Each year, the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series presents nationally and internationally known artists performing works designed to challenge, educate and inspire.
The 2007-08 season — the Edison’s 35th — will highlight the interdisciplinary, the multicultural and the experimental through a mix of returning favorites and St. Louis premieres.
“This season is about breaking down boundaries between genres and disciplines,” said Charles Robin, executive director of Edison Theatre. “We have events that merge rock with opera, jazz with tango, theater with dance, film and even radio broadcast.
“Traditional art forms are expanded,” he continued. “Classical works are re-imagined. Contemporary styles find new expression. For me, that’s what the Edison is all about.”
The series opens Oct. 26-27 with the Reduced Shakespeare Company, known as the “bad boys of abridgment,” in “Completely Hollywood (abridged).” This epic edit of movie masterpieces centers on a self-indulgent writer as he does battle with a controlling director and preening actor. The show is a send-up of a century’s worth of Tinsel Town.
The season continues Nov. 2-3 with Utah’s acclaimed Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, which presents “Nikolais Dance Theatre,” dedicated to the work of innovative multimedia choreographer Alwin Nikolais.
Nov. 16-17, the New York musical trio GrooveLily performs “Striking 12,” a holiday story — part musical theater, part live concert — based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale “The Little Match Girl.”
The Pablo Ziegler Quintet for New Tango, along with Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, presents a special one-night-only performance Jan. 18. Ziegler, a longtime member of Astor Piazzolla’s New Tango Quintet, was among the first to combine sultry tango rhythms with the energetic spontaneity of jazz.
Jan. 25- 26, L.A. Theatre Works, the nation’s foremost radio theater company, presents a special live performance of “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” an original drama based on documents secured through the Freedom of Information Act.
Feb. 15, The Campbell Brothers and Louisiana Blues Throwdown present “Sacred Funk,” an exploration of the gospel roots of New Orleans jazz. The Campbell Brothers are grand masters of sacred steel, a vital yet little-known African-American gospel tradition built around the pedal steel guitar. Louisiana Blues Throwdown, led by slide guitarist Marc Stone, is an all-star band featuring veteran masters and rising talents from the Gulf Coast music scene.
Feb. 29-March 1, CoisCéim, Ireland’s acclaimed contemporary dance company, presents “Knots,” a series of high-octane works based on the writings of psychoanalyst and couples’ therapist R.D. Laing.
March 28-29 brings Susan Marshall & Company in “Cloudless,” a group of 18 playful solos, duets and small-group dances structured in the form of a collection of poetic short stories.
The season concludes May 2 with The East Village Opera Company, a powerhouse, 11-member ensemble that brings the towering emotion and timeless musicality of opera into the 21st century. Comprising a five-piece band, a string quartet and two outstanding vocalists, the troupe specializes in hard-hitting, electrified arrangements of “La donna è mobile” from “Rigoletto,” “Habanera” from “Carmen,” “Nessun dorma” from “Turandot” and other works — all performed at full length and in the original languages.
The popular ovations! for young people series, which offers specially priced Saturday matinees for audiences of all ages, opens Jan. 12 with Montreal’s Dynamo Theatre in “me me me … .” This whirling mix of gymnastics, theater, juggling and mime tackles perhaps the toughest of all political arenas: grade school. The series continues Feb. 16 with a special matinee performance by The Campbell Brothers and concludes May 10 with Grammy Award-winning roots-rockers Dan Zanes and Friends.
Tickets for OVATIONS! events are $30; $25 for seniors, faculty and staff; and $18 for students and children. Tickets for ovations! for young people events are $8. Subscriptions are available for both series.
For more information, call 935-6543 or e-mail edison@wustl.edu.