The newly created Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) has announced its first season of programming under the executive and artistic direction of Kristy Edmunds. The 2012–13 inaugural season of CAP UCLA, formerly UCLA Live, marks the 75th season of public performing-arts programming from UCLA.

 

CAP UCLA builds on UCLA's legacy of performing arts with a season that includes international theater companies, leading choreographers in contemporary dance, genre-defying artists and a tremendous lineup of performers from across the musical spectrum. The center's first artist retrospective — an expansive multi-venue week of programming with the Trisha Brown Dance Company — honors a dance icon.

 

Create Your Own series subscriptions and Royce Choice package subscriptions are on sale now. For more details and to order visit cap.ucla.edu/tickets. Individual tickets go on sale August 4. A full chronological season calendar is available at cap.ucla.edu/press. For press images, visit cap.ucla.edu/press-images.asp.

 

The 2012–13 season program and CAP UCLA's ongoing Art in Action initiatives reflect the pillars of the rejuvenated and renamed organization — to create, develop, exhibit and present new work; to enhance connections between artists and audiences; to instigate collaboration between CAP UCLA and the artists it supports, as well as the campus and the community; and to archive, document and contextualize the art of performance.

 

"What will become the single most important contribution from the center will be our capacity to deepen the contexts that surround every great artist on our season, so that audiences have a stronger fix on the multifarious ways that live performance elevates contemporary culture," Edmunds said. "We have to position our organization to best embrace the dynamic range of artistry out there and pave the way for audiences to connect with what artists are making and why."

 

 

International theater returns to UCLA, beginning with the U.S. premiere of Théâtre de la Ville–Paris' production of Eugéne Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" Sept. 21–22. Directed by Emmanuel Demarcy–Mota, the Royce Hall performance will be in French with English subtitles.

 

London's acclaimed Cheek By Jowl brings its version of John Ford's classic Jacobian drama "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" to the Freud Playhouse Jan 9–12. Australia's contemporary Back to Back Theatre Company performs its acclaimed and moving original production "Ganesh Versus the Third Reich" Jan 24–27 at Freud Playhouse in the only West Coast stop on the company's 2013 U.S. tour; this self-reflective revelation on the creation of theater comes from a company whose works are imagined from the minds and experiences of an ensemble of actors with disabilities.

 

The delightfully irreverent Circus Oz makes its first Los Angeles appearance since the 1984 Olympics opening ceremony with "From the Ground Up" Feb. 7–10. The newest show from this inherently musical and infinitely acrobatic troupe of Australian performers will turn Royce Hall into a big top with a vibrant theatrical spectacle that kids of all ages and families of all configurations can enjoy together.

 

Three compelling dance-ensemble performances grace the 2012–13 season, beginning with the West Coast premiere of the Akram Khan Company's stunning meditation on the poetry of Rumi, "Vertical Road," which kicks off its U.S. tour with two performances at Royce Hall Oct. 5–6. Ultima Vez and Wim Vandekeybus return with their thrilling revival of "What the Body Does Not Remember" March 15–16, the Bessie Award–winning 1987 work that launched a lasting partnership between the Belgium-based company and the prolific choreographer–filmmaker.

 

CAP UCLA's celebration of acclaimed New York choreographer Trisha Brown arrives in April 2013 with the ambitious, weeklong "Trisha Brown Dance Company: The Retrospective Project," which will include three full-length dance programs. On April 4, the project highlights Brown's enduring collaborative relationship with famed artist Robert Rauschenberg with "Astral Converted," presented at the outdoor Sunset Canyon Amphitheatre on campus. Two Royce Hall performances — on April 5 and April 7 — feature works that span the repertoire of this prolific and influential artist.

 

The Trisha Brown retrospective also includes a series of free performances in the Hammer Museum courtyard showcasing Brown's installation work "Floor of the Forest," which will be performed by UCLA World Arts and Cultures/Dance students trained by members of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. CAP UCLA continues its illustration of Brown's gravity-defying approach to movement with other free events, including a rare remounting of Brown's iconic "Roof Piece," originally performed in 1971 atop buildings in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. Details and location informaiton for this Los Angeles debut will be announced closer to April as permits are approved. Visit cap.ucla.edu/artinaction/brown.asp for more details as the season progresses.

 

Other major performances deftly merge music and spoken word, including "Dirtday," the latest from interdisciplinary master artist Laurie Anderson, who also was recently announced as one of CAP UCLA's inaugural Artist Fellows. Over the next three years, CAP UCLA will collaborate with Anderson, exploring opportunities to enhance, contextualize and document her unique creative approach.

 

The mind of Hal Willner, the music of Bill Frisell, visuals from "Gonzo" artist Ralph Steadman, and direction and performance from Chloe Webb converge April 17 in the staging of Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish," the Beat author's epic lament to the loss of his mother and a reflection on his own estrangement from Judaism.

 

CAP UCLA also launches its multi-year Art in Action initiative "Who Is the Poet in Your Life?", asking audiences to discover the poetry and poets that surround them and share thoughts, poems and experiences at poetinyourlife.tumblr.com. Poetry-themed activities and events will take place in conjunction with both "Kaddish" and author–poet–playwright Carl Hancock Rux's March 9 performance of "Excerpts From the Exalted" at the intimate Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater in UCLA's Kaufman Hall. More "Who Is the Poet in Your Life?" events and activities will be announced in the months to come.

 

Spoken word in 2012–13 is punctuated by artists who make their presence known as easily on the stage as they do on the page. We explore the art of monologue with the distinctively eclectic Miranda July, who presents the Los Angeles debut of her unique performance piece "The Auction" at Freud Playhouse (Oct. 18), and perennial favorite David Sedaris (May 1).

 

UCLA's Freud Playhouse plays host to legendary performance artist Meredith Monk with the Jan. 18–20 world-premiere performances of "On Behalf of Nature." This all-new work from Monk and her renowned Vocal Ensemble is inspired by the time the company spent on campus working with students in April of this year, when Monk was an artist-in-residence in CAP UCLA's new residency program.

 

In music, CAP UCLA celebrates jazz tradition and jazz innovation with the Robert Glasper Experiment, plus special guests José James, Taylor McFerrin and Austin Peralta (Oct. 25) in a co-presentation with the Student Committee for the Arts. Two nights later, we pair the up-and-coming Glasper with a jazz statesman in one very special evening featuring the Ron Carter Quartet and special guest the Robert Glasper Trio (Oct. 27).

 

CAP UCLA is proud to be the home this season to the very first Los Angeles performances  of the annual McGarrigle–Wainwright family Christmas show with "Christmas 101: Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Family and Friends' Holiday Extravaganza Hits the Highway" (Dec. 21–22). A special event benefiting the Kate McGarrigle Fund for Sarcoma Research will be held in Royce Hall in conjunction with the star-studded evenings of music, family and nostalgia. For more details, visit cap.ucla.edu/Christmas101.

 

In association with Angel City Jazz Festival/The Jazz Bakery, CAP UCLA brings two luminous jazz performances to the Royce Hall stage: "The Great Flood," a riveting combination of music and film from Bill Frisell and Bill Morrison (Oct. 13) and a concert that showcases the extraordinary prowess of one of the brightest stars in modern jazz, "An evening with Vijay Iyer: Trio, Quartet and Sextet featuring Steve Coleman" (Oct. 14). This rare appearance from saxophone great Coleman will make for an evening not to be missed.

 

The 2012–13 season also highlights CAP UCLA's new multi-year collaboration with the beloved Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, which will serve as the resident orchestra for the center's inaugural season. CAP UCLA subscribers may combine any of the orchestra's seven Royce Hall performances with CAP UCLA events as part of any series package.

 

Head-turning violinist and Itzhak Perlman protégé Hahn-Bin brings his dynamic staging and stylish approach to classical music to Royce Hall for the first time Jan. 10, with the West Coast premiere of " Till Dawn Sunday," his four-part program of wide-ranging repertoire.

 

CAP UCLA presents the West Coast premiere of "love fail," a new work composed and directed by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer David Lang, in two distinct performance iterations. The work was written specifically for acclaimed all-female vocal quartet Anonymous 4, who will perform "love fail" Dec. 1 in a full Royce Hall production featuring simple accompaniment, dynamic theater seating and lighting design by Jennifer Tipton. An intimate, all-acoustic free performance of the same work will be held in the Powell Library rotunda, across from Royce Hall, on Nov. 30. Space is limited, and seats will be allotted on a first-come, first-seated basis.

 

The CAP UCLA 2012–13 season features dynamic range and rhythms from around the globe with Bebel Gilberto, plus special guests Forro in the Dark (Sept. 28), Bajofondo (Oct. 12), Grupo Fantasma, plus special guests Chicha Libre (Nov. 9), Yemen Blues (Nov. 15) and Vieux Farka Touré, plus special guests Fool's Gold with "A Tribute to Ali Farka Touré" (Feb. 1). 

 

Two exclusive double-headliner evenings will offer unique and electrifying performance moments for CAP UCLA audiences with Meshell Ndegeocello and James "Blood" Ulmer's Memphis Blood featuring Vernon Reid (Dec. 7) and the Brad Mehldau Trio and Bad Plus, featuring Joshua Redman (May 4).

 

Spreading across folk, blues, funk and jazz are concerts that showcase some of the most revered and innovative performers in music today, including Emmylou Harris and Her Red Dirt Boys (Oct. 2), the David Grisman Sextet, plus special guest David Lindley (Nov. 2), Charles Bradley, plus special guests Menahan Street Band (Nov. 29), Steve Earle and Allison Moorer, plus special guests the Living Sisters (Jan. 12), the Allen Toussaint Band, plus special guests the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, with "All on a Mardi Gras Day" (Feb. 12), Rudresh Mahanthappa: Indo-Pak Coalition and Gamak (March 2) and Medeski Martin & Wood, "Acoustic and Electric" (April 26).

 

This season will also feature expanded Art in Action events and programming tied to the performances and season initiatives. These audience enrichment activities, along with recently announced artist fellows and residency initiatives, will create deep connections for CAP UCLA audiences and the artists involved. For more information, visit cap.ucla.edu/artinaction.

 

Edmunds discusses the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA:

 

 

Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) is dedicated to the advancement of contemporary performing arts in all disciplines — dance, music, spoken word and theater, as well the emerging digital, collaborative and cross-art platforms inspired by today's leading artists and creators. CAP supports the creation, presentation and critical dialogues vital to the ongoing innovation and expressive potential of artists whose work, whether vibrantly emerging or internationally acclaimed, forms the dynamic and evolving heritage of contemporary performance. Based in UCLA's iconic Royce Hall, CAP UCLA is the university's public center for the presentation of the performing arts and contributes to the cultural life of the campus and greater Los Angeles, promoting civic dialogue and creative inquiry. Through an annual season of performing arts programs and extensive community engagement events — including artist fellows and residency programs, K–12 arts education (Design for Sharing), student mentorship (Student Committee for the Arts), and art-making and experiential activities (Art in Action) — CAP UCLA advances the importance of art in society by celebrating and deepening the connection between artist and audience. 

 

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