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 AT&T PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 

ANNOUNCES 2020 SEASON

Selected artists: 

Jake Nice 

American Baroque Opera Company  

Verdigris Ensemble 

Janielle Kastner & Brigham Mosley 

Flamenco Fever  

Das Blümelein Project 

Indique Dance Company 

B. MOORE DANCE 

DALLAS – The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce the 2020 season of The Elevator Project, featuring the work of small and emerging arts groups performing on the Center’s campus in the Dallas Arts District. The Elevator Project’s new season will feature productions from eight Dallas-based performing arts companies. The five-year-old project has been hailed for the resources the Center provides new artists, including top-quality stages, operations teams, marketing, ticketing and mentoring support.

“The Elevator Project is a tremendous passion for us here at the AT&T Performing Arts Center,” said Debbie Storey, president and CEO of the Center. “We spotlight some of the best new and emerging arts organizations on our stages here in the Dallas Arts District. And our audiences get to meet some of the city’s freshest and brightest talent performing in a range of exciting art forms. It is a powerful collaboration on all levels.”

The 2020 season of The Elevator Project will feature weekend and multi-week engagements. This season is produced by Dallas theatre veteran and the project’s creator David Denson. Three of the productions will be staged in the Studio Theatre located on the 6^th floor of the Wyly Theatre and five productions in Hamon Hall at the Winspear Opera House on the Center’s campus. All shows are $29 general admission.

The Center presents the innovative Elevator Project with support from the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, TACA, Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.  

This is the fifth season of The Elevator Project which started in 2014 to provide much-needed performance space in the Arts District. It was curated by a five-person peer-review panel of arts professionals and advocates, 43 Dallas-based artists and arts groups submitted proposals in January. Some of the guiding criteria included placing an emphasis on new works; diverse genres, artists and subject matter; unusual use of performance space; supporting groups without a home; and more. Many of the artists involved say Elevator Project has become a critical partner for emerging arts groups.  

“They are a launching pad for ambitious ideas, and I can’t wait to create more theatre,” said Scott Zenreich, whose play Pastry King premiered in the 2019 season. “It can be a daunting thing to produce a new play, especially one you wrote yourself. I feel extremely fortunate to have worked with the team from the Elevator Project and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, who were all so supportive of the creative processes of my designers and me, even when I had a wild plan to sell cannoli to market the show.” 

“Being selected to participate in the Elevator Project has been a tremendous, thrilling achievement for Indique!” says Latha Shrivista, co-founder of the dance company which specializes in the contemporary Bharatanatyam form of Indian dance. “We deeply value the advice and incredible help from the Center’s very knowledgeable team and staff, who supported our artistic vision in every possible way while encouraging us to ‘think big!’” 

2020 Elevator Project Advisory Review Panel

Albert Drake

• Former Bruce Wood Dance dancer
• Professor, artist-in-residence – Southern Methodist University

Richard McKay, Ph. D.

      •    Artistic Director & Conductor – Dallas Chamber Symphony

Anyika McMillan-Herod

• Actor, Writer, Producer, Director
• Co-founder / Managing Director – Soul Rep Theatre Company 

Mara Richards Bim

• Actor, Director
• Founder and Artistic Director of Cry Havoc Theatre Co.

Estela Tejeda (aka Estela Tejeda-Moreno)

• Dancer, choreographer, teacher – Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

The recommendations of the Advisory Review Panel were reviewed and approved by:

• John Paul Batiste – Chair, Cultural Affairs Commission
• Jennifer Scripps – Director, Office of Cultural Affairs
• Debbie Storey – President and CEO, AT&T Performing Arts Center

Individual tickets for each Elevator Project production will be available beginning today, Tuesday, September 3 at 10 a.m.  General admission tickets for each show are $29 each. With the purchase of four or more shows, the ticket price is $22.75 for each show. 

Purchasers of four or more shows may also purchase a discounted parking option for only $5 per show.  

Tickets will be available online at http://www.attpac.org, by telephone at 214-880-0202 or in person at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Winspear Opera House Box Office at 2403 Flora Street. The Box Office is open 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and before performances – closed Saturdays and Sundays. 

THE ELEVATOR PROJECT – 2020 SEASON

Jake Nice

Slide By, a new play by Thomas Ward (10 performances)

Wyly Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6

Synopsis:
“It’s the week after the Columbine shootings and Chad Squier is subbing at his former high school amidst threats of a copycat attack. Once the state wrestling champ and big man on campus, Chad is now adrift in his twenties, living at home, and carrying the guilt of a suicide that happened his senior year. After learning that most of the teachers have stayed home and the rest of them might be armed (the result of a “hush-hush” district meeting), Chad tries to make it through the day unscathed. With the help of his best friend Dave, a drug-dealing janitor, and a new sub named Susan, Chad must face his anger at a mentor who betrayed him, as well as his troubling admiration for the Columbine shooters.”

Performance Schedule:

Thursday, January 16, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, January 17; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 18; 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, January 19; 2:00 p.m. 

Thursday, January 23; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, January 24; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 25; 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, January 26; 2:00 p.m.

American Baroque Opera Company 

The Elements (three performances)

Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House

Synopsis:

American Baroque Opera Co. (ABOC), in partnership with Ballet Dallas, will present “The Elements” which will combine rarely heard instrumental and vocal music of the baroque with modern ballet. The American Baroque Opera Co., as part of its mission to bring to life little-known musical gems of the baroque, will reintroduce this music to modern audiences. Joining us will be the Ballet Dallas, which uses the language of ballet and contemporary dance to present ballet as a progressive and innovative art form. Together we will perform this new work February 13-15 in Harmon Hall at the Winspear Opera House.

The music for this new ballet is comprised of music from two different composers of the baroque. A reconstruction of Jean-Fery Rebel’s Symphony “Lés Elémens” and selections from Michael Richard Delalande’s opera of the same name will serve as the music for this new ballet. Rebel’s Symphony, begins with a startling surprise – ‘Chaos’ – a musical representation of the beginning of the world and the forging of the elements. This music, considered to be harmonically daring and avant-garde even in the 21st century will challenge its listeners idea of what baroque music is: not just an old relic of music, but living, breathing art. When combined with modern ballet, this art can be fully appreciated.

Performance Schedule: 

Thursday, February 13, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, February 14; 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 15; 7:30 p.m.

Verdigris Ensemble 

Dust Bowl (three performances)

Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House

Synopsis:

Who has given to me this sweet

And given my brother dust to eat?

And when will his wage come in?

—William Vaughn Moody, “Gloucester Moors”

A man-made environmental disaster, the Dust Bowl began in 1931 and lasted for almost a decade, displacing entire populations in the southern plains region of the United States. Constant droughts, bug infestations, and increasingly dangerous living conditions left farmers with one guarantee: dust. “Dust to eat and dust to breathe and dust to drink. Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair and eyes and ears and teeth and throats.” 

Setting texts exclusively from newspaper articles, diaries, and first-hand oral accounts of survivors, Dust Bowl pieces together nearly a decade of human struggle, hopefulness, and perseverance in the face of constant catastrophe. From fatal dust pneumonia to plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers, the performances of the Dust Bowl are honest and raw.

In collaboration with bluegrass band, video projection, and choreographed movement, Verdigris Ensemble world premieres stories of that time period through previously unexplored mediums and asks the question: how did this happen and have we learned from our mistakes?

Projections by Ariana Zhang

Music by Anthony J. Maglione 

Libretto by Ron Witzke and Sam Brukhman

Conceived and directed by Sam Brukhman

Performance Schedule: 

Thursday, February 27, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, February 28; 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 29; 7:30 p.m.

Janielle Kastner and Brigham Mosley

Playwrights in the Newsroom (10 performances)

Wyly Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6

Synopsis:

“About Janielle Kastner and Brigham Mosley

Brigham Mosley and Janielle Kastner are Dallas-based writers, performers and frequent collaborators. Together they’ve invented Dallas cult-classics like “Movies That Should be Musicals”, and co-founded arts incubation group The Tribe (winner of the 2016 Dallas Observer Mastermind Award). Recently they’ve turned civic: devising a new play about journalism thanks to The Dallas Morning News and Ignite/Arts Dallas, and contemplating the 14th Amendment at the “What Makes a Citizen” festival. In an attempt to make art that asks interesting questions, they’ve thankfully grown closer to their Dallas community, and inadvertently become better citizens along the way.

Brigham’s work has been produced by PS122, La MaMa, Dixon Place, The New Museum, and many others. He won the 2010 Kennedy Center regional award for Best One-Act and was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference in 2016 and 2017.

Janielle created the podcast Untitled Dad Project and has worked on plays with Second Thought Theatre, Stage West Theatre, WaterTower Theatre and has a new play commission from Dallas Theatre Center.”

Performance Schedule:  

Thursday, March 5, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 6; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 7; 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 8; 2:00 p.m. 

Thursday, March 12; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 13; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 14; 2:00 & 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 15; 2:00 p.m.  

Flamenco Fever

Memorias Flamencas (three performances)

Wyly Theatre – Potter Rose

Synopsis:

“Memorias Flamencas” comes to us as part of Ida y Vuelta’s Flamenco Fusion Series.  Since 2016 Julia Alcantara has been co-producing with various companies in an effort to expand and educate the flamenco fan base in DFW.  Each concert was an enlightening and entertaining experience for the cast and audience alike. Now she is pleased to introduce the father of Flamenco Jazz, Jorge Pardo to Dallas, courtesy of the “Elevator Project”, who is assisting in its production.

A longtime fan of Flute/Sax player/composer Jorge Pardo.  Julia had the chance to meet him while on tour with Paco de Lucia and they quickly became friends.  His amazing blend of Jazz and Flamenco tests the boundaries of both forms yet retains the true essence of each genre.   The passionate blend is engaging and intense, utilizing all the breaks and calls necessary for authentic flamenco. Yet, no one has ever done an entire dance concert to his music.  Julia Alcantara wanted to make this a reality, as an homage to the genius whose compositions, no matter how innovative, never lost respect for the dance. Now, in Dallas, TX this will happen for the first time, with an all-star cast of dancers from around the country teaming up to create distinctive choreography to match the uniqueness of his music.

Performance Schedule:

Thursday, April 23, 2020; 8:00 p.m.

Friday, April 24; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 25; 8:00 p.m.

Das Blümelein Project

Try Me (three performances)

Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House

Synopsis:

“Try Me is a musical production that highlights and celebrates the universality of women finding solidarity and strength by taking back their narrative. Each musical cycle portrays how females throughout history have and are currently being marginalized. In these performances, DB Project will collaborate with a variety of local artists to combine music, poetry, dance, and spoken monologue. By weaving together different artistic mediums, DB Project hopes to create an accessible platform for audiences to absorb these stories. These works​ ​remain​ ​especially pertinent today because of our social climate and critical issues such as discrimination, sexuality, race, and gender.​ ​Though American culture has continued to improve upon its racist, sexist, intolerant past, there are deep-rooted elements of all of these issues that continue to persist. In our modern world, violence and discrimination of those considered “other” continue to propagate movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #EverydaySexism, and #EffYourBeautyStandards. It is becoming increasingly important for artists to present works that relate to current issues and events. To co-opt the sentiment of Anne Boleyn, “Go ahead and try us, we dare you.”

Performance Schedule: 

Thursday, May 21, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, May 22; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 23; 8:00 p.m.

Indique Dance Company

Satyam | Bias (three performances)

Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House

Synopsis:

Our production ‘Satyam | Bias’ will be an exploration of the progression of biases in each of us, in our relationships, and in society as a whole. The current picture of bias reflects blatant discrimination. But haven’t we all relied on stereotypes or approached someone with assumptions at some point? What are the long-term effects of this? What are the motivations to do this? 

Performance Schedule: 

Thursday, June 25, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, June 26; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 27; 8:00 p.m. 

B. MOORE DANCE

The Neglected Heart of Soul: An Ode to Donny Hathaway

(three performances)

Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House

Synopsis:

B. MOORE DANCE in collaboration with Kevin Hamilton of SW Soul Circuit and Dramaturge, Rod Ambrose, presents “The Neglected Heart of Soul: An Ode to Donny Hathaway.” 

This exciting soulquarian dance concert, reviews the music and songs of legendary recording star, Donny Hathaway, (October 01, 1945-January 13, 1979.)

Styled in the format of a symphony with four movements, audiences will be taken on a journey of dance accompanied by live, riveting Gospel sonata of songs, Blues, Jazz and R & B that depict and reflect identity, growing up, evolving and ceremonial practices, rooted in black oral traditions.

Performance Schedule:

Thursday, July 16, 2020; 7:30 p.m.

Friday, July 17; 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 18; 8:00 p.m.

About AT&T Performing Arts Center

The AT&T Performing Arts Center is a nonprofit foundation that operates and programs a 10-acre campus comprised of three premier performance venues and a park in downtown Dallas. Opening in October 2009, the Center has helped complete the 30-year vision of the Dallas Arts District.

Audiences enjoy the best Broadway touring companies, provocative cultural icons in our hearhere speaker series, the world’s best traditional and contemporary dance companies co-presented in association with our partner, TITAS/Dance Unbound, and top concerts and performers through Center Presents.  Thousands of students explore and experience the arts through the Center’s education program, Open Stages. Working with local service agencies, the Center provides free tickets to underserved individuals and families through Community Partners. These programs are made possible by the ongoing support of donors and members.

The Center’s five resident companies are among the city’s leading arts institutions: Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center and Texas Ballet Theater.

Designed by internationally acclaimed architects, the Center’s performance spaces are some of the finest venues in the world: 

• Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed by Foster + Partners of London, is a stunning 2,200-seat venue wrapped in red glass with outstanding acoustic performance halls.
• Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre is a 575-seat theatre with one of the most versatile stages in the world and a distinctive aluminum exterior. It was designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Rem Koolhaas.
• Annette Strauss Square, designed by Foster + Partners, is an open-air entertainment venue with lawn and patio seating for 2,000 surrounded by the downtown skyline. 
• Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park is an urban park with native plants and grasses, landscaped lawns, performance spaces, a reflecting pool. Sammons Park was designed by Michel Desvigne and includes the Information Center designed by Foster + Partners.

The Center’s mission is to provide a public gathering place that strengthens community and fosters creativity through the presentation of performing arts and arts education programs. For more information about the AT&T Performing Arts Center and to purchase tickets, become a member, or make a donation, visit www.attpac.org.

About Jake Nice

Jake Nice is a producer and director based in Dallas, TX. He is grateful to be returning to the Elevator Project after his production of We’re Gonna Die, which toured to sold-out venues across North Texas from 2017-2018, played at the Wyly Studio Theatre in February 2018.  Jake also directed the regional premiere of Everybody at Stage West in January2019 and had his New York City directorial debut with Warm Soda in September 2017. BFA Theatre Studies (Directing emphasis), Southern Methodist University. www.jakenice.com

About American Baroque Opera Company Established in 2017, the American Baroque Opera Co. presents to Dallas audiencesIntimate staged productions of operas from the Baroque era.  In addition to presentingworks of well-known composers including Handel, Vivaldi, and Purcell, their missionis to resurrect the operas of lesser known baroque composers, famous in their day, whoseoperas have fallen into obscurity.  ABOC performs on period instruments with authentichistorical performance practice, and are excited to educate and entertain new audiences with these masterpieces of the baroque. About Verdigris Ensemble Founded in 2017, Verdigris Ensemble has quickly established itself as “among the mostcreative and effective storytellers in North Texas” (TheaterJones) and the “crème de la crème of the area’s professional choral voices” (Dallas Morning News). the Dallas-based professional choir is dedicated to bringing choral music to the modern audience throughcreative concert programming, unconventional use of space, and collaboration. Focusing on story-driven musical narratives, the Verdigris Ensemble commissions new works, collaborates with interdisciplinary artists, inspires new audiences, and invests in the nextgeneration of musicians. Verdigris Ensemble has been hailed by audiences and critics for its ability to deeply engage audiences. Its performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields, in collaborationwith world-renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars, Julia Wolfe, and SOLUNA Festival, was hailed as “powerful” (Dallas Morning News) and performed with “brilliant cohesion.” (TheaterJones) Past projects include World Premieres of Nicholas Reeves’s Betty’s Notebook and David Ross Lawn’s Faces of Dallas, Texas Premieres of Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields and Mason Bates’s Mass Transmission. Past collaborations include SOLUNA Festival, Dallas Museum of Art, Perot Museum, Avant Chamber Ballet, UTA Planetarium, Temple Emanu-El, Texas Theatre, Oak Cliff Film Festival, and more. About Janielle Kastner and Brigham Mosley Brigham Mosley and Janielle Kastner are Dallas-based writers, performers and frequent collaborators. Together they’ve invented Dallas cult-classics like “Movies That Should beMusicals”, and co-founded arts incubation group The Tribe (winner of the 2016 DallasObserver Mastermind Award). Recently they’ve turned civic: devising a new play about journalism thanks to The Dallas Morning News and Ignite/Arts Dallas, and contemplating the 14th Amendment at the “What Makes a Citizen” festival. In an attempt to make art that asks interesting questions, they’ve thankfully grown closer to their Dallas community, and inadvertently become better citizens along the way. Brigham’s work has been produced by PS122, La MaMa, Dixon Place, The New Museum,and many others. He won the 2010 Kennedy Center regional award for Best One-Act and was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conferencein 2016 and 2017. Janielle created the podcast Untitled Dad Project and has worked on plays with SecondThought Theatre, Stage West Theatre, WaterTower Theatre and has a new play commissionfrom Dallas Theatre Center.  About Flamenco Fever Ida y Vuelta Flamenco, has been bringing the best of Flamenco music and dance to North Texas since 1998.  Directed by dancer Julia Alcantara, a native Texan, who graduated from the renowned ‘National Institute of Flamenco’ in New Mexico wherethe curriculum included classes in flamenco history, choreography, improvisation, singing,and classical Spanish dance.  There, she was able to study with some of the most respected artists in Spain. She toured over 90 cities nationally, and returned to Dallas with the intention of bringing that same level of flamenco to Dallas that she experienced in hertravels. She recently executed a 6 week residency at UTD setting a fusion piece on their modern dance ensemble to the Music of Jorge Pardo. This choreography is being reworkedfor professional dancers, Manuel Gutierrez (Los Angeles) and Jorge Robledo (Miami). Her authentic flamenco shows receive rave reviews appearing in D Magazine and the DMNews. You may have seen her in The Dallas Opera’s production of La Vida Breve, on Good Morning Texas, or the World Cup opening ceremonies in the Cotton Bowl. With her own company, “Ida y Vuelta”, which loosely translates to ‘roundtrip’, shecontinues to host and perform with world-class dancers, singers, and musicians from around the globe. About DB Project DB Project is a collaborative arts company based in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Mamola and Ms.Migoni met in music school almost a decade ago and have since founded DB Project,an organization created by artists to support artists. Both women strayed from thelimited, traditional career options for opera singers and created their own path, one thatgives them and other artists an avenue to create. DB Project breaks the barriers associated with classical music in order to reach agreater and more diverse audience. They push the boundaries of traditionalperformance practices by producing their shows in unconventional spaces andcombining different artistic mediums. DB Project collaborates with creatives across awide spectrum of mediums including but not limited to sculpture, textile, painting,photography, video production, music, dance, acting, and the culinary arts. Theirorganization was founded to create opportunities for artists to express, to keep theseclassical art forms alive, vibrant, and accessible, to build opportunities andsustainability in the world of performance art, to give people a reason to come togetherand connect, and to support cultural innovation and creative thinking for ourcommunities. Since its inception, Das Blümelein Project has been the recipient of the BreckenridgeCreative Artist Residency in Colorado, the TX Studio Artist Residency in Dallas, Texas,and has participated in the Cherry on Top Creatives Festival in Marfa, Texas. DasBlümelein Project regularly tours throughout the United States and has been invited toperform and speak at a number of universities. Indique Dance Company Indique is a Dallas based contemporary bharatanatyam dance company striving to connect with audiences beyond the Indian classical dance purview. We hope to do this by bringing in universal themes in a way that people can relate to in their daily lives. About B. MOORE DANCE Founded in 2018, makes its debut as a Dallas-based contemporary modern dance company. The diverse collective of performing artists are under the artistic directionof Dallas native, Bridget L. Moore. Throughout her illustrious career, Moore sought opportunities to give voice to her passion for teaching and choreographing. She has received international accolades and awards for her outstanding work, receiving choreographic commissions from TITAS Command Performances, TACA, Ailey II, Bruce Wood Dance/METdance, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Southern Methodist University and University of Texas at Austin, to name a few. Moore is the Founder and Artistic Director of B. MOORE DANCE, and also serves as the Artistic Directorof Joffrey Ballet School-Texas. The mission of B. MOORE DANCE is to empower andtranscend generations through the art of dance by cultivating the arts throughleadership, education and performances.

Thank you- Alyssa