Tag Archives: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Porte Parole presents The Assembly at Clarice Smith, Dec 5-7

Porte Parole presents The Assembly at Clarice Smith, Dec 5-7

Porte Parole
The Assembly
December 5 – 7, 2019 . 8PM

Thu, Dec 5, 2019 . 8:00PM
Fri, Dec 6, 2019 . 8:00PM
Sat, Dec 7, 2019 . 8:00PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Kogod Theatre, general admission.

The bitter polarization of the 2016 American presidential election inspired pioneering Montreal theater company Porte Parole to consider what may sound like a terrifying scenario—having a dinner party with four strangers of very different political persuasions and urging them to discuss their differences over wine. Would they listen? Would they get along? Could they be convinced to change? The Assembly re-creates that scenario, based on a conversation with very real participants, with divergent viewpoints, chosen directly from the University of Maryland community. The actors do their best to conjure those actual strangers and make the play feel like a real-time snapshot of our own very real divides. During the play, the audience is asked to participate, to take their own seat at the table and dig into topics about their community with their community. This is catalyzing art that asks a necessary but seemingly intractable question: how can we change the world without learning to break bread with our neighbors?

During the last two decades, Porte Parole has staged provocative, award-winning works about overseas labor outsourcing, water usage rights, power utilities, agricultural law and police brutality. Named for the French term for spokesperson, Porte Parole was founded by a playwright and actor who understands that the truth often takes on an impossibly amoeboid shape. To get at it, their documentary theater company uses a horde of research, from primary source materials to original interviews, to create plays that fully ponder the complexities of any topic, reflecting a subject’s subtleties the way a painting might capture something a photograph would have missed.

Tickets: Regular $25, Student/Youth $10. Click here.

Maryland Opera Studio present Ariodante at Clarice Smith, Nov 21-25

Maryland Opera Studio present Ariodante at Clarice Smith, Nov 21-25

Ariodante
Maryland Opera Studio
George Frideric Handel, composer
Antonio Salvi after Ludovico Ariosto, librettist
Craig Kier, conductor
Garnett Bruce, stage director

November 21 – 25, 2019

Thu, Nov 21, 2019 . 7:30PM
Fri, Nov 22, 2019 . 7:30PM
Sun, Nov 24, 2019 . 3:00PM
Mon, Nov 25, 2019 . 7:30PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Kay Theatre, reserved seating.

Maryland Opera Studio (MOS) presents Ariodante. After its initial debut, this early 18th century opera by George Frideric Handel fell into oblivion for two centuries. Rediscovered in the 1970s, Ariodante is now considered a Baroque masterpiece for its emotionally evocative arias. Don’t miss this story of royalty, love and intrigue.

Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Join the free Opera Resonates discussion in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library at The Clarice at 1:30PM before the Sunday performance at 3PM.

The fall opera has charmingly become known as the “white opera” since the performers wear simplified white muslin period costumes. The white opera is the art form at its most elemental—the singer, the story and the music take center stage. In addition to the MOS singers, this performance features undergraduate students from UMD Choral Activities and M.F.A. design students from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Under the direction of Craig Kier, the MOS is dedicated to the future of opera. Preparing the next generation of great singers and offering performances ranging from classic repertoire to provocative new works, they are building audiences and advancing the art that sustains them.

Tickets: Regular $25, Student/Youth $10. Click here.

Flyin’ West at Clarice Smith, Nov 1-9

Flyin’ West at Clarice Smith, Nov 1-9

Flyin’ West
Scot Reese, co-director
Alvin Mayes, co-director
Written by Pearl Cleage

November 1 – 9, 2019

Fri, Nov 1, 2019 . 7:30PM
Sun, Nov 3, 2019 . 2:00PM
Sun, Nov 3, 2019 . 7:30PM
Wed, Nov 6, 2019 . 7:30PM
Thu, Nov 7, 2019 . 7:30PM
Fri, Nov 8, 2019 . 7:30PM
Sat, Nov 9, 2019 . 2:00PM
Sat, Nov 9, 2019 . 7:30PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Kogod Theatre, reserved seating.

Set in 1898, Flyin’ West is the vivid and spirited story of African American women pioneers who settle together in the all-black town of Nicodemus, KS. After emancipation, the play’s four women have taken advantage of the Homestead Act to leave the oppressive South in hopes of finding the freedom that had been denied to them for so long. Cleage’s work explores themes of determination, racial pride, intermarriage and the power of love to highlight the female empowerment that she sees as vital to the African American community.

Tickets: Regular $25, Student/Youth $10. Click here.

Once Upon a Mattress in Concert at Clarice Smith, Oct 27

Once Upon a Mattress in Concert at Clarice Smith, Oct 27

Young Artists of America present
Once Upon a Mattress in Concert
Sunday, October 27, 2019 . 4PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Dekelboum Concert Hall, reserved seating.

If you thought you knew the story of The Princess and The Pea, you may be in for a walloping surprise! Did you know, for instance, that Princess Winnifred actually swam the moat to reach Prince Dauntless the Drab? Or that Lady Larken’s love for Sir Harry provided a rather compelling reason that she reach the bridal altar post haste? Or that, in fact, it wasn’t the pea at all that caused the princess a sleepless night?

Carried on a wave of wonderful songs by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers), this rollicking spin on the familiar classic of royal courtship and comeuppance provides for some side-splitting shenanigans. Chances are you’ll never look at fairy tales quite the same way again.

Join Young Artists of America at Strathmore as over 150 talented young instrumentalists and vocalists celebrate the 60th anniversary of this timeless score, as well as that of the Broadway debut of its star, Carol Burnett.

Tickets: Regular/Seniors $28, Student/Youth $20. Click here.

I Have an Idea for a Play and Doubled Bodies at Clarice Smith, Oct 18 & 20

I Have an Idea for a Play and Doubled Bodies at Clarice Smith, Oct 18 & 20

Second Season: “I Have an Idea for a Play” and “Doubled Bodies”
October 18 & 20, 2019

Fri, Oct 18, 2019 . 7:30PM
Sun, Oct 20, 2019 . 2:00PM
Sun, Oct 20, 2019 . 7:00PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Dance Theatre, general admission.

I Have an Idea for a Play
Written by Jordan Resnick
Directed by Katie Arnold

In this Brechtian play about the ticking clock that is life, characters experience existential dread as they become aware of their own status as fictional. Distanced from the imaginary world of the play, the characters navigate themes of female empowerment, sexuality and student loans.

Doubled Bodies
Choreographed by Kristina Harris and Gabriel Mata

Doubled Bodies exposes narratives that are muted by heteronormative gender constructs. Harris and Mata upend expectations about female/male partnering, power dynamics and gendered aesthetics, drawing on in-depth research and their own individual and cultural identities.

Free, no tickets required. Click here.