Arena Stage to Premiere THE GRAND PARADE in 2013

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will present Double Edge Theatre's The Grand Parade (of the Twentieth Century), which has been added to the previously announced 2012/13 season lineup.

Imagined through the lens of Marc Chagall's paintings, The Grand Parade "takes audiences on an emotionally stunning journey through the 20th century with the use of aerial flight, puppetry and music. The Grand Parade is the first performance in Double Edge Theatre's multi-year performance cycle inspired by Marc Chagall's visionary art, life and the times in which he lived" and will make its official world premiere during its limited run February 6-10, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

The Grand Parade is conceived and directed by Double Edge Theatre Founder and Artistic Director Stacy Klein and is created with Carlos Uriona, Matthew Glassman, Hayley Brown, Jeremy Louise Eaton, Adam Bright and Milena Dabova. The show is realized with a collaborative team of artists from the United States, Argentina and Russia and features original compositions by Alexander Bakshi of Russia.

"The Grand Parade is a highly visual and unusual, company-built piece that serves as a reminder of the wonderful work collective ensembles do," says Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith. "The company members live and work on a farm in western Massachusetts, and it's a pleasure to bring their work to D.C. to literally take flight in the Kogod Cradle."

Immerse yourself in the "unpredictable and imaginative" (American Theatre) world of acclaimed theater troupe Double Edge Theatre. Inspired by the life and works of visionary artist Marc Chagall, The Grand Parade is an original world-premiere event that will fill the theater with physically daring spectacle that is at once as emotionally nuanced as it is visually thrilling.

The Grand Parade creates a mythology of the American century and its Russian counterpart, from the story of Evelyn Nesbit in the 1900s to the fall of the Wall to the Supreme Court Gore v. Bush decision in 2000. This imaginative, kaleidoscopic mashup of the century echoes Chagall's life, which spanned from 1887 to 1985, and summons the artist's sensibilities and personal memories.

"Work on The Grand Parade has been a wild and revelatory experience, from learning that women are still facing the same century long struggle, and that lessons of war and economy have gone unheeded, to the amazement and sheer fun of peoples' continued attempts to fly, to invent, and to laugh in spite of it all," says Klein. "With Chagall as our muse, we have dared our way through the century's chaos, trying to find our own thousand ways to fly."

For more information on Arena Stage's 2012/13 season, visit arenastage.org/shows-tickets/the-season/.