Edison Theatre announces 2007-08 OVATIONS! Series

35th season to highlight artistic adaptation in music, dance and theater

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.

GrooveLily
Musical trio GrooveLily brings *Striking 12,* their adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little March Girl,” to Edison Theatre Nov. 16 and 17.

“This season is about breaking down boundaries between genres and disciplines,” explains Charlie 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. Classical works are re-imagined. Contemporary styles find new expression,” Robin adds. “For me, that’s what the Edison is all about.”

The OVATIONS! Series will open Oct. 26 and 27 with the Reduced Shakespeare Company, those “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, yet along the way manages to send-up a century’s worth of Tinsel Town.

The season continues Nov. 2 and 3 with Utah’s acclaimed Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, which will present Nikolais Dance Theatre, dedicated to the work of innovative, multimedia choreographer Alwin Nikolais. On Nov. 16 and 17 the New York musical trio GrooveLily will perform Striking 12, a holiday story — part musical theater, part live concert — based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytale “The Little Match Girl.”

The Pablo Ziegler Quintet for New Tango, along with Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, will present 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. Then, on Jan. 25 and 26, L.A. Theatre Works, the nation’s foremost radio theater company, will present 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.

Dynamo Theatre Company
Montreal’s Dynamo Theatre Company in *me me me* Jan. 12.

On Feb. 15 The Campbell Brothers and Louisiana Blues Throwdown will 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.

On Feb. 29 and March 1 CoisCéim, Ireland’s acclaimed contemporary dance company, will present Knots, a series of high-octane works based on the writings of psychoanalyst and couples’ therapist R.D. Laing. On March 28 and 29 Susan Marshall & Company bring Cloudless, a group of 18 playful solos, duets and small group dances structured like a collection of poetic short stories.

The OVATIONS 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 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.

Meanwhile, the popular ovations! for young people series, which offers specially priced Saturday matinees for audiences of all ages, will open 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 & Friends.

Tickets to OVATIONS! events are $30, $25 for seniors and Washington University faculty and staff; and $18 for students and children. Subscriptions are available at the basic level (three, four or five events at $25 per ticket) and at the premiere level (six or more events at $20 per ticket). Ovations! for young people events are $8. (Subscription are available at $5 per ticket.)

Dan Zanes
Roots rockers Dan Zanes & Friends perform for the ovations! for young people series May 10.

Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information or to order tickets, call the Edison Theatre Box Office at (314) 935-6543, or email Edison@wustl.edu.

Founded in 1973, the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series serves both Washington University and the St. Louis community by providing the highest caliber national and international artists in music, dance and theater, performing new works as well as innovative interpretations of classical material not otherwise seen in St. Louis.

SPONSORS

Edison Theatre programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributors. The OVATIONS! Season is supported by The Mid-America Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texax.

Additional funding is provided by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, as well as by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase. Nikolais Dance Theatre is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece: Dance Initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts, and by Mid-America Arts Alliance.