Robert Wilson Mikhail Baryshnikov Letter To A Man Jansch Lucie by Photo ROBERT WILSON / MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV Fri, Nov 18 LETTER TO A MAN Sat, Nov 19 8PM Direction, set design, lighting concept — Robert Wilson with — Mikhail Baryshnikov Royce Hall Based on the Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky Text by Christian Dumais-Lvowski The performance is in English and Russian with English subtitles Dramaturgy — Darryl Pinckney Music — Hal Willner RUNNING TIME Costumes — Jacques Reynaud Approximately 70 minutes, Collaboration to movements and spoken text — Lucinda Childs no intermission Lighting design — A.J. Weissbard Associate set design — Annick Lavallée-Benny CAP UCLA SPONSOR Associate director — Nicola Panzer CAP UCLA’s presentation made possible Sound design — Nick Sagar / Ella Wahlström by the George C. Perkins Fund and the Video design — Tomek Jeziorski Merle & Peter Mullin Endowment for Assistant director — Fani Sarantari the Performing Arts. Generous support Stage manager — Thaiz Bozano provided by Diane Levine and Bob Wass Stage engineer — Mauro Farina Technical director — Reinhard Bichsel Robert Wilson is a CAP UCLA Fellow. Lighting supervisor — Marcello Lumaca The Fellows Program is dedicated to Stage master — Michele Iervolino celebrating masters of their craft Followspot — Fabio Bozzetta through multi-year presentation Assistant costume designer — Micol Notarianni commitments. CAP UCLA Fellows Make up — Claudia Bastia program is supported in part by Robert Wilson’s assistant — Owen Laub Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Production delegate — Simona Fremder MEDIA SPONSOR A Change Performing Arts and Baryshnikov Productions project Elisabetta di Mambro, Franco Laera — executive producers In association with Huong Hoang Commissioned by Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi, BAM, Cal Performances, University of California Berkeley, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA In collaboration with Teatros del Canal Madrid, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo/Monaco Dance Forum and CRT Teatro dell’Arte A special thanks to The Vaslav and Romola Nijinsky Estate Farrah Strauss & Giroux’s “The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky”, Unexpurgated Edition, edited by Joan Acocella Giorgio Armani “Asylum” and “Flooded Room with Chair” courtesy of James Casebere PROGRAM NOTES MESSAGE FROM THE CENTER As Robert Wilson’s staging of the Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky opens, we find Mikhail Baryshnikov as the troubled dancer in Budapest in 1945. “Listen! I am an artist, so are you. We are artists, and therefore He and his wife have found refuge with her family. These are the final we love each other.” -- from The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky weeks of World War II and battles between German and Russian soldiers rage in the destroyed streets. Nijinsky’s mental health had broken down in Switzerland at the close of the First World War. His Diaries are an This sentence is from Nijinsky’s heartbreaking train of thought extraordinary document of his struggle not to go mad and to understand about performing for, and making small talk with, the wealthy what was happening to him. When he stopped writing his Diary, he patrons he was expected to entertain. He would rather go to locked himself away, as in a tomb. There he remained for more than two Paris, he says, and gather up street artists to dance for them decades, watched over by his wife. But as another catastrophe in Europe and rally their spirits. He wants to tell them the above in the draws to its close, the great artist seems to be coming to life again. We hopes that they will see him for what he is. If they can truly see visit him behind his silence. For Nijinsky, time has stood still. He is alone him, they will know feeling again, and he can be saved. The with his ghosts, especially that of Diaghilev, the impresario who first put wealthy cannot save him with their money, but a fellow artist him on stage before the ballet world. can save him by seeing him, knowing him. ABOUT THE ARTISTS If a painter seeks inspiration from those who came before, he or she can step into a museum. A playwright may delve Born 1948 in Riga, Latvia, Mikhail Baryshnikov is considered one of the into scripts. But in the categories of spoken word and dance, greatest dancers of our time. After commencing his career with the Kirov how does an artist mine the archives of their predecessors Ballet in Leningrad, he came to the West in 1974, settling in New York City in order to create new works? The ephemeral nature of their as principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT). In 1979 he joined performance means, historically, it has been harder to capture. New York City Ballet, where he worked with George Balanchine and Jerome Instead artists must turn to letters, photos, and diaries to find Robbins. A year later he was appointed artistic director of ABT where, new ways of being in dialogue. for the next decade, he introduced a new generation of dancers and choreographers. From 1990-2002, Baryshnikov was director and dancer of Robert Wilson has done just that in this portrait of the troubled the White Oak Dance Project, which he and choreographer Mark Morris artist Vaslav Nijinsky, whose diary and a few photographs--he co-founded to expand the repertoire and visibility of American modern was notoriously difficult to shoot--are all we have to remember dance. As an actor he has performed widely on- and off-Broadway, as him by. But Wilson is not afraid of tough material. His studies well as in television and film, receiving a Tony Award nomination and of artists are at once raw and stylized; paintings of light and a Drama Desk Award for Metamorphosis, and an Academy Award sound and space. nomination for The Turning Point. Other productions include Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and the Patient, Beckett Shorts, In Paris, Man He’s also not afraid to open up the conversation to other artists in a Case, and The Old Woman. He is currently appearing in two solo in order to tackle a subject. This performance in particular is a theatrical productions, Letter to a Man, directed by Robert Wilson and sort of super-collaboration. He has partnered once more with Brodsky/Baryshnikov, directed by Alvis Hermanis. In 2005, he launched dancer, choreographer, and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov. You may Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) in New York City, a creative space for remember their co-creation The Old Woman from our 2014-15 presenting and nurturing multidisciplinary artists from around the globe. season. Tonight’s production was choreographed by Judson Under his leadership as artistic director, BAC’s programs have grown to Dance Theater legend Lucinda Childs, whose creation A Portrait serve up to 700 artists and 22,000 audience members annually. Among (1963-2016) was featured on this season a few weeks ago. Baryshnikov’s many awards are the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Childs and Wilson worked together on Einstein on the Beach -- Medal of Honor, the Commonwealth Award, the Chubb Fellowship, the a co-presentation from CAP UCLA and the Los Angeles Opera. Jerome Robbins Award, and the 2012 Vilcek Award. In 2010, he was given Artists inspire one another, support one another, and find the rank of Officer of the French Legion of Honor. dialogues through art-making. That relationship is something we are proud to foster here. We have been lucky enough to Born in Waco, Texas, Robert Wilson is among the world’s foremost have Wilson as a Fellow for a multi-year commitment, and this theater and visual artists. His works for the stage unconventionally performance marks the end of that arc. Wilson’s prolificacy integrate a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, has given us the opportunity to choose pieces over his time as lighting, sculpture, music and text. His images are aesthetically striking a Fellow that exemplify his ability to create portraits of other and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned the acclaim artists and open up the artist’s dialogue to all of us. of audiences and critics worldwide. After being educated at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Wilson founded the New York- Although Nijinsky was entering into one of the darkest periods based performance collective “The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds” in the of his life, the above quote shows that he still knew the mid-1960s, and developed his first signature works, includingDeafman importance of how artists relate to one another. Furthermore, Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-1975). With Philip he was tapped into the primal desire that we all experience in Glass he wrote the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976). Wilson’s times of pain: to be seen, known, felt. artistic collaborators include many writers and musicians such as Heiner Müller, Tom Waits, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, If you are in pain, know that you are seen. Even if you are not, Lou Reed and Jessye Norman. He has also left his imprint on masterworks know that you are welcome. such as Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande, Goethe’s Faust, Homer’s Odyssey, Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Verdi’s La Traviata. Wilson’s drawings, paintings and sculptures have been presented around the world in hundreds of solo and group showings, and his works are held in private collections and museums throughout the world. Wilson has been honored with numerous awards for excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination, two Premio Ubu awards, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, and an Olivier Award. He was elected to the American collaborations include projects with Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, Luca Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the German Academy of the Ronconi, Daniele Abbado, Marina Abramovic, Bernard Sobel, Peter Arts, and holds 8 Honorary Doctorate degrees.