Bid to Meet Ansel Elgort & Support Ardea Arts' BOUNCE THE BASKETBALL OPERA

Ardea Arts is participating in Charitybuzz's fall Hollywood Auction campaign with the lot: "Meet Ansel Elgort and Visit the Set of his Next Film."

Ansel produced EDM tracks for BOUNCE The Basketball Opera, which has just gone into rehearsal for the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre premiere in Lexington, KY.

One lucky winner and one friend will have the opportunity to meet heartthrob Ansel Elgort on a visit to the set of an upcoming film. To bid, CLICK HERE.

Most recently, Elgort starred in Edgar Wright's action crime thriller Baby Driver, opposite Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey and Lily James. Elgort's additional film credits include the Divergent series, Screen Gems' Carrie and most notably FOX 2000's The Fault in Our Stars. The film earned Elgort a slew of awards including a Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout Star and Choice Movie Actor: Drama, a Young Hollywood Award for Fan Favorite Male Actor, and a MTV Movie Award for Movie of the Year.

Next up, Elgort will appear in Billionaire Boys Club alongside Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts and Kevin Spacey. The winner and a guest will visit Ansel Elgort on set of the shoot's location, meeting him and posing for one photograph, then watching a scene filmed, if time permits.

Please note: Ansel Elgort's next project has not been determined and the timing and location are TBD. The winner must be flexible and able to travel to the production. Proceeds go directly to supporting Ardea Arts' mission to produce provocative new works of music-theater and opera to entertain, challenge and inspire today's diverse global community, uplift the human spirit, and encourage new ways of seeing our world.

The World Premiere of BOUNCE The Basketball Opera. Performances will take place at Calvary Baptist Church Recreation Center, 150 E. High Street, Lexington, KY, on Friday, November 10 at 7:30pm; Saturday, November 11 at 3pm and 7:30pm; and Sunday, November 12at 2pm. General Admission, $18, Students $9. For more information, visit www.ardeaarts.com/bounce.

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BOUNCE is grounded in pressing issues facing today's audiences. Based on the Greek myth The Flight of Icarus, BOUNCE tells the story of Ike "The Flight" Harris, a high school basketball star bound for stardom. Audiences will see if "Flight" can rebound from the emotional and physical pain of gun violence, as the story plays out on local basketball courts across the country. First Stop - Lexington KY.

BOUNCE pairs diverse casting with a fresh approach to arts engagement. Local youth ages 16-26 and UK Students work alongside seasoned professionals and are integrated into the production using the powerful medium of basketball. They become the basketball players, the cheerleaders and Flight's classmates and teammates. Local and national community leaders also participate in a number of the guest adult roles.

Basketball is a simple game - get the ball in the basket. But this 'simple' game becomes complex when outside forces like money and fame challenge team ethics. Isaac "Flight" Harris, a gifted and ambitious young player is on a fast track to stardom until his wings are clipped by his own hubris and by the actions of a jealous teammate. We experience Flight's descent, then the powerful epiphany that changes his world forever.

Synthesizing the grandeur of operatic singing with the grittiness of street rhythms, electronic dance music and urban hip-hop vocal stylings, BOUNCE asks: how does one rise up after being knocked down? The answer is in the game of basketball itself.

The creative team includes: Grethe Barrett Holby (Concept & Stage Director), Glen Roven (Lead Composer/Music Supervisor), Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Story and Libretto), with Additional Lyrics by Frank X Walker, Additional Book by Beth Gutcheon, Additional Libretto by Maria S. Schlatter, Additional Music by Tomàs Doncker (Global Soul Composer), Basketball Tracks by Ansel Elgort (aka DJ Ansolo), and David Wolfson (Orchestrations). The Production staff includes Dr. Everett McCorvey (Conductor), Marcellus Barksdale (Basketball Choreographer/Coach), Stephanie Kerley Schwartz (Set Designer), and Chidi Ozieh (Media Director).

The BOUNCE cast features Philip Gay as 'Ike "The Flight" Harris', UK Senior Blake Denson as 'TJ "The Future" King', Troy Press as 'Game Announcer', with basketball players Javone Blincoe, Ryan Brightwell, Ezra Garner, Marc-Andre Petitfrere, Dante Stewart, Trayvon Thompson and Jamere Walker.

Ardea Arts has been developing BOUNCE in partnership with The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre. BOUNCE partners and advocates include prominent local council members, community leaders, and basketball industry advocates, many whom will participate in the production, including basketball legend and KY radio sports celebrity Matt Jones and former Big Blue Wildcat Johnathon Davis.

This project is made possible in part by the support of OPERA America's Audience Development Grant, Art Works/The National Endowment for the Arts, The John and Jody Arnhold Foundation, UK Women and Philanthropy, The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and many private individuals, including Ardea Arts board member J. Speed Carroll. Corporate sponsors include in-kind contributions from Alltech, Bryant's Rent-All, Liquor Barn, OperaLex, Highbridge, Springs Water and 21C Museum Hotels.

ARDEA ARTS is the premiere company in the U.S. creating new, high-quality opera-theater works for multi-generational and general audiences, commissioning and producing provocative new works of music-theater and opera to entertain, challenge and inspire today's diverse global community, uplift the human spirit, and encourage new ways of seeing our world. The company was founded in 2006 by Grethe Barrett Holby to create a substantial new repertory with the goal of bringing a 21st century opera experience to a widely diverse audience, and the commitment to engage the community in the process and performance of the work.

Family Opera Initiative (FOI), a major initiative of Ardea Arts, was established by Holby in 1995. In addition to BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera, FOI has commissioned and developed a repertory of opera-works including the holiday opera Flurry Tale by Rusty Magee & Billy Aronson; the swashbuckling Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Richard Peaslee & Kenneth Cavander; the summer pageant Fireworks! by Kitty Brazelton & Billy Aronson; Animal Tales by George Plimpton, Kitty Brazelton, and Grethe Holby, about "having the gumption to spread ones wings" as well as the accompanying CAT for younger audiences. FOI has also premiered Glen Roven's Goodnight Moon & Plums- five songs for kidsduring FOI's summer performances in Southampton, NY, David Wolfson's 10-minute gem Maya's Ark based on a true story from inner-city Newark NJ by David Wolfson, and a staged and choregraphed version of Babar, the little elephantwith The French Institute FI-AF NYC. Works currently in development include The Three Astronauts, based on the book by Umberto Eco and Eugenio Carmi, by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, and an international team of writers and composers. Please see www.ArdeaArts.com and www.TheThreeAstronauts.com for more information.

Ardea Arts/FOI has collaborated on these new works with extraordinary artists unexpected in the field of family entertainment. Performances have been co-produced with American Opera Projects, the Clark Studio Theater NYC, Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, TADA! Youth Theatre NYC, Playfest/Orlando Shakespeare Theater FL, NYC's Central Park Zoo, Infinity Music Hall CT, The International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight NM, WNYC's The Greene Space, & The Parrish Art Museum, with workshops at Atlantic Center for the Arts, American Opera Projects, Ardea Arts Center, Montclair State University-Peak Performances (NJ), and New York City area schools and community organizations. The Development and Premiere of BOUNCE The Basketball Opera is the first collaboration with University of Kentucky Opera Theatre (UKOT).

Ardea Arts, Inc. is a professional company member of Opera America, International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), Theater for Young Audiences (TYA), and International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY). Ardea Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Ardea Arts recently received funding from OPERA America's Opera Fund, in partnership with UKOT, and its second Art Works award from the National Endowment for the Arts for BOUNCE The Basketball Opera.

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