First you might wanna check out REDCAT’s NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2009

REDCAT’s sixth annual NOW Festival launches eight new works by Los Angeles dance, theater, music and multimedia artists who are bending traditions and investigating new visions of work for the stage.

“REDCAT’s New Original Works (NOW) series has become one of the city’s more eclectic and vital performance festivals.”
—LA Weekly

July 23–August 8, 2009
Thur–Sat | 8:30 PM

Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

See all three programs for only $36!
213-237-2800 orwww.redcat.org

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EARLY MORNING OPERA: ABACUS
Staged under the direction of Lars Jan, Early Morning Opera’s large-scale multimedia workAbacus, is a persuasive performance-cum-PowerPoint presentation that catapults data into metaphysical territory, where vision and fanaticism are equal parts in an equation of prophecy.

SHEETAL GANDHI: BAHU-BETI-BIWI
With powerful dance, stirring vocalization and percussive text, Sheetal Gandhi’s magnetically rhythmicBahu-Beti-Biwi (Daughter-in-Law, Daughter, Wife)wraps North Indian music traditions and family characters into a contemporary tour de force.

AYANA HAMPTON: THE AYANA HAMPTON SHOW
Vibrant performer Ayana Hampton’s song stylings range from raunchy to reverent as she rocks a portrayal of stardom headlining her own wildly sexy and overtly subversive music-theater cabaret, backed by live music and The Lustrous Black Up Dancers.

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CAROLE KIM w/ OGURI, ALEX CLINE & DAN CLUCAS: N1
Carole Kim’s hallucinatory mix of live-feed video and layered projections form an immersive installation that refracts the live performances of celebrated dancer-choreographer Oguri, percussionist-composer Alex Cline and multi-instumentalist Dan Clucas.

JENNIFER THE LEOPARD: LEOP YEAR (NO JAMMING)
The “all girl band” also known as J-Lep, stages a multimedia event featuring songs about celebrity sightings and knife fights while pitting an on-stage “audience” against the real one in a show that is part bitchin’ rock concert and part post-studio pep rally.

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ZACKARY DRUCKER / MARIANA MARROQUIN / WU INGRID TSANG: PIG
With an irreverent nod to Warhol’s cult filmWomen In Revolt, the unpredictable trio mixes biting humor with socio-political themes ranging from contemporary transgender politics, sexual identity, civil rights, and the evolving language of trans societal constructs.

MEG WOLFE: WATCH HER (NOT KNOW IT NOW)
Sharp, precise and wholly original, choreographer Meg Wolfe strips the stage bare for a new solo accompanied only by Aaron Drake’s original score, placing at the center of the work her signature dancing.

LAUREN WEEDMAN: OFF
In her latest solo performance Lauren Weedman traces her attempts to “trust herself,” even as she struggles with things beyond her control—seeking comfort in hospice work, hanging out with a pair of harassed lesbian moms, and putting her faith in not one but two untalented tattoo artists.

—AND THEN AT THE HAMMER:

Second Nature: The Valentine-Adelson Collection at the Hammer

Through October 4, 2009

Since the mid-1990s, sculpture has developed as a particularly vital and inventive area of artistic practice in Los Angeles. This will be the first public presentation of a selection from the extraordinary gift by Dean Valentine and Amy Adelson to the Hammer. The Valentine-Adelson Collection comprises 50 sculptures by 29 Los Angeles artists, made from 1995 to the present. This collection includes many of the key works by this new generation of artists and captures a significant moment in L.A. art-making that stands out for the abundance of handmade sculpture and the return of the consideration of the tangible object. This exhibition is curated by Douglas Fogle, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Hammer and Ali Subotnick, curator.

Artists included in the exhibition:

Edgar Arceneaux, Frank Benson, Jonathan Pylypchuk (aka Rudy Bust), Xavier Cha, Liz Craft, Sam Durant, Chris Finley, Hannah Greely, Katie Grinnan, Evan Holloway, Matt Johnson, Martin Kersels, Lisa Lapinski, Won Ju Lim, Nathan Mabry, Jason Meadows, Pentti Monkkonen, Ruby Neri, Ry Rocklen, Sterling Ruby, Paul Sietsema, and Eric Wesley.