FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance
2018–19 Season Lineup Features 14 Bold Events at
The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA
Best Cultural Addition: CAP UCLA Series at the Ace Hotel
—Jon Regardie, Los Angeles Downtown News: Best of Downtown
Highlights include diverse global perspectives and social justice champions
Vijay Iyer and Teju Cole, Fran Lebowitz, The Soul Rebels, DakhaBrakha,
Kronos Quartet and Sam Green, Lettuce and John Scofield,
Roberto Fonseca and Fatoumata Diawara, Nano Stern, and The Gloaming
West Coast premieres of Jérôme Bel’s ‘Gala’ and Carrie Mae Weems’
‘Past Tense’ plus excusive programs by UnCabaret, Nadia Sirota and Nico Muhly
“Downtown scored last year when the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA opted to branch out from its Westwood base and stage some shows at The Theatre at Ace Hotel — spring’s four-night ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’ by Taylor Mac may go down as the 2018 cultural highlight for the entire city.”
—Los Angeles Downtown News
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) and The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles will once again team up to present 14 bold programs by leading innovators and acknowledged masters in contemporary dance, music, theater and literature, featuring pioneering champions for social justice and diverse world views. Offering more than 40 unique events and 60 performances, CAP UCLA’s new season runs from September 22, 2018, to May 10, 2019, and will open and close with programs at Ace.
Launching the season and Jazz series, composer and pianist Vijay Iyer and writer and photographer Teju Cole’s powerful new collaboration, Blind Spot, is an investigation of humanity’s blindness to tragedy and injustice throughout history. Cole’s striking photography and voice will be accompanied by a live score composed by Iyer, recently named DownBeat 2018 Jazz Artist of the Year, and an exclusive lineup of musicians including trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, mallet percussionist Patricia Brennan and cellist Tomeka Reid.
West Coast premieres will be made by Jérôme Bel’s Gala (Feb. 2) presented in association with Ford Theatres and Carrie Mae Weem’s Past Tense (March 8). Hailed as “a tour de force, wildly entertaining and truly radical” by The New York Times, celebrated choreographer Bel’s collective art form brings together dance professionals and amateurs of diverse backgrounds. Acclaimed artist Weems’ new performance-based work takes on themes of social justice, escalating violence, gender relations and the enduring significance of the story of Antigone within the context of contemporary history through music, text and video.
Three exclusive programs created especially for CAP UCLA’s new season will be staged at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA. L.A.’s legendary UnCabaret (Nov. 18) will celebrate 25 years of groundbreaking comedy in a one-time-only evening of wildly fun, idiosyncratic live performance, music and never-before-seen footage featuring special guests Julia Sweeney, Janeane Garofalo, Maria Bamford, Greg Behrendt, Rebecca Corry, Alex Edelman, Allee Willis, Andy Kindler, Shelby Lynne and many more to be announced, hosted by creatrix Beth Lapides, dubbed the “High Priestess of alternative comedy” (Los Angeles Times) with musical director Mitch Kaplan. Virtuoso violinist Nadia Sirota and Los Angeles’ modern music collective wild Up (Jan. 12) team in a live podcast event featuring L.A.-based composer Andrew Norman and N.Y.-based Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Caroline Shaw. Composer and arranger Nico Muhly presents Archives, Friends, Patterns (May 10), a performance in three parts: a collaboration with composer Thomas Bartlett, gems from 40-plus years of Philip Glass’ catalog and a cycle of his own drone-based compositions, in the season’s final event.
Exploring diverse social and cultural perspectives, the Global Music series kicks off with Ukrainian “ethno-chaos” band DakhaBrakha (Sept. 27), weaving ancient Eastern European folk songs into a subversive musical tapestry that embraces punk-pop and hip-hop. The series continues with Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca and Malian vocalist Fatoumata Diawara (March 23); Chilean singer-songwriter and activist Nano Stern (March 30); and The Gloaming (April 12), a group of master musicians steeped in traditional Irish music with modern hues of jazz, contemporary classical and experimental music.
CAP UCLA’s Words & Ideas series opens at Ace with author and style icon Fran Lebowitz (Sept. 30), one of our most insightful social commentators called an “important humorist in the classic tradition” by The New York Times Book Review. Purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker.
Musical highlights also include Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet in A Thousand Thoughts: A Live Documentary (Dec. 7) written and directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Sam Green and Joe Bini that blends music, narration, archival footage and filmed interviews. Celebrate Mardi Gras early at a deep pocket funk party with New Orleans’ beloved eight-piece brass band The Soul Rebels (Feb. 16). The funk continues with Lettuce, known for their incendiary live shows and massive two-decade career, joined by legendary guitarist and frequent collaborator John Scofield (March 20).
“Our programs are designed to bring you closer to the artists who offer us their creative intelligence and deeply considered perspectives,” said CAP UCLA’s Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, in her seventh season. “Each performance is distinct, frequently surprising and potently alive.”
During the 2017–18 season, CAP UCLA presented 15 shows at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA, including critically acclaimed, sold out performances of MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a necessary and great American epic for our time.” The Times called Farmhouse Whorehouse, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili Taylor “a bewitching theatrical curio … anatomizes an artist’s way of seeking to open our eyes to the wondrous strangeness surrounding us.” The San Francisco Classical Voice noted, “according to CAP’s Kristy Edmunds, the idea is to target the artist community of downtown and nearby Silver Lake. It appears to be working.”
“We’re thrilled for The Theatre to continue to be a home for CAP UCLA’s programming and to be able to support special projects, artists and audiences in downtown Los Angeles,” said Ace’s Chief Brand Officer Kelly Sawdon. “Like Ace, CAP is about community, collaboration and an unequivocal trust in risk-taking. For the first year of this collaboration, we celebrated the groundbreaking work of contemporary artists through some of the most compelling programming being showcased today. Together, we look forward to be able to expose a broader demographic to contemporary performance and creative expression.”
Artists presented at Ace last season that CAP UCLA previously staged at Royce Hall include Grammy winners Angélique Kidjo, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Eighth Blackbird, Antonio Sanchez, Chris Thile and Grammy nominee Brad Mehldau, plus Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane.
“In a region where traffic haunts the lives of everyone, it’s futile to expect people to trek across time and space to see shows more than once in a while,” wrote Scott Timberg in Los Angeles Magazine. “So last year Edmunds shifted a full third of her programming to The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles, making it possible for people in northeast L.A. to catch a show without an insane commute.”
CAP UCLA at The Theatre at Ace Hotel 2018–19 Season
Vijay Iyer and Teju Cole: Blind Spot – Saturday, Sept. 22
DakhaBrakha – Thursday, Sept. 27
Fran Lebowitz – Sunday, Sept. 30
UnCabaret 25th Anniversary Show and Celebration – Sunday, Nov. 18
A Thousand Thoughts: A Live Documentary with the Kronos Quartet, Written and Directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini – Friday, Dec. 7
Nadia Sirota: A LIVE Podcast Event with wild Up Featuring Andrew Norman and Caroline Shaw – Saturday, Jan. 12
Jérôme Bel: Gala presented in association with Ford Theatres – Saturday, Feb. 2
The Soul Rebels – Saturday, Feb. 16
Carrie Mae Weems: Past Tense – Friday, March 8
An Evening with Lettuce and John Scofield – Wednesday, March 20
Roberto Fonseca and Fatoumata Diawara – Saturday, March 23
Nano Stern – Saturday, March 30
The Gloaming – Friday, April 12
Nico Muhly: Archives, Friends, Patterns – Friday, May 10
Ace Choice Series Subscription
Vijay Iyer and Teju Cole: Blind Spot – Saturday, Sept. 22
Fran Lebowitz – Sunday, Sept. 30
UnCabaret 25th Anniversary Show and Celebration – Sunday, Nov. 18
A Thousand Thoughts: A Live Documentary with the Kronos Quartet, Written and Directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini – Friday, Dec. 2,
The Gloaming – Friday, April 12
Tickets and subscriptions are available now at cap.ucla.edu and theatre.acehotel.com, 310-825-2101 and at The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office. Programs, prices and performers subject to change.
Links: CAP UCLA at The Theatre at Ace Hotel 2018–19 Season Teaser | Season Calendar
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) is dedicated to the advancement of the contemporary performing arts in all disciplines — dance, music, spoken word and theater as well as emerging digital and collaborative platforms — by leading artists from around the globe. Part of UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, CAP UCLA curates and facilitates exposure to artists who are creating extraordinary works of art and fosters a vibrant learning community both on and off the UCLA campus. The organization invests in the creative process by providing artists with financial backing and time to experiment and expand their practices through strategic partnerships and collaborations. As an influential voice within the local, national and global arts communities, CAP UCLA connects this generation to the next in order to preserve a living archive of our culture. CAP UCLA is also a safe harbor for cultural expression and artistic exploration, giving audiences the opportunity to experience real life through characters and stories on stage, and giving artists an avenue to challenge assumptions and advance new ways of seeing and understanding the world in which we live.
About The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles
The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles is Ace’s loving reanimation of the historic United Artists Theater. Built in 1927 for the maverick film studio founded by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, The Theatre stands as a monument to a group of seminal American artists — modern iconoclasts striking out on their own. Ace’s restoration of this majestic space serves as a singular stage for art, film, dance and creative celebration in the heart of the Broadway Theater District’s vibrant modern renaissance. View all upcoming events at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA at theatre.acehotel.com.
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PRESS REVIEW TICKETS/PHOTO PASSES/INTERVIEW REQUESTS: Contact Holly Wallace at hawallace@arts.ucla.edu, 310-206-8744.
IMAGES: Available by request, register for download at cap.ucla.edu/pressimages or click to download 2018-19 press selects. Photos (from left): Nano Stern by Emilson Da Silva, Lettuce courtesy of the artist, Fatoumata Diawara by Aida Muluneh.