The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center has announced their free events and performances for the 2015-16 Arts for Life season. Guests can attend concerts, dance lessons, film screenings and more through this program that complements the theater’s professional performance roster and connects the community to these high-caliber artistic events.
“This season’s Arts for Life events are dazzling art performances carefully selected with quality in mind, as well as experiences that really help the audience engage with dance, music and film,” said Education Coordinator Amanda Meek in a statement.
According to Peter Schelden, external communications coordinator, while Arts for Life regularly provides free bridges to the performing arts for students through its Classroom Connections and Campus Connections initiatives, these Community Connections events are available to anyone and everyone.
The season will begin September 26 with a Shakespeare Aloud community reading of As You Like It at 10:45AM at the University Art Museum. Each month, patrons can participate or just listen to a different work in this exploration of all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays.
In Collaboration with Bill T. Jones is next on the docket, to be screened on September 29. The award-winning Vincent Kay film was shot in 2012 during Jones’ residency at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). According to the release, during the residency the Bill T. Jones/Artie Zane Dance Company worked with CSULB students to produce Reading Mercy & The Artificial Nigger, an iconic work. Jones will return to the Carpenter Center on October 10 to perform a new work entitled Story/Time (pictured above), for which tickets can be purchased here.
This is the first of three Dance Process events, each of which directly complements a Carpenter Center Dance Series performance. The next is Leaping Over Boundaries: A History of the Trocks. This January 19 event will feature archival footage from the 41-year-old all-male drag ballet corps.
To conclude the Dance Process series, Wanna Tap? on March 1 will offer lessons to all ages and abilities on the eve of Rhythmic Circus’ March 5 tap dancing performance.
Also complementing the theater’s professional performance season, classical radio producer Rich Capparela returns on March 8 to discuss and explain the March 10 Boston Brass/Enso String Quartet performance
Notes from the Balcony, which features music inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Capparela will discuss Shakespeare’s influence on both pop and symphonic music.
For music lovers, three free concerts are planned for the upcoming season. The annual Bob Cole Conservatory Showcase Concert on October 14 will feature solo performances by CSULB students from both the jazz and classical traditions. These selections are faculty-curated.
On January 29, pianist and composer Robin Spielberg will perform both traditional favorites and original melodies with insightful stories about the origins of the pieces she performs.
A March 20 performance by the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra rounds out the free concert offerings. This 67-member orchestra, conducted by Mitch Glickman, is the country’s only ensemble exclusively dedicated to blending the worlds of jazz and classical music.
Student actors will take over the Carpenter Center stage on May 1 for Reaching Across the Ocean, the third and final installment of Sparking Curiosity. Sparking Curiosity is a documentary theater experiment featuring both college and high school students writing, staging and performing an original work based on personal interviews. These performances touch on social and political concerns, first in the family, then in the community and, next year, with voices from around the world.
Like Sparking Curiosity, Community Cinema will foster topical conversations about pressing political and social issues. On select Tuesdays, Community Cinema screens a new documentary, with guest speakers, information, resources and other programming to enrich each film experience.
The aforementioned public events make up one of three Arts for Life groups called Community Connections. Campus Connections brings professional artists to CSULB students through classroom visits, master classes and other educational activities. Classroom Connections brings the arts to elementary school classrooms throughout Long Beach and also bring students back to the heater for live performances.
For tickets and more information regarding each event, click here. Potential attendees are encouraged to make ticket reservations for each of these free events.
Photos courtesy of the The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center.