REDCAT Announces Fall 2012 Events

Today REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts and culture, announces its Fall 2012 events and previews major projects scheduled for early 2013. The wide-ranging program introduces Los Angeles audiences to influential artists and ensembles from around the world who are blurring traditional artistic boundaries and developing new forms. Tickets for most events will go on sale Tuesday, August 14, 2012.

"We are excited to be hosting the first L.A. appearances by some of these adventurous artists, including some who are visiting the U.S. for the first time," notes REDCAT Executive Director Mark Murphy. "It's also thrilling to present significant projects by companies who have built an L.A. following at REDCAT, especially the extraordinary Gatz by Elevator Repair Service, who made such an impression with The Sound and The Fury in 2008, and The Wooster Group, who will bring their new collaboration with director Richard Maxwell and his company, New York City Players."

REDCAT launches into the Fall on September 20, 2012 with the Los Angeles debut of Gob Squad, a British-German collective of artists who blend live video and performance manipulations to explore the intersection of art, media and real life. Gob Squad's Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good) (September 20–23) gives a shrewd nod to the heyday of Andy Warhol's Factory, turning the REDCAT stage into a vintage film studio to create hilarious reconstructions of the 1965 Edie Sedgwick vehicle Kitchen and other Warhol celluloid adventures, weaving them together into a theatrical event.

Revered choreographer Ery Mefri from West Sumatra, Indonesia, brings his acclaimed work to REDCAT as part of the first U.S. tour by his astounding company Nan Jombang (October 10–11,13–14). Rooted in the spiritual and martial arts traditions of West Sumatra's Minangkabau ethnic minority, the company moves with spellbinding control and bursts of chanting, clapping and body percussion, while incorporating elements of modern Western movement in Rantau Berbisik (Whisperings of Exile).

Celebrated contemporary dance veteran Ishmael Houston-Jones returns to REDCAT with an acclaimed restaging of his seminal work THEM (November 15–18), an intensely physical interdisciplinary collaboration that presents an unblinking look into the lives of young (gay) men. First created at the height of the AIDS chrisis in America, the spellbinding and disturbing production is re-created and performed by Houston-Jones, writer Dennis Cooper and composer Chris Cochrane.

Heralded by critics around the world as a major theatrical event of historic importance, Gatz (November 29–December 9) is a bravura feat of dramatic daring from New York's Elevator Repair Service Theater. The marathon experience was described by Ben Brantley of The New York Times as "the most remarkable achievement in theater not only of this year but also of this decade." Seven hours long, and presented with a dinner break, Gatz is not a retelling of the The Great Gatsby, but a revelatory enactment of experiencing the novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald's American masterpiece is delivered word for word, and brought to life in a superhuman turn by Scott Shepherd, an actor known to REDCAT audiences for his work with The Wooster Group, and a 12-member ensemble.

After the first of the new year, hip-hop poet and theater artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph returns with his company The Living Word Project to present his highly-praised collaboration with esteemed visual artist Theaster Gates, red, black & GREEN: a blues (January 31–February 3). Mixing voice, music, dance and visual art in a kaleidoscopic set of stories, characters, and impressions, red, black & GREEN: a blues expands the understanding of "living green" and what it entails for urban communities under economic and social duress.

Drawing upon butoh, ballet and hip-hop, astonishing Tokyo choreographer, dancer and polymath artist Hiroaki Umeda (February 14–16) makes his Los Angeles debut in a fine-spun swirl of movement encompassed in a digital storm of video, light and sound. This visceral performance layers beats and sonic textures with entrancing video lighting effects—all made on his laptop.

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