SPRING 2021
MAGAZINE
the arts of innovation An unprecedented cascade of creativity in the performing arts. PRESENTED BY
Explore Art with Us Listen, watch, and engage with virtual programming at getty.edu. Our Lady of the Iguanas, Juchitán, Oaxaca (detail), negative 1979; print mid-1990s, Graciela Iturbide. Gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Susan Steinhauser and Daniel Greenberg. © Graciela Iturbide Text and design: © J. Paul Getty Trust
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SPR I N G 2 0 2 1
26 12 OPEN SPACES
22 TWO FOR THE SHOW . . .
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s virtual series Sound/Stage reenvisions performances at the Hollywood Bowl.
OR THREE OR FOUR
Collaborations expand horizons for artists, theaters and audiences.
14 CLOSE QUARTERS
24 THE BIG SHORT
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra digital series by director-designer-filmmaker James Darrah marries music and art.
Performing-arts companies re-cast themselves as video producers whose short films attract large viewership.
16 DANCE IN A BUBBLE
26 DROVES TO THE DRIVE-IN
What empty hall? American Ballet Theatre takes up temporary residence at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Mainly Mozart and San Diego Opera parking-lot takeovers draw new audiences and prove wildly popular.
10 FUTURE PRESENT
18 MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
28 THE BIG SMALL
Geffen Stayhouse—from the director of Disney+’s WandaVision and L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse—is a marvel.
When life hands you COVID, build a theater! South Coast Repertory’s new stage at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
San Diego’s contemporary classical chamber group Project [BLANK] goes all in on streaming-specific content.
DEPARTMENTS
4 EDITOR’S NOTE An array of new approaches sets the stage for “The Arts of Innovation.”
6 IN THE WINGS Upcoming in SoCal performing arts.
30 PARTING THOUGHT
Performances’ new program platform.
32 PARTING SHOT Brad Walls, Ombre Trois FEATURES
2 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
COVER: AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER BRAD WALLS, BALLERINE DE L’AIR, BLACK SWAN. THIS PAGE: J. KAT PHOTO
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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E DITOR’S N OTE MAGAZINE
PUBLISHER
Jeff Levy EDITOR
Benjamin Epstein ART DIRECTOR
Carol Wakano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Libby Slate, Sherry Stern, Stephanie Thompson, Caleb Wachs DIGITAL MANAGER
Whitney Lauren Han ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Walter Lewis, Kerry Baggett, Jean Greene, Tina Marie Smith
the arts of innovation
BUSINESS MANAGER
Leanne Killian Riggar
THE PANDEMIC INSPIRED a cascade of creativity in the performing
MARKETING PRODUCTION MANAGER
arts that includes new technologies, platforms and even revenue
Dawn Kiko Cheng
of a physical space meant a journey of discovery and self-discovery fraught with challenges and surprises. Among the biggest of those surprises: Many of the companies’ experiments in the immersive, interactive, interdisciplinary and intercompany will continue even as venues reopen. In this special edition of Performances, we salute some of the pro-
Contact Us ADVERTISING Walter.Lewis@CaliforniaMediaGroup.com EDITORIAL Benjamin.Epstein@CaliforniaMediaGroup.com ART Art@CaliforniaMediaGroup.com WEBSITE Whitney.Han@CaliforniaMediaGroup.com
grams and developments that have kept us arts-engaged and that
HONORARY PRESIDENT Ted Levy
promise to keep doing so. We look at the journey from conceptual
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to practical—the aha! moments and breakthroughs as well as the roadblocks and reboots—and the spectacular offerings that resulted. —BENJAMIN EPSTEIN
Visit Performances Magazine online at socalpulse.com Performances Magazine is published by California Media Group to serve performing-arts venues throughout the West. © 2021 California Media Group. All Rights Reserved.
Printed in the United States.
4 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
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IN T HE W IN G S
James Darrah production of Les Enfants Terrible at Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival
LONG BEACH OPERA continues its unconventional ways under new artistic director James Darrah with a pair of productions. Philip Glass’ chamber opera Les Enfants Terribles is presented May 21-23 as a live drive-in cinematheque, with audience members in their vehicles atop a parking garage at shopping-dining destination 2nd and PCH. Christopher Rountree conducts; choreography is by Chris Emile. The company also unveils the eight-part digital series In Desert, co-created by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, playwright/screenwriter Christopher Oscar Peña and Darrah, and co-produced with Boston Lyric Opera. Each episode of the miniseries-like narrative pairs a different acclaimed screenwriter and composer; it’s slated for release on operabox.tv in June. 562.470.7464, longbeachopera.org
6 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
ADAM LARSEN
drive-in, in desert
Made in L.A.
20 20
Make reservations hammer.ucla.edu huntington.org
a version Presented by:
FULTON LEROY WASHINGTON (AKA “MR. WASH”), POLITICAL TEARS OBAMA (DETAIL), 2008. OIL ON STRETCHED CANVAS. 24 × 18 IN. (61 × 45.7 CM). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
IN T HE W IN G S
The Diana Diaries
Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia and Derick K. Grant, The Super Villainz
enjoyed nine preview performances before Broadway’s shutdown in March 2020; it’s slated to open Dec. 16. The Netflix version was shot at the Longacre and features the original Broadway cast: Jeanna de Waal as the princess, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles, Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles and Judy Kaye as Queen Elizabeth. La Jolla’s own Christopher Ashley directs. shubert.nyc
DANCE DOWNTOWN THE L.A. MUSIC CENTER welcomes limited audiences for Dance at Dusk, live outdoor performances on a new stage on Jerry Moss Plaza: The Super Villainz: a Tap Dance Act for the Modern Age May 26-30; American Ballet Theatre June 2-6; Paul Taylor Dance Company June 16-20; and Alonzo King LINES Ballet July 14-18. Fourticket pods are available for purchase. National Tap Dance Day, May 25, brings tap dance films on huge LED screens and special floors so the audience can tap, too. Free with reservations. 213.972.0711, musiccenter.org
8 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
FROM TOP: MATTHEW MURPHY, CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN
IN A FIRST FOR A Broadway show, a filmed version of the musical Diana—launched at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2019—begins streaming on Netflix on Oct. 1 before resuming previews Dec. 1 at the Longacre Theatre in New York City—health guidelines permitting, of course. The show, about the Princess of Wales—first wife of Prince Charles and mother of Prince Harry and Prince William—
Jeanna de Waal as Princess Diana
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart WORLD PREMIERE
THE LORD OF CRIES
Music: John Corigliano, Libretto: Mark Adamo
EUGENE ONEGIN Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Benjamin Britten
ANGEL BLUE IN CONCERT
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For more information visit santafeopera.org or call 505-986-5900 Illustration by Benedetto Cristofani
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THE ATER
FUTURE PRESENT The director of WandaVision is also artistic director of L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse, whose pandemic responses include a supremely creative—and moneymaking—virtual series. / by sherry stern /
AS WANDAVISION was on its way to captivating Disney+ viewers around the world, the director and executive producer of the Marvel Comics-inspired show was discovering his own superpower: Matt Shakman could generate revenue for a theater during a total lockdown. § That marvel is Geffen Stayhouse, the virtual response to stay-at-home orders that has generated $2.5 million for the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Shakman is the theater’s artistic director as well as an in-demand TV director. § Like Wanda, Vision and many an Avenger, Shakman’s Stayhouse owes its success to teamwork. Here, fellow heroes offer a variety of powers: bending minds, constructing puzzles, cooking popcorn masala, wrangling Zoom and running a shipping service from a lobby. § “I’m impressed with my colleagues at the theater, with audiences and with our Geffen artists to be able to be creative in this moment,” Shakman says. “It’s so impressive. I also think it is necessary, that creative spirit. That desire for humans to connect is what makes us human.”
Geffen Stayhouse launched in March 2020 as a weekly series of video shorts. Then illusionist Helder Guimarães proposed producing one-onone magic experiences. His idea: Mail a box of magical objects and use those items to give the recipient a personal show over the internet. That idea quickly became The Present, performed via Zoom to audiences of no more than 25. Guimarães blended
illusions with an emotional tale of his own quarantine as a young boy. The combination of people at home seeking a connection and the ensuing word-of-mouth created a sensation. The Present was repeatedly extended until it had been seen by an audience of 6,000. “Helder showed us the way with interactivity but also with authenticity,” Shakman says. Five shows followed, with tickets running from $40 to $175 per household. The all-interactive lineup included cooking memoir Bollywood Kitchen, true-crime mystery Citizen Detective and Guimarães’ follow-up, The Future. Stayhouse continues with two more world
10 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
premieres: Someone Else’s House, about a true-life haunting, through June 5, and The Door You Never Saw Before: A Choosical Musical for ages 6 to 9, May 22-June 27. For the puzzle show Inside the Box, the Geffen turned to David Kwong, a magician and crossword puzzle constructor. His
brainteasing one-man show The Enigmatist was to open on the Geffen stage last May and will be one of the theater’s shows when curtains rise again. For a solver guy, the 5-by-5 grid of 25 faces on Zoom was a framework just screaming for Kwong, and his production team, to turn into a living puzzle. “We take advantage of
PHOTOS COURTESY GEFFEN. SHAKMAN, JEFF LORCH
these boxes that the audience is in to play a game together,” he says. “That’s the spirit of the show.” Audiences responded not just in numbers but also in geography. Ticket holders have joined from every state and from 44 countries; 88% have never seen a Geffen Playhouse show in person. Kwong marveled at performing for people in Spain, South Korea, Australia and Singapore. Bill and Hillary Clinton watched a performance. “It was an honor to have President Clinton at my show—he is famously a celebrity crosswords solver,” Kwong says. “He
does The New York Times crossword every day!” Ticket holders receive materials needed to engage with the performer. Some items are emailed; some arrive in unique packages shipped before each performance. “It feels like a wartime effort in a way. We’re all banding together to make and send out boxes,” Shakman says. “Production manager Isaac Katzanek essentially runs a Mail Boxes Etc. out of the Geffen lobby.” Doing eight shows a week with the vagaries of unstable internet for up to 150 participants means it’s not always smooth sailing. Zoom, for its part,
has worked to iron out glitches. Shakman appreciates how the artists embrace the technology. “The writers of the show are writing to the technology, so the technology is informing how the narrative develops,” Shakman says. “It’s figuring out a new frontier. It’s the Wild West out there, and really exciting.” Though pleased, naturally, with Stayhouse’s financial success, Shakman says it’s no substitute for business as usual. “A lot of our shows are 25 folks on Zoom as opposed to 500 people in a theater. It’s not a one-to-
ILLUSIONIST HELDER GUIMARÃES, THE PRESENT. OPPOSITE: GEFFEN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MATT SHAKMAN AND, BELOW, SRI RAO, BOLLYWOOD KITCHEN
one replacement, but it has been very helpful.” Shakman welcomes some of the changes. The Playhouse is producing shows at a quicker pace than during normal times, when it can take years for a play to go from development to performance. “That’s unusual for theater, because theater plans so far ahead,” he says. “The pandemic has forced us to change that, and I think for the good.”
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 11
CLASSICAL
ope n
s p a c e s
Sound/Stage: Now in its second season, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s virtual series at the Hollywood Bowl envisions performances in new ways. / by libby sl ate /
THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL. OPPOSITE: SCREEN SHOTS FROM THE SOUND/STAGE EPISODE DEVOTED TO CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS INCLUDE L.A. PHIL MUSIC AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR GUSTAVO DUDAMEL WITH HIS SON, MARTIN, AND PIANIST DAVID FUNG.
12 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
FROM AERIAL DRONE shots to sweeping views of box seats and benches, from backstage glimpses to onstage perspectives, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s digital concert video series Sound/Stage captures the Hollywood Bowl as no patron could ever see it in person. The 16-episode series, which premiered last September and recently concluded its second season, presented members of the L.A. Phil—led by music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel—and guest artists in multifaceted online programs that provided visual and aural sustenance to viewers
OPPOSITE: COURTESY L.A. PHIL
hungry for music during the COVID-19 shutdown. § Sound/Stage delivered music and so much more.
Bowl regular Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue while part of the camera team is shown attaining artistic piano shots. Members of the Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company dance in the aisles by empty Bowl box seats, silhouetted against orange stage lighting. Dudamel and four-time Academy Award-winning director-writer-producer Alejandro G. Iñárritu discuss the crafting of emotion-evoking finales in film and music. Other artists include Andra Day, J’Nai Bridges, Chicano Batman and Kamasi Washington in the first season and John Adams, Common and Yuja Wang in the second.
“We are in Hollywood’s backyard. This is the Hollywood Bowl. What we tried to create is something that is more cinematic, because we have this incredible community of filmmakers right here in Los Angeles,” Meghan Martineau, the L.A. Phil’s vice president of artistic planning, says. “I’m spoiled—I have the opportunity to stand onstage at rehearsal or stand in the wings in performance and see up close what’s happening. That’s what we’re able to share with Sound/Stage: You can see the artists walk on, talk to each other, see someone give a little look during a performance. It adds a little personal humanity. The hope is not to replace a live performance, but to create a different experience.” Live concerts resume
at the Bowl this month with four free events for healthcare and essential workers and first responders. A 14-week summer season begins in July. It was Dudamel who insisted on keeping the connection to orchestra patrons when live performances were canceled last year, and Dudamel who chose the episode themes and content. Among the themes: Love in the Time of COVID; A Pan-American Musical Feast, in which chef José Andrés discusses the connection between food and music; and Power to the People!, which reflects the Walt Disney Concert Hall festival of the same name cut short by COVID. It wasn’t just the directors who were contending with the new format. “The first round was a huge learning curve for
everyone,” Martineau recalls. “How do you lay out the [socially distanced] orchestra? Where do you put your camera operators? How do they interact with the musicians? Everybody was challenged to think about their jobs differently.” The second season brought new directors and a new style, with Dudamel speaking more to the viewing audience, more interviews and increased use of animation, such as the four animated folk tales featured in an episode on Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals. Though Sound/Stage expanded the L.A. Phil brand by drawing a global audience, Martineau sees a greater benefit. “If your product is out to more people,” she says, “you’re spreading more good in the world.”
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 13
IN TERDISCIPLINARY
close
quarters
TAKE A LOOK at any episode of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s digital series Close Quarters, and you’ll see immediately that this is not your customary concert video. In one episode, filmed on Election Day 2020, a bicyclist traverses the streets of northeastern
Los Angeles, shown onscreen atop shots of the orchestra playing Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” so that even with traffic, the ride becomes a reverie. The scenes are prefaced by multimedia artist Zackary Drucker’s recitation of a poem she wrote that same day, listening to the same music, its own kind of reverie. In another episode, members of the Robey Theatre Company enact Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, about a soldier who gives his violin to the devil in exchange for wealth, while a LACO ensemble plays
14 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
the score, all shot in noirish black and white. The 14-episode free series launched in November and continues with new videos through June 4. It was inspired in part by a conversation between LACO executive director Ben Cadwallader and music director Jaime Martín, who were planning a long-term strategy after COVID-19 forced the live performance shutdown in March. “Jaime said, ‘Enough with the Zoom concerts! Every time I look at my Facebook feed or
YouTube, it’s musicians in boxes, playing in the kitchen, playing in their living room,’” Cadwallader recalls. “He said, ‘Whatever we do, the overall quality has to match the artistic excellence people have come to expect from LACO. It’s not enough to put forth a single-camera recording of musicians on a stage.’” To create something more cutting-edge, made to be viewed digitally, composer and LACO artistic adviser Ellen Reid suggested that Cadwallader speak with James Darrah, a director, designer and filmmaker
COURTESY LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Compelling Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra series combines music, film and art.
“I cited great serial programs like The Twilight Zone, where you know you’re in for a surprise every time you watch a new episode.” Painters, sculptors and animators, chosen by Darrah, are key to the videos and to the series concept itself.
noted for his innovative approach. Darrah signed on as creative director of digital content. “[Part of] LACO’s proposal was that every episode could have a different visual language,” says Darrah, who recently became artistic director and chief creative officer of Long Beach Opera.
“Visual artists and designers are used to things that respond in the current moment to a creative impulse. So the idea with Close Quarters wasn’t to plan out every single episode and make it all in one go, but to let the series adapt and change,” Darrah explains. “We decided that that meant bringing in visual
artists more, bringing them to the music in a closer way. It’s been really interesting to see artists who have never worked with a chamber orchestra discover what that means, and be inspired by music in a new way.” Darrah directs the episodes, which generally run 30 to 40 minutes, and also chose the series title, which reflects both the intimacy of a chamber orchestra and the fact that people have primarily been watching from within pandemic-induced close quarters. The instrumental sequences are recorded at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles; for the filmmaking elements, LACO established an experimental digital studio at Wilhardt & Naud, a film studio and multidisciplinary arts campus in Chinatown. The series has
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: STILL AND IRANIAN AMERICAN ARTIST ARDESHIR TABRIZI FROM EPISODE 5; STILLS FROM EPISODES 4 AND 2; DIGITAL CREATIVE DIRECTOR JAMES DARRAH
attracted unprecedented audience response for LACO, with almost 1 million streaming views worldwide since its inception. Though the videos are free, Cadwallader is working on ways to monetize. There will be more onscreen programs after live performances resume. “The progress we’ve seen in the digital space with Close Quarters is not going to be temporary,” Cadwallader says. “We [in classical music] have for a long time talked about needing to be more relevant to a larger number of audience members, to more demographics. “This has forced that conversation.” —L.S.
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 15
D AN CE
welcome What empty hall?
to the ballet bubble
DANCING CAMERA
American Ballet Theatre takes up temporary residence at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. UNABLE TO WORK in their COVID-unfriendly studios in Manhattan, American Ballet Theatre dancers headed 2,800 miles west this spring. Eighteen dancers settled into Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and a nearby hotel for a five-week residency in which to rehearse and present four works, filmed for digital viewing through May 26. As pandemic restrictions eased in California, they were able to dance for invited guests during two nights of filming and for an audience of 300 at a final afternoon performance, the first paying ticketholders inside a Segerstrom Center theater in more than a year. “This is our first time going back to work as a substantial group, and it’s a place that is kind of our second home,” says Kevin McKenzie, ABT artistic director. “It’s going home, and it’s being on a stage.” ABT and Segerstrom have partnered for 35 years, presenting count-
less classic ballets and modern dance programs since the center’s first year in 1986. The relationship solidified with the 2015 opening of the ABT William J. Gillespie School for dance in Costa Mesa. Their shared history makes the center a natural haven for what McKenzie calls a “recalibration on how we create and deliver new work.” The culmination is Uniting in Movement, two works by contemporary choreographers Lauren Lovette and Darrell Grand Moultrie, plus ballet technique showcases Grand Pas Classique and Swan Lake’s Act II Pas de Deux. Tickets at scfta.org. Segerstrom Center president Casey Reitz started his job three months before theaters went dark in March 2020. One of the center’s last performances was the world premiere of ABT’s Of Love and Rage. The two organizations talked about how to keep
working together “almost since the day we shut down,” Reitz recalls. The immediate challenge, according to McKenzie: “We have got to keep creating.” Taking a cue from last summer’s NBA season in Florida, ABT created its bubble. Following a two-week quarantine, the dance contingent sequestered on one floor of the nearby Avenue of the Arts Hotel. Rehearsals with choreographers began; costumes were designed. Remaining motivated, and in shape, has been a challenge for dancers during the lockdown. ABT member Jose Sebastian had coronavirus early on; when he recovered, he didn’t have space to dance in his tiny Upper West Side apartment. Then he was asked to join a dance pod heading west. “You know that saying ‘You never know how much you miss something until you don’t have it’?” he says during a rehearsal break in April. The bond among the dancers was
an unforeseen benefit of the bubble, he notes. “These pods have been so special, providing a unique way of getting to know the younger dancers,” says Sebastian, an 11-year corps member. “Normally we’re so busy with rehearsals, running all over the place, doing a million things in the city. We don’t have time to talk, to get to know everybody at a deep level.” Reitz envisions a live audience later this year for the company’s signature The Nutcracker. Dance is a foundation of Segerstrom’s arts mission. Executive vice president Judith O’Dea Morr, who more than anybody has shepherded the genre at the center, longs for its return to a stage. Keeping the arts alive, she says, “is a critical part of what we need for our well-being and to satisfy the need we have for beauty.” —S.S.
BETSY MCBRIDE AND JACOB CLERICO IN INDESTRUCTIBLE LIGHT
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 17
T HE ATER
mission accomplished
WHEN LIFE HANDS you COVID … open a theater? With its stages dark, the realization that Zoom allows for only so much, and with the anxiety of a wobbly bottom line, South Coast Repertory needed to look inward for inspira-
tion to secure its future. Or in this case, outward. Enter Outside SCR, a two-play summer season unveiling under the stars at Mission San Juan Capistrano, the historical landmark 21 miles south of the theater. “I am desperate to return to the live experience of storytelling,” says David Ivers, South Coast Repertory‘s artistic director. But it’s not simply about putting on a show. “It’s the gathering.” Ivers says. “It’s the ritual and the witnessing and the sharing of stories to laugh, cry, affirm and
18 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
deny that helps shape a context by which we live. That is what I miss.” Even in these times, such a gathering is conceivable on the mission’s 10-acre courtyard, spacious for audiences under whatever social-distance guidelines might be in place come summer. Though seating configuration remains a work in progress, SCR is design-
RENDERING OF THE OUTSIDE SCR STAGE. LEFT, SCR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DAVID IVERS
ing and building a versatile stage for the space. Dubbed “the container,” it will hold sets for two plays that will run on alternating nights July 15-Aug. 1. The plays, which Ivers calls “triumphant, celebratory, family-friendly summer fare,” are American Mariachi, a comedy with music by José Cruz González, and the 1967 musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on the classic Charles M. Schulz comic strip. Tickets range from $10 to $30. Like cultural institutions worldwide, SCR and the mission have been facing
RENDERING BY EFREN DELGADILLO; IVERS COURTESY SCR
Acclaimed Costa Mesa-based South Coast Repertory unveils an outdoor theater at Mission San Juan Capistrano this summer.
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SCR’s reach beyond Costa Mesa, and by going outdoors, in five or so years. The lockdown accelerated that timeline. He brought his concept to Paula Tomei, SCR’s managing director, and to the board of directors. They agreed the scheme was audacious—and they bought in. “It’s actually in keeping with our vision and artistically and every other way for this organization’s legacy and the future,” Ivers says he told the theater leadership. “I feel really passionate about it.” By July, SCR was considering half a dozen venues in the county. But once Ivers visited the mission and San Juan Capistrano’s downtown, there was no turning back.
20 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
“I just fell in love with it. I felt it was the right place, the right vibe, the right community,” he says. He and Tomei found kindred spirts in Adams and in the team that stewards operations of the 246-year-old site. They share a blend of ambition, inspiration and vision. The mission’s vast courtyard has a history of hosting large events, from bullfights a century ago to a mariachi festival for 16 years pre-COVID. In normal times, it can seat 1,500 people at tables. Adams envisions SCR
SCENE FROM SCR’S 2019 PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN MARIACHI, SLATED FOR OUTSIDE SCR
COURTESY SCR
declining revenue and anguish over employee furloughs and layoffs while yearning to enrich their communities. With the pandemic stifling the mission’s outreach in countless ways, Outside SCR was a welcome positive, says Mechelle Lawrence Adams, executive director of the mission for 17 years. “It’s emotional for me, because I’ve worked here for so long. I see so many people looking for hope,” she says. The plan for Outside SCR was hatched a few months into the shutdown but had germinated somewhat longer. When Ivers joined the company in March 2019, he’d privately hoped to expand
ticket holders appreciating the architecture and exploring the grounds and blossoming gardens. “We can serve new constituencies. People who love the mission get an opportunity to see the arts. People who love the arts, maybe they don’t even think about the mission—they’re going to pick up an appreciation.” The new stage is key. A priority of the design, Ivers says, is to honor the aged mission so that the theater lives in harmony with its corridors, archways and colonnades. Audiences will spread across the quadrants of the central lawn, likely a combination of reserved seating and areas where families can set up blankets. The undertaking carries a price tag somewhere in the high six figures. Born out of the pandemic, it launches with a commitment for a second year and with high hopes for more beyond that. “If it succeeds, my greatest hope is for it to become tradition, which is what I think we’re heading toward,” he says. “I’m terrified … and super excited.” —S.S.
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IN TERCOMPANY
TWO for the SHOW . . . or THREE or FOUR Collaborations expand horizons for artists, theaters and audiences. THE OLD SAYING about two heads being better than one has never been truer for the performing arts than during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fostered new partnerships in a medium that by its very nature was already collaborative. Arts organizations, venues and the artists themselves have teamed up to take advantage of a whole new digital world whose virtual projects spark creative and technological breakthroughs and a worldwide audience reach. “Had it not been for the pandemic, we probably wouldn’t be collaborating with a theater across the country,” affirms Tyrone Davis, Center Theatre Group’s associate artistic director. The series he’s been developing for CTG’s Digital Stage, Not a Moment, but a Movement, celebrates Black artists and lives via play readings, music and visual art. “I really wanted to amplify and center Black
voices and stories and think about the role that art plays in our society in regard to creating social change,” Davis says. “The Fire This Time Festival in New York came to mind, because they’ve been doing this work for quite some time, really cultivating amazing writers. I reached out to them, as well as to the Watts Village Theater Company in Los Angeles.” The first episode spot-
22 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
lighted Black women; Angelica Chéri’s onewoman play Crowndation: I Will Not Lie to David was bookended by singer Jessica Lá Rel and a breathing meditation with Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle. The second, About Black Nourishment, features spoken-word artists; it’s available on demand through June 15. A third episode is in development. It’s been an adjustment to accommodate the East Coast time difference,
but, Davis says, “it’s a collaboration in every sense of the word.” His partners are episode host Watts Village artistic director Bruce A. Lemon and, from Fire This Time, founder Kelley Nicole Girod and artistic director Cezar Williams. “We share values and ideas. There are no egos involved. We’re really coming together with the goal to amplify Black voices, something that excites all of us.”
COURTESY FILMS.DANCE AND, OPPOSITE, CENTER THEATRE GROUP
Also virtually embracing creative kindred spirits is Snehal Desai, producing artistic director of East West Players, the nation’s longest-running professional theater of color. Its 55th season presents several collaborations. “Collaboration is about community-building. It’s about outreach,” Desai says. “At least once a season, we try to partner with a social justice organization that has ties to the Asian Pacific Islander [API] community.” EWP teamed up with nonprofit API Rise to present Zoom performances in April of From Number to Name. Devised and directed by Kristina Wong, the work explores the incarceration of and restorative justice for Asian Pacific Islander communities. Other offerings include the May world premiere of Sitayana, by Lavina
Jadhwani, based on the Hindu epic The Ramayana, in partnership with San Francisco’s EnActe Arts, and the late-summer interactive show Running, by actor-turned playwright Danny Pudi, a co-production with EnActe and New York City’s Hypokrit Theatre Company. Partnering with social organizations, Desai notes, allows EWP to raise the visibility of important issues considered taboo by many Asian Americans, such as mental health; when Next to Normal was performed, information was available about where to get help. “Collaboration allows us to expand the tent of who we are and our reach—we can crosspollinate audiences,” he says. “It allows us to push each other in terms of form and artistry.” Three theaters copresented a digital dance
NATASHA PATTERSON, SABINE VAN RENSBURG IN FILMS. DANCE’S XENO AND, OPPOSITE, SHERIA IRVING IN CENTER THEATRE GROUP’S “NOT A MOMENT, BUT A MOVEMENT.”
project, choreographer Jacob Jonas’ Films.Dance, a free series of 15 short dance films, shot in more than 25 countries and released weekly. At last count, there had been more than 1 million views from more than 200 countries. Jonas had had a longstanding relationship with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills; his troupe Jacob Jonas The Company had served as company-in-residence. Wallis artistic director Paul Crewes signed on to Films.Dance, as did Thor Steingraber, executive director of the Soraya in
Northridge, who in turn recommended Chicago’s Harris Theater and president-CEO Lori Dimun. “We collaboratively created strategies to engage with audiences, do education and outreach and to come up with publicity and marketing strategies,” explains Jonas, who was the series’ creative director and executive producer and co-directed two films over Zoom. The theater leaders had no input on the films. More than 150 artists participated; in one film, Match, dancers from various global locales match each other’s movements; in Plume, the feats of acrobats around the world are layered with animation. Some of the film performers are making the leap to those theaters’ stages; some of the artists and companies have already been engaged. And there are conversations about continuing digital dance projects after the pandemic is over. The other collaborative teams plan to keep producing digitally, too. “To be able to expand beyond our own city has been really exciting,” Davis says. “Being able to work in this way, to share audiences and to learn from each other, has been amazing.” —L.S.
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 23
V IDEO
the big short Performing-arts companies re-cast themselves as video producers as their digital short films draw large audiences. IN MARCH 2020, Rachael Worby, artistic director-conductor of Pasadena musical ensemble Muse/Ique, was discussing with colleagues what they could do to stay connected with their audience during the newly declared pandemic, when inspiration hit. She called Muse/Ique bass player-singer Michael Valerio and asked if she could come over with an iPhone-bearing colleague to film him playing and singing the Beatles’ song “Come Together.” He agreed. Worby also recorded an introduction addressing the pandemic and posted the video online. § Thus was born Muse/Ique’s In a Minute! (… or Two), a series of digital videos that at press time numbered more than a hundred, with more released each week. Running from one to five minutes, the videos present instrumentalists, singers, dancers and other artists in programs encompassing every genre of music imaginable. Muse/Ique is just one performing-arts company whose leaders have found themselves media producers since the pandemic hit. With equipment readily available and affordable, and the companies’ need to foster creative expression and audience engagement, digital videos have become a regular part of the repertory. They’ve drawn new audiences as well as new donations. “The pandemic provided us with an interesting challenge, to create a format of offerings reflective of our core purpose, to
create empathic connections and expand imaginations through live performances,” Worby says. Performances are now captured via imaginative camera angles and approaches: a dance troupe taps and claps to a spoken-word piece to celebrate Black History Month; a pianist plays while his cat listens attentively on his lap. The Los Angeles Master Chorale has also turned to digital videos, beginning with Alice Parker’s Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal, presented in the standard virtual choir
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singers-in-boxes (aka “The Brady Bunch”) look. No more. TaReKiTa, with music by Chorale artist-in-residence Reena Esmail, features a dancer in brightly colored Indian saris making choreographed hand gestures against a backdrop of bold jewel tones. “Once you move away from the concert hall, you start thinking about music in a very different way,” says Master
MASTER CHORALE’S TAREKITA FEATURES CHOREOGRAPHED HAND GESTURES
Chorale director of production Susie McDermid. “We’ve been on a journey of how to be creative visually as well as in an auditory sense. What is this piece about? How do we reflect that visually?” For TaReKiTa, a dynamic presentation of choral sounds rather than lyrics, Esmail worked with the chorale’s associate artistic director, Jenny Wong, and editor Gabriel Zuniga on the rich color choices. Released in November, TaReKiTa was first in a video triptych, Shine Bright, that also includes Meredith Monk’s Earth
COURTESY LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE
Seen From Above, from her opera Atlas, and Derrick Spiva Jr.’s Ready, Bright, a chorale commission that premieres May 17. Los Angeles Opera’s Digital Shorts also goes beyond onstage limits. “There’s an incredible wellspring of creativity we wanted to tap into,” says L.A. Opera president and CEO Christopher Koelsch. “Every year there are more artists that we’d like to work with than either timing or budget will allow.” They include Du Yun, David Lang, Matthew Aucoin, Missy
Mazzoli and Ellen Reid. “Every one of those artists was extremely enthusiastic about the idea of seizing the moment and responding in a creative way to it.” The same held true for the non-operatic visual artists, whom Koelsch cold-called. The first Digital Short, The Five Moons of Lorca, by composer Gabriela Lena Frank, was crafted by Emmy Award-winning director Matthew Diamond; it featured Cuban dancer Irene Rodríguez on stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the first time the company
had been there since the March 2020 shutdown. Other videos include Reid’s Lumee’s Dream, from her Pulitzer Prizewinning opera p r i s m, in which kaleidoscope images reflect a mother’s musings about her daughter, and Tyshawn Sorey’s Death, set to a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The most recent release, Brown Sounds, was initiated by mezzosoprano Raehann BryceDavis, who is scheduled to appear in Il Trovatore next season. Her video is based on a poem by Henry
Dumas about the Black experience, beginning with the Garden of Eden. L.A. Opera and its fellow organizations will continue to take artistic chances digitally even after live performances resume. “We’ve had over 850,000 views of the material that we’ve put forward on this platform,” Koelsch says. “Wow. We’re reaching an audience that would take six years to reach on our main stage and Off Grand [performances away from the Pavilion]. I find that really inspiring.”—L.S.
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 25
OU TDOORS
droves for the drive -in IT SEEMS INEVITABLE that one solution to performing live classical music during the pandemic shutdown would come out of Southern California—the drive-in. After all, we have good weather nearly yearround, car culture always, and big parking lots that had been sitting empty when San Diego Opera and Mainly Mozart began filling them. “As soon as we canceled our concerts last spring, I knew that we wanted to commit to returning to live performance, whatever that meant,” says Nancy Laturno, founder and CEO of San Diego’s
Mainly Mozart. “At no point did we consider creating product to livestream. The only question was how.” In June 2020, Mainly Mozart advisory board member Jerry Kohl suggested a drive-in concert. “He pushed us to put it together by July,” Laturno recalls. “It was important to get back up and running in some capacity as quickly as we could.” On July 11, Mainly Mozart became the first classical music organization in the country to return to live performances, offering 10 free concerts for 60 cars each
26 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
in the overflow parking lot at Del Mar Fairgrounds. The response was enthusiastic; Mainly Mozart slowly increased capacity to 350 cars. The sellout concerts are now held in the fairgrounds’ main parking lot with a large stage and shell and a giant LED screen. “If you had told me in February 2020 that Mainly Mozart would bring top musicians and their best instruments to perform outdoors on a dirt lot with heaters and hand warmers—it was crazy,” Laturno recalls. In February 2021, more than half of the 950 cars at three Festival of Orchestras concerts rep-
resented first-time, and generally younger, ticket buyers. “The people in the back have just as great an experience as those in the front,” Laturno says. “We see lots of children in their PJs with snacks.” Producing drive-in concerts is expensive, but while other performing arts groups slashed their budgets in 2020, Mainly Mozart’s increased 30%. Plans are to remain outdoors through summer. Four more drive-in Festivals of Orchestras were planned, one featuring members of New York’s Met Orchestra and D.C.’s National Symphony last month. The 32nd
MAINLY MOZART AT THE DEL MAR FAIRGROUNDS PARKING LOT
J. KAT PHOTO
San Diego audiences flock to parking-lot concerts and opera.
annual Mainly Mozart AllStar Orchestra events— billed as the largest gathering of concertmasters and principal players in North America—take place June 11-19. Attending Mainly Mozart drive-in concerts last summer, San Diego Opera general director David Bennett was moved by the group’s pluck and tenacity and hoped to create a similar model for the opera. “I loved the sense of community that occurred at these performances,” he recalls. In October, San Diego Opera presented an abridged version of Puccini’s La bohème, which had been sched-
uled for its regular season, in the Pechanga Arena parking lot. Giant screens projected the semi-staged performances; socially distanced members of the San Diego Symphony accompanied. Capacity at each of four performances was 450 cars; 95% of tickets were sold, and 34% of the audience was completely new to San Diego Opera. “That’s an astonishing number,” Bennett says. “Clearly, our community is craving opportunities to gather. They also appreciate casual experiences…. Outdoor performances of some kind will clearly
by stephanie thompson
be in our long-term future. Drive-in? Perhaps. Outdoors? Definitely.” Based on the success of La bohème, San Diego Opera moved the rest of its season into the drivein space, culminating with fully staged performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at the end of April. Those events saw another innovation at San Diego Opera: Performances Magazine unveiled its program app, also born of the pandemic and here to stay as printed programs are gradually phased out. The drive-in concept is gaining ground. To the north, Long Beach Opera presents James Darrah’s
choreographed production of Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles live atop a parking garage. Darrah is LBO’s new director; events take place May 21-23 (see page 6). “We will go back indoors in 2022, God willing,” says Mainly Mozart’s Laturno. “But now I know better than to do much advance planning! “If we hide from adversity, hunker down and wait for it to pass, we miss the opportunities it offers. It’s on us to embrace rethinking and change. New ideas can be born— some may be terrible, but some are great.”
SPRING 2021 PERFORMANCES 27
C H AMB ER MUS I C
the big small
WHEN MEZZO-soprano Leslie Ann Leytham and pianist Brendan Nguyen launched their contemporary performing arts ensemble Project [BLANK] in 2018, the friends and collaborators gave themselves a generous 10 years to achieve success as a new venture. But by 2019, they had produced a cutting-edge series of remarkable multimedia installations that generated enough buzz to make a mark on the San Diego performing arts scene, where traditional classical offerings far outweigh the contemporary and experimental. “We were a little
surprised by our own momentum,” says Leytham, who with Nguyen holds the title of founder and co-artistic director of the group. Then came the pandemic. All performing arts ground to a halt, mere days after Project [BLANK]’s very successful Working Title installation at St. James by-the-Sea in La Jolla ended its run. While others stepped back to ponder their options, Leytham and Nguyen didn’t hesitate. “Our immediate reaction was ‘We can’t not produce,’” Leytham says. They launched a virtual Sofa Series of performances to raise funds for artists whose shortterm contracts and livelihood had just vanished. Leytham and Nguyen also programmed three multimedia concerts designed to be experi-
28 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
enced via streaming video. Starting with its January show O Mensch!, Leytham recalls, “I jumped in headfirst and learned how to be a TV producer. I learned the calls, the angles. Working with a friend who is a video artist, we put it on screen with the fewest artists possible in a safe working environment.” Performed for livestream, then archived, O Mensch! is based on texts by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was sung in German, with English and Spanish subtitles, by baritone Jonathan Nussman; pianist Kyle
PROJECT [BLANK] CO-FOUNDERS BRENDAN NGUYEN AND LESLIE ANN LEYTHAM, STILL FROM HARAWAI. OPPOSITE FROM TOP: WORKING TITLE IN LA JOLLA, STILLS FROM HARAWAI AND O MENSCH!
Adam Blair accompanied; the sculpture and video installation was by Joshua Moreno. The performance unfolded in the newly renovated Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, built in 1927 and redesigned as the El Salon multimedia performing space. Leytham and Nguyen were delighted to see attendance was higher for O Mensch! than for any of the live shows they’d presented before the shutdown. “Not only that, but we cast a wider geographic net of audiences,” Leytham notes. “People were tuning in from the East Coast and around the country. We got lots of emails afterward … the response was amazing.” The other two concerts in the 2021 season, Contralto by Sarah Hennies in March and Harawi by Olivier Messiaen—set for
JIM CARMODY; WORKING TITLE LESLIE ANN LEYTHAM; STILLS COURTESY PROJECT [BLANK]
San Diego’s contemporary classical Project [BLANK] goes all in on streaming-specific content.
May 21 and 23 at projectblanksd.org—were also designed for video. “The nature of our art form made it possible to pivot to live streaming without hesitation or resistance,” Leytham says. “Most contemporary artists are interdisciplinary, and everyone’s their own producer at this point. “The cultural shift to staying home has played into the convenience factor of consuming highquality product online. People are bored, and hungry for new content.” Leytham predicts that livestreaming will remain part of Project [BLANK]’s programming, and a factor in the design of its presentations, even when COVID-19 ceases to be a concern. “When this is over,” she says, “we all want to be back in the same room together.” But even then, Leytham adds, “we plan to maintain a hybrid of live and streamed, perhaps even working the audience into shows as part of the installation. “The possibilities for us are endless.”—S.T.
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P A RTIN G TH OUGH T
reprogra mmed! Performances Magazine unveils new platform for shows and concerts.
DROP DOWN MENU Table of app contents.
SEARCH Find whatever it is you want to know—easily.
REGISTER Stay arts-engaged, access past programs.
SIGN IN Link to your performing-arts companies and venues.
THE ESSENTIALS Acts, scenes, synopses, repertory and notes.
THE PLAYERS Bios and background for cast, crew and creators.
CONTRIBUTORS Donors and sponsors who make it all possible—you!
NO RUSTLING PAGES, no killing trees.... Of all the innovations to have come out of the pandemic, the new Performances program platform, accessed on any digital device, may be least likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. Not only has its time come—it was long overdue. Performances provides the programs for 20 SoCal performingarts organizations, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Ahmanson to San Diego Opera, where the app made its debut.
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by caleb wachs
WHAT’S ON What’s coming at a glance with ticket information.
The touchless platform provides cast and player bios, donor and season updates and arts-centric features. Audiences receive a link and code word that instantly activate the app; QR codes are posted, too. Screens go dark when curtains rise and return with the house lights. Updates—repertory changes, understudy substitutions, significant donations—can be made right up to showtime, no inserts necessary. Other features include video and audio streams, translations and expanded biographies.
For those who consider printed programs keepsakes, a limited number, as well as commemorative issues for special events, will continue to be produced. Collectibles! Meanwhile, there will be less deforestation, consumption of petroleum inks and programs headed for landfills. For the ecologically minded, the platform gets a standing ovation. Theaters and concert halls are reopening after a year-long intermission. The stage is set, excitement is mounting. Activate your link and enjoy the shows.
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