Get ready for UCLA Live’s exhilarating new season
BY KAREN NELSON
UCLA Today
Sept. 15 will mark the launch of UCLA Live’s 2006-07 season, which will showcase groundbreaking performances in theater, dance, spoken word and music. Among the events will be world, U.S., West Coast and Los Angeles premieres, along with exclusive presentations and commissions.
The season is the fruit of UCLA Live director David Sefton’s world travels throughout the year, when he goes in search of “the very best artists available, from the historically excellent to the remarkably innovative.”
The new season will include the fifth International Theatre Festival, presenting China’s Suzhou Kun Opera Theater of Jiangsu Province in “The Peony Pavilion” and the West Coast premiere of “Mabou Mines DollHouse,” based on Henrik Ibsen’s text and directed by Lee Breuer. The festival will celebrate the centennial of Samuel Beckett’s birth with Gate Theatre Dublin’s production of “Waiting for Godot” and Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland’s production of “Access All Beckett.”
In addition to the festival, there will be another stunning theater event: 31 holiday performances in December and January of “Slava’s Snowshow,” the Russian clown Slava Polunin’s magical and tragicomic spectacle of falling snow, fog and bubbles.
Highlights of the season’s dance events include the U.S. premiere of “Sacred Monsters” by Sylvie Guillem of London’s Royal Ballet and British-Indian choreographer and dancer Akram Khan, as well as the L.A. premieres of works by the Stephen Petronio Company, Batsheva Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet and Sankai Juku.
Musical performances will range from classical, jazz and roots to contemporary, world and pop. The Roots Series will open with country music legend Merle Haggard, followed by Lucinda Williams in concert with her father, poet Miller Williams. A salute to Leonard Cohen, led by his longtime collaborator Perla Batalla, will feature Kris Kristofferson, Michael McDonald, Robben Ford and Don Was. A tribute to the music of Ray Charles will be performed by jazz guitarist John Scofield and gospel diva Mavis Staples.
Among the jazz concerts will be a rare large-venue performance by Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band. The World Music Series will feature some of Brazil’s foremost musicians, including superstar Gilberto Gil and vocalist Marisa Monte. Others in the series are the Gyuto Monks Tibetan Tantric Choir and Kodo’s One Earth Tour 2007.
In a category of his own, Brian Wilson will bring to Royce Hall his exclusive U.S. engagement of “A 40th-Anniversary Tribute to ‘Pet Sounds.’ ” And Kronos Quartet will return in a double bill with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Czech violinist/vocalist Iva Bittová. Classical concerts will feature the U.S. tour debut of the National Philharmonic of Russia and recitals by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and violinist Gidon Kremer.
Writer David Sedaris, a UCLA Live regular, will return in the Spoken Word series, which will also feature Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Garry Trudeau and New York Times puzzle master Will Shortz.
Sales of series and Choose-Your-Own subscriptions began on June 12. Single-ticket sales start Aug. 7 through the UCLA Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101, at www.UCLALive.org, or at other Ticketmaster locations.
View gallery of selected performers
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