Tag Archives: NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

NYU SKIRBALL FALL 2019 SEASON

Joanne Akalaitis’s site-specific Bad News! I Was There . . . leads small audiences through the Skirball Center

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 La Guardia Pl.
September 6 – December 9
212-992-8484
nyuskirball.org

NYU Skirball’s mission is to “present work that inspires yet frustrates, confirms yet confounds, entertains yet upends.” They are staying true to their goals with an extremely impressive and daring fall season of music, theater, dance, literature, and talks. The season gets under way September 6-8 ($40) with the New York City premiere of former New York Shakespeare Festival head and five-time Obie winner Joanne Akalaitis’s Bad News! I Was There . . . , a site-specific performance in English, Greek, French, and German that takes four groups through the lobby, dressing room, and backstage area of the theater, mixing in sung and spoken excerpts from classic Greek tragedy. “‘I was there’ is a refrain heard every day on the news, often followed by ‘How can this happen? What’s wrong here? What should we do?’” Akailitis says about the show.

Philippe Quesne’s The Moles, set in a world without humans and words, consists of four presentation September 12-14: “Parade of the Moles,” a free tour of Greenwich Village on Thursday at 2:00; “Night of the Moles” on Friday and Saturday night ($30, 7:30), taking place in a burrow; and the family-friendly “Afternoon of the Moles” on Saturday afternoon ($20, 7:30), as the Moles form a punk band. If you missed Sam Mendes’s brilliant production of The Lehman Trilogy at the Park Avenue Armory, you can catch one of two “National Theatre Live” screenings at the Skirball on September 15 ($25, 2:00 & 7:00) On September 16, “NYU Writes: A Celebration of Writers and Writing at NYU” brings together Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Safran Foer, Terrance Hayes, Yusef Komunyakaa, Nick Laird, Sharon Olds, and Zadie Smith, hosted by Deborah Landau (free with advance RSVP, 7:00).

Daniel Fish reimagines Don DeLillo’s White Noise in multimedia production (photo by Andrew Lieberman)

Tony nominee Daniel Fish follows up his controversial reimagining of Oklahoma! with White Noise, a seventy-minute multimedia show “freely inspired” by Don DeLillo’s 1985 National Book Award-winning novel. Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez, and Adrienne Truscott take on critics in Wild Bore September 27-28 ($35-$45, 7:30). And that just takes us through September; below are some of the highlights from October to December:

Sunday, October 6
National Theatre Live: Fleabag, $25, 7:00

Friday, October 11
and
Saturday, October 12
John Kelly: Underneath the Skin, $35-$45, 7:30

John Kelly channels Samuel Steward in show at Skirball

Friday, October 18
and
Saturday, October 19
ICE: George Lewis’s Soundlines — A Dreaming Track, $35-$45, 7:30

Friday, October 25
and
Saturday, October 26
Mette Ingvartsen: to come (extended), US premiere, $35-$45, 7:30

Friday, November 8
and
Saturday, November 9
Big Dance Theater: The Road Awaits Us, Ballet, Cage Shuffle: Redux, $35-$45, 7:30

Friday, December 7
and
Saturday, December 8
The Builders Association: Elements of Oz, $20-$25, 7:30

WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL 2018

Brian Greene will moderate a discussion on black holes at World Science Festival

Multiple venues
May 29 – June 3
Most events free – $100
www.worldsciencefestival.com

The eleventh annual World Science Festival is another foray into the future, an inner exploration of the mind as well as an outer adventure into space. There will be lectures, panel discussions, workshops, labs, film screenings, readings, and more, at such locations as NYU, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Ace Hotel. Below are only some of the highlights.

Tuesday, May 29
Gala celebrating Marie Curie, Alice Ball, Rosalind Franklin, Vera Rubin, and Maryam Mirzakhani, with performances by Carolee Carmello, Hannah Elless, Rosemary Loar, Ingrid Michaelson, Alice Ripley, Michelle Wilson, and others, Jazz at Lincoln Center, $1,000+, 6:00 – 10:30

Wednesday, May 30
Cheers to Science: The Absence of Absinthe, Distilling the Science of the “Green Fairy,” with Kevin Herson and others, moderated by Shannon Odell, Liberty Hall at Ace Hotel, $40 (twenty-one and older only), 7:00

Bump: The Magic, Mystery, and Mechanics of Pregnancy, new play (Bump) by Chiara Atik, directed by Claudia Weil, performance followed by talkback, with Catherine Birndorf, Linsay Firman, and others, moderated by Lynn Sherr, Ensemble Studio Theatre, $25-$40, 7:00

Thursday, May 31
Planting the Seeds, Seeding the Plants: Can CRISPR Save the World?, with Dave Jackson, Carolyn Neuhaus, Yiping Qi, Friedrich Soltau, and Matthew R. Willmann, moderated by Brooke Borel, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 4:00

A Merger in Space: Black Holes and Neutron Stars, with Duncan Brown, Vicky Kalogera, Frans Pretorius, and Jocelyn Read, moderated by Mario Livio, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 6:00

World Science Festival includes special Lab Tours for Girls

Deep Dive Live: Trivia Night at the American Museum of Natural History, hosted by Faith Salie, $45-$100, 6:00 (includes special exhibition access)

Friday, June 1
World Science U, with Andrea Ghez, Sara Walker, and others, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, free with advance registration, 10:30

Carl Zimmer: She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, with Carl Zimmer, moderated by Maria Konnikova, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 6:00

The Matter of Antimatter: Answering the Cosmic Riddle of Existence, with Marcela Carena, Janet Conrad, Michael Doser, Hitoshi Murayama, and Neil Turok, moderated by Brian Greene, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, $20-$100, 8:00

Saturday, June 2
Great Fish Count: 1 Fish, 2 Fish, I Fish, You Fish, Great Fish Count Sites, free (advance registration suggested), 9:00 am – 6:30 pm

Cook-off will pit human against machine at World Science Festival

Science and Story Cafe: The Story of Science, One Book at a Time, with Lisa Barrett, Michael Benson, Susana Martinez-Conde, Oren Harman, Janice Kaplan, Stephen Macknik, Barnaby Marsh, Ken Miller, and Andrew Revkin, moderated by Budd Mishkin and Richard Panek, NYU Kimmel Center, free (advance registration suggested), 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Notes on the Folds: Why Music Makes Us Shiver, with Meagan Curtis, Mari Kimura, Edward Large, Psyche Loui, and others, moderated by John Schaefer, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 11:00

Backyard Wilderness, 3D film and postscreening BioBlitz,Lefrak Theater, the American Museum of Natural History, 2:30

To Be or Not to Be Bionic: On Immortality and Superhumanism, with Jessica Brillhart, S. Matthew Liao, Hod Lipson, and Max Tegmark, moderated by Mariette DiChristina, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 4:00

Saturday Night Lights: Stargazing in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with Ken Blackburn, Steve Howell, Kent Kirshenbaum, Steve Liddell, Hod Lipson, Scott M. Smith, Nicole Stott, Jennifer Swanson, and Bill Yosses, Pier 1, free (advance registration suggested), 7:00 – 11:00

World Science Festival features free stargazing in Brooklyn Bridge Park

Sunday, June 3
Science and Storytime: Science Books Come to Life, with Helaine Becker, Ken Blackburn, Lynn Brunelle, “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, Jennifer Swanson, and Mike Vago, moderated by Jana Grcevich and Olivia Koski, NYU Kimmel Center, free (advance registration suggested), 11:00 am – 5:00 pm

Alien Contact: What Happens Next?, with Kathryn Denning, David Kipping, Karen Lewis, and Marcelo Magnasco, moderated by Wendy Zukerman, NYU Global Center, Grand Hall, $15-$25, 11:00

Flame Challenge: “What Is Climate?,” with Michael Bronski, Cyndy Desjardins, Soumyadeep Mukherjee, and Bernadette Woods Placky, moderated by Alan Alda, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, $15-$100, 1:30

DJ SPOOKY: REBIRTH OF A NATION

DJ Spooky offers up a new spin on D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation in Rebirth of a Nation

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 La Guardia Pl. between Third & Fourth Sts.
Saturday, November 4, $35, 7:30
212-945-2600
nyuskirball.org
www.rebirthofanation.com

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid’s Rebirth of a Nation is a unique multimedia deconstruction and live remix of D. W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 silent film, Birth of a Nation, interweaving music, film, and art to create a wholly new work that the multidisciplinary artist keeps on tweaking. First performed in New York at the 2004 Lincoln Center Festival,
the show has toured around the world; we caught it back in 2007 at the Tribeca Film Festival, during the Bush administration, so it should be fascinating to see the state of the piece now when Spooky brings it to the Skirball Center on November 4, with America in the midst of a crisis over immigration, racism, white supremacy, historical statues, and other sociopolitical issues and the presidency has shifted from Barack Obama to Donald J. Trump. Spooky mixes both the Kronos Quartet’s trip-hop score and the visuals live, beginning with an overview of racism and an interview in which film pioneer Griffith discusses the importance of his so-called masterpiece. He then intercuts different scenes of the film, following the narrative, with Griffith’s original interstitial titles along with new ones credited to Paul D. Miller, DJ Spooky’s real name. He avoids being overly didactic and does not hit the audience over the head with Griffith’s unrelenting racism and support of the KKK, instead letting the film speak for itself. And it has a whole lot to say, as, of course, does DJ Spooky.

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW: FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

The Joshua Light Show celebrates half a century of psychedelic grooviness with a pair of shows at the Skirball Center

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 La Guardia Pl. between Third & Fourth Sts.
September 8-9, $40 (use code JLS1 for 50% discount), 7:30
212-992-8484
nyuskirball.org
www.joshualightshow.com

Formed in 1967 by Joshua White and others, the Joshua Light Show is celebrating fifty years of adding psychedelic visuals to live music with a pair of shows at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. On September 8, the onetime Fillmore resident artists will be working their image-making magic with punk-blues purveyors Boss Hog and the experimental, progressive Dave Harrington Group, while they will join John Colpitts’s Man Forever and electronic music composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith on September 9. Over the years, JLS has stuck to its analog beginnings, using liquid and light, while incorporating digital elements. The current lineup features Alyson Denny, Curtis Godino, Nick Hallett, Seth Kirby, Ana Matronic, Brock Monroe, Gary Panter, Doug Pope, Nica Ross, Briged Smith, Bec Stupak, Jeff Cook, George Stadnik, and White. We caught them in 2012 at Skirball with John Zorn, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves and in 2011 at the Hayden Planetarium and were instantly sucked into their groovy world. Tickets are $40 for each show or $60 for both; use code JLS1 to get them for half price.

TICKET ALERT: JOHN CLEESE AT THE SKIRBALL CENTER

Who: John Cleese
What: Reading and talk in conjunction with paperback release of So, Anyway . . . (Three Rivers Press, September 2015, $16)
Where: NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Pl., 212-992-8484
When: Saturday, November 14, $65.75 – $125, 6:30
Why: “I made my first public appearance on the stairs up to the school nurse’s room, at St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, on September 13, 1948. I was eight and five-sixths. My audience was a pack of nine-year-olds, who were jeering at me and baying, ‘Chee-eese! Chee-eese!’ I kept climbing the steps, despite the feelings of humiliation and fear. But above all, I was bewildered. How had I managed to attract so much attention? What had I done to provoke this aggression? And . . . how on earth did they know my family surname had once been Cheese?” So begins So, Anyway . . ., the memoir of one of the funniest men in the history of the world, Monty Python and Fawlty Towers legend John Cleese. On November 14, the star and writer of A Fish Called Wanda and cinematic portrayer of the Black Knight, Tim the Enchanter, Deadly Dirk, Nearly Headless Nick, King Harold, Q, and many other roles, will be climbing the steps of NYU’s Skirball Center on November 14, to talk about his wild and wacky life and career and all that attention and aggression. The four-time-married, self-described “writer, actor & tall person,” who is also a bit of a silly walker, is visiting Boston, Chicago, and New York celebrating the release of the paperback edition of the book. VIP tickets ($125) come with a signed copy of So, Anyway . . . and a photo opp with Mr. Cleese. Be sure to join in the chants of “Chee-eese! Chee-eese!”

THE JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW

The Joshua Light Show will team up with a diverse series of experimental musicians for six groovy shows at the Skirball Center

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
60 Washington Sq. South
September 13-16, $20-$68
212-998-4941
www.nyuskirball.org
www.joshualightshow.com

A key figure in the psychedelic movement of the late 1960s, the Joshua Light Show created dizzying, kaleidoscopic, all-too-groovy projections at the Fillmore East, Woodstock, Carnegie Hall, and other venues, where their liquid lights exploded in a vast array of colors behind Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and other legendary musicians. Over the last several years, JLS has returned with a vengeance, performing at Lincoln Center, the Hayden Planetarium, the Hirshorn Museum, Art Basel in Miami, and the recent Transmediale festival in Berlin. This week founder Joshua White and his talented crew, which still primarily uses analog techniques to mix their creations live, will be at the NYU Skirball Center for six performances over four nights, beginning Thursday, when they are joined by Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and master harpist Zeena Parkins. Friday night features the minimalist father-and-son duo of Terry Riley and Gyan Riley at 7:30, followed by the inspired quartet of John Zorn, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves at 10:00. On Saturday night, MGMT cofounders Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden will play two shows, with GlobalFest closing things out on Sunday with the Boston-based Ethiopian-American Debo Band and the New York-based Brazilian-American Forro in the Dark. Each performance will last approximately one hour, with JLS onstage improvising alongside the musicians; the JLS team includes White, photographer and installation artist Alyson Denny, experimental composer and vocalist Nick Hallett, filmmaker and musician Seth Kirby, Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters, live cinema artist and designer Brock Monroe, painter and comic-book artist Gary Panter, production manager Doug Pope, performance artist and director Bec Stupak, and sound designer Jeff Cook.