UNTIL, UNTIL, UNTIL: A Play Based On Ben Vereen's 1981 Blackface Performance Comes to Yerba Buena
By: A.A. Cristi Jan. 04, 2018
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Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) presents the San Francisco premiere of Until, Until, Until..., a play written, staged, and directed by Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux. Until, Until, Until... is an investigation and meditation on the infamous 1981 performance by Broadway legend Ben Vereen, televised nationally as part of Ronald Reagan's inaugural celebration.
Until, Until, Until... will be staged in YBCA's Gallery One Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24, 2018, 8-9:30 PM. Members of the press are invited to attend an exclusive and intimate dress rehearsal Wednesday, February 21, 6 PM and preview Thursday, February 22, 2018, 8-9:30 PM.
For performances on Thursday, February 22, Friday, February 23, and Saturday, February 24, 2018, doors open at 7:15 PM for a pre-show cocktail hour. The artist highly encourages guests to arrive at this time. Performance begins at 8 PM. Run time: 60 minutes, no intermission.
Until, Until, Until... revisits a controversial performance in which Vereen, paying homage to black vaudeville legend Bert Williams (1874-1922), performed the exuberant song "Waiting for Robert E. Lee" in blackface. ABC broadcast this part of his show but not the second part, where Vereen sang the mournful song "Nobody" while removing the blackface. The omission of the second, emancipatory act from national television resulted in a misrepresentation of the actor's original intentions and the ruin of Vereen's reputation, particularly in the black community. Vereen's biting commentary on the history of segregation and racist stereotypes in performance was lost on viewers at home.
Until, Until, Until... is based on the footage that never aired that night. As a mise-en-scène of the inaugural party, it foregrounds the past and illuminates the enduring presence and impact of history in the present. By questioning the truth of past narratives, the work creates an opportunity to reconsider our collective understanding of historic events. The performance immerses the audience in the scenery of the presidential celebration, where the relationships between past and present, experience and memory, and fantasy and reality are blurred as they are filtered through time and the television screen.
Until, Until, Until... stars actor Frank Lawson as Ben Vereen. Winner of Performa's Malcolm McLaren Award and praised in the New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times, Lawson's performance as Vereen has been critically acclaimed from New York to Boston to Los Angeles.
Ticket Information
$20 advance / $25 at the door
Senior, teacher, student, military: 10% off
Member Discount: 20% off
Pay What You Can Member: Regular admission All Access/You Member: FREE
YBCA exhibitions are made possible in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Panta Rhea Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program, Meridee Moore and Kevin King, and United Airlines. Edgar Arceneaux is supported, in part, by Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. YBCA programs are made possible, in part, by The James Irvine Foundation. Additional funding for YBCA programs: National Endowment for the Arts, Abundance Foundation, Grosvenor, and members of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.
About the Artists
Edgar Arceneaux is a Los Angeles artist working in drawing, sculpture, and performance whose artworks explore connections between historical events and present-day truths. He played a seminal role in the creation of the Watts House Project, a redevelopment initiative to remodel a series of houses around the Watts Towers, serving as director from 1999 to 2012. His work has been featured at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Performa 15, New York; and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, among other venues. Arceneaux lives and works in Pasadena, California.
Frank Lawson (Ben Vereen) has been fortunate to perform across the United States and internationally in stage productions, most recently Mamma Mia, starring Jennifer Nettles at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles. Some of his favorite credits include Porgy and Bess (Sportin Life) at Ensemble Theatre Company, When Jazz Had the Blues (Billy Strayhorn) at The Matrix, Edgar Arceneaux's Until, Until, Until... (Ben Vereen) at 3-Legged Dog (New York), Freeze Frame (Bishop) with Debbie Allen at Wallis Annenberg, Hair (Berger) at Zach Scott and (Hud) at 5th Avenue Theatre, Summer of Love (Rufus) with Michelle Lee at MTW, The Who's Tommy (Hawker) at Casa Manana, Recorded in Hollywood (Leon Washington) at Kirk Douglas Theatre, Songs From an Unmade Bed at Celebration Theatre, and toured Asia playing several roles in the rock musical Rent. He is the voice of eight-year-old wrestler "R Truth" in Seth Green's new animated TV series CAMP WWE.
Ratri Anindyajati is the producer of Until, Until, Until... Her passion lies in storytelling and producing works which explore humanity and identity through the lens of diversity and multiplicity of cultures. Anindyajati's producing credits include Edgar Arceneaux's touring work titled Until, Until, Until... a three-part project in the form of an exhibition, live performance and film; Associate Producer for Shelter ,a site-specific play written by Marissa Chibas, directed by Martin Acosta, a project of CalArts' Center for New Performance; Producer for Black Hair, an animation documentary written and created by Adele Han Li; and Producer/Manager for Didik Nini Thowok, Indonesia's renown cross-gender artist. Before relocating to Los Angeles, Anindyajati was a producer at the Indonesian Dance Festival, an international contemporary dance festival in Jakarta, with international experiences at Impulstanz (Vienna, Austria) and Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium).
About Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is one of the nation's most innovative contemporary arts centers. Founded in 1993, YBCA's mission is to generate culture that moves people. Through powerful art experiences, thoughtful and provocative content, and deep opportunities for participation, YBCA is committed to creating an inclusive culture that awakens personal and societal transformation. YBCA presents a wide variety of programming year-round, including performing arts, visual arts, film/video, and civic engagement. For tickets and information, call 415.978.ARTS (2787). For more information, visit ybca.org.
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