Sappho 2024 - Articles Page 3

Born out of pandemic necessity, the recently formed Isle Theater Company premiered a video-on-demand version of their new play, DO NOT MOVE STONES, a modern retelling of Aeschylus’ THE SUPPLIANTS. Beautifully filmed in the breathtaking outdoor setting of the rock quarry on Deer Isle, this modern version of an ancient classic demonstrates both the uncanny relevance of Aeschylus’ original and the compelling issues its story and characters present for a 21st century. Written and directed by Marvin Merritt IV and Anna Fitzgerald, DO NOT MOVE STONES tells the story of fifty sisters – intended as unwilling brides for their cousins to fulfill a contract based on property issues – who flee from the altar and sail to the rocky coast of Maine where they seek asylum at the home of Piero and his family, only to be pursued by their grooms. There, three of the sisters negotiate for their future, as all the nine characters come to reassess their perspectives and values.

In collaboration with the Reach Performing Arts Center (RPAC) and in partnership with Island Heritage Trust, ANNA + MARVIN will stage an outdoor production of Do Not Move Stones at Stonington's historic granite quarry with performances on August 27, 28, and 29.

The play is inspired, in part, by a 2015 controversy at Yale, where a professor’s email set off a debate and subsequent protests about the role white supremacy can play on campus, contributing to a hostile environment for students of color. It explores the critical need for communication and reaching across a divide to find a place of understanding.

Manchester International Festival (MIF), returns with a vibrant programme of original new work from across the spectrum of visual and performing arts and music by artists from over 20 countries.

On June 22, I watched J’Nai Bridges’ online recital at Los Angeles Opera’s website. Bridges has been making highly acclaimed debuts at major opera houses. For her LA Opera recital, she chose major selections by Johannes Brahms and Charles Gounod as well as many lesser-known shorter pieces. She sang with pianist Jeremy Frank, harpist Brandee Younger, violist Drew Forde, and dancer Shauna Davis. Available on LA Opera website now.

The new musical MONTGOMERY, about 15-year-old Claudette Colvin's fight against segregation, will premiere five songs in a brief online concert May 1.

The Sappho Project presents musical presentations created by The W*rk Lab, a developmental lab that fosters the creation of new paradigm shifting musicals written by women and TGNC (trans & gender non-conforming) artists.

SMJ and Sarah Flaim have released their first demo, 'Ghosts' from their new musical, AT THE BARRE; expecting its first virtual performance in April/May produced by The Sappho Project. 'Ghosts' is an exploration of grief through poignant lyrics and haunting harmonies.

The Sappho Project has announced the appointment of three founding members of its Board of Directors, making up the full slate of board members for 2020. Joining the Board of Directors is BRIAN LOWDERMILK (they/them or she/her), ANEESH SHETH (she/her), and REGINA VICTOR (they/them).

Carriageworks, one of Australia's largest contemporary multi-arts centres, will again be a major hub for Sydney Festival in 2021, presenting five world premieres including a new video installation by award-winning Australian artist Tina Havelock Stevens titled THANK YOU FOR HOLDING and launching 6 January.

15 Heroines is a major new digital project by Jermyn Street Theatre in collaboration with Digital Theatre Plus. Taking Ovid’s Heroides as inspiration they reach back across thousands of years and into the cultures of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa, the heroines are rehabilitated and placed in a modern setting.

The Sappho Project has announce that the 2020 W*rk Lab will include not three, but four new musicals! The selected musicals, chosen from fifty-nine applications, include AT THE BARRE (SMJ [they/them] and Sarah Flaim [she/her]), BREWSTERS (Cayenne Douglass [she/her]), MONTGOMERY (Britt Bonney [she/her]), and POWER (Sukari Jones [she/her]).

The Greek National Opera will be presented one of the most famous and most impressive works by Iannis Xenakis for solo percussion, Psappha (Sappho), along with the work for solo cello Kottos. The work will be performed by soloists Alexandros Giovanos (percussion) and Nicolas Prevezianos (cello).

Baritone Lucas Meachem and his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, sang an aria-filled recital on to open the Merola Opera Program Recital Series September 27, 2020. The Meachems opened the recital with the aria a?oeBella siccome un angeloa?? (a?oeBeautiful as an Angela??) from Donizettia??s Don Pasquale. Lucas acted with his voice to show not only its power and huge sound but also his ability to control it and sing with a mere thread of sound when describing the sweetness of the young lady.

NewFest, New York’s leading LGBTQ film and media organization and one of the world's most respected LGBTQ film festivals, has announced its full line-up for The New York LGBTQ Film Festival’s 32nd year.

The W*rk Lab is a seven month workshop supporting the development of three new musicals by women, transgender, and gender non-conforming composers, lyricists, and book writers.

Jermyn Street Theatre has joined forces with leading internet theatre platform Digital Theatre for a major new online project to be produced this autumn.

Tonight, at 7 p.m. ET, the No Exit Theatre Collective (NETC) presents Euripides' 'Iphigenia in Aulis' as part of their live-streamed Fortnightly Reading Series: Pride Edition! All shows in NETC's Fortnightly Reading Series are abridged to run under 90 minutes. All shows in our Fortnightly Reading Series are abridged to run less than 90 minutes, with a Q&A with the artists to follow. 

The Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival is a groundbreaking digital series of audio and video streams featuring newly created content being recorded at Tanglewood's Linde Center in July alongside previously recorded material from Tanglewood being released for the first time.

Fate meets the future in the California Symphony's March concerts, under the direction of Music Director Donato Cabrera. FATE AND FUTURE, Saturday, March 14 at 8PM, and Sunday, March 15 at 4PM, features Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5a?"his most often-performed and beloved symphonya?"and the world premiere of Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch's Illuminate, a song cycle in five movements. The Symphony uses a recurring melody to represent the theme of a?oefatea??, while a?oefuturea?? is represented by Balch's premiere.

On Her Shoulders is pleased to present a staged reading of Sappho of Lesbos by Estelle Anna Lewis, directed by Lynn Marie Macy on Wednesday, January 22, 2020. Doors open at 6:45pm for a 7:00pm start with The Play in Context by Emily Rainbow Davis, who situates the script in its historical time and place, followed by the reading and a post-performance Q&A with refreshments. Admission is by Donation ($10 suggested). The performance is at New Perspectives Studio, 458 West 37 Street @10th Avenue. R.S.V.P. to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com.

NANCY REDMAN RETURNS - AGAIN - TO THE UNITED SOLO FESTIVAL as The Best Of The Festival's First Decade with a repeat performance of 'AT WIT'S END: A HOME FOR RETIRED COMICS'.

Seven Siblings Theatre Presents GIRL IN THE MACHINE by Stef Smith from November 14-24, 2019 in the Backspace at Theatre Passe Muraille, directed by the company's Artistic Director Will King (Recall, Titus Andronicus).

The Library of Alexandria, Egypt. 415 C.E. Society is on the brink. A rising tide of religious fundamentalism threatens to wipe out the wisdom of classical antiquity. But one woman vows to save the knowledge of our ancestors no matter the cost.

Taffety Punk, the insurrectionist yet classically trained company now in its 15th year does what it does best in a pair of striking Greek adaptations by Anne Carson, presented in one invigorating sitting.