In its 21st iteration of the New Original Works three-weekend festival of world premiere creations in dance, music, theater and the media arts, the REDCAT theater morphs into a laboratory of exploration. Starting this Thursday, Nov. 7, at 8:30 p.m. and running Friday and Saturday at the same time in each of the weeks, the series will end on Nov. 23. As in the years before, each of the three distinct productions will highlight three artists or groups of creatives who bring their ideas in front of live and live-streamed audiences.
The first group includes composer/performers Eliza Bagg, Rohan Chander and George R. Miller and their opera song cycle, “7 Early Songs.” Described in promotional materials as a re-working of Alban Berg’s early 20th-century composition of the same name, only in German, this updated version mixes voice, electronics and synthesizers. Adding a few new pieces by Bagg and Chandler, Miller creates a collection of poetic tableaux to encase the soundscape.
Dancemaker Bernard Brown and seven other Black and Brown movers reveal “Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves” to the accompaniment of live DJ, Defacto X. Celebrating the Black Gay bar as a Queer haven, the ensemble “conjures” a future where Queer Men of Color are identified to be central to society. Surrounded by disco, R&B, the icon Sylvester and the writing of Marlon B. Ross’ Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness, the men “swirl, swish and kiki.”
The third act of this opening week trilogy is offered by interdisciplinary artist Meena Murugesan. Her “Dravidian Futurities: Chapter II” explores connections between South India, Sri Lanka and the African continent via visual art, movement and music ritual. She collaborates with a collection of diasporic artists based in LA to “re-earth ethical possibilities of being together.”
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
LOCATION:
REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., LA 90012
TICKETS:
$13-$50
INFO:
https://www.redcat.org/events/2024/now/week1
Photo credit: “Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves” by Robin Meineke