NUFONIA MUST FALL, SELL/BUY/DATE and More Set for Segerstrom Center's Off Center Festival 2016
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 23, 2015
Segerstrom Center's annual Off Center Festival returns January 16 - January 30, 2016 with an all-new line-up of creative, contemporary and sometimes controversial artists and shows.
The festival will present Manual Cinema's ADA/AVA, Dorothée Munyaneza's Samedi Détente, Kid Koala's Nufonia Must Fall, Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely in Sacred Music for Sacred Times, Sarah Jones' Sell/Buy/Date and the Martha Redbone Roots Project.
There will be two FREE Parties on the Plaza - January 16 and 23. Both will offer live music, dancing and food truck cuisine The Off Center Lounge in Leatherby's Cafe? Rouge will be open again with a special low-cost post-performance menu and the opportunity to mix and mingle with festival artists.
All tickets will be $25 (with $39 tickets also available for Nufonia Must Fall) and will go on sale Tuesday, December 1 at 10 a.m. PST. Tickets can be purchased online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. The TTY number is (714) 556-2746.
POP: Parties on the Plaza
January 16 & 23 at 6 p.m.
Arts Plaza FREE
On Off Center Saturdays, January 16 and 23, the Center's Arts Plaza will come alive with dancing, popular OC food trucks and music by two LA-based bands. The festival kick-off party on January 16 with Allah-Las. The sound is a rich fusion of West Coast garage rock and roll, Latin percussion and electric folk. On January 23, Milo Greene takes over with his self-described "cinematic-pop. Greene's album - Milo Green - reached No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums. www.Allah-Las.com www.MiloGreen.com
ADA/AVA
Manual Cinema
January 19 & 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Samueli Theater
An immersive story comes to life on both stage and screen with vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design and a live music ensemble, as Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with ingenuity and theatricality. ADA/AVA, hailed as "an unclassifiable story of spectral beauty" by The New York Times, explores universal themes of mourning, melancholy and life in this fantastical tale of septuagenarian Ada, who feels confined to a solitary life following the death of her twin, Ava. (Recommended for ages 12 and older.) www.ManualCinema.com
Samedi De?tente
Dorothe?e Munyaneza
January 21 - 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Judy Morr Theater
Performed in English
How can you speak about the unspeakable? Twenty years after fleeing Rwanda as a young girl, Dorothe?e Munyaneza is ready to look back. Conceived, written and performed by Munyaneza, Samedi de?tente takes its name from a popular Saturday morning radio program. It explores the will to survive and to find happiness amidst unspeakable horrors through spoken word, song and movement. Accompanied by Ivorian dancer Nadia Beuge? and French musician Alain Mahe?, Munyaneza returns to the memories of her childhood with potent music, electrifying movement and dispassionate testimony. (Recommended for mature audiences.)
Nufonia Must Fall
Kid Koala and the Afiara Quartet
January 22 7:30 p.m. and January 23 at 2 p.m.
Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
Tickets: $25 and $39
Montreal-based scratch DJ and music producer Kid Koala presents a magical, multi-disciplinary adaptation of his graphic novel, Nufonia Must Fall. The story centers on a headphones-sporting robot on the verge of obsolescence and infatuated with a winsome office drone. Collaborating with Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett (Her, Lost in Translation, Being John Malkovich), Kid Koala enlists a team of puppeteers to stage the circuit-bent amore? as camera crews edit the footage in real time, resulting in a live silent film. Koala and the dynamic Afiara Quartet provide live score on piano, strings and turntables. www.Koala.com
Sacred Music for Sacred Times
Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely
Featuring Judith Casselberry, Stephanie McKay, Allison Miller, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Ganessa James, Alex Nolan, Juliette Jones
January 22 & 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Samueli Theater
Toshi and her all-star band BIGLovely are a joyful celebration of all that's dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music. This versatile singer-songwriter-guitarist, who has been described as a combination of Sly and the Family Stone, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin and an entire gospel choir, has moved audiences with her big-hearted, hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, country folk, spirituals and funk. ToshiReagon.com
Sell/Buy/Date
January 28 - 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Studio Performance Space (Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall)
Tony Award-winning writer, performer and activist Sarah Jones (Bridge & Tunnel) brings to the stage a dazzling medley of characters in Sell/Buy/Date, an exuberant new play inspired by the real-life experiences of people affected by the commercial sex industry. Through her masterful, multicultural characterizations, Jones explores an array of diverse perspectives on a fascinating and incendiary subject, all while preserving the full humanity and humor of voices seldom heard in the theater. (Recommended for mature audiences.) www.SarahJonesonline.com
Martha Redbone Roots Project
January 28 - 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Studio Performance Space (Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall)
The powerful blues and soul singer explores traditional and modern variations of folk, roots, blues, tribal and soul. She grew up listening to everything from church hymns to country music, raised on Tanya Tucker as much as the Jackson Five. Award-winning singer-songwriter Redbone has sung in such disparate occasions as the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Nimham Mountain Music Festival and at both of President Barak Obama's inaugurations. She is joined at Off Center Festival 2016 by an all-star band in an epic concert that spans generations and a breadth of music genres, revealing a great American story that has remained untold until now. www.MarthaRedbone.com
Off Center Lounge
Leatherby's Cafe? Rouge (Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall)
January 20, 22, 23, 28 - 30
Opens at 9 p.m.
The Off Center Lounge in Leatherby's Café Rouge returns for Off Center Festival 2016. Audiences can mix and mingle with fellow audience members and Off Center artists. It's rare opportunity to talk one-on-one with the creators and performers of these thought provoking works and pose those questions that oftentimes go unanswered. A special low-cost menu will be available starting at 9 p.m.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an acclaimed arts institution as well as a beautiful multi-disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages, offering unsurpassed experiences, and to engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring programs.
Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center is Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization. In addition to its six performance venues, Segerstrom Center is also home to the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School, where students ages 3 - 14 are taught by acclaimed teachers utilizing the renowned ABT National Training Curriculum in studios utilized by the world's greatest dancers and choreographers.
The Center presents a broad range of programming for audiences of all ages, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family- friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.
The Center's education programs are designed to inspire young people through the arts and reach hundreds of thousands of students each year. In addition to the presenting and producing institution Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the 14-acre campus also embraces the facilities of two independently acclaimed organizations: Tony Award®-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale, who contribute greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
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