CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will celebrate its 50th season of performances in 2019-20, after marking this spring the 50th anniversary of the building’s opening.
Krannert Center’s second season of its anniversary celebration, which will kick off with ELLNORA: The Guitar Festival, includes artists who have been part of the center’s history as well as new works that are a collaboration with University of Illinois artists.
Following ELLNORA is a multimedia work by choreographer, writer, director and filmmaker David Rousséve – a Guggenheim Fellow and Bessie Award-winner – and his company REALITY, which produces expressionistic dance/theater pieces that address social issues. “Halfway to Dawn,” co-commissioned by Krannert Center, combines video, theater and music to explore the life and music of jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
“The Song of the Earth – Art, Science, and Humanity” will feature a performance of the work of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, based on ancient Chinese poetry. The performance is a collaboration with the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media (eDream) Institute and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. It will include music from Nathan and Julie Gunn, U. of I. music professors and Lyric Theatre co-directors; science presentations from U. of I. faculty members woven together with music; and imagery and movement conceived by Tai Ji master Chungliang Al Huang.
“Our hope is the evening will leave people with great hope for the future, as well as for their own relationship with Mother Nature and this beautiful planet on which we reside,” said Krannert Center director Mike Ross.
Actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith will perform documentary theater vignettes of some of the characters she portrays based on interviews she has done. Smith’s work blends theater, social commentary and journalism. She also will present a CultureTalk at Krannert Center.
The multimedia show “Harlem 100 – Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance” features a group of artists showcasing the jazz, blues and dance presented at the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club by artists such as Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and Billie Holiday. The show was created in collaboration with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
Drag artist and Champaign-Urbana native Sasha Velour will present “Smoke & Mirrors,” a show that includes drag, visual art, magic and lip synching, and examines gender, fame and family. Velour’s visit is a Center for Advanced Study MillerComm series event, and part of a campuswide celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the beginning of the LGBTQ civil rights movement. Spurlock Museum will host an accompanying exhibit of drag costumes.
Another Champaign-Urbana native and U. of I. alumnus, the singer and songwriter Somi, will perform a fusion of jazz and African music. Her latest album, “Petite Afrique,” tells the stories of immigrants and the gentrification of Harlem’s West African quarter, and it won the 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album.
Award-winning choreographer Tere O’Connor – a U. of I. Center for Advanced Study dance professor – will present “Long Run,” in which dancers engage with the tension between the geometries of the stage, the organic forms of nature and human behavior as they struggle to bring their bodies into a state of calm. The production will be the first time O’Connor’s company has performed at Krannert Center.
Other dance performances include the Bizhiki Culture & Dance Company, a group of Indigenous artists who use traditional song and dance for storytelling. The company has an ongoing relationship with the U. of I., and the Native American House is sponsoring academic presentations in connection with its appearance. The Shanghai Ballet will present “The Butterfly Lovers,” described as a Chinese “Romeo and Juliet” story. Step Afrika! uses percussive dance styles in “Drumfolk,” which explores the drum as an instrument of community and its links to the African American experience.
Jazz performances next season include Grammy Award-winning trumpet player Chris Botti – the largest-selling American instrumental musician – who plays jazz standards as well as pop, rock and classical pieces. Pianist and 22-time Grammy Award winner Chick Corea returns to Krannert Center after 20 years with the Chick Corea Trilogy, with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. Saxophonist Joshua Redman will perform with cornet player Ron Miles, bass player Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade for “Still Dreaming,” a tribute to Redman’s father.
Baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire, playing period instruments, will perform “Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – Rediscovered.” Other classical music shows include Michael Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble, a group formed by Barenboim and Edward Said to bring together Israeli and Arab classical musicians; and the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, playing a program of all-Russian music on its first U.S. tour.
The season includes two a cappella groups: The King’s Singers, a British ensemble, performs pop hits, jazz standards and medieval chants; and the St. Olaf Choir, directed by a U. of I. alum, sings traditional hymns, spirituals and contemporary works.
Other theatrical works include the large-scale performance work “HOME,” in which a house is constructed, burned down, rented and remodeled; residents move in and out, get married and divorced, grow up, die and haunt the house; and, in the end, all those who lived there throw a party, prompting the audience to consider the work of trying to make a house a home. “The Nature of Forgetting” looks at the life of a character with early onset dementia, his experience and what is shared when memory is gone. Cirque FLIP Fabrique’s performance of “Blizzard” uses music and acrobatics to take the audience on a journey through the dead of winter.
The season also includes performances by the Jupiter String Quartet, Krannert Center’s quartet-in-residence; productions of the Illinois theatre and dance departments and Lyric Theatre; and Krannert Center’s Youth Series of shows especially appropriate for children.
Tickets for the 2019-20 season will go on sale at 10 a.m. July 20 and can be purchased online at KrannertCenter.com, by calling 217-333-6280 or in person at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.