Performances Magazine | State of the Arts, Fall 2020

FALL 2020

MAGAZINE

state of the arts Southern California performing-arts venues offer new visions for unprecedented times.

Explore Art with Us Listen, watch, and engage with virtual programming at getty.edu.

Hærdaceous Pæony (detail), 1896, Kazumasa Ogawa. Hand-colored collotype. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Text and design: © J. Paul Getty Trust

FA L L 2 0 2 0

TABLE OF CONTENTS 23 THREE PHASES A CHARM

DEPARTMENTS

The season goes on at Pasadena Symphony; where it goes on depends on the public health guidelines in effect.

4 EDITOR’S NOTE Setting the stage for our State of the Arts edition.

Online, outdoors, outreach.... Upcoming in Southern California performing arts.

24 TO THE MOON

6

AND BEYOND

At Santa Monica’s Broad Stage: chamber opera, illusions and premieres.

40 PARTING THOUGHT

26 SETTING ITS SITES

Ode to hope: reflections on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

The Wallis Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills plans to use every bit of its campus, in person and online.

FEATURES

10 SETTING A NEW STAGE Center Theatre Group—the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum, Kirk Douglas Theatre—reconsiders its role in society.

23

12

28 THE GIFTS OF GIVING Fundraising boosts the outlook at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

30 OPTION 73 . . .

12 OPERA’S NEW OVERTURES

AND COUNTING

La Mirada Theatre considers its contingencies one future at a time.

L.A. Opera forges unconventional connections with audiences “beyond our wildest imaginations.”

26

14 CULTURE OF THE NEWEST The Los Angeles Philharmonic meets the challenges of pandemic programming with passionate energy.

32 GLOBAL THINKING San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre extends its outreach and renews its zeal for inclusiveness.

34 THE VERY

16 INWARD AND UPWARD

GREAT OUTDOORS

The Los Angeles Master Chorale finds new ways to lift voices and spirits.

San Diego Symphony looks to its new Shell to reconnect with audiences.

18 DANCING WITH

36 TWO DIVAS, A DILEMMA

THE DIGITAL

AND A DRIVE-IN

Dance at the Music Center programs have proved even more popular online.

Thanks to innovative thinking, San Diego Opera may have its live season after all.

22 NO PAUSE IN PASADENA

38 WOW! POP! AND OTHER

Pasadena Playhouse launches streaming platform PlayhouseLive with fresh programming.

2 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

34

INTREPID PROGRAMMING

The La Jolla Playhouse continues to be a haven for “audacious and diverse work.”

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E DITOR’S N OTE MAGAZINE

PUBLISHER

Jeff Levy EDITOR

Benjamin Epstein ART DIRECTOR

Carol Wakano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Pat Launer, Libby Slate, Sherry Stern, Stephanie Thompson DIGITAL MANAGER

Whitney Lauren Han ACCOUNT MANAGERS

state of the arts THE PERFORMING ARTS are a window into the soul of society.

Theater teaches society about itself; music and dance express ideas that words cannot.

All are a reflection of their times, and in times such as these—times of uncertainty and unrest—they are needed more than ever.

Performances Magazine, as program publisher or in other capacities, partners with the Southern California arts venues featured in these pages. Each of them has a vision, a new vision, for unprecedented times.

In some cases—notably the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and San Diego Symphony—it is the vision of new leadership.

In all cases, it is a vision that can help sustain us, increase understanding and bring us together in our shared human experience.

Performances’ State of the Arts edition provides a platform for plans, and contingency plans, going forward in what I call the four O’s: online, outdoors, outreach and, when it’s safe, onstage.

See you opening night.

—BENJAMIN EPSTEIN

Walter Lewis, Kerry Brewer Baggett, Jean Greene, Jessica Levin Poff BUSINESS MANAGER

Leanne Killian Riggar MARKETING PRODUCTION MANAGER

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4 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

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IN T HE W IN G S

Illusionist Scott Silven

ILLUSIONIST, MENTALIST AND PERFORMANCE artist Scott Silven takes 30 participants—individuals or households —from their homes to his in rural Scotland in The Journey, a Broad Stage co-commission performed live online Oct. 20-Nov. 1. Silven engages directly with audiences, so each show is different (see page 24; tickets 310.434.3200, thebroadstage.org). L.A. Opera and its music director, James Conlon, present a socially distanced production of The Anonymous Lover, a 1780 chamber opera shot with robotically controlled cameras and livestreamed Nov. 14 from the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall. It’s by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the son of an African slave and a French plantation owner (see p. 13; tickets 213.972.8001, laopera.org). Both are West Coast premieres.

6 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

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IN T HE W IN G S

Breath of Fresh Air PASADENA SYMPHONY takes it outdoors with Pasadena Presents, four intimate, socially distanced concerts Oct. 17Nov. 14 at Pasadena Pavilion for the Performing Arts. Soloists—violinists Simone Porter and Angelo Xiang Yu, pianists Terrence Wilson and Inon Barnatan—appear in recital for half of their programs, then in chamber works. Should health guidelines preclude in-person presentations,

Violinist Simone Porter

CEO Laura Unger says, “the show must go on ... the show will go online” (see p. 23; 626.793.7172, pasadenasymphony-pops. org). San Diego Opera plans four drive-in performances of Puccini’s La Bohème—with cars parked 6 feet apart, jumbo video screens and sound via FM radio—Oct. 24Nov. 1 at a location to be announced. The Met’s Angel Blue plays Mimi, her signature role (p. 34; 619.533.7000, sdopera.org).

Choreographer Camille A. Brown

8 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

MUSIC CENTER Offstage’s Digital Dance Experiences are even more popular than the live-instruction Dance DTLA events that inspired them. An “Inside Look” brings Camille A. Brown, choreographer for dance troupes, the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway (see p. 18; musiccenter.org). San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre offers Community Voices, free online short-play workshops, and the Living Room Play Workshop, where participants learn to write, develop, design and direct their own plays (see p. 38; theoldglobe.org).

PORTER, EMMA BELLA HOLLEY. BROWN, JOSEFINA SANTOS / NYTIMES

REACH OUT!

2020–21 SEASON

ART MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER CAP UCLA GOES ONLINE WITH CAP CONNECT DANCE THEATER MUSIC FILM DIGITAL MEDIA THE TUNE IN FESTIVAL

ALL FALL 2020 ONLINE PROGRAMS FREE WITH RSVP CAP.UCLA.EDU

THE ATER

setting a new stage Center Theatre Group—Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre—reconsiders its role in society. by sherry stern

FAR FROM WRINGING his hands about the events of 2020, the artistic director of Los Angeles’ largest theater company expresses an outlook that is full of hope. Some might even say it’s rosy.

“I think in the end we’ll come out better. Theater’s going to be fascinating for the next year,” says

10 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

Michael Ritchie, now in his 15th year overseeing the nonprofit Center Theatre Group, which includes the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Beyond that, Ritchie is convinced that the times we are in will shape what’s onstage for years to come.

“Every single new play that is being written or will be written will be influenced by this moment in time, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s Black Lives Matter, whether it’s loneliness, economic distress, political anxiety,” he says. “It’s an amazing moment to be alive in.”

First, however, comes the immediate future,

which Ritchie sees as a transitional period.

When it became clear that the company’s stages would go dark for at least a year, he and managing director and CEO Meghan Pressman knew they wanted to reach audiences beyond stripped-down readings and presentations in what Ritchie calls “Zoomland.”

They gathered a dozen artists and asked them to create new ways to reach audiences. Those in the group, mostly L.A.-based and each paid a stipend, include playwrights, video artists, performers, poets, shadow puppeteers, directors, sketch come-

dians and small teams of writers-performers.

Their ideas may show up as outdoor performances, at beaches or parks or as micro gatherings on the Music Center Plaza. The artists could create films to be seen in public spaces or videos to be shared virtually. Ideas flow (and sometimes ebb) depending on what is safe for artists and audiences at a given moment.

“The question as we reemerge in the world is: What is the role that theater plays in the society?” Pressman says.

Front and center is how the company responds to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Three high-profile

“We’re not shifting the direction. We’re expanding the horizons.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: EDWIN SANTIAGO; COURTESY CTG; JULIETA CERVANTES; REYNOLDS AND OPPOSITE COURTESY CTG

—Managing director and CEO Meghan Pressman

productions addressing issues of race are planned for when audiences can safely return to CTG’s theaters.They include the acclaimed 2018 production of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jeremy O. Harris’ critically lauded Slave Play and the world premiere of Dave Harris’ Tambo & Bones, about two characters in a minstrel show, a coproduction with New York’s Playwrights Horizons.

To Kill a Mockingbird is scheduled to open the Ahmanson season in April 2021; dates for the other shows remain fluid.

Yet the company recognizes that the anti-racist

challenge must go beyond what’s on the stage.

“We’re looking pretty deeply internally,” Ritchie says. “The George Floyd killing was a real eyeopener. There was an absolute necessity to address it head on.”

Responding on several fronts, the CTG board of directors created a permanent committee on equity, diversity and inclusion; the organization is going through antiracism training; and staff moves are addressing longstanding inequities.

Audiences will notice changes as well. CTG generally allows its plays to speak for themselves.

Now, Ritchie says, the company will proactively

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: STEPS TO THE AHMANSON AND MARK TAPER FORUM, AUDIENCE AT KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, TAMBO & BONES DIRECTOR TAYLOR REYNOLDS. OPPOSITE: MICHAEL RITCHIE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER THEATRE GROUP.

team with artists to prep audiences. “We’re working to better contextualize our productions, [addressing] not just what they are but why they are,” he says.

Reaching new audiences is always a goal.

One shift that emerged

during the pandemic will remain: Educational programs will continue digitally, Pressman says, eliminating geographic barriers for students.

The pandemic upended the company’s goal for deeper long-term strategic planning, which Pressman was hired to develop only last year.

The process had just begun when everything shut down.

Like Ritchie, Pressman seizes on the moment as an opportunity: “Right now there’s nothing more important than strategic and vision planning.

“We’re not shifting the direction,” she says.

“We’re expanding the horizons.”

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 11

OP E R A

OPERA’S NEW OVERTURES ITALIAN AUDIENCES watched the first performances of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux on the heels of a cholera outbreak in 1837. L.A. Opera audiences watched the final performances of Roberto Devereux on the cusp of the coronavirus outbreak of 2020.

Donizetti’s opera eventually found its way, and L.A. Opera is doing the same, cultivating the relationship between artists and audiences with renewed musical

12 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

and social purpose.

Days after the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage went dark, the company launched its LAO at Home streaming channel with family programming, videos of past productions and live-at-home Living Room Recitals.

“Our L.A. Opera at Home program has been incredibly successful beyond our wildest imaginations,” says Christopher Koelsch,

L.A. Opera president and CEO. “The Living Room Recitals ... get the highest viewership.” The online programming draws people worldwide; average viewership is more than 10,000.

Social activism is built into L.A. Opera programming—and it carries over to LAO at Home.

When Koelsch invited mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges to perform a Living Room Recital, she suggested instead

a discussion about racial disparities in opera. Five other African-American opera singers participated in “Lift Every Voice,” and 60,000 have watched.

Koelsch has set his sights on more ambitious alternative programming. “What I really want to experiment with is [whether] in a postCOVID world we can

L.A. Opera forges unconventional pandemic-era connections with audiences “beyond our wildest imaginations.”

JEAN-PIERRE MAURIN

create work native to a digital platform, a whole new sub-genre of operatic expression,” Koelsch says.

On Nov. 14, L.A. Opera and music director James Conlon present a socially distanced livestream performance of the 18thcentury chamber opera The Anonymous Lover at Colburn School’s Zipper Hall. It’s the only surviving

work of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the son of an African slave and a French plantation owner.

The ticketed production will be shot with robotically controlled cameras. Bruce Lemon Jr. of the Watts Village and Cornerstone Theater Company directs.

Music by living composers such as Du Yun,

Gabriela Lena Frank and Tamar-kali is coming via Digital Shorts, which pairs composers and artists to create commissioned works. There may be small live events on the Music Center Plaza.

When it’s safe, L.A. Opera will move back into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Don Giovanni

could begin Jan. 30. This fall’s planned Il Trovatore, Tannhäuser and Cinderella move a year later, to 2021.

Until then, the focus is on what can be done now.

“The opera company doesn’t exist to perpetuate itself,” Koelsch says.

“It exists to forge the connection between artists and audience. The real test is, how do we maintain that connection?”

The Living Room Recitals and “Lift Every Voice” offer encouraging answers. —S.S.

CINDERELLA IS PLANNED FOR DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION IN 2021

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 13

CLASSICAL

culture of the newest LOS ANGELES Philharmonic music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel and CEO Chad Smith have worked together for more than a decade, since Dudamel began his tenure with the orchestra in 2009 and Smith, appointed CEO last October, oversaw program planning in other positions.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of the L.A. Phil’s Walt Disney Concert Hall season through at least the end of the year, the two have stepped up their game to continue providing innovative programming for audiences while nurturing the talents of tomorrow’s musicians.

“We have always spoken about a ‘culture of the new’ in Los Angeles,” Dudamel says,

14 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

“and we intend now to embrace that ideal with a renewed commitment and passionate energy.

“The silencing of our music has been deafening.”

Under Dudamel’s leadership, says Smith, “we are finding creative ways forward during an otherwise uncertain time.

We are leveraging established media partnerships, doubling down on YOLA [Youth Orchestra Los Angeles] and taking an ideas-driven approach to programming.”

Among the innovations: Sound/Stage, a weekly online presentation of concert films and related essays, artist interviews and performances recorded at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ford utilizing social distancing.

One program features

libby sl ate

music from Power to the People!, the L.A. Phil’s social-justice-themed festival, which had to be canceled last spring.

“In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl,” a six-episode television series featuring previous Bowl performances, has been airing locally on KCET and PBS SoCal and goes national on PBS stations next year.

There will be worldwide radio broadcasts and streaming of previous L.A. Phil concerts, locally on KUSC, and the release of various recordings.

And with the L.A. Phil organization now operating the Ford, the smaller amphitheater across the Cahuenga Pass from the Bowl, that venue will host a series of streamed multicultural programs of new and previous performances, conversations,

workshops and festivals.

Dudamel’s beloved YOLA—the program he founded that provides free musical instruments and instruction to students who would otherwise have limited access—has branched out digitally, presenting a free virtual symposium for young people and adults.

YOLA student lessons continue online as well.

“The arts must now play a stronger role than ever in our new society,” Dudamel says, “and I join alongside all of our allies, never ceasing to hope, dream and work toward better times.

“The music we make is for everyone,” he adds.

“It unites us in our diversity and comforts our souls in moments of crisis.

I hope that our offerings delight and inspire.”

VERN EVANS

The Los Angeles Philharmonic meets the challenges of pandemic-era programming with passionate energy. by

“The silencing of our music has been deafening,” —Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 15

CHORAL

inward and upward

“AS A CHORAL organization, we are Exhibit A in the mind of the public as superspreaders,” Los Angeles Master Chorale artistic director Grant Gershon says so ruefully that one cannot help but laugh, even if just a little.

The subject, COVID-19, could not be more serious—but Gershon joins in. “You have to laugh,” he says, “otherwise you’ll cry.”

Indeed, after a rehearsal by a choir in Washington state led to many members’ infections, experts realized that the force of singing propels the virus.

The chorale would have in any case stopped concertizing when performing

16 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

arts venues shut down.

The 2020-21 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall has been postponed a year, but Gershon is in no mood for tears: There are too many positive developments, he says.

Upcoming alternative programming includes digital premieres of commissioned works by composers Derrick Spiva Jr. and Doug Aitken.

Chorale singers will be recorded individually and possibly in small groups outdoors.

Also online: what Gershon calls a “karaoke Christmas,” blending elements of the group’s Christmas concerts and Messiah sing-along; its High School Choir

Festival; and its weekly Sundays at Seven release of archival recordings.

The postponement also lays the foundation for an endeavor reflecting the social-justice movement.

“It gives us an opportunity to look inward and examine our own practices and biases,” Gershon says, “to listen very intently to the voices that are calling for change.

“We’re making a commitment that in future seasons, at least 50% of our programming will be by composers from

PRE-PANDEMIC: ARTISTIC DIRECTOR GRANT GERSHON LEADS THE L.A. MASTER CHORALE

historically unrepresented groups in classical music.”

Gershon has just extended his contract through the 2024-25 season, and associate conductor Jenny Wong has been promoted to a newly created position, associate artistic director.

Together with chorale president and CEO Jean Davidson and artist-inresidence Reena Esmail, he says, “we are restructuring the leadership.”

“We are a team of artistic leaders that represent the multiplicity of viewpoints that is the hallmark of the Master Chorale,” Gershon says.

“It’s a microcosm for what we want the whole organization to be.” —L.S.

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dancing with the digital Dance at the Music Center programs have proved even more popular online.

D AN C E

WHEN THE POPULAR FRIDAY night summer Dance DTLA program migrated online because of the coronavirus pandemic, Music Center administrators made a discovery: The events, in which instructors lead participants through the steps of a particular dance genre, were even more popular online. § “We’ve had much bigger audiences; more people see this and participate than we would have had in the physical space,” says Rachel S.

JOSEFINA SANTOS / NYTIMES. OPPOSITE, ANDREW ECCLES / ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Moore, Music Center president and CEO, herself a former dancer with American Ballet Theatre.

Digital programs under the Music Center Offstage banner continue in the fall and winter. The Digital Dance Experiences “Inside Look” series serves as a prelude to the hopedfor return in March of the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center series at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Offerings have included a conversation with Pina Bausch company scenic designer Peter Pabst and the opportunity to learn choreography from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater seminal work Revelations.

An upcoming “Inside Look” features a discussion with choreographer Camille A. Brown and video excerpts of her works. “She’s an extraordinary African American artistic director and choreographer,” Moore

says. “She’s created her own works in regular proscenium theaters for dance companies but also choreographed Porgy and Bess for the Metropolitan Opera and [the Tony Award-winning revival Once on This Island on] Broadway. To talk about the similarities and differences between concert

and commercial dance will be interesting.”

In their approach to programming, Moore says, “we talk a lot about engaging with the arts.

It’s art by, with and for the people of Los Angeles. We weren’t just interested in art that was for—for people sitting passively and watching. Programming where people could be involved—dance with, learn choreography —was really important.”

Official guidelines permitting, the Dance at the Music Center series will present the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in March, the

CHOREOGRAPHER CAMILLE A. BROWN. OPPOSITE: SOLOMON DUMAS OF ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Eifman Ballet in April, the Paul Taylor Dance Company in June and American Ballet Theatre, starring Misty Copeland in Romeo and Juliet, in July. Some digital aspects will be retained during the live season.

It’s been a challenging time, Moore acknowledges before mentioning a favorite source of inspiration. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a beautiful quote that I think is really relevant: ‘Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.’

“I think we’re starting to see some of the glimmers of light that will hold us until we emerge on the other side,” she says.

“I think of these digital opportunities as little stars that we probably wouldn’t be doing if it weren’t for this situation.” —L.S.

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 19

SP E CI AL A DV ERT I S I N G SE CTION

FOOD FOR THOUGHT On the SoCal Calendar

Like the freshest produce and high-quality ingredients, the innovative Southern California arts scene nourishes, refreshes and stimulates. Performing-arts venues and companies continue to do that, adapting to the challenges of this very challenging year and expanding their audiences in the process. Here are five of them.

SOCAL PERFORMING ARTS #SUPPORTTHEARTS

Check websites for performance updates, tickets and to donate to your local theaters.

Los Angeles Dance Festival 618 B Moulton Ave. Los Angeles 562 412 7429 ladancefest.org North Coast Repertory Theatre 987 Lomas Santa Fe Solana Beach 858 481 1055 northcoastrep.org Verdi Chorus 2630 11th St., #4 Santa Monica 661 434 1109 verdichorus.org Carpenter Performing Arts Center 6200 E. Atherton St. Long Beach 562 985 7000 carpenterarts.org San Diego Dance Theater 2650 Truxtun Road, #108 San Diego 619 225 1803 sandiegodancetheater.org

FOUR WEEKENDS in October offer an online taste of the vibrant Los Angeles dance scene. The Los Angeles Dance Festival encourages and celebrates the contemporary creativity growing out of the city’s rich cultural traditions, showcasing L.A.-based choreographers who use their art to reflect and shape what it means to live here.

The festival usually takes place live in April; the upcoming online events this month are presented by the Brockus Project Dance and the Luckman Theater.

Award-winning North Coast Rep in Solana Beach is the first theater in the United States to film a live stage performance specifically for streaming. Filmed Plays Online begins with the West Coast premiere of Necessary Sacrifices, directed by Peter Ellenstein. Commissioned

by Ford’s Theatre in D.C., the work is based on two meetings between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, revealing anguished emotions as they grapple with war, peace, politics and moral courage. It runs through Oct. 11.

The next installation is Bernard Slade’s comedy Same Time, Next Year, directed by David Ellenstein,

Oct. 21-Nov. 15. It explores a 25-year love affair between two seemingly ordinary people who meet once a year, deftly examining the political, social and personal changes that impact their lives. Full of clever dialogue, comical visuals and unexpected admissions, the play evokes both laughter and tears.

The Verdi Chorus is led by founding artistic director Anne Marie Ketchum. Fifty voices strong and now in its 37th season in Santa Monica, it is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music written for opera chorus.

In place of its previously scheduled live concert this fall, the Verdi Chorus offers a series of themed musical soirees presented online by the Fox Singers, an ensemble of young professional opera singers within the chorus. The entire chorus looks forward to singing together in person again as soon as it is safe to do so.

The Carpenter Performing Arts Center celebrates the best of the performing arts in music, dance, theater and other genres. Since March, the center has provided online arts experiences, available on their website.

The venue continues to support artists and the Long Beach community through Arts for Life. This free educational program connects artists virtually to Long Beach schoolchildren and the wider community and includes illuminating guest speakers.

San Diego Dance Theater (SDDT) has gone alfresco, bringing small-group dance performances to live audiences safely with FALL (in love with) DANCE (again).

Its annual repertory performance shifts from San Diego City College’s Saville Theatre to a temporary outdoor stage that SDDT is building on the North Promenade at ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station to start the fall season Nov. 13-15.

Works featured in the November lineup include artistic director Jean Isaacs’ “Cabaret Dances,” restaged by rehearsal director Liv Isaacs-Nollet, along with new pieces by associate artistic director Terry Wilson and guest choreographer Khamla Somphanh.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic or purchase a basket from participating restaurants at Liberty Station: THE LOT Restaurant, Solare Ristorante or Banyan Kitchen + Cafe.

“

Like the theater, offering food and hospitality to people is a matter of showmanship. “ —James Beard

We at Gelson’s couldn’t agree more. Art and food go hand-in-hand: “Art is food for the soul.” The Southern California arts scene has been challenged as never before and is being reimagined every day. We encourage you to experience it in new and exciting ways, to be moved and affected by its distinctive and innovative creativity. You can now enjoy performances from the comfort of your home. Pair these presentations with inspired dishes using the highest caliber meats, seafood and specialty items from Gelson’s—where quality, cleanliness, convenience and customer service parallel the stunning offerings of Southern California arts groups.

Indulge your senses with

a proud supporter of the performing arts

T HE ATER

no pause in pasadena

PRESSING “PAUSE”? Not an option for Pasadena Playhouse. Its centuryplus legacy encourages forward momentum.

Audience and theatermakers long to connect.

Artists crave to respond in an extraordinary moment. There are bills to pay and people to keep employed.

“One of the tragedies of everything going on right now is that the way we process things around us in the world, challenging things like a

22 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

pandemic or social unrest, is through the arts,” says Danny Feldman, producing artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse.

“There still is beauty and art,” he says. “There are wonderful artists with things to say about the world right now and a lot of people wanting to experience and absorb. So how do we get the financial engine of American theater going again?”

Pasadena Playhouse’s answer is PlayhouseLive, a new streaming platform of fresh programming.

Some events are free, but most are ticketed as pay-per-view shows or via membership packages.

The series In Development looks at unproduced theatrical work such as the new musical Iceboy! Intermission With Hashtag Booked offers celebrity

interviews with comedy duo LaNisa Frederick and Danielle Pinnock. The first Page to Stage follows last year’s Little Shop of Horrors from rehearsal to opening night. Also: filmed shows

by Bob Baker Marionette Theater and a revue inspired by Broadway great Jerry Herman.

The Playhouse develops most of its shows, so commissioning works for PlayhouseLive was a natural fit. “What we’re seeing emerging is artists’ desire to create a new art form,” Feldman says. “Digital theater is its own genre.”

Some financial footing

ABOVE, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DANNY FELDMAN. LEFT, LANISA FREDERICK AND DANIELLE PINNOCK, INTERMISSION WITH HASHTAG BOOKED.

comes from a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts coronavirus aid grant. The rest would come from sponsors and ticketing. “It’s a risk, right?” Feldman says.

“We’re essentially starting a new business.”

PlayhouseLive is available on a stand-alone website and accessible through such distribution channels as iPhone and Android apps, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku.

As Pasadena’s 686seat theater transforms to a digital setting, one live show is primed to return when theatergoing is safe.

The spring run of Ann, a portrayal of legendary Texas governor Ann Richards, was among pandemic casualties.

According to Feldman, playwright-star Holland Taylor is champing at the bit to return. —S.S.

FELDMAN COURTESY PASADENA PLAYHOUSE. HASHTAG BOOKED, JEROME SHAW. OPPOSITE: COURTESY PASADENA SYMPHONY

Pasadena Playhouse launches streaming platform PlayhouseLive with fresh programming.

M U SIC

three phases a charm The season goes on at the Pasadena Symphony—pandemic guidelines included.

“WE’RE GOING TO be 94 years old this fall—and we’re doing everything we can to ensure that we’ll be here for the next 100 years!” So says Lora Unger, CEO of the Pasadena Symphony, of her organization’s efforts to stay afloat during the pandemic.

The orchestra normally performs its classical season at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium and its Pasadena Pops summer season at Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia.

Pops programs are postponed until 2021—but a three-phase plan for classical events “correlates with whatever is going on regarding COVID-19 guidelines,” Unger says.

Phase one also correlates with whatever is going on with the weather.

The symphony takes advantage of Southern California’s temperate climate for its new Pasadena Presents, four outdoor concerts Oct. 17-Nov. 14 at the Pasadena Pavilion for the Performing Arts led by music director David Lockington.

Previously planned orchestral concerts will transform to chamber music, with no more than eight musicians on stage, 350 people in the audience with all appropriate safety protocols, and multiple performances. Guest artists will play in recital for the first half, chamber works with orchestra members in the second.

Programming retains the original schedule’s artistic intentions. Pianist Terrence Wilson, who was to play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with orchestra, instead has piano accompaniment; Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet replaces the composer’s “New World” Symphony.

There will also be conversations between Lockington and the musicians. The programs will be livestreamed for patrons more comfortable staying home; if public health guidelines ban gatherings of this size, the

shows go on virtually from Ambassador Auditorium.

Phase two, guidelines permitting, calls for concerts at Ambassador Auditorium with 35 to 40 musicians and 400 to 500 patrons.

Phase three would present 50 or more musicians for at least 1,000 audience members.

The entire 2020-21 season could continue outdoors on the Pasadena Presents series. “We can stay outside with space heaters,” Unger says.

“The power of music isn’t defined by the numbers of musicians on stage. Truly great music is measured only by the heart and soul of the performers on stage.

With that in mind, we have the very best in store for our audience.”

—L.S.

PASADENA SYMPHONY MUSIC DIRECTOR DAVID LOCKINGTON

PE RFOR MI N G AR TS

to the moon and beyond Plans at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica include a chamber opera, a digital illusionist, 11 local premieres and 17 artists new to the venue.

WITH BIRDS IN the moon, illusion in a digital space and pride in advancing artistic endeavors, creativity carries on at the Broad Stage amid theater’s shifting landscape.

A key reason: The Broad Stage was well on a path toward change before the pandemic hit, according to Rob Bailis, its artistic and executive director. In fact, that’s what initially drew him to join the performing arts center on the Santa Monica College campus in June 2019.

24 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

“The Broad Stage already had a lot of overtones of social justice and of deep community engagement while remaining firmly an artistic institution,” Bailis says.

That sense of purpose guides both the theater’s revised 2020-21 season and its new urgency for planning 2022 and 2023.

Stay-at-home orders upended programming that Bailis says has been intended to celebrate the center’s renewed mission to strengthen its creative partnerships and engage diverse audiences.

“It was a really intense pivot to go from what I thought would be sort of this calling-card season to having to just immediately address the circumstances we were in,” he says.

Good fortune played a hand in two of the Broad Stage offerings. Birds in the Moon and illusionist Scott Silven managed to remain on the calendar with COVID-era tweaking.

Birds in the Moon is the world premiere of a chamber opera designed for outdoor spaces.

Performed on a mobile stage, the innovative opera will be presented free in several spots around Santa Monica.

The tweaks: There will be more dates than originally planned; there will be smaller audiences, safely spaced apart.

The opera offers social engagement as well as social distancing. Written

by Mark Grey and Júlia Canosa i Serra, Birds in the Moon is a tale of migration, a challenging environment and the search for a better life.

“The story in this some-

“It does take committing to a future rather than being panicked in the present.”

PHOTOS COURTESY BROAD STAGE. BAILIS, BEN GIBBS

—Rob Bailis, Broad Stage artistic and executive director

what bleak landscape has taken on an entirely new meaning now that we’re living in what we’re living in,” Bailis says.

Another shift comes with the Los Angeles premiere of a new work

by Silven, an illusionist, mentalist and performance artist whose well-reviewed touring show At the Illusionist’s Table had been planned for the coming season.

Instead, Silven has created The Journey, a Broad Stage co-commission designed specifically

as an online show, with an initial run of ticketed performances Oct. 20-Nov. 1.

The in-theater season figures to roll out slowly with stage, dance and music programs beginning in January. Many of the earliest shows have the flexibility to switch to digital presentations or move to a later date.

CELLIST YO-YO MA AND PHOTOGRAPHER AUSTIN MANN. OPPOSITE: KEB’ MO’.

The season—which features 11 Los Angeles premieres and 17 artists new to the Broad Stage— would unfold mostly on its main 500-seat Eli and Edythe Broad Stage or in its 100-seat blackbox theater, the Edye.

It also includes a multimedia project from cellist Yo-Yo Ma and photographer Austin Mann, the venue debut of Mark Morris Dance Group, the return of Grammy-winning musician Keb’ Mo’ and Och and Oy! A Considered Cabaret, with actor-singer

Alan Cumming and NPR’s Ari Shapiro.

With 2021 scheduled, Bailis says, what’s essential now is to give artists the resources to keep working; the Broad has commissioned six major works for 2022 and 2023.

“We need to start asking what will artists need, what will communities need, what will the institutions that sustain us need at that time,” Bailis says.

“It does take committing to a future rather than being panicked in the present.” —S.S.

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 25

MUSIC AN D D AN CE

setting its sites THE ARTS HAVE never been limited to spaces with four walls, and Paul Crewes, artistic director of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, plans to use that to advantage.

“Before we can get back into the theaters, we’re looking at the outdoors,” Crewes says. In addition to its 500-seat Bram Goldsmith Theater and 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater, the Wallis has a terrace and sculpture garden that can double as performance spaces and a grassy courtyard used by its education department.

Two local dance companies will utilize the open spaces: Versa-Style Dance Company, which presents an interactive history of hip-hop, and Heidi Duckler Dance,

26 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

whose site-specific The Chandelier had to be postponed earlier this year. For the latter, Crewes says, “the audience will follow the action outside, moving about the campus. The work ... will be taking the audience on a journey.”

Online presentations are rolling out now: They include 15 short dance films that Crewes commissioned from choreographer Jacob Jonas, whose ensemble The Company was formerly company-in-residence at the Wallis; mini-concerts by married duo violinist Vijay Gupta and com-

VERSA-STYLE DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS AN INTERACTIVE HISTORY OF HIP-HOP AT THE WALLIS.

poser Reena Esmail; and a digital version of the Sorting Room, a program in the Lovelace that presents a variety of performance genres.

Diavolo has been penciled in for March and Ballet Hispánico for April if in-theater performances can resume with enough seating allowed to make them economically viable.

Also on tap are concerts by violinist and artist-in-residence Daniel Hope; a Violins of Hope concert with the Delirium Musicum chamber orchestra using instruments played by Holocaust prisoners; and the world premiere of writer-star Tom Dugan’s play Tevye in New York.

The venue’s education department has classes online and will continue to use the courtyard; one

short-term goal, says director of education Mark Slavkin, is to move faculty and some participants back into the classroom.

Grow @ The Wallis programs that have gone online include the Miracle Project for people with autism, and that of the Wallis Studio Ensemble, early-career actors who produced Fairyland Foibles, an eight-episode interactive show on YouTube.

“There’s a bit of improvisation going on,” Slavkin says, “and there’s still the unknown. What will be the mix of in-person and online? What will the comfort level be?

“But doing the online classes makes me feel that we’re making a difference and helping people,” he adds. “That is a good day.” —L.S.

GEORGE SIMIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts plans to use every bit of its campus, in person and online.

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MUS I C AN D D AN C E

the gifts of giving Fundraising and thriving educational programs make for a bright outlook at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.

IT GOES WITHOUT saying that audiences are eager to return to live music, dance and theater. § It does not go without saying that fundraising will sustain nonprofit venues such as Segerstrom Center for the Arts until that return is safe. § But the numbers are heartening, says Casey Reitz, the center’s new president. Its Raise the Curtain campaign, launched in spring, not only raised $1.5 million, but 300 of the campaign’s 1,800 gifts came from first-time donors. § “We didn’t know what would happen when we shut down,” says Reitz, whose tenure began three months before theaters went dark. “We didn’t know if everything would just squeeze down to a trickle or to nothing. So that was encouraging.”

28 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

PIPER FERGUSON

Survey results add to Reitz’s optimism: “When they feel safe to return,” he says, “an overwhelming majority of people say they’re either going to donate the same amount or more, attend the same amount or more, or spend the same amount or more on tickets.”

As Orange County’s major home for Broadway musicals, dance, classical music, jazz and cabaret, the center relies heavily on traveling productions. Artists and shows at three indoor

venues and one outdoors must be planned, even though dates can change.

Early 2021 highlights include My Fair Lady, Come From Away, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, the Calidore String Quartet and Broadway’s Tony Yazbek.

How it all plays out is a continual conversation between Reitz and his board of directors.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA

Depending on state guidelines and theatrical union rules, they might present events inside the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall or 300-seat Samueli Theater—the venue for jazz, chamber music and cabaret—with a downsized, socially distanced audience on site while others buy tickets for livestreams. The center’s international dance series could pivot to Southern California companies.

They might offer intimate ticketed performances on the Argyros Plaza.

Its programming paused, the center is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on hygiene and safety upgrades.

Educational programs have moved to Zoom and thrived. The ABT William J. Gillespie Dance School added extra classes, while Studio D: Arts School for All Abilities saw a 200% increase in enrollment.

“There’s more of a need for what we do in those areas than ever before,” Reitz says. —S.S.

FALL 2020 PERFORMCES 29

option 73 . . . and counting !

The producers at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts consider contingencies one future at a time.

LIKE MANY PEOPLE in the arts, BT McNicholl and Tom McCoy were in denial when theaters first shut down in March due to the coronavirus.

Surely this can’t go on for too long, thought McNicholl, producing artistic director at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and McCoy, who with wife Cathy Rigby McCoy, has produced La Mirada’s Broadway series for 20-plus years.

McNicholl and McCoy kept up a steady stream of emails and phone calls. “We’ve become best friends,” McCoy says wryly. “We’re on Option 73.”

30 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

The denial disappeared when the City of La Mirada, owner of the 1,250-seat theater, decided to close it until January.

McCoy pushed what would have been the venue’s next two productions—The Sound of Music and Mamma Mia!—to spring and presents the more modest Million Dollar Quartet, pandemic permitting, in January.

“It’s a smallish musical,” McCoy says. “If we’re forced to [limit seating to] every other row, we’ll still be ahead financially.”

McCoy Rigby Entertainment has become involved with various projects inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, including a playwriting

competition, Raise Your Voice, scheduled for online readings.

“Option 73” also meant moving youth-oriented nonprofit McCoy Rigby Arts into the virtual realm. A junior version of Shrek mixed live and prerecorded elements; children and teens from eight states performed via Zoom. More such performances are planned.

“For those kids who live in places that don’t have access to theater, to hear them sing, it’s such a joy,” says Rigby McCoy, the

SCENE FROM PAST PRODUCTION OF THE LITTLE MERMAID AT LA MIRADA.

two-time Olympic gymnast who became a Tony-nominated performer in the title role of Peter Pan on Broadway.

“They’ve seen America’s Got Talent,” she says.

“Now they know, ‘I’ve got talent, I can do this, too.’ ” The duo have long brought a fresh approach to their La Mirada productions, which they and McNicholl attribute in part to city funding that allows them to hire actors, directors and designers that many regional theaters can’t afford.

Rigby McCoy also cites honest storytelling: “People want it to be authentic,” she says. “You look for what’s going to touch people.”

McCoy is also realistic about returning to the theater. “We’re not kidding ourselves,” he says. “It may take a while for the audience to be comfortable to be back.”

—L.S.

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T HE ATER

global thinking San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre extends its outreach and renews its zeal for inclusiveness. by stephanie thompson

MUCH IS DIFFERENT at San Diego’s Old Globe, which would have presented its 85th summer season if not for the pandemic. ”One thing I’ve learned is that things that seem outrageous on Monday are common practice by Friday,” says director of arts engagement and new associate artistic director Freedome Bradley-Ballentine.

But much remains the same, he says: “I get up every morning thinking, ‘How can I make theater matter to more people?’ Last week, today, tomorrow—there’s been no change in that.

The only question that has changed is: How?” The shutdown of the performing arts isn’t the only thing on BradleyBallentine’s mind.

The Black Lives Matter

32 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

protests have energized efforts to increase equity and representation.

“The Old Globe must be anti-racist,” BradleyBallentine says. “We need to create space ... in our hiring, our commissioning, in the works we present. We have been and will be dismantling barriers that prevent people coming into the theater.”

Online programs have reached new audiences through talks by staff and artists; discussion groups; a book club; archival videos; and the world premiere of a commissioned 10-minute play.

Livestream workshops Living Room Play Workshop and Community Voices both center on creating and developing new plays, the latter ones inspired by personal experience.

“We want to take

those stories—not only from San Diego, Los Angeles or New York, but from all over the world —and celebrate them in an online festival,” Bradley-Ballentine says.

“That’s not derailed by a 100-year plague.”

An online presence also encourages working with organizations elsewhere, he says. “Art is collaborative. How are you handling change? What have you learned? How can I incorporate what you’re doing? These are the questions we’re asking.”

“There’s no idea too crazy ... to keep people engaged, to bring the theater to them.”

—Freedome BradleyBallentine, director of arts engagement and associate artistic director

The Old Globe started modestly, presenting 12 abridged Shakespeare plays at the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.

Prior to the pandemic, a quarter of a million people annually attended Old Globe productions or participated in its engagement and outreach programs. More than 20 Old Globe productions have gone on to Broadway and off-Broadway, earning 13 Tony Awards.

Now, reflects BradleyBallentine, “there’s no idea too crazy ... to keep people engaged, to bring the theater to them.

“When we come out of this pandemic, there will be change. And it will be positive ... as we work with one another to create the more equitable world we want to live in.”

FROM TOP, JIM COX AND CRAIG SCHWARTZ

THE OLD GLOBE’S LOWELL DAVIES FESTIVAL THEATRE, TOP, AND LOUISA JACOBSON IN LAST SEASON’S ROMEO AND JULIET

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 33

M U SIC

the very great outdoors San Diego Symphony looks to its new Shell to reconnect with audiences.

WHEN THE SAN DIEGO Symphony’s new music director and principal conductor took the podium for a series of season-opening concerts in fall 2019, the excitement was palpable. Rafael Payare drew masterful performances out of the orchestra and electrified audiences and critics alike. Everyone agreed—a new era was born. § Then, in March, the world, and that era, came to a screeching halt. § “Rafael Payare had six weeks of performances as our new music director before the coronavirus shutdown,” recalls San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer. “Everyone was able to see his incredible energy and his connection with the musicians. Now he is a conductor without an orchestra.”

34 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

“We will all stand at that first concert and weep.... We will all realize how fragile life is and how much we have missed it.”

—Martha Gilmer, San Diego Symphony CEO

eight of the composers were born elsewhere— ”composers that helped shape music in this country who, like me, were immigrants, mixing cultures, putting it all on a plate,” Payare says.

And with outdoor and socially distanced events topping arts wish lists, the orchestra has an ace up its sleeve: The Shell, its $42 million venue on San Diego Bay, is due to open next summer.

“The Shell is close to complete and will be the San Diego Symphony’s outdoor home, not just for

summer pops concerts,” Gilmer says.

“We are very fortunate to have a permanent outdoor venue with that level of sophistication, all the amenities, wonderful sound, surrounded by water and a steady breeze. With a capacity of 10,000, we can easily socially distance an audience of 3,000.”

Payare and his brass players gathered at the unfinished Shell in May, safely distanced, to record a performance of “Simple Gifts” released online July 4.

“We played to break the silence,” Payare says.

“The orchestra had not

RENDERING OF THE SHELL ON SAN DIEGO BAY. OPPOSITE: NEW MUSIC DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR RAFAEL PAYARE.

played since March 6. The sound was phenomenal.”

Reflects Gilmer, “For San Diegans to hear their orchestra and feel that sense of pride, that connection.... Having been deprived of it for months, we realize it is more necessary and life-affirming than ever.

“The first-line workers are doing the critical work right now,” she says. “But when we come out of isolation, music, the arts, the San Diego Symphony will all be part of the healing process.

“My belief is that when we finally can get back to live performances, they’re going to be even more meaningful than they ever were before.

“We will all stand at that first concert and weep, because we will all realize how fragile life is and how much we have missed it.” —S.T.

PHOTOS COURTESY SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY

Payare—who is from Venezuela and lives in Berlin with his wife, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and their young daughter —flew into San Diego on one of the last flights before the shutdown.

He had a full slate of performances scheduled for cities all over the world this year—Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Zurich, Boston, Leipzig and London among them. Instead, he says cheerfully, “I’m getting to know this beautiful city and get more in touch with San Diego” —studying scores and dreaming big.

An ambitious 2020–21 season announced by Payare and Gilmore has tentatively been pushed to spring. More than a dozen compositions get their San Diego Symphony premieres;

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 35

OP E RA

two divas, a dilemma and a drive-in San Diego Opera may have its live season after all.

METROPOLITAN OPERA stars Stephanie Blythe and Angel Blue, and a robust season besides, had been scheduled, and the orchestra contracted, when San Diego Opera general manager David Bennett was bushwhacked by the pandemic.

But Bennett was determined to find a way to offer an October pro-

36 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

duction of La Bohème, Giacomo Puccini’s story of 1830 Parisian bohemians.

His creative thinking culminated in plans for a drive-in production Oct. 24, 27, 30 and Nov. 1 at a location to be announced: the audience in cars parked 6 feet apart, jumbo video screens, sound via FM radio and pricing ($200-$300 per vehicle) tiered to stage proximity.

He hopes to be back in the 3,000-seat San Diego Civic Theatre by February for Puccini’s Suor Angelica

by pat l auner

and Gianni Schicchi but is “taking the season one step at a time.” Bennett is thrilled with his divas wherever they perform.

Blue, last seen in San Diego in Turandot (2018) is, he says, “a hot, hot commodity right now, one of the most important sopranos today.”

The statuesque Blue financed her undergrad and graduate education by competing in beauty pageants—she was Miss Arizona and runner-up for Miss California. She then moved to Europe, performing in 35 countries

and every major opera house over six years. Early in 2020, she starred in Porgy and Bess at the Met. But Mimi in La Bohème is her signature role; her 100 Mimi performances included her Met debut.

She has no qualms about performing at a drive-in, but, given Bohème’s romantic plot, thinks the social distancing might be awkward— as would scenes that would normally have her “coughing in Rodolfo’s face.” Given union distancing guidelines, that’s

SONYA GARZA, TOP, AND J. KATARZYNA WORONOWICZ. OPPOSITE: KEN HOWARD, TOP, AND COURTESY THE ARTIST

not likely to happen, but, she notes, artists find ways to be creative.

Talk about creative: Mezzo soprano Blythe, one of the most celebrated artists of her generation, came up with an inspired idea for her SDO performances.

Blythe had been contracted to sing Principesa in the tragic Suor Angelica, and Zita, the title character’s cousin in the farcical Gianni Schicchi. But her vocal range has gotten lower, and she had the gutsy idea of playing the baritone Gianni—and Bennett was all for it.

“I love the character of Gianni,” Blythe says.

“Manipulative, cunning,

ANGEL BLUE IN TURANDOT (2018) AND, OPPOSITE, STEPHANIE BLYTHE IN A MASKED BALL (2014) IN SAN DIEGO.

totally in charge. You adore him, you hate him. The piece speaks to current socioeconomic divides, people clamoring for something they feel they deserve, and willing to say and do anything to get what they want.

“I’m not doing this to be funny or disrespectful.

I’m interested in the challenge, and I can’t find anywhere this role has been sung by a woman.

I’m very fortunate that San Diego Opera would take the plunge with me.”

Blythe’s relationship with the company is close. In 2014, the year SDO nearly shut down, she appeared in Verdi’s Requiem and A Masked Ball and performed her Kate Smith tribute recital.

Blythe, who considers the Met her home base and is artistic director of the graduate vocal arts program at Bard College, has a history of gender exploration. She’s even created a comical alter ego, a bearded tenor named Blythely Oratonio.

“He’s definitely a part of me, but more bawdy,” she says. “He says things I can’t say. He sings everything from rock ‘n’ roll to

tenor arias, he sings what the hell he wants. Why shouldn’t Stephanie?”

Amazingly, SDO’s Bennett hasn’t laid off or furloughed any employees during the pandemic.

“I’m anxious to employ artists,” he says, “and to give audiences the opportunity to experience a live performance.”

To which we respond, “Toi, toi, toi,” the opera equivalent of “break a leg.”

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 37

THE ATER

wow! pop! and other intrepid programming La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego continues to be a haven for “audacious and diverse work.”

A NOVEL VIRUS demands a novel approach—for theaters as well as for medical professionals. § Not daunting for Christopher Ashley, artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse. For the last seven of his 13 years on the job, he has focused exclusively on innovative original work—a fairly novel way to ensure the venue’s success. § The Tony Award-winning theater (Outstanding Regional Theatre, 1993) and director (Come From Away, 2017) stake their claim as a fertile breeding ground for, as its mission statement puts it, “social, moral and political … artist-driven … audacious and diverse work.” The Playhouse considers itself “a permanent safe harbor for the unsafe and surprising.”

38 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

MATTHEW MURPHY. OPPOSITE, BECCA BATISTA

A filmed version of the Playhouse’s new musical Diana will be released on Netflix before its Broadway premiere, making it the first Broadway show to return to live theater with a hybrid model.

Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the company was a summer-stock retreat for Hollywood luminaries for more than a decade before its hiatus from 1959 to 1982. Since 1983, its visionary focus has brought national prominence: Of its 105 world premieres, 33 have gone to Broadway and garnered 38 Tony Awards.

Ashley expanded its presentations beyond the confines of traditional theater. His Without Walls (WOW) series and festival offered theatrical experiments and immersive experiences in locales as diverse as a botanical garden, a beach and a basketball court.

Then came 2020, and the theater’s shuttering.

Instead of a multiday festival, Ashley produced

stand-alone WOW events including a meditative video installation (Ancient

by Mike Sears and Lisa Berger), a guided amble around your neighborhood (Walks of Life from Blindspot Collective) and an irreverent “broadcast” (The Totally Fake Latino News With Culture Clash).

“One silver lining of this moment,” Ashley says, “is that it’s brought us a wide and international audience. The first few months of WOW attracted 58,000 viewers.”

Another: loyal donors.

“We’re dependent on the kindness of strangers—and friends—since the ticket revenue from these experimental approaches is so tiny,” Ashley says. “San Diego has some of the most passionate arts supporters of any city I know.”

The venue’s education and outreach programs reach 50,000 San Diegans annually. Its Performance Outreach Program (POP) takes new commissioned plays into local schools.

Commissions are a company cornerstone: 58 commissioned plays to date, 24 artists under commission now. “Those artists have comprised an incredible BIPOC list [Black, indigenous and people of color]. I want

to encourage voices that haven’t been heard.”

The pandemic forced Ashley to shut down nine shows, including five productions of Come From Away on Broadway and elsewhere and the national tour of Margaritaville, both Playhouse-birthed.

Diana, the new musical about the beloved princess, premiered at the Playhouse in 2019 and was in Broadway previews when COVID-19 arrived.

It has a new Broadway opening date (May 25), and a filmed version will

LA JOLLA-BIRTHED DIANA GOES TO BROADWAY. OPPOSITE: LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY.

be released on Netflix before the Broadway premiere, making it the first Broadway show to return to live theater with a hybrid model. The cast album is nearly complete.

“We’ll get back to having people together in a room, experiencing a story,” Ashley says.

“That’s been going on for thousands of years, and it’s not going away for good.”

But for now, his eye is on intrepid WOW work. ”We fully produce more commissioned plays and musicals than any other theater I know,” Ashley says. “Playhouse audiences love new work.

They’re very receptive and very interested in having a new experience.

They are up for being challenged.” —P.L.

FALL 2020 PERFORMANCES 39

P A RTIN G TH OUGH T

ode to hope

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

by libby sl ate

IN THE 1980s, HISTORIAN-DOCUMENTARIAN Kerry Candaele was driving a borrowed car when he turned on the cassette player—and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. “I was struck dumb by this music,” recalls Candaele, then a 20-something rock and jazz fan. § Candaele was so drawn to the work—whose “Ode to Joy” choral finale celebrates the brotherhood of mankind—that he would later produce a documentary, Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony. The 2013 film chronicles the Ninth’s cultural or political impact in countries including Japan—where the Ninth Symphony is performed every day in December, and its daiku choruses (“nine” in

Arts companies and venues the world over had planned to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with performances of symphonies, sonatas, concertos, quartets and masses.

Then plans changed.

Due to the pandemic, live concerts were canceled or indefinitely postponed. Yet several choruses and orchestras recorded video excerpts of the Ninth early in the pandemic for streaming online. A 360-degree digital version of the “Ode to Joy” movement by the Nuremberg Symphony

40 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020

and 1,000 performers is now on YouTube.

The work is among Beethoven’s more daunting. “He asks us to explore uncharted territory of emotion and sound and expression,” says L.A. Master Chorale artistic director Grant Gershon.

“It’s thrilling but also terrifying. You wonder if you’re up for the challenge.”

Challenges are part of what gives the composer universal appeal.

“People relate to Beethoven’s struggles,” Gershon says, “his overcoming almost unimaginable adversity, the idea of starting in darkness and struggling somehow to find a way forward.

His father was an abusive alcoholic. His mother died when he was 17—he took over raising his brothers.

Just as he came into his talent, he began to go deaf and overcame that too.”

Candaele elaborates.

“You don’t get to joy until you understand something about tragedy.” In the Ninth, “you have celebration despite the sorrow.

He could have ended it with an ‘Ode to Despair.’ ” Beethoven’s willingness to bare his emotions also appeals. “Beethoven lived long enough to cross over to a vision of the eternal, the mystery, the other side,” Gershon says.

“In his late works—the late quartets, sonatas, the Missa Solemnis, the Ninth—you have a composer who’s looking beyond his own lifetime, and in a sense reporting back to us. You feel the ecstasy of the vision.”

That vision, with its jubilant embrace of worldwide unity—of “joy, broth-

erhood, peace and love,” says Southeast Symphony music director Anthony Parnther—serves as both a salve and a call to action.

“During times of great upheaval and tumult,” Parnther says, “the ‘Ode to Joy’ is a vessel for unification: Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall, other protests against oppression and tyranny.” Its message amid today’s social-justice movement? “It’s up to us to listen, absorb and act.”

Gershon agrees: “Beethoven’s music demands action,” he says.

“You cannot remain passive about the Ninth, as a listener or performer.

“It asks the same questions of us now as [late Congressman and civil rights activist] John Lewis did in the 1960s: ‘If not us, then who? If not now, then when?’ “

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Japanese) can number 10,000 singers—and Germany, where the composer was born on or about Dec. 16 in 1770.

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