Peak Performances At Montclair Announces Their 2010-2011 Season

Peak Performances @ Montclair announces their 2010-2011 season which revolves around a Promethean challenge. Like Prometheus, who challenged Zeus's power by bringing fire to man, each of the artists, a shaman in his own right, promises to ignite audiences' intellects and imaginations. All events take place at Montclair State University at 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair.

The music series opens on September 1 with "Everywhere Is the Best Seat," a sound/light installation by composer/architect Christopher Janney, who has a long history of creating sonic and light environments in existing public spaces. Inspired by John Cage's democratic comment, "Everything you do is music/And everywhere is the best seat," and commandeering the Montclair State University amphitheater, this user-friendly, interactive work invites passersby to create their own sounds and light, thereby giving new, vibrant life to the space. The installation is free, accessible 24 hours a day, every day, and runs through late November.

Working in collaboration with New Amsterdam Records, Peak Performances presents "Here There Be Dragons" on September 11, as members of a trio of new chamber-rock groups join forces: NOW Ensemble (Judd Greenstein), William Brittelle's Television Landscape, and Victoire (Missy Mazzoli). Then, reaching 2000 years back in musical history, the ever-popular Shanghai Quartet will present the world premiere of Lei Liang's "Five Seasons," on September 12. Composed for the pipa, an ancient, lute-like string instrument, "Five Seasons" will be performed by renowned pipa master Wu Man.

For theatre, from September 23rd to October 3rd, the Builders Association will present the revival of its 1999-2000 Obie-winning "JET LAG," a 1998 collaboration between the Builders and the award-winning architecture team Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Based on two real-life stories in which technology made the impossible, possible, "JET LAG" uses the time-defying magic of multimedia to explore the uses and abuses of technology. The first story tells of an English sailor who tricked the world into believing that he sailed round the globe, and the second of a grandmother who died of jet lag by taking daily flights back and forth from New York to Amsterdam over the course of six months to prevent her grandson's capture by his father. While originally seen in New York during a limited engagement at The Kitchen in 2000, the show has been performed in 13 cities across the globe. The revival was commissioned by Peak Performances.

There are two dance performance options for the fall, Caroly Carlson's "Double Vision," presented October 14-17, and Crystal Pite's "Dark Matters," presented October 21-24. "Double Vision" was created in collaboration with Electronic Shadow (architect Naziha Mestaoui and media artist Yacine Aït Kaci). Carlson, who has lived in France since 1971, is director of the Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais and the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson. "Dark Matters" begins with a conversation between a Bunraku puppet and its creator before careening into explorations of creation vs. destruction and free will vs. manipulation, using the mysterious qualities of dark matter as inspiration. The work will be performed by Pite's company Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM.

For the complete 2010-2011 schedule, please vist: www.peakperfs.org. All tickets are $15, and are available at the Alexander Kasser Theater Box Office or by calling 973-655-5112 or online at the web address listed above.

Charter bus service is provided from New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal - arcade on 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues - to the Alexander Kasser Theater ($10 per person, roundtrip) for all Saturday and Sunday performances. Bus reservations may be made by calling 973-655-5112. For train service, available only on weekdays, go online to www.njtransit.com or call 1-973-275-5555. For restaurants close to the Alexander Kasser Theater, visit www.destinationmontclair.com.

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