Bringing Beowulf into the present day with Benjamin Bagby
When we contacted a group of early modernist faculty in the Penn music and English departments about a possible engagement event featuring Benjamin Bagby, whose performance of
Beowulf took place on January 27, the response was immediate and enthusiastic. These faculty, including Assistant Professor of Music Mary Channen Caldwell, Assistant Professor of English Caroline Batten, and Professor of English David Wallace, were more than scholarly appreciators of Bagby’s painstaking historical investigation into the type of harp most likely to have accompanied the epic poem, or his years of touring the globe enlivening the Old English text for contemporary audiences: they were
fans.
Read more...Spotlight on Terence Nance
“His work is an Afrofuturist’s dream that holds a mirror up to present-day reality and forces it to confront itself in an abstract, yet fitting, manner. It serves hard truths you can’t look away from, and it does so in the Blackest way ever.”
–Taryn Finley, Huffington Post
Terence Nance is one of the most extraordinary filmmakers of his generation. While his work is bolstered by its artistic excellence and technical complexity, it resonates because of its social relevance. Nance’s practice is collaborative in scope and serves as an inspiration to many other contemporary artists and filmmakers.
Read more...5 Questions with Lisa McCree
We’re thrilled to welcome the Negro Ensemble Company, our
22/23 season artist-in-residence, back this month for the world premiere of
Mecca is Burning. Ahead of this exciting production, we connected with one of the collaborative playwrights, Lisa McCree, to learn a little more about her and her work. Enjoy!
Read more...The legendary Martha Graham Dance Company brings two Philadelphia premieres and the timeless masterpiece, Appalachian Spring
“Dancer of the Century,” (
TIME) genius, revolutionary, brilliant and superstar. These are just a few of the terms used to describe the mother of modern dance in America, Martha Graham.
In 1926, the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC) exploded onto the world stage, stunning audiences with its unique approaches, stimulating subject matters, angular movement vocabulary and powerful theatrics. Graham’s prolific repertoire of 181 dances, her own spectacular performances and her company’s commanding appearances are forever embedded in the memories of devoted fans. Graham’s famous mantra is at the heart and soul of the company’s work, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. The body says what words cannot. Movement never lies:” Read more...
A renaissance for Penn Live Arts
From the construction of the new Weitzman Theatre, to increased support of student performers across campus, to expanded residencies with groundbreaking artists, Penn Live Arts is putting innovative performing arts center stage at Penn and in Philadelphia.
Read more...Our fall education and engagement activities
“It’s like watching people paint with their life, with their bodies,” longtime Negro Ensemble Company actor Kene Holliday told a roomful of Penn students about the art of acting this past November. Holliday would know; the historic company’s
Brownstein Residency for Artistic Innovation with Penn Live Arts this year marks more than 50 years of the stage, film and TV actor’s career. He and NEC Artistic Director Karen Brown made Penn Professor McKenna Kerrigan’s Intro to Directing class one stop in a busy series of outreach engagements to students and the West Philadelphia community, kicking off our education and engagement activities for the season.
Read more...Thoughts on Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance
Black ballet dancers were virtually non-existent on the stage in the late nineteen sixties. There wasn’t even a discussion about this exclusion. Mainstream classical ballet was white. The racist norm was that black dancers could not physically perform classical dance and they would “break the look” of dancers in a line.
Philadelphia’s own Joan Myers Brown, PHILADANCO’s founder, was turned away from our hometown ballet company because of race. There was the occasional artist that broke through the color barrier and was by default essentially a token. It was not a very encouraging situation for dancers of color. Read more...
Happy holidays
Happy holidays from all of us at Penn Live Arts!
Recent Highlights: Sep – Dec 2022
Our 50th celebration season kicked off with a look back at our rich history in a
Penn Today story and a look forward to the future expansion of the Annenberg Center with the announcement of the new Weitzman Theatre, named for noted designer and philanthropist Stuart Weitzman.
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
Philadelphia Business Journal and
Musical America all reported on the exciting plans for the new theatre.
Read more...A Brassy Holiday Playlist
Holiday Music
Get in the holiday spirit with the sounds of sparkling brass! With selections from our upcoming program, A Very Brassy Christmas, by The Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, our holiday playlist mashes up styles from classical to big band to New Orleans swing.
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