The Kennedy Center's WORLD STAGES Series to Continue with Laurie Anderson, Monica Bill Barnes & Van-Anh Vo
By: Tyler Peterson Feb. 11, 2016
The Kennedy Center's 2015-2016 World Stages series continues with three trailblazing, multidisciplinary works that are coming to Washington, D.C.: Laurie Anderson's Language of the Future: Letters to Jack (March 4-6); Monica Bill Barnes's Happy Hour (March 10-11); and Vân-Ánh Võ's The Odyssey: From Vietnam to America (March 11-12). With a long history of presenting original international works, these programs reinforce the Center's commitment to presenting leading performers and companies from the United States and abroad, offering D.C. audiences an entryway to global arts and culture.
The 2015-2016 World Stages series presents Language of the Future: Letters to Jack, the newest chapter in singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson's ongoing multimedia exploration, created especially for the Kennedy Center. Conceived and performed by Laurie Anderson, previous installments of Language of the Future have been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, with The New Yorkerlauding Anderson for continuing "to imbue her work with a singular perspective that is both haunting and timeless." For this exciting new chapter, Laurie Anderson invites special guest, cellist/composer Rubin Kodheli, to share the stage as they explore stories about love and power, her childhood correspondence with President John F. Kennedy, and a few of Anderson's classic stories. Anderson and Kodheli appear at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in three performances March 4-6, 2016.
Happy Hour, a new dance work choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes and performed by Barnes and Anna Bass, invites audiences to "have a drink, laugh at our collective failures, and celebrate our own shortcomings." Coming to the Kennedy Center Terrace Gallery from March 10-11, 2016, Happy Hour is a show of outrageous courage, with Barnes and Bass trading their signature sequins and feather headdresses for a pair of everyday men's suits as they play two utterly ubiquitous male characters. Their hilariously futile attempts to embody male icons is ultimately revelatory of something special-two individuals desperate to wrest new meaning from our most familiar ideas of ourselves.
Created and composed by Oscar®-nominated and Emmy Award®-winning composer Vân-Ánh Võ, The Odyssey: From Vietnam to America will be performed from March 11-12, 2016 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. This new musical epic is inspired by the experiences of the Vietnamese "Boat People," refugees fleeing the destruction of the Vietnam War by boat, and it integrates traditional and new instruments, video imagery, field recordings, and interviews with survivors to create a powerful musical and visual experience that reflects upon the resilience of the human spirit and the price of freedom. Recently, The Odyssey opened in the Bay Area of California to great praise, with NPR remarking that the work "tells refugee stories past and present," noting parallels between the plight of the Vietnamese in 1979 and Syrian refugees today. Through the dynamic combination of imagery and music, audiences are invited to experience the odyssey and triumph of "the Boat People," feel the universal emotions of their own life challenges, and relate to their own struggles and sacrifices.
Previous 2015-2016 World Stages performances included: Seuls, which was written, directed, and performed by Wajdi Mouawad (Lebanon and Canada), from September 18-19, 2015; Wagner, Max! Wagner!, conceived and composed by Stew and Heidi Rodewald (United States), from September 25-26, 2015; and Sancho: An Act of Remembrance, a witty and moving one-man play conceived, written, and performed by British actor Paterson Joseph, co-directed by Simon Godwin, and produced by Tim Smith for Pemberley Productions in association with the Oxford Playhouse (United Kingdom), from October 23-24, 2015.
The 2015-2016 World Stages Winter/Spring Season
Language of the Future: Letters to Jack
Laurie Anderson (United States)
With special guest Rubin Kodheli
Terrace Theater
March 4, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
March 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
March 6, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.
As the latest installment in Laurie Anderson's ongoing exploration of the American narrative and how it is told, this collection of songs and stories about contemporary culture crosses borders between dreams, reality, and the elusive world of information. Known for her music, multimedia presentations, and innovative use of technology, Anderson spins offbeat adventure stories with her characteristic wit and poignancy. In her latest chapter of Language of the Future, Anderson presents a new work created especially for the Kennedy Center,Language of the Future: Letters to Jack, with special guest Rubin Kodheli. Letters to Jack delves into the deep influence of President Kennedy in the life of young Laurie Anderson. In a special guest appearance, Anderson invites cellist/composer Rubin Kodheli into the work as part of a deep musical conversation. Half improvised and half set, these duets combine and confound the electronic and the acoustic string worlds. A very special performance that explores the American narrative and honors the Kennedy Center's namesake,Language of the Future: Letters to Jack is a complex conversation covering many topics, beneath it all lying a plethora of emotion-from sadness to giddiness; introspection to humor. Recommended for age 12 and up. Tickets start at $36.
Monica Bill Barnes & Anna Bass (United States)
Terrace Gallery
March 10, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
March 11, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
Happy Hour, a new dance work choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes and performed by Barnes and Anna Bass, invites audiences to "have a drink, laugh at our collective failures, and celebrate our own shortcomings." Coming to the Kennedy Center Terrace Gallery from March 10-11, 2016, Happy Hour is a show of outrageous courage, with Barnes and Bass trading their signature sequins and feather headdresses for a pair of everyday men's suits as they play two utterly ubiquitous male characters. Framed by the casual aesthetics of cocktail parties and the inherent failure of karaoke nights, they are two female performers desperate to find new meaning from the most familiar male characters in this cocktail party dance show. Tickets start at $59.
The Odyssey: From Vietnam to America
Vân-Ánh Võ (Vietnam/United States)
Terrace Theater
East Coast Premiere
March 11 & 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, this work explores the personal and spiritual journeys of the Vietnamese "Boat People," who abandoned their lives and struck out into an alien and uncertain future in search of freedom from their war-torn country. To tell this heart-wrenching story, acclaimed composer-performer Vân-Ánh Võ, along with guest artists, utilizes new music for Vietnamese and Western instruments, ambient sound, spoken word, historical objects, and live media. Through a combination of media, Vân-Ánh Võ's The Odyssey unites not only a performance, but the people experiencing it, reminding audiences that no matter the geographical or cultural differences, the incredible power of the human spirit amidst unimaginable suffering is universally felt. With its message of peace and unity, The Odyssey takes the sounds and images of a horrific event in history, and delivers something strikingly beautiful, speaking, as Walter F. Mondale famously stated in his 1979 crisis address to the United Nations, in "the inaudible dialect of the human heart." Performed in Vietnamese and English. Recommended for age 15 and up. Tickets start at $49.
Artists and performances are subject to change.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets are available for purchase at the Kennedy Center Box Office, by calling InstantCharge at (202) 467-4600, or through the Kennedy Center website at www.kennedy-center.org.
To receive subscription information by mail, call the Subscription Office at (202) 416-8500. Subscriptions may be purchased in advance of general on sale dates. Groups of 20 or more may contact Kennedy Center Group Sales at (202) 416-8400. Tickets for all three productions are currently available and can be purchased online, at the Kennedy Center box office or by calling Instant Charge at (202) 467-4600 or(800) 444-1324.
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