PAC NYC Adds Seven New Shows in 2025 - AFRICAN EXODUS, CUCKOO & More

The Perelman Performing Arts Center has revealed seven new productions to take the stage in early 2025:  Tipi Tales from the Stoop by Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Jan 8 –11), Cuckoo by Jaha Koo (Jan 16-18), SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar by Urban Bush Women / Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Feb 5-8), African Exodus by The Centre for the Less Good Idea (Feb 27—March 2), March Forth by Reginald Dwayne Betts (March 4), Motion/Matter:  All Styles Dance Battle (March 8), and Malaise dans la civilisation by Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage (March 13-22).

 These unique music, theater, comedy, and dance productions reflect the center’s mission to develop, present, and produce across multiple artistic disciplines and genres.

“It has been thrilling to welcome such a variety of artists into our building and to experience what PAC NYC can offer,” said Artistic Director Bill Rauch.  “My team and I have been greatly moved by the collaborations we are creating with artists worldwide, including in this new deliciously distinct group of projects.  We can’t wait to share this work with our audiences in the first months of 2025.”
 
“In PAC NYC's second year, we will continue to cultivate audiences that represent every corner of New York City and stay true to our mission to cultivate bonds between audiences and artists,” said Executive Director Khady Kamara Nunez.  “We look forward to presenting these entertaining and engaging works, that represent a multiplicity of voices and stories.”
 

TIPI TALES FROM THE STOOP

Written and performed by Murielle Borst-Tarrant
Directed by Mildred Ruiz-Sapp & Steven Sapp
 
Wednesday, January 8 at 7pm
Thursday, January 9 at 7pm
Friday, January 10 at 2pm and 8pm
Saturday, January 11 at 2pm and 8pm
Gather ‘round the stoop with Murielle Borst-Tarrant as she spins a tapestry of tales from her youth - growing up in the only Native family of a Mafia-run Brooklyn neighborhood.   With unflinching humor and heart-warming empathy, award-winning playwright and performer Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/Rappahannock) confronts family history and generational trauma as she dives into an epic quest to keep cultural traditions alive. Tipi Tales from the Stoop is the joyous journey of one Native New Yorker discovering her voice and proving that resilience is not just about surviving, it’s about thriving—with or without the occasional family drama. 

CUCKOO

By Jaha Koo
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
 
Thursday, Jan 16 at 7pm
Friday, Jan 17 at 7pm
Saturday, Jan 18 at 1pm and 6pm
 
A journey through the last 20 years of Korean history told by a bunch of talkative rice cookers.
 
One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, South Korean artist Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of ‘Golibmuwon’ (고립무원). Twenty years ago, a major economic crisis hugely impacted Jaha Koo’s generation of South Korean youth. ‘Golibmuwon’ is the untranslatable Korean word for the feeling of helpless isolation that arose for many. In bittersweet and humorous dialogues with Jaha’s clever rice cookers, Cuckoo takes you on a journey through the past two decades of Korean history, combining Jaha’s personal experiences with political events and reflections on happiness, economic crises, and mortality.

In English & Korean, with English surtitles.
 

SCAT!... THE COMPLEX LIVES OF AL & DOT, DOT & AL ZOLLAR

Urban Bush Women
Conceived, Directed, and Co-Choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Co-Choreographed by Vincent E. Thomas
Original Music Composed by Craig Harris
Dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks
Assistant Director & Associate Producer, Cheri Stokes
 
Wednesday, February 5 at 7pm
Thursday, February 6 at 7pm
Friday, February 7 at 7pm
Saturday, February 8 at 2pm
 
A dance-driven, jazz fueled experience about dreams colliding with the realities of American life in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Urban Bush Women, the groundbreaking dance company known for amplifying underrepresented voices and unheard stories of Black Women+, continues their 40th anniversary season with the NYC premiere of SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar. Through song, dance, and storytelling, Urban Bush Women tell the powerful love story of two people making their way through the Great Migration, inspired by founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s childhood in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods.  With live music composed by Craig Harris and a cast of electrifying performers, SCAT! pays tribute to the joyous resilience and rich legacy of Black floor shows.
 

AFRICAN EXODUS

Presented by PAC NYC and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
An original production of the Centre for the Less Good Idea, produced in partnership with The Office performing arts + film.
 
Writer, Composer & Musical Director Sbusiso Shozi
Directed By Nhlanhla Mahlangu
 
Thursday, February 27 at 7pm
Friday, February 28 at 7pm
Saturday, March 1 at 7pm
Sunday, March 2 at 3pm
 
African Exodus blends music, language, and movement to create lucid, illuminating scenes of African history, navigating the movement of people and their linguistic footprints within the continent. A musical odyssey that creates an experimental, metaphysical journey of sound across cultures, genres, languages, and geographies, African Exodus premiered in 2018 at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, the multi-disciplinary arts hub co-founded by visionaries William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace in Johannesburg, South Africa. Preceding the performance is a public program, Sounds of Limpopo. Originally based on the idea of lekgotla or ‘the meeting’, Sounds of Limpopo is focused on the sounds and rhythmic patterns that exist in the natural world, explored using an array of instruments, bodily percussion, and communication through music.
 
Performed in English and several African languages.
 

MARCH FORTH

Written and performed by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Directed by Elise Thoron
 
Tuesday, March 4 at 7pm
 
Alone in solitary confinement, a teenager called out: “Somebody, send me a book!”  Moments later, Dudley Randall’s The Black Poets slid under his cell door. Those pages were the start of the teen’s transformation into a poet, lawyer, and promoter of the rights of prisoners. Now, 20 years to the day of his release from prison on March 4, 2005, Reginald Dwayne Betts explores the experience and consequences of his incarceration in a compelling new solo performance based on his American Book Award-winning poetry collection, Felon: An American Washi Tale, with conversation to follow. Betts, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and founder of the nonprofit organization, Freedom Reads, brings his story on the importance of mercy, the realities of life after prison, and the role art and literature can play in the fight for justice.to the PAC NYC stage.
 

MOTION/MATTER:  ALL STYLES DANCE BATTLE

Saturday, March 8 at 7pm
 
After the wild success of PAC NYC’s sold-out 2024 showdown, the one-and-only MC Cebo is back to host a high-voltage battle that will light up Lower Manhattan! Top-tier dancers from NYC’s club scene and beyond will throw down in a fierce face-off demonstrating locking, popping, breaking, and all the moves that define the culture. A panel of all-star judges decides who takes the cash grand prize, but Motion/Matter: All-Styles Dance Battle isn’t just a competition — it’s a celebration of passion, a testament to dedication, and a showcase of the transformative power of street dance.
 

MALAISE DANS LA CIVILISATION

Directed by Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage
Text by Étienne Lepage
 
Thursday, March 13 at 7pm (French)
Friday, March 14 at 8pm (English)
Saturday, March 15 at 2 (English) and 8pm (French)
Tuesday, March 18 at 7pm (English)
Wednesday, March 19 at 7pm (English)
Thursday, March 20 at 7pm (French)
Friday, March 21 at 8pm (French)
Saturday, March 22 at (English) and 8pm (French)
 
Four tourists walk into a theater with no regard for rules or decorum... 
 
By turns careless and carefree, hilarious and absurd, these impetuous explorers interact with their surroundings, triggering a series of ordinary accidents and mundane mishaps. This small sample of humanity, linked together by improbable situations, gradually transforms the empty space of the stage into a universe filled with possibilities.  
 
With sharp wit and a keen eye for the unexpected, Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage shake up both theatrical and social norms. Experimenting with the porous border between the stage and audience, Malaise dans la civilisation (Civilization and Its Discontents) creates a strange, playful world where complex characters innocently test the boundaries of morality leaving nothing (and no one) untouched. 
 
Presented in English with French Surtitles
Presented in French and English with English Surtitles

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