Jim Findlay News

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to NYU Skirball following its critically acclaimed, sold-out run of the whisper opera in 2018, with Soundlines, two premieres by composer and MacArthur Fellow George Lewis, on October 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball.  The program features the NYC premiere of Soundlines: A Dreaming Track, a spoken-word musical journey; and the U.S. premiere of P. Multitudinis, a sound environment featuring seven ensembles.

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to NYU Skirball following its critically acclaimed, sold-out run of the whisper opera in 2018, with Soundlines, two premieres by composer and MacArthur Fellow George Lewis, on October 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball. The program features the NYC premiere of Soundlines: A Dreaming Track, a spoken-word musical journey; and the U.S. premiere of P. Multitudinis, a sound environment featuring seven ensembles.

NYU Skirball will present the U.S.  premiere of Tony Award winner Daniel Fish's White Noise, freely inspired by the novel by Don DeLillo.

NYU Skirball's season opens on September 6, 2019 with the N.Y. premiere of JoAnne Akalaitis's BAD NEWS! i was therea??, a site-specific processional work performed throughout NYU Skirball's lobbies and backstage

Restless Productions, an OBIE and Bessie Award-winning theater company led by the director Mallory Catlett, presents DECODER: Ticket That Exploded, the second installment of their multimedia-infused trilogy based on William Burroughs' NOVA series which predicts our current online life. 

The Civilians, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Steve Cosson and Managing Director Margaret Moll, is proud to present the world premiere of Paul Swan is Dead and Gone by Claire Kiechel, a former member of The Civilians' R&D Group where the play was first developed. Directed by Cosson and starring Tony Torn as the real-life Paul Swan, the production marks Kiechel's New York debut and runs April 25 - May 19, with an opening night set for May 1. For an audience of only 30, the intimate and immersive performance takes place at Torn Page (435 West 22nd Street, Manhattan), a salon-style performance space located inside a historic Chelsea townhouse originally purchased by Torn's parents, Geraldine Page and Rip Torn.

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) to present the world premiere of Kaneza Schaal's installation The Cotillion with the remount of JACK &, April 17-20 & 24-27, 2019, having commissioned the works as part of the Live Feed Residency Program. JACK & returns to NYC after its sold out run in BAM's Next Wave Festival. JACK & is a theatrical performance considering reentry into society after prison, featuring actor Cornell Alston with text and design from artist Christopher Myers. The Cotillion, a companion piece to JACK &, is a multi-channel audio and video installation in Live Arts lobby, and a post-show on-stage experience exploring ceremonial entrances into society, such as debutante balls and rituals that welcome ancestors back into communities.

Between January 2018 and August 2018, the federal government attempted to censor, misrepresent, and otherwise silence science over 150 times. That's according to the Silencing Science Tracker (SST) launched by Columbia University's Sabin Center and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. While most of the 150 plus SST entries involved attempts to stifle climate science, 24-percent of the entries targeted scientists working in other fields. But the government assault on science is nothing new. In fact, nearly 400 years ago, Galileo Galilei was forced to recant some of his scientific views after the church found him guilty of heresy. Subsequently, his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was placed on the 'Index of Forbidden Books' by the Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition, and he was placed on house arrest. Galileo's life is the subject of Bertolt Brecht's 1938 play LIFE OF GALILEO, which explores the ups and downs of going from being a celebrated scientist to a convicted dissident. More importantly, the play provides a 'big brother' commentary on humanity and the delusion of blind faith in an era of alternative facts.

PlayMakers Repertory Company What: "Life of Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht. Adaptation by Joseph Discher. Directed by Vivienne Benesch. When: February 27 to March 17, 2019. Opening Night & Press Opening Saturday March 2, 2019. Where: Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, 120 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill, NC Tickets: Start at $15; Students tickets start at $10

LA Opera Off Grand presents the West Coast premiere of 'the loser,' a new work by composer David Lang.

The John F. Kennedy Center announces the full lineup for DIRECT CURRENT, its two-week celebration of contemporary culture, which returns for a second season this spring (March 24-April 7).

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents JACK &, a new stage work by theater artist Kaneza Schaal (The Wooster School, Elevator Repair Service), Thursday, November 15 to Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 8:30 pm.

Bang on a Can All-Stars-joined by the Grammy Award-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, led by Julian Wachner-will perform Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields on Saturday, December 1 at 9:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents JACK &, a new stage work by theater artist Kaneza Schaal (The Wooster School, Elevator Repair Service), Thursday, November 15 to Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 8:30 pm.

DIRECT CURRENT, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's two-week celebration of contemporary culture, returns for a second season. Training its focus on new works, interdisciplinary creations in which artistic worlds collide, and creative responses to topical concerns, the 2019 spring immersion showcases some of the most provocative, original, and pioneering voices in the arts today. DIRECT CURRENT takes place on March 25-April 7 at the Kennedy Center and beyond, extending throughout the District of Columbia through collaborations with a number of alternative venues, to expand the growing audience for contemporary culture in the nation's capital.

Since 2004, director Mallory Catlett has worked across disciplines to expand the boundaries of theater. Through original works with her own company, Restless NYC, and collaborations with some of today's leading artists-composer Mika Karlsson (The Echo Drift), Dread Scott (Decision), Aaron Landsman (City Council Meeting & Perfect City)-Catlett creates theater that The New York Times calls "lurid, feverish and powerful." She has been called a "downtown treasure" by Time Out New York.

From January 24 to February 3, 2018, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) reprises Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang's the whisper opera in 13 performances at NYU Skirball.

'Memories of Things Past'--'A la recherche du temps perdu' in Proust-speak--and very much in the past it was, for me at least, going in to ACQUANETTA, the piece that opened this year's iteration of the PROTOTYPE. Its name and purported subject--horror films--conjured up childhood memories for me. Musically and dramatically, however, ACQUANETTA--by Michael Gordon, composer (of 'Bang on a Can' fame), Deborah Artman, librettist (ditto)--was very much in the present and in a class of its own, seen January 10 at the Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center.

The Kitchen presents the world premiere of Jim Findlay's Electric Lucifer, an experimental rock opera based on the 1970s concept albums of the late Canadian electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack.

NYU Skirball's 2018 Winter/Spring season will feature works by some of the world's leading provocateurs, artists and activists, performing unconventional and often controversial works, showcasing diverse and cutting-edge international talent from Slovakia, Brussels, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, the U.K. and the United States.