Founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti and his contemporaries, the Spoleto Festival celebrates works from various artistic disciplines including opera, theatre, music theatre, dance, chamber, symphonic, choral and jazz music, as well as the visual arts.

Among the theatrical presentations scheduled for the May 23-June 8 festival are the critically acclaimed musical spectacle Monkey: Journey to the West; New York performance artist Taylor Mac in The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac; the London-based cabaret company 1927's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea; poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph's the break/s; the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company presentation of Sophocles' The Burial at Thebes; and Hotel Modern's The Great War.

In addition to the festival's offerings, award-winning performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson will present Homeland; and Anthony and Thulani Davis will see a newly revised staging of their historic opera Amistad.

Previous Spoleto Festival commissions have included Peter and Wendy by Lee Breuer, Creve Coeur by Tennessee Williams and The American Clock by Arthur Miller.

For further information and tickets for the 2008 Spoleto Festival, visit www.spoletousa.org.