Nashville's OZ Arts Center Reveals 2017-18 Season

OZ Arts Nashville, Music City's critically acclaimed and pioneering contemporary arts center, Monday announced its 2017-18 season, programmed by artistic director Lauren Snelling to include works that are described, by turns, as viscerally beautiful, death-defying, innovative and topical. Headlining the range of offerings is the December 1 appearance of the legendary American soprano Renee Fleming who will be starring in the 2018 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.

The season begins July 20, with the first theatre production to grace the TNT (Thursday Night Things) local spotlight series: Simon Stephens' moving monologue Sea Wall, directed by Jaclynn Jutting and performed by Nat McIntyre, that will emerge from within an installation of photographs by Tina Gionis in OZ Arts' Grand Salon.

Jaclynn Jutting is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Theatre & Dance and head of Belmont's B.F.A. Directing program. She is a professional director and the former Associate Artistic Director of Vitalist Theatre, with whom she directed Kobo Abe's The Ghost Is Here, David Hare's The Bay at Nice, Vitalist's participation in the national Suzan-Lori Parks 365 Days/Plays Festival and Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (as Associate Director), which won an After Dark Award for Best Direction. Jutting has worked as a freelance director in Chicago for over a decade.

Nat McIntyre's Nashville credits include acting in A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Nashville Shakespeare Festival); Othello (The Nashville Shakespeare Festival); As You LIke It (The Nashville Shakespeare Festival); Frost/Nixon (Studio Tenn); The Diary of Anne Frank & Becky Shaw (Actor's Bridge); and directing End Days (FDR). His Broadway credits include War Horse (Lincoln Center). He has also appeared in numerous TV shows and films.

Launching the Mainstage program on August 19, is the latest edition of OZ Arts' annual Family Day, an indoor-outdoor extravaganza for young people and families. This year's event, focused on sports and art, gives visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in thematic art-making activities as well as interactive installations by Brandon Donahue, including a volleyball court with unique design and a basketball court with hand-painted backboards. A dozen of Donahue's wildly creative art works made from scavenged sports equipment and found artifacts will also be installed on OZ Arts' gallery walls. in OZ Arts' front parking lot, audiences can take in stunts by skate boarders and BMX riders on a park of ramps assembled for the occasion.

Legendary soprano Renée Fleming comes to the venue for a special concert on December 1, inaugurating the Chairman's Choice performance selection by board chair Cano Ozgener.

One of the most beloved and celebrated American singers of our time, soprano Renée Fleming captivates audiences with her sumptuous voice, consummate artistry and compelling stage presence. For the inaugural Chairman's Choice event at OZ Arts, Fleming will perform an evening-length concert featuring French and Italian classics as well as some American contemporary works.

At a White House ceremony in 2013, President Obama awarded Fleming the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for an individual artist. Known as "the people's diva" and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, she continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, now extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. Fleming has explored a number of new-music projects not normally associated with an opera diva, namely a jazz recording with Fred Hersch and Bill Frisell released in 2005 and her recent album, Distant Light featuring modern works by Swedish maestro Anders Hillborg and Iceland's Björk. In recent years, Fleming has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" series for movie theaters and television, and "Live from Lincoln Center" on PBS. She brought her voice to a vast new audience in 2014, as the first classical artist to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

Seattle's award-winning company zoe | juniper, led by choreographer Zoe Scofield and visual artist Juniper Shuey, presents Clear & Sweet (September 14 and 15), a multi-disciplinary piece inspired by the Sacred Harp choral music tradition originating in the American South and staged in the round with singers interspersed in the audience.

Montreal-based scratch DJ, music producer and graphic novelist Kid Koala, who performed two shows of his Nufonia Must Fall at OZ Arts in 2016, returns with Satellite (April, 2018), in which he enlists the audience to join the performance by providing them with a turntable, an effects box and a crate of records.

En Garde Arts' profoundly moving documentary theater production Wilderness comes to OZ Arts for two performances on October 20 & 21. In Wilderness, six adolescents stand at the brink of emotional chaos, lost in social stigma, insecurity, aggression and anger; their parents risk losing their children forever. Inspired by firsthand interviews and field research conducted by En Garde Arts' executive producer Anne Hamburger and co-writer, director Seth Bockley, these families' stories elucidate issues of mental health, addiction, gender and sexual identity and the extraordinary challenge of coming of age in 21st Century America.

Another program that "illuminates the world we currently inhabit," Bassem Youssef shares his experience as the "Jon Stewart of the Arab World" and his thoughts on the political climate that led to the Arab Spring and its parallels to the current state of American politics in The Joke Is Mightier Than the Sword (November 18).

Dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, Bassem Youssef was the creator and host of the wildly popular TV show "Al-Bernameg," the first political satire show in the Middle East and, with 30 million viewers every week, the most watched program in the region from 2011 through 2014.

Throughout its three seasons "Al-Bernameg" remained controversial for its hilarious and bold criticism of the ruling powers. Accused of being "anti-Islam" and insulting the president of Egypt, Youssef was arrested and interrogated before being released on bail. During its final season, the show achieved unprecedented ratings before Youssef announced its termination due to overwhelming political pressures on the show and the airing channel.

In The Joke Is Mightier than the Sword, Youssef shares his personal story and his thoughts on the political climate that led to the Arab Spring, its parallels to the current state of American politics and how propaganda lays the foundation for dictatorial regimes.

In 2013, TIME Magazine named Youssef of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. He has also appeared on Foreign Policy's list of "100 Leading Global Thinkers." He was also received the International Press Freedom Award in 2013 from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Youssef's current projects are a documentary film entitled Tickling Giants, which follows Youssef and the team of "AlBernameg" as they endure physical threats, protests and legal action-all because of jokes. His books include The Democracy Handbook and Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring.

Iconic artist Elizabeth Streb brings her company STREB Extreme Action to OZ Arts to perform SEA (Singular Extreme Actions), on January 27 and 28, 2018. The work showcases Streb's physics-redefining "PopAction" choreography combining dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, circus and stunt work into feats of pure daring and strict precision. Robin Frohardt's inventive theater work The Pigeoning employs Bunraku-style puppetry, original music and lo-fi special effects to tell the story of a New York City office worker in the 1980s who is convinced pigeons are plotting against him.

TNT, OZ Arts' local spotlight series, also features Love Song to the Sun, from electric six-string violin composer-performer Tracy Silverman, with Blair School of Music (October 5); Michael Gordon's Rushes, performed by Rushes Ensemble, and Timber,performed by Mantra Percussion (March 22); and a Musicircus curated by Nashville's Colleen Phelps (May 17, 2018).

Season Subscriptions are $289 for season 5, which is a 20% savings and are now on sale through July 19, 2017. Tickets for all events can be purchased online throughout the year at www.ozartsnashville.org. OZ Arts is located at 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle in Nashville, Tenn.

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