The event will run March 15-17.
On Mar. 15, 16, and 17, 2024, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) will present the West Coast premiere of NOTHING#31: a bar, a bluff from acclaimed New York-based artist Autumn Knight.
Drawing from her training in theater and the psychology of group dynamics, Knight makes performances that reshape perceptions of race, gender, and authority. Expanding on her NOTHING#31 series—an investigation into the Italian concept of “dolce far niente,” the sweetness of doing nothing—Knight performs two works at REDCAT.
Presented on Friday, Mar. 15 and Saturday, Mar. 16, part one, a bar, is a social experiment transforming the theater space into a host club in which, guided by Knight, the audiences undertake the task of creating the optimal conditions for temporary but meaningful companionship, desire, and connection with their fellow audience members.
Presented on Sunday, Mar. 17, part two, a bluff, is just that. Using her training as an improviser and the inexhaustible possibilities each audience member brings, Knight, alone on stage, responds improvisationally to the space, its architecture, its audience, pointedly launching from the potentiality—both the sweetness and desolation—of nothingness.
NOTHING#31: a bar, a bluff is a National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Performance Space New York, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and REDCAT. The Creation and Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit npnweb.org.
Autumn Knight is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist working with performance, installation, video, and text. Knight's video and performance work has been presented by various institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen (New York), and Performance Space New York. Knight is the recipient of the 2021-2022 Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize in Visual Arts and a 2022-2023 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Creative Team:
Creator, Director, and Performer: Autumn Knight
Lighting and Production Design Collaborator: Tuçe Yasak
Scenic Design and Construction: Matt Shalzi
Creative Producer: Rachel Cook
Autumn Knight
NOTHING#31: a bar
Friday, Mar. 15 at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, Mar. 16 at 8:30 p.m.
NOTHING#31: a bluff
Sunday, Mar. 17 at 7 p.m.
Ticketing:
$30 for General admission
$24 for REDCAT members and students
$15 for CalArts students, faculty, and staff
Tickets can be purchased at:
https://www.redcat.org/events/2024/autumn-knight-bar
https://www.redcat.org/events/2024/autumn-knight-bluff
Videos