Peak Performance Series Will Feature Liz Lerman, Richard Schechner and Bill T. Jones | Playbill

Related Articles
News Peak Performance Series Will Feature Liz Lerman, Richard Schechner and Bill T. Jones The Peak Performance series has announced its 2014-15 season, which will include 14 premieres of theatre, dance and music.

The season, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of The Peak Performance series, will also mark the opening of its home, the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, in Montclair, NJ.

The season will open with the world premiere of Imagining O, a work that merges Shakespeare's Ophelia and O from Pauline Réage's 1954 erotic novel, "Story of O." The two mingle with other women who die in Shakespeare's plays.

"In the latest devised work from maverick director and pioneering performance theorist Richard Schechner, nothing is off-limits as performers guide you through the space from stage to wings, dressing rooms to lobby," press notes state. "Imagining O — part theater, part dance, part installation art — investigates sexuality and artistry, abjection and power as imagined by Hamlet's Ophelia, O from Pauline Réage's Story of O, and the ensemble." Performances run Sept. 11-13.

Healing Wars, a work by Liz Lerman that explores the aftermath of war, will be presented Sept. 25-28.

"How do soldiers returning from the battlefield recover from their wounds? How do doctors and nurses mend the injuries they have suffered, seen and unseen?" press notes state. "Trailblazing choreographer Liz Lerman returns to Peak Performances with Healing Wars, a profoundly relevant and deeply moving new work. Through spoken word, video, and dance, Healing Wars reaches across the centuries to connect the modern wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American Civil War. The ensemble of professional performers is joined onstage by a young Navy veteran whose presence personalizes the tribute that this brilliant, deftly nuanced production pays to all soldiers and healers, past and present." An Evening with Richard Schechner, director of Imagining O and professor of performance studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, will be presented Oct. 1 at 7 PM. The annual public forum will focus on the state of the arts as viewed by prominent contemporary artists and thinkers.

The American premiere of Apropos will be presented Oct. 16-19. Here's how the production is billed: "With trademark playfulness and wit, The Symptoms, Hungary's premiere contemporary dance/theater company, ponders the critical questions of aging. When will I lose my virginity? Will I find work I love? How do I balance work with parenthood? Do I have enough money to retire? How long will I keep my looks? Will I ever have sex again?"

The season will also include the Richard Alston Dance Company (Oct. 30-Nov. 2) and the world premiere of BIll T. Jones' Analogy, which will run June 18-21, 2015. The piece explores the nature of memory, combining a new score by Nick Hallett with German Lieder and songs from the two world wars.

A complete schedule and more information are available by visiting peakperfs.com

 
RELATED:
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!