Edison Theatre will celebrate its 33rd year of exuberant dance, rich musical traditions and classic and cutting-edge theater with the 2005-06 OVATIONS! Series.
Founded in 1973, the OVATIONS! Series serves both the University and St. Louis communities by presenting the highest caliber national and international artists performing works intended to challenge, educate and inspire.
The series highlights the interdisciplinary, the multicultural and the experimental, through new works as well as through innovative interpretations of classical material not otherwise seen in St. Louis.
The season will open Oct. 21-22 with Slanguage, the latest boundary-smashing creation by Universes, a troupe of five brilliant wordsmiths from the South Bronx.
Fusing poetry, jazz riffs, hip-hop, politics, down-home blues and Spanish boleros, Slanguage represents the evolution of poetic language from childhood rhymes to literary gospel, integrating theater and street talk with humor and truth and turning the poem into a communal act.
The season will continue Oct. 28-29 with Diavolo, the 10-member Los Angeles dance company whose multimedia spectacles combine dynamic movement with the adventurous, high-wire attitude of extreme sports.
Dance lovers also can look forward to three events co-sponsored by OVATIONS! and Dance St. Louis, beginning Nov. 18-20 with Noche Flamenca, one of Spain’s most successful Flamenco companies.
Eight-time Bessie Award-winners Doug Varone & Dancers will display their signature mix of wit, humanity and romanticism March 31-April 2, followed by LINES Ballet, the company of San Francisco choreographer Alonzo King, April 21-23.
New York’s acclaimed SITI Company will return to Edison Theatre Nov. 11-12 with an all-new production of the 15th-century German classic Death and the Ploughman. Theater lovers can also look forward to Synapse Productions’ Animal Farm: The Puppet Musical, based on George Orwell’s classic political parable, March 10-11.
For music lovers, the classically trained, boundary-pushing Turtle Island String Quartet will join forces with the Ying Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music, for a performance Jan. 20. South Africa’s renowned, 26-member Soweto Gospel Choir will take the stage Feb. 11.
The OVATIONS! Series will conclude April 28 when jazz vocalist René Marie joins the innovative African- and Latin-American ensemble Imani Winds for The Josephine Baker Project: Le Jazz Hot, celebrating the 100th birthday of the legendary St. Louis-born performer.
Individual tickets are $28; $24 for seniors and WUSTL faculty and staff; and $18 for students and children. Subscriptions are available at two levels: basic (three, four or five events at $24 per ticket) and premiere (six or more events at $20 per ticket).
For young people
The 2005-06 ovations! for young people series, which offers specially priced Saturday matinees for audiences of all ages, will open with Diavolo Oct. 29.
On Jan. 21, the Turtle Island String Quartet will present The Art of the Groove, an exploration of rhythm stretching from Beethoven to Jimi Hendrix.
On April 29, Imani Winds will present How Jeff Got His Groove Back, a musical adventure that follows Jeff, a young French horn player beset by a bassoon-riding witch.
Ovations! for young people events are $7 each or $15 for all three events.
For more information or to order tickets, call the Edison Theatre Box Office at 935-6543 or e-mail edison@wustl.edu.