May 14, 2018 - New York, NY NYU SKIRBALL ANNOUNCES 2018-19 SEASON
Multi-Genre Performances and International Artists Inspire, Provoke, Challenge and Delight
NYU Skirball’s 2018-19 season will open at midnight on September 8, 2018 with an all-night storytelling marathon from the U.K.’s acclaimed Forced Entertainment theater company, today announced Director Jay Wegman. The season will feature over 60 unconventional, timely and often controversial multidisciplinary works and events by some of the world’s leading provocateurs, innovators, artists and activists, and will include five marathon events, including the North American premiere of Jan Fabre’s monumental, 24-hour Mount Olympus: to glorify the cult of tragedy; a two-week bicentennial festival honoring philosopher Karl Marx; dance premieres from acclaimed choreographers; award-winning theater, music, circus, and burlesque; a 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising; and the Elevator Repair Service’s award-winning, eight-hour production of Gatz.
The season will showcase diverse and cutting-edge international artists from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, Tonga, the U.K., Uruguay, and the United States, and will include five world premieres, five American premieres and seven New York premieres, running from September 8, 2018 – May4, 2019.
“NYU Skirball is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, historically a center of resistance, dissent, free thinking and artistic richness. NYU Skirball’s 2018-19 season honors and reflects this legacy of protest by featuring works of diverse genres, cultures and perspectives, including a months-long commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising,” said Jay Wegman. “With this season’s mix of theater, dance and performance, we proudly embrace renegade artists and companies who are courageous, outrageous, and mind-blowing. After all, we are NYU’s largest classroom and we’re here to engage, provoke, and inspire.”
NYU SKIRBALL 2018-19 SEASON:
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
NYU Skirball season opens with two New York premieres from Forced Entertainment, one of the U.K.’s most exciting experimental theater companies:And on the Thousandth Night…, an overnight fairytale of epic proportions, and Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, a six-night retelling of the entire Shakespearean canon – with everyday household objects standing in for the Bard’s heroes and heroines.
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT: AND ON THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT…
Saturday, September 8 at midnight
This may be the longest all-night bedtime story ever told. Inspired by the classic Tales of the Arabian Nights, the storytelling begins at midnight and continues until dawn, with never-ending tales that explore the relationship between a story, its storyteller, and its audience. Hysteria, absurd vulgarity and surprising tenderness combine to result in a constantly mutating story that encapsulates all the stories of the world.
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT: COMPLETE WORKS: TABLE TOP SHAKESPEARE
Tuesday, September 11 – Sunday, September 16
A salt and pepper shaker for the king and queen. A ruler for the prince. A spoon for the servant. Lighter fluid for the Innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger.
Condensed versions of each and every Shakespearean play are comically and lovingly retold, transformed by a “cast” of household objects into 36 intimate and lovingly made miniatures, played out on an everyday table-top. The stories of the plays vividly come to life over six nights, as the act of storytelling and theater itself is celebrated. (See www.nyuskirball.org for schedule)
Forced Entertainment is a U.K.-based theater company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, the group has sustained a unique, collaborative practice for more than thirty years, producing work that explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theater itself, drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up.forcedentertainment.com/
BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY: THE ANALOGY TRILOGY
Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23 at 3 pm
NYU Skirball presents two marathon performances of Bill. T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s acclaimed Analogy Trilogy. This is a rare opportunity to see the three parts of the Trilogy performed as a whole. The complete Trilogy is made up of Dora: Tramontane; Lance: Pretty aka the Escape Artist; and Ambros: The Emigrant (in its New York City premiere).
Analogy Trilogy, inspired by W.G. Sebald’s “The Emigrants,” was created by Bill T. Jones, Associate Artistic Director Janet Wong, and the company, over the course of four years. It combines dance, theater and oral history in an investigation of memory, storytelling and form. Performed to live music composed by Nick Hallett, the complete trilogy searches for the connection between three varying stories, focusing on memory and the effect of events on the actions of individuals.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, founded in 1982, was born out of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948–1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world. NYLA/Bill T. Jones
BORIS CHARMATZ:10000 GESTURES
Thursday, September 27 & Friday, September 28 at 7:30 pm
For this highly ambitious piece, having its North American premiere, a 24-strong ensemble of dancers perform, in succession, 10,000 gestures – none repeated, every one unique. At once joyous and melancholy, ephemeral and unforgettable, 10000 gesturesreinvents the language of dance in thrilling fashion.
French choreographer Boris Charmatzis widely celebrated for his experimental approach to contemporary dance. Since 2009, Charmatz has been the director of the Rennes & Brittany National Choreographic Centre, transforming it into the cutting-edge Museum of Dance (Musée de la danse). He has recently presented work to great acclaim at Sadler’s Wells, Tate Modern and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. borischarmatz.org
Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line Festival. Supported by the Hermès Foundation within the framework of the New Settings Program.
TERE O’CONNOR:LONG RUN
Friday, October 12 & Saturday, October 13 at 7:30 pm
A New York premiere from Tere O’Connor, Long Run (2017) pushes the emotional content of O’Connor’s movement to new physical extremes, allowing time-based elements like polyrhythms, velocity and duration to become major forces in the work, overtaking the eight performers as they struggle to bring their bodies into a state of calm.
Tere O’Connor is Artistic Director of Tere O’Connor Dance. He has created over 40 works for his company and toured these throughout the US, Europe, South America and Canada. He has created numerous commissioned works for international dance companies, solo works for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jean Butler, and has received three Bessie Awards. The company’s performers and collaborators constitute a family of artists who are dedicated to expanding the potency of dance as a serious art form. For O’Connor, meaning is arrived at in collaboration with the audience and its endlessly diverse, referential world. tereoconnordance.org
Co-commissioned by NYU Skirball and Live Arts Bard, with additional commissioning support from the American Dance Festival.
Karl Marx Festival: ON YOUR MARX
October 17 – 28
“The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.”– Karl Marx
Taking these words to heart, NYU Skirball will present a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth, two–week commemoration of the great philosopher’s 200th birthday. Admission to all performances is free: however, audiences will receive an invoice detailing the cost of every element of the production (supply). They are then free to determine the worth of the production and donate accordingly (demand) thus enabling the artists to “earn money in order to live and write.”
Karl Marx(1818–83), revolutionary economist, philosopher and author of The Communist Manifesto, was one of the most influential figures of all time. Curated by Jay Wegman and inspired by Marxist writings on the perils of capitalism, class struggle and socialism, the festival features works that represent aspects of Marx’s theories: P Project (the effects of capitalism); Brujx (the oppression of the proletariat) and Non-Western (economics). Special events include panels, talks by international philosophers and the premiere of Choral Marx, a choral adaptation of Marx’s Manifesto.
IVO DIMCHEV: P PROJECT
Wednesday, October 17 at 7:30 pm
P Project tests Marx’s theories on capitalism by offering audiences cold, hard cash in exchange for a performance.Ivo Dimchev is a Bulgarian performing artist, known internationally for his provocative and often controversial works of performance art. P Project (2012) is an escalating, interactive performance where actual cash fuels participation based on several P words, such as Piano, Pray, Pussy, Poetry, Poppers, and so on. The People will be offered several opportunities to Participate in the P Project, for which they be Paid quite well.
Ivo Dimchev, is a Bulgarian choreographer, visual artist, singer-songwriter, now living in London. His work is extreme and colorful mixtures of performance art, dance, theater, music, drawings and photography. Dimchev has created over 30 pieces, has received numerous international awards, and has presented his work across Europe, South America and North America. He is the founder and director of Bulgaria’s Humarts Foundation, organizes an annual competition for contemporary Bulgarian choreography, is an Artist in Residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels, and tours extensively. In 2014, he opened MOZEI in Sofia, Bulgaria, as an independent space for presenting contemporary art and music. ivodimchev.com
LUCIANA ACHUGAR:BRUJX
Friday, October 19 & Saturday, October 20 at 7:30 pm
Brujx, a world premiere, ritualizes the labor of the dancers, exposing and transcending it to unearth the powerful and primal magic brujx within them. As in all of achugar’s work it proposes DANCE as the necessary transformational healing for our time. Brujx resists western assumptions of beauty and hierarchical order, freeing the dancers both of their role as worker in the power structure within the creative project and of the universal shame of being animal-sexual-powerful-instinctive creatures.
luciana achugar, a Brooklyn-based choreographer from Uruguay, has been making work in NYC and Uruguay independently and collaboratively since 1999. She is a two-time Bessie Award recipient and was nominated for a 2016 Bessie for Outstanding Production for her latest An Epilogue for OTRO TEATRO: True Love. She was a 2017 Alpert Award recipient, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grantee, amongst other accolades. She was one of Dance Magazine’s 2012 “25 to Watch” and her Bessie Award-winning work PURO DESEO was named one of 2010 Time Out/NY’s “Best of Dance.” Her works also include The Pleasure Project and OTRO TEATRO. lachugar.org
MY BARBARIAN: NON-WESTERN
Friday, October 26 & Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 pm
A NYC premiere set in the California Republic of 1848, Non-Western is a quick-change musical fantasy that plays with the tropes of the Western genre. Economic desires motivate its figures, from ranchero to coyote, all of whom are portrayed by the three members of My Barbarian in an unstable exchange of costumes, puppets, action figures and projections. Even as class drama drives the plot, the colonial situation confuses a Marxist analysis, and signals the kinds of appropriations and adaptations Marxist critique undergoes in the non-West. Songs include “Toward a Leftist Positionality” and “The Form of Personal Property.”
My Barbarian is a performance group made up of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade. Their work plays with social difficulties and theatricalizes historic problems. Since 2000, they have presented work in major venues internationally, in solo and group exhibitions, museum programs and theater festivals. They were included in two Performa Biennials, two California Biennials, the Biennale de Montréal, and the Whitney Biennial. They’ve received awards and fellowships from United States Artists, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Art Matters and the City of Los Angeles. mybarbarian.com
CHORAL MARX:MANIFESTO FOR THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN EIGHT MOVEMENTS
Sunday, October 28 at 5 pm
Choral Marxis a singing adaptation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Manifesto for the Communist Party. It is a piece for mixed chorus—mixed not just in terms of gendered voice parts but also in terms of training and ability—made up of vocalists from both the contemporary music scene and socialist organizing communities, accompanied by an ensemble of five cellos and five flutes. It is an attempt to re-sound Marx and Engels’s1848 critique of capitalism in 2018 and explore how the Manifesto continues to resonate today.
Ethan Philbrick, a Brooklyn-basedcomposer and writer, has performed original work in New York at BRIC, SculptureCenter, Abrons Arts Center and the Grey Art Gallery. His writing has been published in TDR,PAJ, Women and Performance, Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Movement Research Performance Journal. He teaches in the MFA in Performance + Performance Studies Program at Pratt Institute. ethanphilbrick.com
JAN FABRE: MOUNT OLYMPUS,TO GLORIFY THE CULT OF TRAGEDY (a 24-hour performance)
Saturday, November 10 at 5 pm – Sunday, November 11 at 5 pm
“Majestic, exhausting and exhilarating – a hallucinatory vision of Homeric themes … a night-time garden orgy.” – The Guardian (U.K.)
Mount Olympus: to glorify the cult of tragedy (a 24-hour performance) is a graphic, 24-hour Dionysian orgy of madness, murder, and music — a hallucinatory vision of Homeric themes and characters, played by 27 performers, that come to life in one day and one night. It is the age of humanity, and the birth of tragedy in its most fundamental form: mutilation, obscenity and purification. Acclaimed Belgium director Jan Fabre’sAmerican premiereoutlines stories and characters from Greek tragedy, wrenching open their flaws until they are left in tatters, smashed by violence, Homeric laughter and ecstasy. Mount Olympus is not a modernization of Greek tragedy. It is an investigation of the impossibility of representing that which mutilates us and makes us pure again.
Alongside tragedy, time also plays a leading role. What is time in the theater? What happens when time is stretched? Fabre intensifies the present moment, the eternal here and now of theater, in a maelstrom of images that pull the audience into a mode of temporal experience, a labyrinth of time. The performers speak a language punctuated by hesitations, silences and death rattles, a language that is sometimes just a scream. They allow Fabre to question the concept of time: What is time, in theater? What happens when time is stretched out, until it relaxes and unravels? Is this a sort of hallucination? A dream? What is it like to wallow in the swamp of insomnia?www.mountolympus.be
Belgian director, multidisciplinary artist and choreographerJan Fabre is one of the most versatile and provocative artists on the international stage, known for pushing the boundaries of art and performance. Chaos and discipline, repetition and madness, metamorphosis and the anonymous are all indispensable ingredients in Fabre’s works. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theater by introducing the concept of ‘real-time performance’ – sometimes called ‘living installations’ – and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance. troubleyn.be/eng/about-jan-fabre
DANCE HEGINBOTHAM: Fantasque
Saturday, November 16 at 3 & 7:30 pm; Sunday, November 17 at 3 pm
Fantasque, a NYC premiere,is an ebullient and magical pageant created by choreographer John Heginbotham and puppeteer Amy Trompetter. Giant puppets and human dancers join forces to create a fable of a battle of light and darkness, with a fantastical cast of characters featuring giant babies, blue angels, devils, rats, and a restaurant where the customers are tuxedo-wearing fish. Performed to live music composed by Ottorino Respighi, and adapted from piano pieces by Giaochino Rossini, Fantasque ruminates on morality and immorality as seen through a child’s eyes in a series of connected vignettes bound by an unconventionaland tender merging of puppetry and dance.
John Heginbotham, a former member of Mark Morris Dance Group, founded Dance Heginbotham in 2011. The company has been presented and commissioned by prestigious venues including Bard College, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, The Kennedy Center and The Joyce Theater, and has toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Heginbotham is the recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. danceheginbotham.org
Amy Trompetter creates giant puppet operas, outdoor pageants and hand puppet shows. Her critically-acclaimed production of The Barber of Sevilleexposed and transgressed scripted content and operatic form. Her Punch & Judy just persuaded Brazilians to host an all-women’s hand puppet festival next year. She collaborates in prisons, brings puppetry to street actions and neighborhood centers upstate, and is the founder of Redwing Blackbird Theater, a puppet workshop and performing space in Rosendale, NY. redwingblackbirdtheater.com
Fantasque was commissioned by and developed in residence at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it received its world premiere at Bard SummerScape in July 2016.
CIRQUE ALFONSE:BARBUELECTRO TRAD CABARET
Thursday, January 3 & Friday, January 4 at 7:30 pm
BARBU Electro Trad Cabaret, a New York premiere, is a bellyful of cheeky humor and brazen eccentricity. It’s a circus of exceptionally strong men and women, delivering edge-of-your-seat adult entertainment set to a rollicking soundtrack from a frenetic live band. Direct from Canada, Cirque Alfonse is famed for shows that explore the edges of contemporary circus. Barbucreates a strange and wonderful world, straddling old traditions with a modern edge – a wildly exuberant night out at the circus.
Cirque Alfonse’s blend of arts and circus techniques is rooted in the traditions of their Québec home. The company was founded in 2014 by the Carabinier Lepine family and acrobats who have performed with some of the world’s renowned “nouveau cirque” companies, including Les 7 doigts de la main, Cirque du Soleil, Cirkus Cirkör and many others. The company has toured across the USA as well as to Europe, Australia and Asia.cirquealfonse.com
BRIEFS:THE SECOND COMING
Sunday, January 6 & Monday, January 7 at 7:30 pm
Briefs: The Second Coming, an American premiere, is a madcap, all-male, gender-bending cabaret – a heart-stopping blend of burlesque, Australian machismo and punkish swagger. Its cast of six Aussies and one New Yorker are powered by a fierce energy as they mix up a potent blend of drag, glamour and athleticism, infused with dancing, tumbling, juggling, acro-balancing, trapeze, hula hooping, lip syncing, sequins, feathers and frocks.
Briefs Factory is an internationally recognized independent artist and producer’s collective dedicated to developing and presenting bold, contemporary and inspiring collaborative work. The company established itself as a leader on the cabaret and circus world stage following the success of their flagship show Briefs, which took Edinburgh Fringe by storm in 2011. Their second show, Briefs: The Second Coming, won Best Circus at Perth Fringe in 2013 and 2014; and sold out consecutive runs in London, Perth, Adelaide and Edinburgh Festival. Briefs Factory’s other award- winning works include Hot Brown Honey, Club Briefs and Briefs: Close Encounters. briefsfactory.com
ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE: GATZ
Wednesday, January 23 – Sunday, February 3
“The most remarkable achievement in theater not only of this year but also of this decade.” – Brantley, N.Y. Times
Gatz, the critically lauded performance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” was last seen in New York in 2012. Created by Obie-winning ensemble Elevator Repair Service, this multi-award-winning play, with a cast of thirteen, is a theatrical tour de force — not just a retelling of the Gatsby story but a thoroughly entertaining dramatization of the entire novel, word for word.
Gatz will be presented as a marathon eight-hour event, including two intermissions and a dinner break.
Elevator Repair Service, based in NYC, has been making original theater since 1991. Under the direction of Artistic Director John Collins, ERS has achieved national and international recognition with its extensive body of work and has influenced a generation of theater-makers. The company’s performances have been presented in Europe, Australia, Asia, South America and across the United States, and have been recognized with numerous awards. elevator.org.
(See www.nyuskirball.org for schedule)
NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND: ADAM
Thursday, February 14 – Saturday, February 16 at 7:30 pm
Adam, a North American premiere, is the remarkable, true story of a young trans man, born in Egypt. Trapped in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he had to escape. He typed this question into his laptop: “Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?” What followed was beyond his wildest dreams. Adam features a score sung by a virtual choir of trans and non-binary individuals from across the world who are projected onto the stage. It is both a bold exploration of the experience of a young transgender person and an ambitious experiment with theatrical form, blending storytelling, classical composition and mass digital elements from participants from around the globe.
The National Theatre of Scotland is dedicated to playing the great stages, arts centers, village halls, schools and site-specific locations of Scotland, the U.K. and internationally. As well as creating groundbreaking productions and working with the most talented theater-makers, the company produces significant community engagement projects, innovates digitally and works constantly to develop new talent. Founded in 2006, the company has become a globally significant theatrical player, with an extensive repertoire of award-winning work. The National Theatre of Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government.nationaltheatrescotland.com
MILO RAU: FIVE EASY PIECES
Thursday, March 7 – Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 pm
“The entire audience came out of the performance with a smile on their face, and at the same time had their stomach in knots. It was completely incredible.”– RTBF Radio
Five Easy Pieces, a North American premiere, probes the limits of what children know, feel, and do, as seven children present the true story of notorious Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux. Swiss director Milo Rauand his International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) explore aesthetic and theatrical questions that blend together with moral issues: How can children understand the significance of narrative, empathy, loss, subjection, old age, disappointment, or rebellion? How do we react if we see them acting out scenes of violence or love and romance? What does that say about our own fears and desires? Together with CAMPO Arts Centre from Ghent, Rau created his first work with children on stage. It will be presented in Flemish, with English supertitles.
MILO RAU, a Swiss theater and film director, journalist, essayist, and lecturer, founded the theater and film production company International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) which he has been running ever since. His productions, campaigns and films have been invited to some of the biggest national and international festivals. The Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgiquerecently named him “one of Europe’s most sought-after directors” with the German weekly Der Freitagdescribing him “as the most controversial theatre director of his generation.”campo.nu internatinal-institute.de
A.I.M.: LIVE! THE REALEST MC
Thursday, April 4 – Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 pm
Kyle Abraham, Artistic Director ofA.I.M., is a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, a 2015 City Center choreographer in residence and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. A.I.M. (formerly Abraham In Motion) was born into hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and grounded in Abraham’s artistic upbringing in classical cello, piano, and the visual arts.Abraham’s work entwines a sensual and provocative vocabulary with a strong emphasis on sound, human behavior and all things visual. abrahaminmotion.org
STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY: BLOODLINES
Thursday, April 11- Sunday, April 13 at 7:30 pm
Stephen Petronio Company presents its most ambitious season of Bloodlines, a five-year autobiographical project that 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. The program includes a world premiere by Petronio alongside works by postmodern masters. To date, the company has restaged works by Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton.
Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petroniois widely regarded as one of the leading dance-makers of his generation. New music, visual art and fashion collide in his dances, producing powerfully modern landscapes for the senses. Founded in 1984, Stephen Petronio Company has performed in 26 countries throughout the world, including over 35 New York City engagements.www.Petron.io
HOT BROWN HONEY
Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 pm
Hot Brown Honey, an American premiere, packs a potent punch of Hip Hop politics, dance, poetry, comedy, circus, striptease and song, and features a bevy of powerful and talented First Nations women from Aboriginal Australian, Samoan, Tongan, Indonesian and South African backgrounds. With their own brand of fierceness, these six sexy, sassy, and stylish women boldly shatter preconceptions in an explosion of color, culture and controversy.
Set in a dazzling beehive with lighting, music and costume to rival Beyoncé at Madison Square Garden, Hot Brown Honey goes above and beyond all expectations as it pushes boundaries and defies labels. It is equal parts theatrical spectacular and social activism, presented by Australia’s infamous Briefs Factory. Hot Brown Honey won the Edinburgh Fringe’s prestigious Total Theatre Award in 2016. hotbrownhoney.com
CUNNINGHAM CENTENARY: IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE
Friday, May 3 & Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm
Merce Cunninghamis widely considered one of the most important choreographers of all time. Throughout his 70-year career, he continued to innovate, helping to drive the evolution of the American avant-garde and expanding the frontiers of contemporary visual and performance arts. His collaborations with artists from every creative discipline yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music and visual art.
As a part of the Merce Cunningham Centenary festivities throughout 2019, Skirball will present In Conversation with Merce,a celebration of Cunningham’s legacy through world premiere commissions of contemporary artists. In Conversation with Merce aims to engage the public in theoretical, practical and experiential approaches to examining Merce’s cultural and artistic contribution. Rashaun Mitchell, a former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer and a Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust, is curating this program. Netta Yerushalmy, Moriah Evans, and Mina Nishimura will each present responsive works that draw connections of lineage to the celebrated choreographer. mercecunningham.org
SPECIAL EVENTS
SKIRBALL TALKS
Skirball Talks, a free Monday night speaker series, launches its second season with compelling and challenging thought leaders from the worlds of the arts, humanities, entertainment, media and politics. The inaugural season featured luminaries including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Judith Butler, Tony Kushner, Lisa Kron, April Ryan, Reverend William Barber and more.
PERFORMANCE MATTERS
Presentations are enhanced by free pre-and post-show discussions and special events, drawing on the expertise of NYU’s renowned faculty and educational resources, along with online resources including video interviews, suggested readings and contextual materials for all performances. The events are designed to provide context and allow audiences to interact with the artists, reflecting NYU’s commitment to education in, and through, the performing arts.
NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE
National Theatre Live returns to NYU Skirball with screenings of acclaimed broadcasts. Launched in 2009, National Theatre Live broadcasts have been seen by an audience of over 5 million people at 2000 venues in 50 countries. www.NTLive.com
TICKETS
Tickets will be on sale to members on June 11 and to the public on June 26. For complete scheduling, dates and times, visit www.nyuskirball.org. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.
ABOUT NYU SKIRBALL
NYU Skirball, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City’s major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 800-seat theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists innovators and thinkers.NYU Skirball hosts over 300 events annually, from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance arts to comedy, music and film.
NYU Skirball’s unique partnership with New York University enables it to draw on the University’s intellectual riches and resources to enhance its programming with dialogues, public forums and conversations with artists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Laureates and journalists.
Jay Wegman is the Director of NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to Skirball, he served as Director of the Abrons Art Center for ten years. During his tenure, Abrons was awarded various honors, including a 2014 OBIE Award for Innovative Excellence and a 2015 Bessie Award for Best Production. He was also a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and for over a decade served as the first Canon for Liturgy and the Arts at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He is the recipient of the 2015 FRANKY award for “making a long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theatre and performance in New York City.” While not a performer, he has appeared in Brian Roger’s film “Screamers” (2018), Sibyl Kempson’s “12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens” (2017), and “Romper Room” (1969). Jay is a graduate of Yale University. www.nyuskirball.org.
NYU Skirball’s performance season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional generous support provided by the FACE Foundation, DuBose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the New England Foundation for Dance, as well as many local NYU Skirball Business Partners, Patron Circle patrons and NYU Skirball Members.
Subways: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th St.; R & W to 8th Street; 6 to Astor Place.
Programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change.
Multi-Genre Performances and International Artists Inspire, Provoke, Challenge and Delight
NYU Skirball’s 2018-19 season will open at midnight on September 8, 2018 with an all-night storytelling marathon from the U.K.’s acclaimed Forced Entertainment theater company, today announced Director Jay Wegman. The season will feature over 60 unconventional, timely and often controversial multidisciplinary works and events by some of the world’s leading provocateurs, innovators, artists and activists, and will include five marathon events, including the North American premiere of Jan Fabre’s monumental, 24-hour Mount Olympus: to glorify the cult of tragedy; a two-week bicentennial festival honoring philosopher Karl Marx; dance premieres from acclaimed choreographers; award-winning theater, music, circus, and burlesque; a 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising; and the Elevator Repair Service’s award-winning, eight-hour production of Gatz.
The season will showcase diverse and cutting-edge international artists from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, Tonga, the U.K., Uruguay, and the United States, and will include five world premieres, five American premieres and seven New York premieres, running from September 8, 2018 – May4, 2019.
“NYU Skirball is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, historically a center of resistance, dissent, free thinking and artistic richness. NYU Skirball’s 2018-19 season honors and reflects this legacy of protest by featuring works of diverse genres, cultures and perspectives, including a months-long commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising,” said Jay Wegman. “With this season’s mix of theater, dance and performance, we proudly embrace renegade artists and companies who are courageous, outrageous, and mind-blowing. After all, we are NYU’s largest classroom and we’re here to engage, provoke, and inspire.”
NYU SKIRBALL 2018-19 SEASON:
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
NYU Skirball season opens with two New York premieres from Forced Entertainment, one of the U.K.’s most exciting experimental theater companies:And on the Thousandth Night…, an overnight fairytale of epic proportions, and Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, a six-night retelling of the entire Shakespearean canon – with everyday household objects standing in for the Bard’s heroes and heroines.
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT: AND ON THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT…
Saturday, September 8 at midnight
This may be the longest all-night bedtime story ever told. Inspired by the classic Tales of the Arabian Nights, the storytelling begins at midnight and continues until dawn, with never-ending tales that explore the relationship between a story, its storyteller, and its audience. Hysteria, absurd vulgarity and surprising tenderness combine to result in a constantly mutating story that encapsulates all the stories of the world.
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT: COMPLETE WORKS: TABLE TOP SHAKESPEARE
Tuesday, September 11 – Sunday, September 16
A salt and pepper shaker for the king and queen. A ruler for the prince. A spoon for the servant. Lighter fluid for the Innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger.
Condensed versions of each and every Shakespearean play are comically and lovingly retold, transformed by a “cast” of household objects into 36 intimate and lovingly made miniatures, played out on an everyday table-top. The stories of the plays vividly come to life over six nights, as the act of storytelling and theater itself is celebrated. (See www.nyuskirball.org for schedule)
Forced Entertainment is a U.K.-based theater company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, the group has sustained a unique, collaborative practice for more than thirty years, producing work that explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theater itself, drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up.forcedentertainment.com/
BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY: THE ANALOGY TRILOGY
Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23 at 3 pm
NYU Skirball presents two marathon performances of Bill. T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s acclaimed Analogy Trilogy. This is a rare opportunity to see the three parts of the Trilogy performed as a whole. The complete Trilogy is made up of Dora: Tramontane; Lance: Pretty aka the Escape Artist; and Ambros: The Emigrant (in its New York City premiere).
Analogy Trilogy, inspired by W.G. Sebald’s “The Emigrants,” was created by Bill T. Jones, Associate Artistic Director Janet Wong, and the company, over the course of four years. It combines dance, theater and oral history in an investigation of memory, storytelling and form. Performed to live music composed by Nick Hallett, the complete trilogy searches for the connection between three varying stories, focusing on memory and the effect of events on the actions of individuals.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, founded in 1982, was born out of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948–1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world. NYLA/Bill T. Jones
BORIS CHARMATZ:10000 GESTURES
Thursday, September 27 & Friday, September 28 at 7:30 pm
For this highly ambitious piece, having its North American premiere, a 24-strong ensemble of dancers perform, in succession, 10,000 gestures – none repeated, every one unique. At once joyous and melancholy, ephemeral and unforgettable, 10000 gesturesreinvents the language of dance in thrilling fashion.
French choreographer Boris Charmatzis widely celebrated for his experimental approach to contemporary dance. Since 2009, Charmatz has been the director of the Rennes & Brittany National Choreographic Centre, transforming it into the cutting-edge Museum of Dance (Musée de la danse). He has recently presented work to great acclaim at Sadler’s Wells, Tate Modern and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. borischarmatz.org
Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line Festival. Supported by the Hermès Foundation within the framework of the New Settings Program.
TERE O’CONNOR:LONG RUN
Friday, October 12 & Saturday, October 13 at 7:30 pm
A New York premiere from Tere O’Connor, Long Run (2017) pushes the emotional content of O’Connor’s movement to new physical extremes, allowing time-based elements like polyrhythms, velocity and duration to become major forces in the work, overtaking the eight performers as they struggle to bring their bodies into a state of calm.
Tere O’Connor is Artistic Director of Tere O’Connor Dance. He has created over 40 works for his company and toured these throughout the US, Europe, South America and Canada. He has created numerous commissioned works for international dance companies, solo works for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jean Butler, and has received three Bessie Awards. The company’s performers and collaborators constitute a family of artists who are dedicated to expanding the potency of dance as a serious art form. For O’Connor, meaning is arrived at in collaboration with the audience and its endlessly diverse, referential world. tereoconnordance.org
Co-commissioned by NYU Skirball and Live Arts Bard, with additional commissioning support from the American Dance Festival.
Karl Marx Festival: ON YOUR MARX
October 17 – 28
“The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.”– Karl Marx
Taking these words to heart, NYU Skirball will present a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth, two–week commemoration of the great philosopher’s 200th birthday. Admission to all performances is free: however, audiences will receive an invoice detailing the cost of every element of the production (supply). They are then free to determine the worth of the production and donate accordingly (demand) thus enabling the artists to “earn money in order to live and write.”
Karl Marx(1818–83), revolutionary economist, philosopher and author of The Communist Manifesto, was one of the most influential figures of all time. Curated by Jay Wegman and inspired by Marxist writings on the perils of capitalism, class struggle and socialism, the festival features works that represent aspects of Marx’s theories: P Project (the effects of capitalism); Brujx (the oppression of the proletariat) and Non-Western (economics). Special events include panels, talks by international philosophers and the premiere of Choral Marx, a choral adaptation of Marx’s Manifesto.
IVO DIMCHEV: P PROJECT
Wednesday, October 17 at 7:30 pm
P Project tests Marx’s theories on capitalism by offering audiences cold, hard cash in exchange for a performance.Ivo Dimchev is a Bulgarian performing artist, known internationally for his provocative and often controversial works of performance art. P Project (2012) is an escalating, interactive performance where actual cash fuels participation based on several P words, such as Piano, Pray, Pussy, Poetry, Poppers, and so on. The People will be offered several opportunities to Participate in the P Project, for which they be Paid quite well.
Ivo Dimchev, is a Bulgarian choreographer, visual artist, singer-songwriter, now living in London. His work is extreme and colorful mixtures of performance art, dance, theater, music, drawings and photography. Dimchev has created over 30 pieces, has received numerous international awards, and has presented his work across Europe, South America and North America. He is the founder and director of Bulgaria’s Humarts Foundation, organizes an annual competition for contemporary Bulgarian choreography, is an Artist in Residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels, and tours extensively. In 2014, he opened MOZEI in Sofia, Bulgaria, as an independent space for presenting contemporary art and music. ivodimchev.com
LUCIANA ACHUGAR:BRUJX
Friday, October 19 & Saturday, October 20 at 7:30 pm
Brujx, a world premiere, ritualizes the labor of the dancers, exposing and transcending it to unearth the powerful and primal magic brujx within them. As in all of achugar’s work it proposes DANCE as the necessary transformational healing for our time. Brujx resists western assumptions of beauty and hierarchical order, freeing the dancers both of their role as worker in the power structure within the creative project and of the universal shame of being animal-sexual-powerful-instinctive creatures.
luciana achugar, a Brooklyn-based choreographer from Uruguay, has been making work in NYC and Uruguay independently and collaboratively since 1999. She is a two-time Bessie Award recipient and was nominated for a 2016 Bessie for Outstanding Production for her latest An Epilogue for OTRO TEATRO: True Love. She was a 2017 Alpert Award recipient, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grantee, amongst other accolades. She was one of Dance Magazine’s 2012 “25 to Watch” and her Bessie Award-winning work PURO DESEO was named one of 2010 Time Out/NY’s “Best of Dance.” Her works also include The Pleasure Project and OTRO TEATRO. lachugar.org
MY BARBARIAN: NON-WESTERN
Friday, October 26 & Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 pm
A NYC premiere set in the California Republic of 1848, Non-Western is a quick-change musical fantasy that plays with the tropes of the Western genre. Economic desires motivate its figures, from ranchero to coyote, all of whom are portrayed by the three members of My Barbarian in an unstable exchange of costumes, puppets, action figures and projections. Even as class drama drives the plot, the colonial situation confuses a Marxist analysis, and signals the kinds of appropriations and adaptations Marxist critique undergoes in the non-West. Songs include “Toward a Leftist Positionality” and “The Form of Personal Property.”
My Barbarian is a performance group made up of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade. Their work plays with social difficulties and theatricalizes historic problems. Since 2000, they have presented work in major venues internationally, in solo and group exhibitions, museum programs and theater festivals. They were included in two Performa Biennials, two California Biennials, the Biennale de Montréal, and the Whitney Biennial. They’ve received awards and fellowships from United States Artists, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Art Matters and the City of Los Angeles. mybarbarian.com
CHORAL MARX:MANIFESTO FOR THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN EIGHT MOVEMENTS
Sunday, October 28 at 5 pm
Choral Marxis a singing adaptation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Manifesto for the Communist Party. It is a piece for mixed chorus—mixed not just in terms of gendered voice parts but also in terms of training and ability—made up of vocalists from both the contemporary music scene and socialist organizing communities, accompanied by an ensemble of five cellos and five flutes. It is an attempt to re-sound Marx and Engels’s1848 critique of capitalism in 2018 and explore how the Manifesto continues to resonate today.
Ethan Philbrick, a Brooklyn-basedcomposer and writer, has performed original work in New York at BRIC, SculptureCenter, Abrons Arts Center and the Grey Art Gallery. His writing has been published in TDR,PAJ, Women and Performance, Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Movement Research Performance Journal. He teaches in the MFA in Performance + Performance Studies Program at Pratt Institute. ethanphilbrick.com
JAN FABRE: MOUNT OLYMPUS,TO GLORIFY THE CULT OF TRAGEDY (a 24-hour performance)
Saturday, November 10 at 5 pm – Sunday, November 11 at 5 pm
“Majestic, exhausting and exhilarating – a hallucinatory vision of Homeric themes … a night-time garden orgy.” – The Guardian (U.K.)
Mount Olympus: to glorify the cult of tragedy (a 24-hour performance) is a graphic, 24-hour Dionysian orgy of madness, murder, and music — a hallucinatory vision of Homeric themes and characters, played by 27 performers, that come to life in one day and one night. It is the age of humanity, and the birth of tragedy in its most fundamental form: mutilation, obscenity and purification. Acclaimed Belgium director Jan Fabre’sAmerican premiereoutlines stories and characters from Greek tragedy, wrenching open their flaws until they are left in tatters, smashed by violence, Homeric laughter and ecstasy. Mount Olympus is not a modernization of Greek tragedy. It is an investigation of the impossibility of representing that which mutilates us and makes us pure again.
Alongside tragedy, time also plays a leading role. What is time in the theater? What happens when time is stretched? Fabre intensifies the present moment, the eternal here and now of theater, in a maelstrom of images that pull the audience into a mode of temporal experience, a labyrinth of time. The performers speak a language punctuated by hesitations, silences and death rattles, a language that is sometimes just a scream. They allow Fabre to question the concept of time: What is time, in theater? What happens when time is stretched out, until it relaxes and unravels? Is this a sort of hallucination? A dream? What is it like to wallow in the swamp of insomnia?www.mountolympus.be
Belgian director, multidisciplinary artist and choreographerJan Fabre is one of the most versatile and provocative artists on the international stage, known for pushing the boundaries of art and performance. Chaos and discipline, repetition and madness, metamorphosis and the anonymous are all indispensable ingredients in Fabre’s works. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theater by introducing the concept of ‘real-time performance’ – sometimes called ‘living installations’ – and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance. troubleyn.be/eng/about-jan-fabre
DANCE HEGINBOTHAM: Fantasque
Saturday, November 16 at 3 & 7:30 pm; Sunday, November 17 at 3 pm
Fantasque, a NYC premiere,is an ebullient and magical pageant created by choreographer John Heginbotham and puppeteer Amy Trompetter. Giant puppets and human dancers join forces to create a fable of a battle of light and darkness, with a fantastical cast of characters featuring giant babies, blue angels, devils, rats, and a restaurant where the customers are tuxedo-wearing fish. Performed to live music composed by Ottorino Respighi, and adapted from piano pieces by Giaochino Rossini, Fantasque ruminates on morality and immorality as seen through a child’s eyes in a series of connected vignettes bound by an unconventionaland tender merging of puppetry and dance.
John Heginbotham, a former member of Mark Morris Dance Group, founded Dance Heginbotham in 2011. The company has been presented and commissioned by prestigious venues including Bard College, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, The Kennedy Center and The Joyce Theater, and has toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Heginbotham is the recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. danceheginbotham.org
Amy Trompetter creates giant puppet operas, outdoor pageants and hand puppet shows. Her critically-acclaimed production of The Barber of Sevilleexposed and transgressed scripted content and operatic form. Her Punch & Judy just persuaded Brazilians to host an all-women’s hand puppet festival next year. She collaborates in prisons, brings puppetry to street actions and neighborhood centers upstate, and is the founder of Redwing Blackbird Theater, a puppet workshop and performing space in Rosendale, NY. redwingblackbirdtheater.com
Fantasque was commissioned by and developed in residence at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it received its world premiere at Bard SummerScape in July 2016.
CIRQUE ALFONSE:BARBUELECTRO TRAD CABARET
Thursday, January 3 & Friday, January 4 at 7:30 pm
BARBU Electro Trad Cabaret, a New York premiere, is a bellyful of cheeky humor and brazen eccentricity. It’s a circus of exceptionally strong men and women, delivering edge-of-your-seat adult entertainment set to a rollicking soundtrack from a frenetic live band. Direct from Canada, Cirque Alfonse is famed for shows that explore the edges of contemporary circus. Barbucreates a strange and wonderful world, straddling old traditions with a modern edge – a wildly exuberant night out at the circus.
Cirque Alfonse’s blend of arts and circus techniques is rooted in the traditions of their Québec home. The company was founded in 2014 by the Carabinier Lepine family and acrobats who have performed with some of the world’s renowned “nouveau cirque” companies, including Les 7 doigts de la main, Cirque du Soleil, Cirkus Cirkör and many others. The company has toured across the USA as well as to Europe, Australia and Asia.cirquealfonse.com
BRIEFS:THE SECOND COMING
Sunday, January 6 & Monday, January 7 at 7:30 pm
Briefs: The Second Coming, an American premiere, is a madcap, all-male, gender-bending cabaret – a heart-stopping blend of burlesque, Australian machismo and punkish swagger. Its cast of six Aussies and one New Yorker are powered by a fierce energy as they mix up a potent blend of drag, glamour and athleticism, infused with dancing, tumbling, juggling, acro-balancing, trapeze, hula hooping, lip syncing, sequins, feathers and frocks.
Briefs Factory is an internationally recognized independent artist and producer’s collective dedicated to developing and presenting bold, contemporary and inspiring collaborative work. The company established itself as a leader on the cabaret and circus world stage following the success of their flagship show Briefs, which took Edinburgh Fringe by storm in 2011. Their second show, Briefs: The Second Coming, won Best Circus at Perth Fringe in 2013 and 2014; and sold out consecutive runs in London, Perth, Adelaide and Edinburgh Festival. Briefs Factory’s other award- winning works include Hot Brown Honey, Club Briefs and Briefs: Close Encounters. briefsfactory.com
ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE: GATZ
Wednesday, January 23 – Sunday, February 3
“The most remarkable achievement in theater not only of this year but also of this decade.” – Brantley, N.Y. Times
Gatz, the critically lauded performance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” was last seen in New York in 2012. Created by Obie-winning ensemble Elevator Repair Service, this multi-award-winning play, with a cast of thirteen, is a theatrical tour de force — not just a retelling of the Gatsby story but a thoroughly entertaining dramatization of the entire novel, word for word.
Gatz will be presented as a marathon eight-hour event, including two intermissions and a dinner break.
Elevator Repair Service, based in NYC, has been making original theater since 1991. Under the direction of Artistic Director John Collins, ERS has achieved national and international recognition with its extensive body of work and has influenced a generation of theater-makers. The company’s performances have been presented in Europe, Australia, Asia, South America and across the United States, and have been recognized with numerous awards. elevator.org.
(See www.nyuskirball.org for schedule)
NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND: ADAM
Thursday, February 14 – Saturday, February 16 at 7:30 pm
Adam, a North American premiere, is the remarkable, true story of a young trans man, born in Egypt. Trapped in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he had to escape. He typed this question into his laptop: “Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?” What followed was beyond his wildest dreams. Adam features a score sung by a virtual choir of trans and non-binary individuals from across the world who are projected onto the stage. It is both a bold exploration of the experience of a young transgender person and an ambitious experiment with theatrical form, blending storytelling, classical composition and mass digital elements from participants from around the globe.
The National Theatre of Scotland is dedicated to playing the great stages, arts centers, village halls, schools and site-specific locations of Scotland, the U.K. and internationally. As well as creating groundbreaking productions and working with the most talented theater-makers, the company produces significant community engagement projects, innovates digitally and works constantly to develop new talent. Founded in 2006, the company has become a globally significant theatrical player, with an extensive repertoire of award-winning work. The National Theatre of Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government.nationaltheatrescotland.com
MILO RAU: FIVE EASY PIECES
Thursday, March 7 – Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 pm
“The entire audience came out of the performance with a smile on their face, and at the same time had their stomach in knots. It was completely incredible.”– RTBF Radio
Five Easy Pieces, a North American premiere, probes the limits of what children know, feel, and do, as seven children present the true story of notorious Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux. Swiss director Milo Rauand his International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) explore aesthetic and theatrical questions that blend together with moral issues: How can children understand the significance of narrative, empathy, loss, subjection, old age, disappointment, or rebellion? How do we react if we see them acting out scenes of violence or love and romance? What does that say about our own fears and desires? Together with CAMPO Arts Centre from Ghent, Rau created his first work with children on stage. It will be presented in Flemish, with English supertitles.
MILO RAU, a Swiss theater and film director, journalist, essayist, and lecturer, founded the theater and film production company International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) which he has been running ever since. His productions, campaigns and films have been invited to some of the biggest national and international festivals. The Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgiquerecently named him “one of Europe’s most sought-after directors” with the German weekly Der Freitagdescribing him “as the most controversial theatre director of his generation.”campo.nu internatinal-institute.de
A.I.M.: LIVE! THE REALEST MC
Thursday, April 4 – Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 pm
Kyle Abraham, Artistic Director ofA.I.M., is a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, a 2015 City Center choreographer in residence and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. A.I.M. (formerly Abraham In Motion) was born into hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and grounded in Abraham’s artistic upbringing in classical cello, piano, and the visual arts.Abraham’s work entwines a sensual and provocative vocabulary with a strong emphasis on sound, human behavior and all things visual. abrahaminmotion.org
STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY: BLOODLINES
Thursday, April 11- Sunday, April 13 at 7:30 pm
Stephen Petronio Company presents its most ambitious season of Bloodlines, a five-year autobiographical project that 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. The program includes a world premiere by Petronio alongside works by postmodern masters. To date, the company has restaged works by Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton.
Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petroniois widely regarded as one of the leading dance-makers of his generation. New music, visual art and fashion collide in his dances, producing powerfully modern landscapes for the senses. Founded in 1984, Stephen Petronio Company has performed in 26 countries throughout the world, including over 35 New York City engagements.www.Petron.io
HOT BROWN HONEY
Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 pm
Hot Brown Honey, an American premiere, packs a potent punch of Hip Hop politics, dance, poetry, comedy, circus, striptease and song, and features a bevy of powerful and talented First Nations women from Aboriginal Australian, Samoan, Tongan, Indonesian and South African backgrounds. With their own brand of fierceness, these six sexy, sassy, and stylish women boldly shatter preconceptions in an explosion of color, culture and controversy.
Set in a dazzling beehive with lighting, music and costume to rival Beyoncé at Madison Square Garden, Hot Brown Honey goes above and beyond all expectations as it pushes boundaries and defies labels. It is equal parts theatrical spectacular and social activism, presented by Australia’s infamous Briefs Factory. Hot Brown Honey won the Edinburgh Fringe’s prestigious Total Theatre Award in 2016. hotbrownhoney.com
CUNNINGHAM CENTENARY: IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE
Friday, May 3 & Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm
Merce Cunninghamis widely considered one of the most important choreographers of all time. Throughout his 70-year career, he continued to innovate, helping to drive the evolution of the American avant-garde and expanding the frontiers of contemporary visual and performance arts. His collaborations with artists from every creative discipline yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music and visual art.
As a part of the Merce Cunningham Centenary festivities throughout 2019, Skirball will present In Conversation with Merce,a celebration of Cunningham’s legacy through world premiere commissions of contemporary artists. In Conversation with Merce aims to engage the public in theoretical, practical and experiential approaches to examining Merce’s cultural and artistic contribution. Rashaun Mitchell, a former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer and a Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust, is curating this program. Netta Yerushalmy, Moriah Evans, and Mina Nishimura will each present responsive works that draw connections of lineage to the celebrated choreographer. mercecunningham.org
SPECIAL EVENTS
SKIRBALL TALKS
Skirball Talks, a free Monday night speaker series, launches its second season with compelling and challenging thought leaders from the worlds of the arts, humanities, entertainment, media and politics. The inaugural season featured luminaries including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Judith Butler, Tony Kushner, Lisa Kron, April Ryan, Reverend William Barber and more.
PERFORMANCE MATTERS
Presentations are enhanced by free pre-and post-show discussions and special events, drawing on the expertise of NYU’s renowned faculty and educational resources, along with online resources including video interviews, suggested readings and contextual materials for all performances. The events are designed to provide context and allow audiences to interact with the artists, reflecting NYU’s commitment to education in, and through, the performing arts.
NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE
National Theatre Live returns to NYU Skirball with screenings of acclaimed broadcasts. Launched in 2009, National Theatre Live broadcasts have been seen by an audience of over 5 million people at 2000 venues in 50 countries. www.NTLive.com
TICKETS
Tickets will be on sale to members on June 11 and to the public on June 26. For complete scheduling, dates and times, visit www.nyuskirball.org. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.
ABOUT NYU SKIRBALL
NYU Skirball, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City’s major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 800-seat theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists innovators and thinkers.NYU Skirball hosts over 300 events annually, from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance arts to comedy, music and film.
NYU Skirball’s unique partnership with New York University enables it to draw on the University’s intellectual riches and resources to enhance its programming with dialogues, public forums and conversations with artists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Laureates and journalists.
Jay Wegman is the Director of NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to Skirball, he served as Director of the Abrons Art Center for ten years. During his tenure, Abrons was awarded various honors, including a 2014 OBIE Award for Innovative Excellence and a 2015 Bessie Award for Best Production. He was also a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and for over a decade served as the first Canon for Liturgy and the Arts at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He is the recipient of the 2015 FRANKY award for “making a long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theatre and performance in New York City.” While not a performer, he has appeared in Brian Roger’s film “Screamers” (2018), Sibyl Kempson’s “12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens” (2017), and “Romper Room” (1969). Jay is a graduate of Yale University. www.nyuskirball.org.
NYU Skirball’s performance season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional generous support provided by the FACE Foundation, DuBose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the New England Foundation for Dance, as well as many local NYU Skirball Business Partners, Patron Circle patrons and NYU Skirball Members.
Subways: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th St.; R & W to 8th Street; 6 to Astor Place.
Programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change.