FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Tamar Fortgang
REDCAT's Publicist and Promotions Manager
fortgang@muse.calarts.edu / 661 253-7724 (Do Not Publish)

New Opera by Richard Foreman and Michael Gordon Launches REDCAT's Third Season

Los Angeles--REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, kicks off its 2005-06 season with the world premiere of What to Wear?, an opera by Richard Foreman and Michael Gordon, produced by Center for New Theater at CalArts, in association with the CalArts New Century Players. Press opening is Wednesday, September 21, at 8:30 pm. This production is for a limited engagement and must close on October 2, 2005.

What to Wear? brings together for the first time the internationally renowned director Richard Foreman and composer Michael Gordon. Foreman's "startlingly original vision and ... commitment to developing new theatrical vocabularies have profoundly influenced the direction of American avant-garde theater" (American Theater). Gordon, one of the founding curators of the Bang on a Can Festival, is concerned with injecting the vitality and relevance of popular forms into the world of modern art music. His special interest in adding dimensionality to the concert experience has led to frequent collaborations with artists in other media.

In Foreman's signature style, this new nonlinear opera is a surreal extravaganza. "I want my plays to be the spark jumping around," says Foreman. "The spark of consciousness, jumping from level to level--and I think that is an experience we all share."

What to Wear? inhabits a world where the greatest evil is ambiguity and there are no clearly defined enemies. Through Foreman's technique of abstraction, attenuation and repetition, characters interact with a world of objects presented to them. The wildly theatrical landscape incorporates a 10-foot snake with a human head, a tank and four giant ducks. Neurotic images flicker continually amidst Foreman's sumptuous and playful diversions.

"We're delighted to welcome Richard Foreman back," says CNT Artistic Director Travis Preston. "Richard's work with us on the critically acclaimed Bad Behavior in 2000 was an extraordinary success. We are also especially pleased to welcome Michael Gordon, an artist with an exceptional new voice."

What to Wear? will be developed at CalArts with support from the Audrey Skirball Kenis/REDCAT Music-Theater Program, funded by The Skirball Foundation. Commissioned by the Ontological-Hysteric Theater with funds provided by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. What to Wear? is a Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA commission and is produced with the support of The Shubert Foundation.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts, is located at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. What to Wear? runs from September 21-October 2, with previews on September 18 and 20. All performances are at 8:30 pm. Complete ticket information will be available at the end of August at www.redcat.org.

REDCAT's 2004-05 season programming is generously supported by The Herb Alpert Foundation; American Center Foundation; The Annenberg Foundation; Anonymous; Asian Cultural Council; Bank Julius Baer; Booth Heritage Foundation; Canada Council for the Arts; Hyon Chough; CONACULTA; Cotsen Family Foundation; CNMAT; Cultural Contact, the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Culture; Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the French Consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco; Jeffrey Deitch; DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art; Discover Signs; Robert B. Egelston; Étant Donnés, The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program of the French American Cultural Exchange; Everloving and Feal Mor, Factory Signage & Graphics; The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE; The J. Paul Getty Trust; Giant Robot; Harriett and Richard Gold; Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg; The Jim Henson Foundation; Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater; The James Irvine Foundation; The Japan Foundation; The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles; Korea Art Foundation of America; The Korea Times; The Korea Culture and Art Foundation; Korea Foundation; The JL Foundation; The Sharon D. Lund Foundation; Meet The Composer, Creative Connections Program; México Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores; National Dance Project; National Endowment for the Arts; Pasadena Art Alliance; Wendy Keys and Donald A. Pels; Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant from The James Irvine Foundation; Lee and Lawrence J. Ramer; Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; Dorothy R. Sherwood; Shiseido Co., Ltd.; The Skirball Foundation; SRE/Consulate of Mexico; Eve Steele and Peter Gelles; Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Stuart Shave; 2K by Gingham; Dallas Price-Von Breda; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Yamaha Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

REDCAT's 2004-05 Season Sponsors are KCRW, Official Public Radio Sponsor and The Standard, Official Hotel.

The Center for New Theater at CalArts was established in 1999 as a forum for the creation of groundbreaking theatrical performance. Seminal artists from around the world are brought to the CNT to develop work that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater. The Center supports a producing model that is artist- and project-specific, giving priority to performance that cannot be easily produced in other circumstances. The CalArts New Century Players is an ensemble devoted to the exploration and exposition of new languages for contemporary music. The ensemble's repertoire emphasizes new forms of composition and collaborative directions in concert music, experimental music, improvisation, world music and improvisation, new media, and other arts. Its core membership comprises professional musicians from CalArts School of Music faculty, regularly augmented by specialists in contemporary music from the broader CalArts and international communities. California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, the first U.S. higher educational institution to integrate the visual and performing arts under one roof, is recognized as the nation's leading laboratory for the arts. Housing six schools-Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater-CalArts embraces creative cross-pollination among diverse art forms and traditions, and strongly encourages each artist to pursue his or her vision within a broad context of social and cultural understanding. Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, REDCAT, is an interdisciplinary arts center that introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the performing, visual and media arts from around the world, and gives artists and future artists in this region the production opportunities and creative support they need to achieve national and international stature.

For information about REDCAT, visit redcat.org
For information about CalArts, visitmuse.calarts.edu

What to Wear? Performance Schedule:

Previews:
Sunday, September 18 @ 8:30 pm
Tuesday, September 20 @ 8:30 pm

Press Opening:
Wednesday, September 21 @ 8:30 pm

Performances:
Thursday, September 22 @ 8:30 pm
Friday, September 23 @ 8:30 pm
Saturday, September 24 @ 8:30 pm
Sunday, September 25 @ 8:30 pm
Tuesday, September 27 @ 8:30 pm
Wednesday, September 28 @ 8:30 pm
Thursday, September 29 @ 8:30 pm
Friday, September 30 @ 8:30 pm
Saturday, October 1 @ 8:30 pm
Sunday, October 2 @ 8:30 pm

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