MOBY DICK, FIELD OF MARS, and More Set For NYU Skirball Winter Season

NYU Skirball's Winter/Spring 2023 season will open on January 12 with the U.S. premiere of Moby Dick, a larger-than-life theater/puppet extravaganza featuring fifty puppets, seven actors and a whale-size whale. Co-presented by NYU Skirball and Under the Radar Festival, Moby Dick is a production from the Norwegian theater company Plexus Polaire.

The season includes theater, dance, music and puppetry premieres and presentations from New York and International Artists and companies, including Philip Glass, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Richard Maxwell, Eva Doumbia, Keely Garfield, Bereishit Dance, CNN Ballet De Lorraine, Plexus Polaire and dozens of life-like puppets. In addition, the season features public lectures, conversations, literary series and National Theatre Live film screenings.

NYU Skirball is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, historically a center of resistance, dissent and free thinking. NYU Skirball's programing reflects this history and embrace's today's renegade artists and companies, presenting works that aim to engage, provoke and inspire audiences.

PLEXUS POLAIRE: MOBY DICK

Norway

U.S. Premiere

Thursday, January 12 - Saturday, January 14

Theater/Puppetry

"Moby Dick can hardly be described as anything more than a visual and atmospheric masterpiece of puppet theatre. Unusual synergies occur in the room. Perhaps it stems from the intense kinesthetic focus between the puppeteers who, with complex consensus, manipulate and breathe life into larger and smaller figures, each with their own unique anatomy and organic way of moving." - Amund Grimstad, Norway

NYU Skirball and Under the Radar Festival present Moby Dick, an adaptation of Herman Melville's mythical work, halfway between theater and puppet show, featuring seven actors, fifty puppets, video projections, a drowned orchestra and a whale-sized whale. Yngvild Aspeli stages this visual adaptation of Melville's wonderful beast of a book, from the Norwegian theater company Plexus Polaire.

An ancient white whale, a captain steering his ship into destruction, and the inner storms of the human heart. Moby Dick is the tale of a whaling expedition, but also the story of an obsession or an investigation into the unexplained mysteries of life.

Yngvild Aspeli, Artistic director of Plexus Polaire, develops a visual world that brings our most buried feelings to life. The use of life-sized puppets is at the center of her work, but the actors' performances, the presence of the music and the use of light and video are all equal elements in communicating the story. plexuspolaire.com

NEW YORK CITY PLAYERS: FIELD OF MARS USA

World Premiere

Thursday, January 19 - Sunday, January 29

Theater

In 2019, NYU Skirball commissioned a new work by award-winning playwright/director Richard Maxwell and New York City Players. After a Covid-related delay, SNYU kirball presents Maxwell's Field of Mars, produced in association with the Under The Radar Festival and co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center.

Act I: Creation, a chain restaurant in Chapel Hill, Outdoors. Adam and Eve are introduced after a brief exploration into color and light. At the restaurant, workers and customers interact to make a fast-casual dining experience. Topics covered: Music, Food, Nature, and Spirituality. Act II ranges wider, moving between past, present and future as the animal instincts of coupling and destruction move through generations. Back in Chapel Hill, the staff continue their work.

Field of Mars contains graphic language and situations.

Richard Maxwell is a theater artist and Hell's Kitchen resident for the last 25 years. He is currently the Artistic Director of New York City Players. His latest book is a collected trilogy: Evening Plays (TCG, 2020). In January 2020, his production Queens Row was presented at The Kitchen, NYC. nycplayers.org

CLASSICAL THEATRE OF HARLEM: TWELFTH NIGHT

USA

Saturday, February 11 - Sunday, February 19

Theater

"This is one of those productions that make you feel lucky to be in New York." - The New York Times

Classical Theatre of Harlem remounts its raucous, critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, continuing its mission to place diversity at the forefront of their performances. This Twelfth Night engages with the global conversation around equity and inclusion and features a majority-Black team of artists lead by director Carl Cofield, CTH's Associate Artistic Director and Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Emerge125's Executive Artistic Director.

Classical Theatre of Harlem (Ty Jones, Artistic Director) is an American theater company that tells stories through the lens of the African diaspora. Established in 1999, CTH combines original adaptations, music and dance to present great classics of world literature and contemporary works that will stand the test of time. CTH also proudly provides theater-based training and live theater experiences to Harlem youth and their families through its arts education program, Project Classics. The organization incorporates other theater-related programming, including Future Classics, Playwrights Playground and Revisited Classics, to engage new audiences, invest in artistic development and give exposure to emerging creators. cthnyc.org

EVA DOUMBIA: AUTOPHAGIES (Self-Eaters)

France

U.S. Premiere

Thursday, February 23 - Sunday, February 26

Theater

Performed at The Invisible Dog in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

Co-produced by NYU Skirball and The Invisible Dog, Eva Doumbia's Autophagies (2011) combines theater and aromas, music and flavors into a hybrid experience centered around cooking. It is also a reminder of the colonial histories still at play in today's kitchens. Doumbia encourages us to think about the political dimension of food, reflecting with humor and tenderness on its origins, modes of culture and foodstuffs.

A chef, a musician, a dancer and a mistress of ceremony lead us to a kitchen somewhere between Africa and Europe, where ingredients come together for a great celebration of the senses. Without ever resorting to moralizing, Autophagies simply proposes to "eat consciously": to take our daily habits and our prejudices as a starting point for a broader reflection. At the end of the performance, audiences will be treated to tastings of the food prepared on stage.

The daughter of an immigrant worker and the granddaughter of a railway worker, Eva Doumbia considers herself to be of mixed cultural and social background. After training in literature and directing, she founded her company La Part du Pauvre in Marseille in 2000, which was soon followed by the company Nana Triban, based in Abidjan. Now based in Le Havre, where she is originally from, her theater explores both the classical dramatic repertoire and contemporary writing in the French-speaking world.

The Invisible Dog Art Center, located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, is dedicated to the integration of innovation in the arts with profound respect for the past. Housed in an 1863, three-story former factory building, its 30,000 square foot facility was the site of various industrial endeavors. The rawness of the space is vital to the company's identity. theinvisibledog.org

KEELY GARFIELD: THE INVISIBLE PROJECT

USA

World Premiere

Friday, March 10 - Sunday, March 12

Dance

An NYU Skirball commission, Keely Garfield Dance's highly anticipated premiere The Invisible Project is a ritualized performance inspired by Garfield's work as an enduring dance artist, and her covert calling as a hospital chaplain.

Garfield, with frequent collaborators Molly Lieber, Paul Hamilton, and Angie Pittman, contend with presence and absence, emotionally extravagant embodiment, and understated disappearing acts to offer a glimpse of hope. Original music from Jeff Berman harmonizes chaplaincy "testimonials" and muscular orchestral soundscapes to underscore the intimacy and largess in the body of the work.

Keely Garfield, a native of London, England, is based in New York City. Her company, Keely Garfield Dance (KGD), has been widely commissioned and presented at theaters and festivals nationally and internationally, garnering several Bessie awards and nominations. A spirit of philosophical investigation and compassionate concern continues to shape Keely's path as an artist and is central in her creative endeavor. Garfield has also made work for other modern dance companies, theater, musicals, ballet, film, MTV, site-specific projects, schools and universities. Garfield is a Guggenheim Fellow, holds an MFA from UWM, and teaches at The New School. Alongside her artistic career, Garfield works in the field of wellness, and is currently a chaplain at NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn. www.keelygarfield.nyc

BEREISHIT DANCE COMPANY

Korea

NYC Premieres

Friday, March 24 & Saturday, March 25

Dance

Drawing from many sources, including street dance and martial arts, the Korean Dance Company Bereishit Dance presents two NYC premieres: Balance and Imbalance (2010) and Judo (2014). With Balance and Imbalance, dancers seamlessly partner and then hurtle through space, employing the laws of physics to illustrate the constantly turning wheel of opposition and harmony at the heart of all relationships. The performance, featuring six dancers, is accompanied by an ensemble of Korean traditional drummers.

In Judo, featuring six male dancers, Soon-ho Park views sports as a way to control, mediate, traverse and indeed transcend the violent, churning urges within us. Using this idea, Judo deploys the symbolic meaning of sports as a counterpoint and frame of reference and presents, through the medium of dance, the harmonious play between rhythm, movement and space.

Founded in 2011 by choreographer Soon-ho Park, Bereishit is a Seoul-based dance company that approaches Korean traditional culture from a contemporary view, keeping the fundamental value of things, as opposed to simply borrowing or transforming them. The work also explores the issues of identity and transformation and delves into multimedia, street dance, community dance work and real-time interactive demonstration. It displays an amazing sensitivity towards space and rhythms and its performances are always delivered with kinesthetic clarity and power. Bereishit has toured internationally including to sold-out houses at the Arts Center of NYU Abu Dhabi. bereishitdance.com

Phelim McDermott & Philip Glass: THE TAO OF GLASS

UK and USA

NYC Premiere

Thursday, March 30 - Saturday, April 8

Music & Theater

Composer Philip Glass and performer-director Phelim McDermott (Improbable Theatre) have worked together on acclaimed opera productions in London, New York, and beyond. Tao of Glass (2019) is their most personal collaboration yet. Inspired by a dream, this NYC premiere marries ten meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom with ten pieces of music from Glass, presented by McDermott with an ensemble of musicians and puppeteers. Part

concert, part-performance, Tao of Glass is a storytelling tapestry, soundtracked by Glass's mesmerizing music and shot through with Improbable's trademark theatricality.

Phelim McDermott, actor and director, has directed plays and operas in Britain, Germany, Spain, the United States and Australia. He is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Improbable and has directed Philip Glass' Satyagraha, Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten and The Perfect American.

Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. His works include operas Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten and The Voyage, and he has written music for experimental theater and Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as The Hours and Martin Scorsese's Kundun. philipglass.com

CCN BALLET DE LORRAINE

USA & France

N.A. Premiere

Thursday, April 20 & Friday, April 21

Dance

France's Centre Chorégraphique National Ballet de Lorraine, directed by Petter Jacobsson with its 25 dancers, presents an evening of two works: Cela Nous Concerne Tous (This Concerns All Of Us) (2017), choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez; and For Four Walls (2019), choreographed by Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley.

Cela Nous Concerne Toustakes its inspiration (and title) from the May 1968 social and political movements in France. Driven by a shared fervor, the dancers unfurl in a constantly changing chaos of colors, sounds, garments and moving bodies.

For Four Walls draws upon Four Walls, the first collaboration between Merce Cunningham and John Cage. Rather than recreating the original 1944 piece, they have used the score for piano and voice as the driving force behind this free interpretation. Performed live by the pianist Vanessa Wagner, the melancholic atmosphere of John Cage's music hovers over the interplay between the mirrored room and movements.

Centre Chorégraphique National Ballet de Lorraine, one of the most acclaimed European companies, has a strong focus on contemporary works while also embracing modern dance history. Its repertoire includes a variety of emblematic pieces by some of our generations most highly regarded choreographers, including works by Latifa Laâbissi, Volmir Cordeiro, Adam Linder, Michèle Murray, Maud Le Pladec, Tatiana Julien, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown and many others. ballet-de-lorraine

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