Monday, September 28, 1998
Center for Performing Arts brings shows back to Royce
ON-CAMPUS: New season starts with CenterStage Discussions; noted
acts to use renovated hall
By Megan Dickerson
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The pipe organ is coming back to Royce. The little-known
instrument on the first floor of Royce Hall is 1/64 of the UCLA
Center for the Performing Arts’ 1998-1999 program, the first full
season since the 1994 earthquake which closed the structure. Autumn
brings the ubiquitous UCLA hall a phoenix-like resurrection,
immersing it in such world-class performers as soprano Kathleen
Battle and the New York Philharmonic. This rising from the ashes
includes, in small part, the large 6,600-pipe Skinner organ, whose
stems extend from the stone masthead framing the stage.
Installed in 1930, UCLA once used the 104-rank organ to provide
ominous accompaniment to Halloween films. This year’s
intercollegiate Organ Trilogy, starting Nov. 7, will feature
organists from UCLA, Yale and the University of Michigan. Thomas
Harmon, UCLA’s university organist, will present a lecture prior to
the performance, as will many of the season’s cast of
performers.
The CenterStage Discussions, held one hour before the
performance, consist of a three- to four-minute presentation by the
artist, followed by an intensive Q&A session.
Organizers intend the CenterStage series to enlighten audiences
beyond the background provided on the program.
"In some ways, it’s moving into, in the broadest sense, adult
education," says Michael Blachely, director of the Center for the
Performing Arts.
Even so, the Center played with the vocabulary of the dialogues
to make them more attractive, changing the name from CenterStage
Lectures to CenterStage Discussions.
"Sometimes that kind of an educational tinge frightens the
audience for fear that they’re going to be lectured to," says Linda
Timmons, director of community relations for the Center for the
Performing Arts. "It’s really more of an informal
conversation."
The center is also branching out to the UCLA campus with
interdepartmental programs. The Department of World Arts and
Cultures, in conjunction with UCLA Performing Arts and UCLA
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, will host spring
panel discussions on Wagner and David Rousseve.
In addition to the discussion series, Royce will host a series
of master classes open to all majors. The official list has not
been released, but will include the Mark Morris Dance Company and
the violinist Midori.
All this comes four years after all performances bowed to the
Northridge earthquake, and the venue’s doors closed for seismic
renovation. It is not so much that the Center for the Performing
Arts has something to prove with its 1998-1999 reincarnation, but
that it has to remind theatergoers of its presence on campus.
"The prominence of Royce Hall and the position that it has
historically, I think, is just going to roll forward," says
Blachely.
"Certainly, the initial impact of having to come back after four
years is going to be significant."
After years of non-use, it would seem as though, reopening fever
notwithstanding, it would be hard to bring theatergoers back into
the fold.
"We’ve been able to sustain the program over the last four years
using 14 different theaters throughout Southern California,"
Blachely says.
"And we’ve been presenting fairly significant names and trying
to keep the profile of the program high, so that when we came back
into Royce Hall that there would be a general feeling of the
program’s quality already in place."
While the center will use the newly renovated Royce with a
vengeance, it will, of course, continue its Schoenberg Hall and
Freud Playhouse use, especially for intimate groups like the Prazak
Quartet and the QuartetSine Nominee. The Eroica Trio, winner of
National Public Radio’s Performance Today award, returns to
Schoenberg with pieces by Shostakovich and Brahms.
Surprisingly, the largest draw may not be the violinists or
vocalists, but puppets. The Jim Henson Festival of Puppet Theater
presents three season performances in association with UCLA,
including the upcoming "Wayang Listrik/Electric Shadows," an
Indonesian celebration of shadow puppetry. The South African
Handspring Puppet Company finished a three-day run, using film and
animation to augment the traditional puppets, as did the Teatro
Hugo and Ines’ presentation of "Short Stories." The Word of Mouth
series is also new, boasting author Spalding Gray and humorist Josh
Kornbluth, the latter retelling his experiences as a Princeton
undergraduate. While the spoken "Word" series signals a small
departure from the Center for the Performing Arts’ usual dance and
symphonic fare, it and the CenterStage Discussion series also bring
Royce back to its roots as a UCLA lecture hall, which once hosted
the likes of John F. Kennedy and even Marilyn Monroe.
In this, the 1998-1999 season, with its celebrity presence and
organ fanfare, promises, in terms of programming, nothing
essentially new. Instead, the season looks to be a return to not
only a building, but a return to Royce tradition.
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
The Handspring Puppet Company will perform at UCLA in
September.
DAVID M. ALLEN
Mathematician turned comedian Josh Kornblith will perform at
UCLA in October.
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