Works & Process, the Performing-Arts Series at the Guggenheim, Announces Spring 2018 Season

Highlights: • Commissions by Ryan McNamara, Jodi Melnick, and Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung • Music of Golden Globe Award-winning series Mozart in the Jungle • Behind-the-scenes access to Carousel, and Jerry Springer—The Opera • American Theatre, Jacob's Pillow, , and Washington Ballet previews • Breaking Bread with Balanchine on Russian Easter with Meryl Rosofsky and dancers

“An exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process” —The New York Times

(NEW YORK, NY – December 4, 2017)—Works & Process at the Guggenheim is pleased to announce its spring 2018 season. Since 1984 the performing-arts series has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to leading creators and performers. Programs explore the creative process through stimulating artist discussions and riveting performance highlights. Each 70-minute program takes place in the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Peter B. Lewis Theater. Additional information is available at worksandprocess.org.

Lead funding for Works & Process is provided by The Florence Gould Foundation, The Christian Humann Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Spring 2018 Season Schedule

The New Group: Jerry Springer—The Opera Monday, January 8, 7:30 pm Prior to the opening of Jerry Springer—The Opera, cocreator Richard Thomas (music, book, lyrics; book by Stewart Lee) and director John Rando discuss the process behind this gleefully profane

musical that outrageously celebrates the ritual of public humiliation and redemption. Cast members perform highlights, illuminating the chaos and unrestrained id of our times.

DANCE COMMISSION Battleground Ryan McNamara Wednesday–Friday, January 10–12, 7:30 pm Following the sold-out premiere of Battleground in 2016, Works & Process presents an encore of this one-of-a-kind “Cosplay-Battle-Ballet” made in and for the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed theater. Three squads of performers—the Red Choir Loft, the Green Balcony, and the Blue Stage— battle for dominance with audience members acting as embedded witnesses.

DANCE COMMISSION One of Sixty-Five Thousand Gestures/NEW BODIES Jodi Melnick with Jared Angle, Sara Mearns, and Taylor Stanley Sunday and Monday, January 14 and 15, 7:30 pm Works & Process -presents an encore of choreographer Jodi Melnick’s sold-out 2016 commission, NEW BODIES. This work weaves together dance, spoken text, and moderated discussion with live music, featuring New York City Ballet dancers Jared Angle, Sara Mearns, and Taylor Stanley, with harpsichord by composer György Ligeti, violin by composer Heinrich Biber, and commissioned music by Robert Boston. The evening also includes a performance of the solo One of Sixty-Five Thousand Gestures, choreographed by Trisha Brown and Jodi Melnick.

A New Carousel Jack O’Brien and Justin Peck Sunday, February 4, 7:30 pm Rodgers & Hammerstein’s timeless musical returns to Broadway for the first time in over two decades. The new production features by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck and direction by Jack O’Brien. Prior to the Broadway opening of Carousel, cast members perform excerpts of new choreography, and Peck and O’Brien discuss the creative process behind this new presentation of a musical drama that has captivated theatergoers for generations.

Mozart in the Jungle: Inside the Music Sunday, February 11, 3 and 7:30 pm Audiences are invited inside the world of Mozart in the Jungle, the Emmy and Golden Globe Award– winning television series set in the orbit of the fictional New York Symphony. The Amazon show has featured performances by artists including Joshua Bell and Plácido Domingo, who sang on a raft in a Venetian canal with fictional opera diva “La Fiamma” (played by Monica Bellucci), conducted by Maestro Rodrigo de Souza (Gael García Bernal), and cameos by composers Nico Muhly and Caroline Shaw. At Works & Process, Shaw joins showrunner Will Graham and creative consultant Elena Park in a program that takes the audience inside the music, including performances by Shaw of music that was originally created for the television series.

The Metropolitan Opera: Così fan tutte Peter Gelb, Christopher Maltman, Phelim McDermott, and Kelli O’Hara

Monday, February 12, 7:30 pm Prior to the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere of Così fan tutte, general manager Peter Gelb leads a panel discussion about the company’s new production, which sets Mozart’s masterpiece in a carnivalesque, funhouse environment inspired by 1950s Coney Island. The panel includes baritone Christopher Maltman, who sings Don Alfonso; production director Phelim McDermott; and soprano and Broadway star Kelli O’Hara, who sings Despina. Members of the cast perform excerpts from the opera.

The Washington Ballet Julie Kent and Gemma Bond Sunday and Monday, February 25 and 26, 7:30 pm A champion of new choreography, Washington Ballet artistic director Julie Kent and corps de ballet member Gemma Bond discusses Bond’s newest work. Washington Ballet dancers perform highlights from a new commision by Bond prior to the March 14 premiere in Washington, D.C.

LA Phil/Beth Morrison Projects: Place Ted Hearne, Patricia McGregor, and Saul Williams Monday, March 5, 7:30 pm A modern-day oratorio, Place explores a country at a crossroads, where manifest destiny and gentrification meet history and personal experience. The creators discuss their collaboration and the complex and contentious map of the place we call home. Actors Steven Bradshaw and Allison Semmes perform highlights prior to the premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (April 2018), Barbican Centre, London (May 2018), and in New York (fall 2018).

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis: An American Soldier David Henry Hwang and Huang Ruo Sunday, March 18, 7:30 pm Excerpts are performed from this new two-act opera based on the true story of Danny Chen, proud American and son of Chinese immigrants residing in Manhattan’s Chinatown. After enlisting in the U.S. Army, Chen is welcomed in boot camp, but in Afghanistan, his own base becomes enemy territory as military hazing turns deadly, posing powerful questions about what it means to be an American. Librettist David Henry Hwang and composer Huang Ruo discuss their collaboration with Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of the Museum of Chinese in America, prior to the opera’s premiere in Saint Louis.

Presented in association with the Museum of Chinese in America, New York.

Prurience Christopher Green An experiential entertainment about our private pleasures . . . March 20–31 For performance times, please visit worksandprocess.org Location: The Wright restaurant at the Guggenheim After interviewing neuroscientists, sociologists, addiction experts, and therapists, writer and performer Christopher Green presents an immersive theater experience inviting audiences to attend a fictional

self-help group that takes a playful look at how sex and pornography are consumed. Questioning the side effects of porn, Green asks audiences to consider if society is in the grip of an actual addiction or a moral panic.

COSTUME AND DANCE COMMISSION Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung Sunday, March 25, 7:30 pm Monday, March 26, 7:30 pm Costume design takes center stage in this new work devised by designers Reid & Harriet Design in collaboration with their favorite clients and dance makers, Lar Lubovitch, Pam Tanowitz, Jack Ferver, Gwen Welliver, and Burr Johnson.

Nederlands Dans Theater Sol León and Paul Lightfoot Saturday, March 31, 7:30 pm This performance offers behind-the-scenes access to the Nederlands Dans Theater’s U.S. tour. Company dancers perform highlights from Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Shoot the Moon (2006), with music by Philip Glass; and Singulière Odyssée (2017), featuring music by . León and Lightfoot participate in a moderated discussion.

Breaking Bread with Balanchine Meryl Rosofsky Sunday and Monday, April 8 and 9, 7:30 pm Legendary choreographer George Balanchine was also a great cook. Food scholar Meryl Rosofsky previews her “culinary biography” of the dance master, showing how his relationship to food illuminates forces—cultural, geographic, political—that shaped him as an artist. Joining her are special guests who danced or dined with Balanchine. Dancers from New York City Ballet perform excerpts.

In conjunction with the program, The Wright restaurant at the Guggenheim will offer special dishes from Balanchine’s repertoire, including his paskha and kulich, which he made each year for his famous Russian Easter feasts. Reservations for this special dinner will be accepted starting in March call 212 427 5690 or visit OpenTable.

BALANCHINE is a trademark of the George Balanchine Trust.

American Ballet Theatre: AFTERITE Wayne McGregor Sunday and Monday, April 29 and 30, 7:30 pm Utilizing Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring as inspiration, resident choreographer Wayne McGregor presents a new work that reconceptualizes the seminal work. McGregor and American Ballet Theatre dancers present excerpts of AFTERITE prior to its New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera.

Ephrat Asherie Dance: Odeon Sunday, May 6, 7:30 pm

Ephrat Asherie, a 2016 Bessie Award–winner, discusses her newest work prior to its Jacob’s Pillow premiere with festival director Pamela Tatge. Dancers and musicians perform highlights and explore what happens when from the African diaspora—including breaking, hip hop, house, and vogue— intersect and remix with the music of Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.

Location: Peter B. Lewis Theater (unless otherwise noted) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street Subway: 4, 5, 6, or Q train to 86th Street Bus: M1, M2, M3, or M4 bus on Madison or Fifth Avenue

Tickets: $45, $40 members $10 student rush tickets one hour before performance, based on availability (for students under 25 with valid ID) Priority ticket access and preferred seat selection starts December 4, 2017, for $500+ Friends of Works & Process and Guggenheim members at the Associate level and above. General ticketing starts December 13, 2017. For more information, call 212 758 0024 or 212 423 3587, Mon–Fri, 1–5 pm, or visit worksandprocess.org. guggenheim.org/social #WorksandProcess

#1506 February 20, 2018 (Updated from December 4, 2017)

For more information, press tickets, and photos, or to arrange interviews, please contact: Duke Dang, General Manager Works & Process at the Guggenheim 212 758 0024 [email protected]

Michelle Tabnick, Publicist Works & Process at the Guggenheim 646 765 4773 [email protected]

May Yeung, Publicist Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 212 423 3840 [email protected]