Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA’s 2015–16 program will present a diverse blend of artists in music, theater, dance and spoken word, featuring local performers alongside musicians and dancers from around the world.
One particular focus of CAP UCLA’s programming this season is the massive contribution of women in all art forms. The season also includes programs developed in collaboration with UCLA artists and schools.
The CAP UCLA theater program begins with “Desdemona” (Oct. 8–11), a thoughtfully staged reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Othello” as told from the perspective of the titular character and her nurse Barbary. The piece was written by two powerful female voices in the art of performance, author and American literature icon Toni Morrison and Malian composer-singer Rokia Traoré, who performs the role of Barbary. Tina Benko stars as Desdemona and the work is directed by UCLA professor Peter Sellars, who is renowned worldwide for his innovative treatments of classical material from Western and non-Western traditions, and for his commitment to exploring the role of the performing arts in contemporary society.
The musical and theater adaptation is the first presentation of Sellars’ work by the campus public performing arts program.
“As women’s voices fill the night air, we are in an intimate, spellbinding theatrical séance, both haunted and liberating, that moves in words and music across continents and centuries, connecting Elizabethan England to the Courts of Timbuktu to the future of the race — the human race — on this earth,” Sellars said of Desdemona.
Award-winning choreographer Ann Carlson has been working at UCLA campus since January 2015, collaborating with 100 members of staff and faculty from across the campus to create “The Symphonic Body UCLA” (Nov. 21), a unique dance performance. The tapestry of gesture, conducted by Carlson, provides a window into the breadth of human labor that animates and emanates from the university.
“People all across campus are saying ‘yes,’” Carlson said. “Yes to inspiration, yes to being witnessed, yes to paying attention to the simple and the complex gestural ‘dance’ that makes up our days. We will come together for two very special performances that have been developed by, with and for the people who work on this campus.”
CAP UCLA also has collaborated with UCLA World Arts and Cultures/Dance to present eight performances — including the Jan. 14 world premiere — of “Agua Furiosa” from Los Angeles-based Contra-Tiempo, which is led by local artist–activist Ana Maria Alvarez. The new work, which challenges audiences to confront the harsh realities of race in the U.S., is inspired by Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and tales of Oya, the Afro-Cuban deity of wind and storms. The performances will be staged in UCLA’s intimate Glorya Kaufman Theatre, allowing students and local audiences to encounter this important work.
CAP UCLA will present two concerts as part of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s symposium “Beyond Music: Composition and Performance in the Age of Augmented Reality,” featuring evenings of exceptional repertoire and creative visual presentations by masterful composers Kajia Saariaho (Nov. 7, featuring UCLA’s Gloria Cheng on piano) and Jean-Baptiste Barrière (Nov. 8).
Other highlights in theater include award-winning American director Ann Bogart and SITI Company, which returns to the program with “Steel Hammer” (Oct. 23–24), a collaboration with composer Julia Wolfe and contemporary ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars that uses the legend of John Henry and the vibrant oral traditions of Appalachia to creatively explore the subjects of human versus machine, and the cost of hard labor on the human body and soul.
Bogart and the contemporary music ensemble Kronos Quartet are CAP UCLA’s new Artist Fellows, which constitutes a multiyear commitment from the center to present work from these master artists and to create connections between their bodies of work and local and campus audiences.
Also in theater, Phantom Limb Company, with “Memory Rings” (April 8–9), a new environmentally charged work that takes shape around the “Methuselah Tree,” a 4,800-year-old California bristlecone pine estimated to be the oldest living thing on the planet. “Memory Rings” is the second installment of Phantom Limb’s trilogy of original works about the environment. It combines fairy tale, fable and puppetry, with choreography by Ryan Heffington and original music by Erik Sanko who conceived the work with Jessica Grindstaff, a New York visual artist, designer and director.
The season also features “Rosas: Then and Now,” a four-night survey of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, one of the world’s most influential choreographers, and her company Rosas. It includes two seminal works from the 1980s — “Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich” (Nov. 10) and “Rosas danst Rosas” (Nov. 12) — and two recent works —“Verklärte Nacht” (Nov. 13) and “Vortex Temporum” (Nov. 14). De Keersmaeker’s works are known for the special relationship between music and movement that is inherent in her creative process.
Other highlights in dance performances include a return appearance by Ushio Amagatsu’s powerful Sankai Juku, with “Umusuna: Memories Before History” (Oct. 16–17). The exquisite new work evokes the essence of duality and unity encapsulated in the Japanese characters for “birth” and “earth,” which combine to form the title. Acclaimed British choreographer Akram Khan returns to CAP UCLA with renowned flamenco dancer Israel Galván, for “Torobaka” (March 18–19), an intense physical dialogue that allows each performer to both channel and challenge the movement traditions of kathak and flamenco. And San Francisco-based ODC will bring “boulders and bones” (April 15), inspired by the work of visual artist Andy Goldsworthy and set to an original score by avant cellist Zoë Keating.
The 2015–16 spoken word events are populated by a collection of powerful, maverick women — from the literary genius of Ursula K. Le Guin (Nov. 15) to the brilliant cultural commentary of cartoonist Roz Chast (Jan. 31). Miranda July returns to CAP UCLA for a top-secret community-building experience dubbed “New Society” (Oct. 17–18) at which only those in attendance will know what happened behind the closed theater doors. And on Feb. 11, Moscow-based feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot visits Royce Hall for a conversation with Edward Goldman, host of KCRW-FM’s “Art Talk.”
Music performances feature a wide range of female singers, composers and instrumentalists including Cassandra Wilson, who will perform a disarming Billie Holiday tribute on Oct. 9, and Regina Carter, who takes the stage in collaboration with Sam Amidon on Feb. 26. Also appearing are renowned sitar player Anoushka Shankar (April 13) and Mauritania’s beloved ardine player Noura Mint Seymali, who will perform with Niger’s hypnotic guitar group Tal National (March 5). On March 4, Royce Hall favorite Lucinda Williams will be joined by Bill Frisell and Sean Rowe.
For the past 18 years, Taylor Mac has been a New York musical theater fixture, creating award-winning performances that provoke and embrace diverse audiences. CAP UCLA is a co-commissioner of Mac’s most ambitious project to date, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.” His Royce Hall debut will feature special selections from this ongoing project, “The 20th Century Abridged” (March 12).
Montreal-based scratch DJ and music producer Kid Koala will bring to the stage the magical multidisciplinary presentation of his charming graphic novel “Nufonia Must Fall” (Jan. 29), directed by Oscar-nominated director K.K. Barrett (“Her”) and featuring the dynamic Afiara Quartet.
Throughout the season, CAP UCLA will unveil additional community engagement events and activities, related to season performances. The center also continues its series of “Dig Deeper” activities and installations curated with and by staff from UCLA Library Special Collections.
Design for Sharing, the center’s ongoing K-12 educational program, will offer a series of free performances by season artists as well as other programs and workshops for students from across Los Angeles.
The CAP UCLA 2015–16 season online brochure is available here, and more information on all upcoming programs is available at the CAP UCLA calendar.
