Friday, September 26, 1997
Center of the World
CPA: UCLA’s Center for the Performing Arts boasts a fall season
of eclectic entertainment from Australia, Africa, Vietnam and the
good old U.S.A.
By Nerissa Pacio
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Their voices bellow. Their feet dance. Their fingers strum and
beat and pound. They are the many performers for the upcoming fall
season of UCLA’s Center for the Performing Arts – and they are
here.
A multicultural arts lover’s dream come true, the Center for the
Performing Arts (CPA) is UCLA’s proud answer to anyone who claims
America lacks the interest in the cultural panache of say, Europe
or Asia.
With dancers from Africa, puppet masters from Vietnam, musicians
from Russia, and blues bands from Los Angeles, CPA can not only
claim eclecticism but mean it and show it.
With special package deals of several performances for under
$100 or individual events that cost as low as $9 with a UCLA ID,
anyone from the average starving college student to the prosperous
professional can take this reasonable financial plunge. And with so
many events located so close to (or even on) campus, the next
Celtic musical drama or blues bonanza is a hop, skip and (less
than) a jump away.
The 1997-1998 season, which is scheduled to span many different
Los Angeles venues from UCLA’s own Freud Playhouse, Shoenberg Hall
or the newly re-opening Royce Hall, to the downtown Wiltern Theater
has several highlights, beginning with Tap Dogs running through Oct
5.
This six-member male rocker tap group stomps and rolls through
an avant-garde construction-site set, introducing CPA-goers to the
theme that a twist of atypical on the classical is a way to
entertain and cross stagnant cultural and time period barriers. Tap
is no longer what it used to be.
Proving again that the old can become new is Umabatha: The Zulu
Macbeth, a 40-member company of actors, singers, dancers and
musicians from South Africa. Weaving the archaic themes of
Shakespeare’s Macbeth with the African legend of King Umabatha,
director Welcome Msomi transforms classic themes of love, hate and
revenge into perennial cross-cultural ties. Performed in Zulu with
English supertitles, "Umabatha: The Zulu Macbeth" is dance, drums,
song and theater.
Moving eastward to Asia, CPA showcases the Vietnamese Water
Puppets on Oct. 11-12, bringing the Thang Long Water Puppet
Theater/Vietnam to Los Angeles. Showing vividly-colored puppets
that demonstrate ancient stories, hidden puppeteers glide
intricately decorated puppets across water.
Along with the large explosive shows scheduled for the fall are
many of CPA’s smaller, soothing, but nonetheless entertaining
musical events.
On Oct. 9, the Italian Baroque ensemble "II Giardino Armonico"
makes its Southern California debut at Schoenberg. Works by
Vivaldi, Locke and Bach are some of the musical highlights.
CPA doesn’t stop at classical sounds – blues performances
include the Thelonius Monk sextet, celebrating T.S. Monk’s 80th
Anniversary Birthday on Oct. 10 while Dr. John and His Band Charlie
Musselwhite Keb’ Mo’ jams on Oct. 16. Both performances are
scheduled for the Veterans Wadsworth Theater.
Other multicultural musical highlights include the sounds of
Paris-trained Japanese pianist Mari Kodama on Oct. 18, Toshiko
Akiyoshi’s jazz orchestra on Oct. 24 and the opening of "Les
Enfants Terribles: Children of the Game." This dance opera also
opening on Oct. 24 is based on the work of French artist, writer
and filmmaker Jean Cocteau and is composed by Philip Glass.
Also, Madredueus, a five-member band of instrumentals and
vocals, brings the swooning sounds of Portugal to Wadsworth (Oct.
18), along with the Guitar Summit featuring jazz guitarist Herb
Ellis (Oct. 25), singer Cesaria Evora (Nov. 8), and Irish quintet
Solas and Natalie MacMaster (Nov. 15). Violinist Gil Shaham who
made his debut with the Jerusalem Symphony accompanied by pianist
Akira Eguchi will perform at Schoenberg (Oct. 26).
As the holidays approach, CPA fills the calender of events with
a mix of humor and Christmas sounds. Expect writer and performer
Danny Hoch in a one-man show depicting his real-life experiences
(Nov. 21-23) and the female quintet Bimbetta, which takes a
humorous and theatrical approach to music (Nov. 23). In December,
world-reknowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs Argentine tango (Dec. 5),
The Bulgarian Voices are joined by the Throat Singers of Tuva (Dec.
6), saxophonist Tom Scott hosts a contemporary jazz night (Dec.
12).
Everything from Macnas, a theater group which has toured with U2
and opened for the MTV Music Awards (Oct. 17-18), the provocative
British DV8 Physical Theater troupe (Oct. 30-Nov. 2), to the French
Lyon Opera Ballet (Oct. 31-Nov. 1) and the Netherlands Chamber
choir (Nov. 1) joins the CPA for a border-crossing arts festival of
a season.
Cultural roots cross and mix and blur to form the best artistic
confusion ever experienced.
CPA: Ticket prices typically range from $9 with UCLA ID to $27,
For more information on Center for the Performing Arts events, call
825-2101.
Photos by UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
Hillary Kavanagh and Midie Corcoran will star in "Baylor: The
Legend of the Evil Eye," a musical drama running at UCLA’s Freud
Playhouse.
The Thang Long Water Puppet Troupe
presents character puppets which dance on the water to
Vietnamese drums, gongs, flutes and harps.