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JOANNA SZU
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ArtPower at UC San Diego Announces its
2015–16 Multi-Arts Season Line-Up
Chamber Music・Film・Innovation・Dance・Global Music・Jazz ・Special Events
Season Begins September 25 ・ Tickets on Sale July 20 ・Subscriptions on Sale June 15
La Jolla, C.A.—UC San Diego’s ArtPower announces its 2015–16 season, featuring more than 20 internationally renowned artist and ensembles. In its twelfth season, running from September 2015 through May 2016, the multi-arts presenter ArtPower continues to bring internationally renowned musicians, dance companies, and film directors to perform on campus and in the community. Under the leadership of newly appointed Executive Director, Jordan Peimer, ArtPower has embarked on a curatorial adventure that will both honor ArtPower’s past and pave the way for its brilliant future.
The season offers six distinctive series—Chamber Music, Film, Innovation, Dance, Global Music, and Jazz—that feature returning favorites, musical powerhouses, and international artists making their San Diego debut. Season highlights include the U.S. premiere at an airport of Brian Eno’s Music for Airports performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars at the San Diego International Airport; performance of the award-winning work by Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, inventor, and videographer Huang Yi; San Diego debuts by Israeli artists Ester Rada and the Idan Cohen Dance Company; the west coast premiere of Greg Wohead’s The Nearness of You; and two concerts by pianist Christopher O’Riley—one with the New York Chamber Soloists and his acclaimed solo performance of True Love Waits: The Music of Radiohead.
“In choosing our 2015–16 artists we are highlighting the most interesting artistic trends in the world while honoring what is best about ArtPower’s history,” says Peimer. “We are committed to presenting important artists who not only enrich the cultural landscape of our city, but also inspire UC San Diego students to realize their own limitless creative potential.”
ArtPower events take place in six venues across the UC San Diego campus with special events throughout San Diego. For tickets and more information, visit artpower.ucsdedu.
Order Information
Single tickets go on sale: July 20, 2015
Purchase Online: www.artpower.ucsd.edu
Purchase by Phone: 858.534.TIXS
Purchase in Person: UCSD Box Office, Price Center Plaza
Box Office Hours: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Closed Saturday and Sunday.
About ArtPower
ArtPower at UC San Diego builds creative experiences in music, dance, film, exhibition, and food for our collective pleasure and inspiration. We engage diverse audiences through vibrant, challenging, multi-disciplinary performances by emerging and renowned international artists. Through extensive partnerships, ArtPower provides exciting opportunities for research, participation, and creation of new work, igniting powerful dialogue between artists, students, scholars, and the community.
2015–16 Season Calendar
CHAMBER MUSIC
Cuatero Quiroga (Spain)
Friday, November 13 / 8 pm / Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Tickets: $36–54
The early 20th century Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga is not as well known as his compatriots Pablo de Sarasate and Pablo Casals, but he is an esteemed figure in Spain. The Cuarteto Quiroga, a youthful ensemble founded in Madrid in 2004, is keeping his name alive and creating curiosity about him among listeners outside Spain. As the quartet-in-residence in charge of the Royal Collection of decorated Stradivarius at Madrid’s Royal Palace, Cuarteto Quiroga has established itself as one of the most dynamic and unique quartets of its generation. Prizewinners of several major international string quartet competitions (Bordeaux, Paolo Borciani, Geneva, Fnapec-Paris, Palau Barcelona), the ensemble regularly appears at prestigious halls and festivals in Europe and South America. Since 2011, the quartet has been ensemble-in-residence at the Miguel Delibes Auditorium in Valladolid (Spain). Cuarteto Quiroga has won international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its distinctive personality as well as its bold and original approach to the string quartet repertoire. PROGRAM: Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet No.3 in G Minor, Op. 20, H.3/33; Joaquín Turina: La oración del torero, Op. 34; Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1
Calder Quartet (USA)
Saturday, January 23 / 8 pm / Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Tickets: $36–54
The Calder Quartet, called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times, performs at an exceptional level, always striving to channel and fulfill the composer’s vision. Already the choice of many leading composers to perform their works—including Christopher Rouse, Terry Riley and Thomas Adès—the group’s distinctive approach is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform, whether it’s Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or sold-out rock shows with bands like The National or The Airborne Toxic Event. Winners of the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, they are known for the discovery, commissioning, recording, and mentoring of some of today’s best emerging composers (over 25 commissioned works to date). Recent season highlights include debuts at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival. PROGRAM: Andrew Norman: Sabina; Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”; Daníel Bjarnason: Stillshot; Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 12 Op. 127
Harlem Quartet (USA)
Friday, February 19 / 8 pm / Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Tickets: $36–54
Praised for its “panache” by the New York Times, Harlem Quartet is “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent,” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Passionate about advancing diversity in classical music, the quartet has been engaging young audiences through the discovery of repertoire that includes works by minority composers. Since its debut in 2006 at Carnegie Hall, the New York–based ensemble has performed throughout the U.S. and worldwide (including at The White House for President Obama). The quartet completed the Professional String Quartet Residency Program at New England Conservatory in 2013 and the string quartet exchange program in Paris, working extensively with violinist Günter Pichler. The Harlem Quartet has collaborated with such distinguished performers as Itzhak Perlman, Ida Kavafian, Carter Brey, Anthony McGill, and Paquito D’Rivera. Their San Diego debut will be full of vitality and flair. PROGRAM: Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op.18 No.4; Buena Vista Social Club Medley, Jazz Standards; Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2
Meccore String Quartet (Poland)
Friday, March 4 / 8 pm / Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Tickets: $36–54
Praised for its breathtaking performances, flawless technique, and visionary interpretations, the Meccore String Quartet won second prize—and three additional special prizes—at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in April 2012. They have also received top prizes at the Paolo Borciani Competition, the International Chamber Music Competition in Weiden, and the Max Reger International Chamber Music Competition. Formed by four of Europe’s most celebrated young string players in 2007, the Meccore performs extensively throughout Europe. Since 2009 they have worked closely with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin University of the Arts. As postgraduates at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, the quartet worked with Alfred Brendel on the interpretation of Beethoven’s music. Brendel raved, “the Meccore String Quartet has impressed me as an outstanding young ensemble.” ArtPower is thrilled to welcome the quartet back in what is certain to be a brilliant performance! PROGRAM: Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2; Karol Szymanowski: Quartet No. 1; Jean Sibelius: Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56, “Voces intimae”
Christopher O’Riley and the New York Chamber Soloists (USA)
Thursday, April 21 / 8 pm
Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Tickets: $36–54
Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, pianist Christopher O’Riley is known to millions as the host of NPR’s From the Top where he introduces the next generation of classical music stars to almost a million listeners each week. He has garnered widespread praise for his untiring efforts to reach new audiences, performing as a soloist on piano with virtually all of the major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony. Living by the Duke Ellington adage “There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad,” O’Riley—a proponent of the former in all of its guises—has received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and an equally coveted four-star review from Rolling Stone magazine. He will be joined by the acclaimed New York Chamber Soloists, who have maintained a unique niche in the chamber music world for over five decades. PROGRAM: Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11, for clarinet, cello, and piano; Igor Stravinsky: L’Histoire du soldat for clarinet, violin, and piano; Béla Bartók: Piano Sonata; Maurice Ravel: Sonata for violin and cello; Béla Bartók: Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano
DANCE
Huang Yi & KUKA (Taiwan)
Wednesday, October 14 / 8 pm / Mandeville Auditorium
Tickets: $28–46
Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, inventor, and videographer Huang Yi’s pioneering work is steeped in his fascination with the partnership between humans and robots. He interweaves continuous movement with mechanical and multimedia elements to create dance which corresponds with the flow of data, effectively making the performer a dancing instrument. Named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch,” Huang was immersed in the arts at a young age, spending much of his childhood in his parents’ studio watching them teach tango and learning to paint alongside his father. He is widely considered one of Asia’s most prolific choreographers. Huang’s groundbreaking and award-winning work, Huang Yi & KUKA, in which he performs alongside a robot he conceptualized and programmed, opened the 2013 Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), the internationally renowned unique platform for digital art and media culture.
Kota Yamazki/Fluid Hug-Hug Dance Company (Japan)
OQ
Friday, January 29/ 8 pm / Mandeville Auditorium
Tickets: $28–46
Global traditions flow together in this latest work by Bessie Award–winning choreographer Kota Yamazaki. Inspired by Japanese ritual poetry readings held at the Imperial Palace, Yamazaki’s OQ (ōkyu is the phonetic reading of the Japanese word for “palace”) features dancers from diverse cultural and dance backgrounds including Western contemporary, butoh, hip-hop, and Jamaican dance. Within a space designed by award-winning New York architect collective SO-IL that complements the dancers’ fluid motions, Yamazaki’s palace—with its own rituals and customs—comes to life before our very eyes.
The presentation of Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug Dance Company was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Idan Cohen Dance Company (Israel)
Gender Bender
Friday, May 20 / 8 pm / Mandeville Auditorium
Tickets: $28–46
Idan Cohen was born and raised in Israel, kibbutz Mizra. The kibbutz life has had a wide effect on his artistic life and work. He joined the world-renowned Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in 1998, where he danced for seven seasons. Since 2005 he has been creating, performing, and teaching successfully as an international award-winning independent choreographer. His new creation is an autobiographical fantasy that returns to Cohen’s early years growing up in the ’80s. Drawing upon punk and pop culture, Gender Bender incorporates images that reflect personal and social identities of masculinity, femininity and all that lies between. The piece takes ’80s gender inspired images on a journey throughout the past and present; creates a cultural cobweb of music, imagery, and dance; aspires to be a reflection of the influences and forces projected on us by the past and present culture, as well as the creation of the social environment.
INNOVATION SERIES
Arditti & Reynolds Project (ITALY/USA)
Friday, September 25 / 8 pm / Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Music Center Experimental Theater
Tickets: $18
English violinist, Irvine Arditti, founder of the celebrated Arditti Quartet has been a guiding influence on the string quartet medium, itself perhaps the most substantive thread in the weave of Western music tradition. His four-decade friendship with Pulitzer Prize–winning UCSD composer, Roger Reynolds has elicited four quartets, a solo work, and a chamber concerto. Now Reynolds and Arditti are collaborating on a new, large-scale work—a duo for solo violin and real-time algorithms controlled in performance by computer musician Paul Hembree. Their collaboration will be presented in a workshop where they will demonstrate the musical sources and the algorithmic strategies before giving what will be the work’s world premiere performance.
Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA)
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 / 7:30 pm and 9 pm / San Diego International Airport
Tickets: $40
Bang on a Can All-Stars offers its landmark live performance of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports. In 1978 Eno redefined how we relate to music in our everyday lives with this mesmerizing, dreamy, intense sonic landscape. In his analog studio, looping bits of tape, he never imagined that a new generation of musicians would take his music out of the studio and perform it live. New York’s electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars brings this masterpiece to life. Since their celebrated 1998 recording of Brian Eno: Music for Airports, Bang on a Can All-Stars have brought this work to live audiences across the globe with concerts at many of the most prestigious festivals and venues including Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall in London, the Sydney Opera House, and even public performances at Brussels International Airport, Schipol Airport in Holland, and John Lennon Airport in Liverpool. This will be the very exciting premiere of the work in an airport on U.S. soil, at our very own San Diego International Airport!
Mal’Akh Ensemble (Mexico)
Animalik
Friday, January 8, 2016 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
An electro-acoustic project founded by the multi-laureate Mexican composer Felipe Perez Santiago, Mal’Akh Ensemble creates an eclectic sound that combines elements of traditional, avant-garde, folk, contemporary, rock, free jazz, and improvisational music. Considered one of the most innovative projects in the Mexican musical scene, Mal’Akh defines itself as a meeting point between different cultures, musical genres, and artistic disciplines. Animalik features a series of animated short films with live music performed by the ensemble. The films include animations from several countries and periods: from the stop-motion of the beginning of the 1900s to the most technologically advanced animation, including films created specifically for this show by contemporary Mexican visual artists.
Christopher O’Riley (USA)
True Love Waits: The Music of Radiohead
Wednesday, April 20 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
Classical interpretations of rock music have generally been something of a high-wire act. While most pop fare has strong melodic foundations for the soloist to build from, Christopher O’Riley has challenged himself with the catalog of Radiohead, one of modern rock’s most acclaimed—and texturally complex—bands. His insightful gifts for interpretation produce a hypnotic and emotionally compelling listening experience. O’Riley is a huge Radiohead fan, and that love courses through everything from the dreamy, bittersweet “True Love Waits” to the brooding loveliness of “Let Down.” Radiohead is known for multi-layered music that leans heavily on electronic processing for its moody sonic atmospherics; O’Riley evokes those complex textures with judicious use of the sustain peddles, a deft use of dissonance and a rhythmically anxious left hand. Call them etudes for the post-modern age, True Love Waits: The Music of Radiohead achieves what all great interpretations strive for: new insight and enlightenment.
GLOBAL MUSIC
La Santa Cecilia (USA/Mexico)
Thursday, October 22, 2015 / 8 pm / Price Center West Ballroom
Tickets: $30
La Santa Cecilia exemplifies the modern-day creative hybrid of Latin culture, rock, and world music. The band draws inspiration from all over the world, utilizing Pan-American rhythms like cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero, tango, jazz, rock, and klezmer music. Their unique sound and the experience of their colorful, passionate performance leave fans and new listeners mesmerized. In 2013, the band released their major label debut Treinta Dias (30 Days), which featured a captivating collaboration with fan Elvis Costello on “Losing Game.” After their 2014 Grammy win for Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album, the band presented their most recent album Someday New, including a heartfelt Spanglish rendition of The Beatles iconic “Strawberry Fields Forever,” plus the unforgettable new Mexican classic “Como Dios Manda.” Known as “the voice of immigrants” to many fans, these proud Los Angelenos are a powerful band with a trans-border message.
Noura Mint Seymali (Mauritania)
Thursday, March 3 / 8 pm / Price Center East Ballroom
Tickets: $30
Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Born into a prominent line of Moorish griot, Noura began her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her stepmother, the legendary Dimi Mint Abba. Trained in instrumental technique by her grandmother, Mounina, Noura mastered the ardine, a 9-string harp reserved only for women. Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, Noura’s father and namesake, sparked her compositional instincts, himself a seminal scholar figure in Mauritanian music; studying Arab classical music in Iraq, devising the first system for Moorish melodic notation, adapting the national anthem, and composing many works popularized by his wife, Dimi. Reared in this transitive culture where sounds from across the Sahara, the Magreb, and West Africa coalesce, Noura Mint Seymali drives the legacy forward as one of Mauritania’s most adventurous young artists.
Ester Rada (Israel)
Wednesday, April 27 / 8 pm / Price Center East Ballroom
Tickets: $30
Ester Rada is a stimulating young singer and songwriter with a unique cross-cultural approach that reflects her Ethiopian heritage and Israeli upbringing, while embracing the influence of American soul icons like Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin. Combining R&B, Ethio-Jazz, reggae, and classic funk, Rada’s music is a truly global stew that has earned her critical raves and performances around the world, including an opening tour slot for R&B queen Alicia Keys, who has become one of her most outspoken champions. Her debut EP, Life Happens, was produced by Israeli tastemakers Sabbo and Kuti, and is a triumphant document of the joy and escape through music that led Rada to transcend her early life on the rough streets of Tel Aviv. For her San Diego debut, Rada will perform music from Life Happens and Ester Rada, her brand new full-length release, weaving a spell of multi-cultural grooves wrapped in sweet soul.
DakhaBrakha (Ukraine)
Wednesday, May 11 / 8 pm / Price Center East Ballroom
Tickets: $30
Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian “ethno chaos” band DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected new music. Created in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art “DAKH” by the avant-garde theater director Vladyslav Troitskyi, DakhaBrakha means “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language. After experimenting with Ukrainian folk music, the band has added rhythms of the surrounding world into their music, creating their bright, unique, and unforgettable sound. They strive to help open up the potential of Ukrainian melodies and to bring it to the hearts and consciousness of the younger generation in Ukraine and the rest of the world as well. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian, and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.
FILMS
Los Hamsters (Mexico)
National Hispanic Heritage Month
Friday, October 9 / Food 7 pm; Movie 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $34 Food + Movie; $10 Movie Only
Los Hamsters is a delightfully dark social satire about a riotously dysfunctional Tijuana family. The parents and two teenagers are going to such lengths to hide secrets from each other that they are completely oblivious to the drama in the others lives. Emerging Mexican filmmaker Gil Gonzalez has crafted a comedy that packs a lot of punch through subtly drawn family dynamics reflecting contemporary middle class society worldwide.
What Happened, Miss Simone? (USA)
Black History Month
Thursday, February 4 / Food 7 pm; Movie 8 pm / ArcLight Cinemas, La Jolla
Tickets: $34 Food + Movie; $10 Movie Only
Pre-screening ArtTalk with Director Liz Garbus
A classically trained musical genius, chart-topping chanteuse, and Black Power icon, Nina Simone is one of the most influential, beloved, provocative, and least understood artists of our time. On stage, she was known for utterly free, rapturous performances, earning her the epithet “High Priestess of Soul.” But amid the violent, day-to-day fight for civil rights, she struggled to reconcile artistic ambition with her fierce devotion to a movement. Director Liz Garbus sensitively explores the constant state of opposition that trapped and tortured Simone—as a classical pianist pigeonholed in jazz, as a professional boxed in by family life, as a black woman in racist America—and in so doing, reveals a towering figure transcending categorization and her times.
Man for a Day (Germany)
Thursday, March 31 / Food 7 pm; Movie 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $34 Food + Movie; $10 Movie Only
Gender activist Diane Torr’s worldwide appearances and workshops are legendary. For the past 30 years, the focus of this performance artist’s work has been an exploration of the theoretical, artistic as well as the practical aspects of gender identity. Katarina Peters’ documentary, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012, observes a Diane Torr workshop in Berlin in which a group of open-minded women came together to discover the secrets of masculinity. What really makes a man a man and a woman a woman?
Filmatic Festival (USA)
Spring 2016 / UC San Diego Campus
The first of its kind in California, the 3rd Annual Filmatic Festival takes adventurous digital media lovers on an exploration through digital films, sonic and 3D events, gaming exhibitions, interactive performances, workshops, and so much more! Curated by respected digital media experts and thought leaders, the Filmatic Festival redefines and transforms traditional passive film-going attendance into fun, active, immersive and inspiring experiences.
JAZZ
Alfredo Rodriguez Trio (Cuba)
Friday, October 23 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
At the forefront of a new generation of Cuban pianists, 26 years old Alfredo Rodriguez possesses a sublime and soulful virtuosity. Born in Havana to a popular singer and television personality of the same name, the young Alfredo began classical piano studies at age 10. As a teen, he appeared on his father’s show with many of Cuba’s greatest musicians and simultaneously played in street bands while studying at the prestigious Instituto Superior de Arte. A fateful invitation to perform at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2006 brought the pianist to the attention of Quincy Jones, who produced Rodriguez’s debut album, Sounds of Space. Rodriguez made his American debut at the Playboy Jazz Festival opening for Wayne Shorter, and his career has been on a rocket ride ever since. He will bring his new trio, who will blow the roof off The Loft in support of their Quincy Jones–produced Mack Avenue album, The Invasion Parade, a thrilling exploration of contemporary and Latin jazz.
Kendrick Scott Oracle (USA)
Friday, December 4 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
Highlight regarded as one of the premier drummers of his generation, Kendrick Scott was named by the New York Times as one of “Five Drummers Whose Time Is Now.” He has recorded and played with a host of music luminaries including Terence Blanchard, Kenny Garrett, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Gretchen Parlato, and Angelique Kidjo. His band, Kendrick Scott Oracle (KSO) showcases Scott’s incredible subtlety and intensity and highlights his strengths as a drummer, composer, and a leader. The work of KSO focuses on what it takes to live, act, and love with conviction—all through the language of jazz.
José James (USA)
Saturday, April 2 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
Singer-songwriter José James has always been on the quest for new musical horizons; constantly evolving and blurring the lines between genres in the process. While keeping his trademark soulful baritone at the forefront, James adeptly weaves elements of indie rock, folk, funk, blues, hip hop, and R&B into an experience journeying from desire to introspection and spiritual epiphany in his music. His latest project, Yesterday I Had The Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday, is a tribute to the legendary singer in honor of Holiday’s centenary. José celebrates the woman he refers to as his “musical mother” with a stunning set of songs written or popularized by Holiday. “My first clear musical memory is of Billie Holiday,” says James. “Billie’s voice floated through our house—grand, warm, intimate, and wholly unique.” Those same words could certainly be applied to James’ own voice, a versatile baritone that is distinct in its richness and expressiveness.
Alicia Olatuja (USA)
Thursday, May 12, 2016 / 8 pm / The Loft
Tickets: $18 General Admission; $28 Reserved
St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja burst onto the national scene with her performance at President Obama’s second inauguration, but she has been honing her craft for many years, playing alongside giants like Chaka Khan, Christian McBride, and BeBe Winans. In fact, the 30-year-old’s reputation has been growing since her arrival in New York in 2005. The New York Times praised her performance with her husband, bassist Michael Olatuja, in their African jazz band The Olatuja Project, lauding her “strong, lustrous tone and an amiably regal presence onstage.” Blending elements of classical, jazz, gospel, and pop, Olatuka’s unique and soulful musical style is refined and captivating.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Greg Wohead (USA)
The Nearness of You: Hurtling and Backseat of My Car (and other safe places)
Friday––Sunday, October 9–11 / Hurtling: 11:30 am – 6 pm; Backseat of My Car (and other safe places): 7:30–10pm / Fallen Star, Stuart Collection and Parking Lot 407
Tickets on sale in August.
Greg Wohead is a writer, performer, and live artist who creates theater shows, one-to-one performances, and audio pieces. Hurtling and The Backseat of My Car (and other safe places) together form The Nearness of You, a pair of performances dealing with ideas of closeness (physically and temporally), the sensation of driving, autobiography, and the experience of time. Hurtling is an invitation to remember a previous version of yourself, to imagine a future version, and to wonder who that makes you now. It starts with a true story—your true story. An outdoor performance for one with a cassette player and headphones that’s remade for each location in which it’s performed, Hurtling is a glimpse of a fleeting moment as it zooms past; an attempt to grasp at a slippery present. The Backseat of My Car (and other safe places) is an interactive true storytelling piece for one audience member at a time that takes place somewhere off by ourselves. It’s about being a teenager and those moments when you’re on the verge of something exciting. Presented as part of the 2015 La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival, Wohead’s truly intimate work will bring audience and performer into genuine emotional and physical closeness.
An Evening with David Sedaris (USA)
Sunday, November 22 / 7 pm / Balboa Theatre, Downtown San Diego
Tickets: $40–55
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s preeminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. Author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice; as well as collections of personal essays, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim; and his most recent book, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls—each of which became an immediate bestseller. “He’s smart, he’s caustic, he’s mordant, and, somehow, he’s . . . well, nice” (Toronto Globe and Mail). An ArtPower fan favorite for many years: come early or stick around after the show for Sedaris’ legendary book signing sessions with books available to purchase from Warwick’s.
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