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Courtesy of UCLA Live From "Boccatango" on March 10-11.

UCLA Live: It's back!

by anne burke
today staff writer

Performing artists from the familiar to the far-out will hit the stage on campus beginning next month as UCLA Live returns with another season of top-drawer entertainment.

UCLA Live Director David Sefton, whose adventuresome sensibilities set the tone for the 2005-06 season, has put together a global lineup comprising about 120 performances, among them “Bloody Mess” from Britain’s Forced Entertainment, “Les Petits Riens and Don Juan” from France’s Ballet Biarritz and “monumental” from Canada’s Holy Body Tattoo. From London comes Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre performing “Measure for Measure,” with acclaimed actor Mark Rylance in his final season as artistic director.

The season kicks off Sept. 14 with Meryl Streep, Hope Davis and Peter Dinklage (“The Station Agent”) in an original sound play called “Hope Leaves the Theater,” written and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Actors, who perform with scripts in hand, will be joined by a sound-effects artist and a live band.

Sefton’s personal list of not-to-be-missed evenings includes the Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s “Arlecchino, Servant of Two Masters,” which Sefton calls a feast for the senses. The Italian troupe is the same one that wowed crowds at the ’84 Olympics in Los Angeles.

A double bill featuring singer/songwriters Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle launch the season’s Roots Series on Sept. 18. They will be followed by Taj Mahal, Ralph Stanley, Mavis Staples and Richard Thompson. The Woodstock generation, their kids and — gulp — grandkids can celebrate Thanksgiving a little earlier this year by joining Arlo Guthrie for a 40th anniversary celebration of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” on Nov. 2.

Courtesy of UCLA Live Forced Entertainment performs "Bloody Mess" on Dec. 1 and 2.

Fans of Isabelle Huppert will want to catch the French film actress in a new staging of “4.48 Psychosis,” a tortured tale of despair by the late playwright Sarah Kane.

In June, more than two dozen celebrities and friends of Spalding Gray will celebrate the late monologist’s legacy with a reading of his unpublished works, “Leftover Stories to Tell.” Also on the lineup for the Spoken Word Series are humorist David Sedaris, New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Fresh Air’s Terry Gross and novelist Alexander McCall Smith.

Lest anyone doubt it, UCLA Live indeed knows how to rock. On Sept. 17, the three original members of the Detroit-based ’60s band MC5 reunite as DKT/MC5 for a performance with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Dan Zanes, the playful roots-rocker and kids’ favorite, returns to Royce on Nov. 2 for a performance of family-friendly blues and rock classics, along with pop and multicultural folk songs.

In what is becoming a holiday tradition, the king of gross-out John Waters returns to Royce Dec. 17 for his second annual yuletide extravaganza, this time with the electro-punk, pro-sex feminist Peaches.

UCLA Live is the country’s largest university-based performing arts presenter. UCLA staff, faculty and Alumni Association members are eligible for 15% off the price of single tickets. For details, visit www.UCLALive.org.