Center for New Performance at CalArts

The Center for New Performance at CalArts is the professional producing arm of CalArts, established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of innovative music, theater, dance and interdisciplinary projects. Bringing the artistic community of CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national and international levels, the CNP enriches the CalArts educational experience by making it possible for students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond the curricula of individual programs.

Travis Preston, Artistic Director

Carol Bixler, Producing Director

Erik Ehn, Dean of the School of Theater

David Rosenboom, Dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music

Stephan Koplowitz, Dean of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance

CNP’s productions include:

2007/2008

Vineland Stelae

A dynamic full-length structured improvisation for 30 musicians was created and composed by Sandeep Bhagwati and directed by Chi-wang Yang. The eclectic and extraordinary New Century Players were led by trombonist Mike Svoboda in a new music performance staged in the round at REDCAT.

2006/2007

What to Wear

The world premiere of a post-rock opera by Richard Foreman and composer Michael Gordon, co-founder of the Bang on a Can Festival was performed at REDCAT. The Los Angeles Times raved about “dazzling, hard-hitting music by Michael Gordon and words, staging, design and equally hard-hitting and dazzling zaniness by Richard Foreman” commenting that “rock opera could, after the premiere of this arresting new hour of music theater … be acknowledged as having finally come of age.”

Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary

A solo movement theater tour de force tells an astonishing tale centered on three towering figures in the life of protean performer Marissa Chibas: her father, Raul Chibas, who co-wrote the manifesto for the Cuban revolution with Fidel Castro; her uncle, Eddy Chibas, who was the frontrunner for the Cuban presidency in 1951 before committing suicide during a live radio broadcast; and her mother, Dalia Chibas, Miss Cuba runner-up in 1959. Through her own stories and key episodes in the history of her illustrious family, Chibas gives an impassioned, live-wire performance that is propelled by her near-death experience in the Venezuelan Amazonia. An angel of death and an angel of life serve as guides on this journey. Directed by Mira Kingsley, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary was performed at REDCAT and INTAR (New York).

2005/2006

Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy)

A radical reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, directed by artistic director Travis Preston and performed by Stephen Dillane, known for his work on London and Broadway stages as well as in film. In this incarnation, the entire performance text of Macbeth became a “score” played by Dillane while he shared the stage with three musicians performing the original compositions of jazz luminary Vinny Golia. The production was performed to glowing reviews in London and then went on to tour in Sydney and Adelaide. Further international performances are in discussion.

September 11, 2001

Produced in association with the Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne, this was the world premiere production of acclaimed French playwright Michel Vinaver’s September 11, 2001, directed by Robert Cantarella, director of the National Dramatic Center of Dijon. Collaged from newspaper statements and documentaries, September 11, 2001, was originally written by Vinaver in English as a deeply moving elegy and requiem for the victims of 9/11. Following performances at CalArts, the production transferred to REDCAT. The production and its performing and production ensemble of CalArts students and alumni toured in France, performing at the Frictions Festival in Dijon, in Montpellier, and in Paris at the Théâtre de la Colline.

2004/2005

Invisible Glass

Produced in association with the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts, housed in the School of Theater, Invisible Glass incorporated actors, a variety of puppetry forms, film and video projections, and original music by composer Tom Recchion. Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “William Wilson,” Janie Geiser collaborated with playwright Erik Ehn to explore the idea of the “doppelganger,” or spirit double made flesh, in this new work. Invisible Glass received its world premiere at REDCAT.

 
Bell Solaris: Twelve Metamorphoses in Piano Theater

First conceived as a concert-length composition for piano by American experimental music pioneer David Rosenboom, Bell Solaris was configured into an enveloping theatrical experience by Travis Preston. Built on an underlying narrative about evolution expressed through transfigured myth, the piece featured solo pianist Rosenboom and a large ensemble of performers who, while wearing multiple video cameras and projectors, carried out choreographed movements to weave an extravagant visual score--an imagistic expansion drawing the audience closer to the ecstasies of the music. Bell Solaris played to sold-out houses at REDCAT.