VALENCIA, CALIF.: CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) has announced its 2019-20 season, including a variety of new works.
“This season brings exemplary artists from around the world together to create thrilling work,” CNP artistic director Travis Preston said in a statement. “The depth, quality, diversity, and breadth of our season expresses the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary performance.”
The season will begin with WITKACY / Two-Headed Calf (Oct. 18-25). A co-production with Studio Teatrgaleria in Warsaw, Poland, the play explores the work of Polish avant-garde playwright Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. The show has been developed by CNP, Studio Teatrgaleria, and the latter’s artistic director, Natalia Korczakowska.
The season will continue with HA-M-LET (Nov. 8), a multilingual, multimedia performance from Brazilian artist Peter Mark. The performance features film footage of Mark’s parents and explores the intersection of Shakespeare and internet culture.
In February 2020, Mexican theatre company Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Lizards Lying in the Sun) will present El Camino Donde Nosotros Lloramos (The Road Where We Weep), which focuses on migrants from Oaxaca, Mexico coming to California.
Following will be rasgos asiáticos by Virginia Grise (March, 2020), a performance installation about the history of Chinese settlement in the U.S./Mexico borderlands.
The season will also feature works in development by the company’s artists in residence, including Dahlak Braithwaite’s Try/Step/Trip about addiction, religion, and the criminal justice system. Roberta Uno will direct this piece in September.
Also included in the development series will be a workshop of When This War Is Over, You’re Going to Get It George by Emilio Cruz. A meditation on the logic of warfare, the workshop is a co-production with Loose Change Productions. Juli Crockett will direct in November.
The spring will feature a work by Octavio Solis based on the Jean Sibelius orchestral piece Scene with Cranes. The piece focuses on a Mexican American family struggling with grief, and will go up in April of 2020.
CNP will also host screenings throughout the season of its documentary Finding Shelter, about the making of the 2016 play Shelter. The play explores the lives of unaccompanied Central American youth journeying to the U.S.
CNP is the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts. Founded in 2002, CNP engages professional artistic communities at the local, national, and international levels.
