available as part of a Mainstage Subscription. To purchase tickets and subscriptions, call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or purchase online at www.baystreet.org.

This August, New York City will host the first ever Classical Bridge, an international music festival, academy and conference designed to build bridges through the music. Presented by New York Concert Artists & Associates (NYCA), the inaugural event runs August 4 - 11 at Merkin Concert Hall atKaufman Music Center (129 West 67th Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave), Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, at 96th Street), and Steinway Hall (1133 Avenue of the Americas at 44th Street). For tickets. reservations and more information visit www.ClassicalBridge.org.

Firebrand Theatre, the first musical theatre company committed to employing and empowering women by expanding opportunities on and off the stage, is pleased to announce its second season, featuring two fully-produced musicals, including a Chicago premiere. 

The Juilliard School today announced that alumnus Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, will address the graduates at the school's 113th commencement ceremony, which takes place Friday, May 18, 2018, at 11am in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Mr. Marsalis received an honorary doctor of music degree from Juilliard in 2006. This will be the final commencement for Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi, who has had a long association with Mr. Marsalis and asked that he be the commencement speaker. In July, Damian Woetzel will begin as the school's seventh president.

Andi Chapman directs the Southern California premiere of Nambi E. Kelley's visceral, groundbreaking stage adaption of Richard Wright's racially charged novel, Native Son, for Antaeus Theatre Company. Wright's iconic novel about oppression, freedom and justice comes to life on stage at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale beginning April 19, with performances continuing through June 3. Low-priced previews take place April 12-18.

The Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival (GIFF) is proud to announce the dynamic 2018 Feature Film Competition Lineup. The festival includes 35 U.S., international and documentary features, as well as other programming, to kick-off its 12th festival season. GIFF will begin on Tuesday, March 20th with the opening night musical/drama, Stuck, starring Giancarlo Esposito, Amy Madigan and Ashanti. 

Madison Square Park Conservancy is proud to announce the opening of its thirty-fifth exhibition, Whiteout by artist Erwin Redl. The project features a luminous white carpet of LED lights across Madison Square Park's central Oval Lawn, on view from November 16, 2017 through March 25, 2018.   

Andi Chapman directs the Southern California premiere of Nambi E. Kelley's visceral, groundbreaking stage adaption of Richard Wright's racially charged novel, Native Son, for Antaeus Theatre Company. Wright's iconic novel about oppression, freedom and justice comes to life on stage at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale beginning April 19, with performances continuing through June 3. Low-priced previews take place April 12-18.

At the laying of Carnegie Hall's cornerstone in 1890, Andrew Carnegie said that "all good causes may here find a platform." At no time during Carnegie Hall's history were those words better represented than in the 1960s when voices were raised in protest, singing out to be heard. Throughout this pivotal decade, among the more than 3,600 events, was an extraordinary variety of benefits and tributes for social causes that used Carnegie Hall's stage as a platform from which to raise funds or awareness.

Trinity Repertory Company will open Karen Zacarias' Native Gardens in April. This hilarious comedy of being neighborly brings commentary on the American Dream, the racial divide, and what happens when we build fictional (and literal) fences.