2014 – 15 performing arts season brochure
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ADenis O’Hare An Iliad September 27 & 28, 2014
Meshell Ndegeocello Comet, Come to Me October 10, 2014
Sam Green’s The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, accompanied by Yo La Tengo November 7, 2014
The Rude Mechanicals Now Now Oh Now November 20 – 22, 2014
Sidra Bell Dance New York ReVUE December 5 & 6, 2014
2014–15 Visual Arts Season Highlights
Arturo Sandoval January 23, 2015
Meklit Hadero March 6 & 7, 2015
Double Edge Theatre The Grand Parade March 20 – 22, 2015
Joey Arias Sings Billie Holiday April 17, 2015
Birdfoot Festival at the CAC May 29, 2015
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The CAC is supported by City of New Orleans | Edward Wisner Donation; The Helis Foundation; Hunt Brothers of Louisiana, LLC | Hunt Telecom; The New Orleans Advocate; Nola Paint and Supplies; Premium Parking; RosaMary Foundation.
The CAC is supported in part by a Community Arts Grant made possible by the City of New Orleans and administered by the Arts Council of New Orleans.
The CAC is supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, and administered by the Arts Council of New Orleans.
Performing Arts programs @ the CAC are supported by The Boettcher Fund, The Hotel Modern, National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts. The CAC is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network.
Education & Outreach programs @ the CAC are supported by Cox Communications; Ella West Freeman Foundation; The Hearst Foundations; Keller Family Foundation; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation; New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc.
Cover Im
age: The Grand P
arade. Aerial theater com
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CAC STAFF
Neil A. Barclay, Director and CEOMerit Shalett, Senior Associate Director
Allison Abney, External Affairs CoordinatorLindsay Barfield, Exhibitions Coordinator and
Chief PreparatorJessica Chevis, Development CoordinatorChristine T. Dunaway, Development and
Membership ManagerFreddi W. Evans, Associate Director of Education
and Public ProgramsJennifer Francino, Visual Arts ManagerMichele Frentzos, Financial Services ManagerLisa Kirwin, Building ManagerKen Korman, Development SpecialistLudis Mergins, Cafe SupervisorShelley Middleberg, Associate Director of Rentals
and Hospitality ServicesIvy Mouledoux, External Affairs ManagerCourtney Mouton, Finance AssociateRaelle Myrick-Hodges, Curator of Performing ArtsSam Oliver, Special Assistant to the DirectorLindsay Ross Owens, Associate Director of
External AffairsNanette Saucier, Associate Director of Finance
and Human ResourcesMariana Sheppard, Education Coordinator
BOARD OFFICERSSteve Dumez, PresidentGregg Porter, Vice PresidentDebbie Brockley, TreasurerStephanie Huger, Secretary
BOARD OF TRUSTEESBryan Bailey Debra Barnewold Judy Barrasso Dawn Barrios Denise Berthiaume Anthony Campbell Jacquee Carvin Sandra Chaisson Gretchen Chase Nicole Eichberger Jonathan Fawer Krystle Ferbos Jonathan FerraraCherie Gauthier
EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERSSydney J. BesthoffPatricia ChandlerThomas B. ColemanSandra GarrardBarbara MotleyJeanne NathanMichael J. SiegelM.K. Wegmann
AAs I begin my second year
as director of the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, I am pleased to welcome and introduce the work of our new Curator of Performing Arts, Raelle Myrick-Hodges. The season she has curated reflects the CAC’s long-standing interest in producing and presenting the art of our time by assembling a group of performing artists whose work has been celebrated throughout the world.
As we look forward to naming the CAC’s new curator of visual arts, a host of world-renowned visual arts curators—including Regine Basha, Carol Thompson, Claire Tancons, and Krista Thompson—join artist Dan Tague to bring us a series of beautiful and provocative exhibitions. These exhibitions will expand our audience’s understanding and appreciation for the aesthetic range and diversity of contemporary artists working today.
This year we welcome to our stages a true jazz master; an Emmy-nominated and Tony award-winning actor in a tour de force solo performance; and two of the nation’s most celebrated “devised” theater companies. Two internationally acclaimed artists—an Ethiopian-born singer and an emerging voice in contemporary dance—make their New Orleans debut. A provocative singer and bassist, whose musical ambitions know no bounds, joins the lineup, as well as an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker’s latest project, set to the score of a legendary indie rock band. The season closes with one of the most original performance artists of his generation as he celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the birth of one of his many muses, Billie Holiday, and with a performance by one of the region’s fastest growing festivals of new music.
Please join us often this year at the Contemporary Arts Center. For the best seats and prices, become a member of the CAC!
Neil A. BarclayDirector and CEO
Grant Harris Mark Jeanfreau Kelly Juneau Colleen Levy Kathleen Loe Lori Mahfouz Rhesa McDonald Orelia Minor Wendy Newlin Staci Rosenberg Robyn Dunn Schwarz Christina Tears-DiLeo Wayne Troyer Bush Wrighton
PUBLIC PROGRAMSCheck each page for workshops, talks, and more. Visit cacno.org for events added throughout the season.
T I C K ETSBUY ONLINEPurchase Tickets Online 24/7 @ cacno.orgOnline orders incur a 10% handling fee.
BUY AT CAC BOX OFFICEHours: 11am to 5pm dailyCall or Visit: 504.528.3800 | 900 Camp StreetPhone orders incur a 15% handling fee. This fee is waived for CAC members at the Center Stage level and above.
All ticket purchases incur a $1 facility fee per ticket.
All events are subject to change.
ADVANCE$35 General Admission | $25 CAC Members
DAY OF SHOW$40 General Admission | $30 CAC Members
SEASON COMBO PRICING$100 Pick Three | $120 Pick Four | $140 Pick FiveSeason Combo pricing is only available at the CAC Box Office.
CURATOR’S RECOMMENDED SEASON COMBOS AT CACNO.ORG/TICKETS
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“Pure theatre: shocking, glorious, primal and deeply
satisfying.” —Time Out, New York
“Theatrical storytelling at its most vital.”
—Boston Globe
Performed by Denis O’Hare
Adapted by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson based on Robert Fagles’ translation of The Iliad
Directed by Lisa Peterson
Winner of the 2012 Obie Award for Outstanding Performance
AN I LIAD
The gods roar overhead as Obie Award-winner Lisa Peterson directs Tony Award-winner Denis O’Hare in a breathtakingly-relevant, modern retelling of Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad.
September 27 & 28, 2014
CAC Freeport-McMoRan Theater
$25 – $40
Pre-show Cocktails & Curatorial Discussions: A Contemporary Look at
War through Theater
discounts & early seating for CAC members | join at cacno.org/membership
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This performance is funded in part by a
grant from South Arts in partnership with the
National Endowment for the Arts and the
Louisiana State Arts Council.
October 10
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Singer-bassist Meshell Ndegeocello returns to New Orleans with her band to perform her critically-acclaimed new album, Comet, Come to Me—an introspective, unwavering look into memory, lost love, and human fallacies.
M ES H E LL N D EG EO C E LLO
“Meshell Ndegeocello’s Comet,
Come to Me is an adventure, and it’s
worth tagging along.” —Los Angeles Times
“Comet, Come to Me is one of those rich works that
keeps changing inside the listener’s head—an often-quiet set of songs with
intense staying power ...” —NPR
October 10, 2014
CAC Freeport-McMoRan Theater
Tickets: $25 – $40
Curatorial Discussion Hosted by CAC Teen Board: Music Performance in a Visual Arts SettingSSPUN cafe @ the CAC | open for coffee & cocktails during CAC performances
Photo: Jason R
odgers A
Accompanied by indie rock band Yo La Tengo, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green narrates this live documentary on the life of R. Buckminster Fuller— neo-futuristic architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor.
“It is a movie being born as you see it and hear it, as alive as music.”
—Rebecca Solnit, Writer, Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient & Two–Time Recipient of NEA Fellowship in Literature
Created & Narrated by Sam Green
Accompanied by Yo La Tengo
November 7, 2014
CAC Warehouse
Tickets: $25 – $40
Pre-show Cocktails & Curatorial Discussion: Music in Film
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ATH E LOVE S O N G O F R . B U C K M I N STE R F U LLE R
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discounts & early seating for CAC members | join at cacno.org/membership
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R U D E M EC HAN I CALSGenre-defying theater company Rude Mechanicals merges themes of evolutionary biology, murder mystery theater, and gaming with Now Now Oh Now, an interactive puzzle of a piece that calls to the inner nerd in us all.
Now Now Oh Now
November 20 – 22, 2014
CAC Freeport-McMoRan Theater & Warehouse
Tickets: $25 – $40
Public Workshop with Rude Mechanicals: Creating Ensemble Work
Pre-show Cocktails & Curatorial Discussions: Starting a New Theater Company in the 21st Century
Funded in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
“Rude Mechanicals cultivate a stunning virtuosity that ...
is essential viewing for anyone interested in theater.”
—LEO Weekly
“The sense of discovery
is the play’s greatest strength
... Now Now Oh Now is a delightful way to
have your mind blown.” —Austin Chronicle
SPUN cafe @ the CAC | open for coffee & cocktails during CAC performances
GPhoto: P
atrick Bresnan
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“It was a ‘ReVUE’ unlike any other, a blend of vaudeville, Fellini, and Cirque du Soleil. Ms. Bell proved
that she had her finger on the future of dance where ballet and hip-hop
coexist on the same plane.” —Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s “2010 Best in Dance” issue
“[ReVUE] is a work meant for lovers of oddity and
avant-garde, and for those who see bits of themselves
in the yearning eyes of the pariah.” —Uptempo Magazine
ReVUE
Choreographed by Sidra Bell
December 5 & 6, 2014
CAC Warehouse
Tickets: $25 – $40
Master Class with Choreographer Sidra Bell
Post-show Discussions
AAtmospheric and spectacular, Sidra Bell’s ReVUE—an explosion of sexuality, gender politics, and darkly fantastical themes—pushes societal boundaries and
eludes traditional expectations of dance.
SI DRA B E LL DANCE N EW YOR K
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ubal
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tisti
discounts & early seating for CAC members | join at cacno.org/membership
receive cac member–only perks | join at cacno.org/membership1 0
VISU
AL A
RTS
Mark of the FeminineAugust 2 – October 4, 2014
International Sculpture Center: Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture AwardsAugust 2 – October 4, 2014
Prospect.3: Notes for NowOctober 25, 2014 – January 25, 2015
EN MAS’: Carnival and Performance Art of the CaribbeanMarch 7 – June 7, 2015
Radcliffe Bailey: Recent WorksMarch 7 – June 7, 2015
Visit cacno.org/exhibitions for the complete visual arts schedule.
2014-15 V I S UAL ARTS S EAS O N H I G H LI G HTS
Radcliffe Bailey, Memory as Medicine Courtesy the High Museum of Art
find out more about cac performance, visual arts, education, & public events@ cacno.org/calendar 11
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Carnival and Performance Art of the CaribbeanMarch 7 – June 7, 2015
E N MAS ’:
EN MAS’ is co-curated by Claire Tancons and Krista Thompson; organized and presented by the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), New Orleans; and co-organized as a traveling exhibition by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York.
EN MAS’ is made possible by an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award. Additional support is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Visual Arts Programs @ the CAC are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Dathel & Tommy Coleman, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Independent Curators International, National Endowment for the Arts, Aimée & Mike Siegel, Sydney & Walda Besthoff Foundation
Ebony G. Patterson, Invisible Presence: Bling MemoriesPerformance, April 27, 2014, Kingston, JamaicaPhoto: Monique Gilpin and Philip Rhoden
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MU
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January 23
January 23, 2015
CAC Freeport-McMoRan Theater
Tickets: $25 – $40
Pre-show Cocktails & Curatorial Discussion: Jazz Tradition in the 21st Century
“... [Sandoval has] the freedom to roam through many sound worlds and instruments which
informs his delightful, irresistible way of making music.”
—LondonJazz News
“[Sandoval] moves comfortably across genres and instruments—using the trumpet to generate an
apocalyptic range of sounds, alternately majestic, humorous, and romantic.”
—Los Angeles Times
TARTU R O SAN D OVAL
Trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval, Cuban-born protégé of Dizzy Gillespie and winner of ten GRAMMY Awards, six Billboard Awards, an Emmy Award, and the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, appears for this one-night-only jazz performance featuring a selection of works from his five–decade career.
SPUN cafe @ the CAC | open for coffee & cocktails during CAC performances
Photo: M
anny Iriarte I
MU
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March 6 & 7, 2015
CAC Freeport-McMoRan Theater
Tickets: $25 – $40
Songwriting Workshop with Meklit Hadero
Post-show Discussions
IM E K LIT HAD E R O
Internationally-renowned Ethiopian singer-songwriter turned bandleader Meklit Hadero delivers this soulful and provocative showcase of her most recent album We Are Alive—a passionate brew of jazz, folk, and East African influences.
“... lilting, sensuous, capable of the leap from staccato jazz-cat
to honeyed songbird, she conveys both fragility and great strength
in a single line.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian
“She’s a blithe-voiced daughter of Joni who considers music a
path to higher ground, with rest stops for the likes of
Talking Heads and Lou Reed.” —Village Voice
Pho
to: R
us A
nson
discounts & early seating for CAC members | join at cacno.org/membership
SPUN cafe @ the CAC | open for coffee & cocktails during CAC performances
THE
ATER
March 20 – 22
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Directed by Stacy Klein
Composed by Alexander Bakshi
March 20 – 22, 2015
CAC Warehouse
Tickets: $25 – $40
Pre-show & Post-show Curatorial Discussions: Collaboration in Theater for the 21st Century
Artist Exchange school field trips available with Double Edge Theatre
Funded in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
“[this] production reminds us how frequently culture is used as a
benchmark for collective memory ... a rich, audacious vision of
American history that should dazzle theatergoers from any generation.”
—DC Theatre Scene
“Marvelous.” —Time Out, New York
Double Edge Theatre makes its regional debut with The Grand Parade—an amalgamation of movement, text, and fleeting images that evoke the mythology of the 20th century. Equal parts circus, vaudeville, and magical realism, this aerial performance perfectly encompasses humanity’s simultaneous predilection towards creation and destruction in the pursuit of progress.
DTH E G R AN D PAR AD E(of the 20th Century)
Photo: M
aria Baranova
On March 20, SweetArts 2015 (A CAC fundraiser) will offer a special preview performance of The Grand Parade
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Apr
il 17
In celebration of Billie Holiday’s 100th birthday, New York cabaret and drag icon Joey Arias channels the trailblazing vocalist and jazz legend in a spectacle of old-Hollywood Big Band glamour.
April 17, 2015
CAC Warehouse
Tickets: $25 – $40
Post-show Conversation with the Artist
“Makes Lady Gaga look like Greta Van Susteren.”
—The New York Times
“Eerie, entrancing, filthy and phenomenally talented,
Arias is not to be missed.” —Time Out
J O EY AR IAS S I N G S B I LLI E H O LI DAY
Pho
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discounts & early seating for CAC members | join at cacno.org/membership
SPUN cafe @ the CAC | open for coffee & cocktails during CAC performances16
MU
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May 29
May 29, 2015
Check website for detailsC“Birdfoot ... succeeded in bringing
high-quality chamber performances to New Orleans in a way that was
entertaining and accessible.” —NOLA Defender, 2013 festival review
Chamber music excites at the Birdfoot Festival, a vibrant showcase of the New Orleans classical movement. These transcendental performances fly in the face of traditional fare while acquainting new audiences with this timeless genre.
B I R D FO OT F EST IVALAT THE CAC
Photo: R
yan Hodgson-R
igsbee
August 2, 2014Whitney White Linen Night (A CAC Fundraiser)
October 4, 2014CAC’s Art For Arts’ Sake Downtown
October 16 – 23, 201425th Annual New Orleans Film Festival
CALENDAR of 2014-15 EVENTS at the CACOctober 24, 2014Prospect.3 Gala (prospectneworleans.org)
March 20, 2015SweetArts 2015 (A CAC Fundraiser)
June 2015Bourbon & Burlesque (A CAC Fundraiser)
Cover
Letter from the Director and CEO
Denis O’Hare An Iliad September 27 & 28, 2014
Meshell Ndegeocello Comet, Come to Me October 10, 2014
Sam Green’s The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, accompanied by Yo La Tengo November 7, 2014
The Rude Mechanicals Now Now Oh Now November 20 – 22, 2014
Sidra Bell Dance New York ReVUE December 5 & 6, 2014
2014–15 Visual Arts Season Highlights
Arturo Sandoval January 23, 2015
Meklit Hadero March 6 & 7, 2015
Double Edge Theatre The Grand Parade March 20 – 22, 2015
Joey Arias Sings Billie Holiday April 17, 2015
Birdfoot Festival at the CAC May 29, 2015
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