Under the direction of David Sefton, UCLA Live has garnered much
attention as a presenter of avant garde and unconventional works
““but this season marks the first time that one of the
performances comes with a pacemaker warning.
This season, UCLA Live, the university’s performing arts
series, will present the world premiere of “Modern Prometheus
LLC,” which is UCLA Live’s first commissioned piece,
and has enough shock potential to necessitate a warning for
audience members with pacemakers.
Sefton was intrigued by the work that the Los Angeles-based
performance group osseus labyrint was doing, though it is not a
theater company, and approached the group about commissioning a
piece for UCLA Live. osseus labyrint is working in association with
electromechanical installation artist Barry Smith (aka Dr. Pank) to
use old-fashioned electricity-generating machines in a work that
explores a new species. The reason for the pacemaker warning is
because of the use of old fashioned electricity generating machines
in the work that explores a new species striving to control its own
artificial selection: hence, the pacemaker warning.
“Modern Prometheus LLC” is one of the works that is
grouped under the UCLA Live heading of the International Theatre
Festival, now in its third year.
Sefton spends a lot of his time traveling the world looking for
plays to bring to Los Angeles that otherwise would most likely not
have the opportunity to come.
“I’m very proud of getting the theater festival off
the ground and changing the mix of stuff that is shown here as well
as the name that the program is getting,” Sefton said.
“I really like the fact that we can bring Cheek by Jowl
alongside Royal Court alongside osseus labyrint. (The festival) can
be extremely ambitious and at the same time have small, esoteric
works.”
In March, the new artist in residence, Manfred Eicher, founder
of the ECM Records, will present a jazz festival of ECM
artists.
After hosting classical and pop artists in residence, Sefton is
eager to have a jazz label. He first began trying to book Eicher
while at his previous job in London.
As Sefton takes up the challenge to make each season better than
the previous one, this year will boast several world and West Coast
premieres. The American Premiere presentation of Matthew
Bourne’s “Nutcracker,” which mixes
Tchaikovsky’s original score with the unconventional setting
of a Victorian orphanage will run for two weeks over Christmas.
Mikhail Baryshnikov will act in the Los Angeles premiere of Rezo
Gabriadze’s play “Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and
The Patient” which takes place in a Soviet Georgian town
during the early ’50s.
“What I like to do is create an idea of a specialty to
what I do,” Sefton said. “I like the idea that you can
see something here that you can’t somewhere else or that you
can see it here first. … (UCLA) has on tap a major arts and
culture facility.”
Each year Sefton likes to bring more rock music to Royce Hall,
and this year is no exception. Los Angeles-based rock band Los
Lobos will be making an appearance, while classical pianist
Christopher O’Riley will perform the West Coast premiere of
his tribute concert to Radiohead and the late Elliott Smith. And,
Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Caetono Veloso will bring his
unique blend of rock and Latin music to Royce in his first concert
primarily in English.
But not every act on the calendar is unconventional ““
after spending the past several years with ventures in world music,
Yo-Yo Ma will return to his classical roots in an all Beethoven
concert with Canadian pianist Emanuel Ax and the Musicians from
Marlboro will perform a Mozart and Mendelssohn concert as part of
their 40th anniversary tour.
“One of the things I’ve learned is there’s a
really broad-minded audience in Los Angeles, and people will come
and take risks because they trust the program,” Sefton said.
“That’s the ideal for me, since I’m trying to
introduce new things.”