Wednesday, April 12 (7 p.m.)
“54” (Miramax, 1998, R-rated*)
An American drama film written and directed by Mark Christopher about Studio 54, a world-famous New York City disco club.
Events are free and open to the public. Free tickets are required for admission to all activities. Tickets will be available beginning at 10:00 a.m. on March 30at this website. A limited number of press credentials will also be available for reservation. The deadline to reserve credentials for lectures, the symposium, and the dance party is Friday, April 28. Some of the events will be live-streamed on the Library’s Facebook page at facebook.com/libraryofcongress and its YouTube channel at youtube.com/LibraryOfCongress. All programs will take place at the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., or at its James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., both in Washington, D.C.
The excitement can be followed on Twitter at @librarycongress and #LCDisco.
4/25 – Washington, DC – Drafthouse Comedy – tickets
4/27 – Pittsburgh, PA – Arcade Comedy Theater – tickets
4/30 – Indianapolis, IN – White Rabbit Cabaret – tickets
5/2 – Nashville, TN – Zanies – tickets
5/3 – Asheville, NC – currently funding via Kickstarter
5/5 – Raleigh, NC – Kings – tickets
As much as Jonathan Larsen’s unprecedented Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent impacted popular culture, it also transformed the lives of the actors that embodied a group of young friends trying to forge a life for themselves in New York’s bohemian East Village. 20 years after Rent’s Broadway debut, original cast members Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp reunite at the Music Center at Strathmore on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 8 p.m. to commemorate this cultural touchstone and 20 years of friendship. The concert of duets and solos will include originals, reimagined Broadway classics, and favorites from Rent. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.
Throughout the set, the duo will share stories about their careers, including what it was like working on one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history. Rent has proved a thread throughout their careers that has periodically brought the two back together—prior to the 20thanniversary concert tour, both reprised their Rent roles during the national tour in 2009.
Tony-nominated Adam Pascal recently returned to Broadway’s Nederlander Theater, where Rent lived for years, in the new musical Disaster! Since his days playing Roger in Rent, Pascal has starred in Aida, Chicago, and Memphis. He is currently playing Shakespeare in the national tour of Something Rotten!
After originating the role of Mark in Rent, Anthony Rapp went on to originate another character in If/Then alongside previous Rent co-star Idina Menzel, which debuted at Washington, D.C.’s National Theatre. He wrote the book Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, about the demands of life in the theater during his mother’s battle with cancer, which he later adapted into a one-man show. It was recently announced that Rapp will star as “astromycologist” Lt. Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access, the first series developed specifically for this platform and the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise (2005). Stamets is also the first openly gay character conceived for the Star Trek franchise.
WHAT: On May 5th, the award-winning Hay-Adams, located steps from the White House at 800 16th Street, NW, 20006, will host its next Author Series luncheon honoring Sally Bedell Smith to discuss her latest work, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life. The Hay-Adams Author Series, where literary crowds honor literary masters, is an on-going event, which hosts outstanding writers in a historic setting, directly overlooking the White House at Top of the Hay. One will enjoy exceptional food, drink and lively conversation. Tickets are priced at $90 per person (all inclusive), which includes a three-course, prix fixe menu with wine pairings. The menu, themed around the book, will be created by Vice President & General Manager Hans Bruland and Executive Chef Nicolas Legret.
Additionally, Kramerbooks (http://kramers.com) will be on hand so guests will have the opportunity to purchase a copy of Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, which Bedell can sign and personalize after the luncheon. Tickets go on sale April 10, 2017 and will be available online at http://hayadams.com/author-
WHO: Sally Bedell Smith is an American historian and author specializing in biographies of American political, cultural, and business leaders, as well as members of the British Royal Family. She has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and is the current editor-in-chief of National Journal Daily.
In her latest book, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, Smith returns to the British royal family to delve into the life of Prince Charles. This eye-opening biography is the first authoritative treatment of Charles’s life that sheds light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne one day. With keen insight and the discovery of unexpected new details, Smith lays bare the contradictions of a man who is more complicated, tragic, and compelling than we knew, until now.
Sally Bedell Smith was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. from Wheaton College and her M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Mrs. Smith currently resides in Washington D.C. with her husband, Stephen G. Smith.
WHEN: The luncheon will be held on Top of The Hay on Friday, May 5th, 2017, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. (doors open at 11:30 a.m.).
WHERE: The Hay-Adams is located at 800 16th Street, NW, Washington DC, 20006, across Lafayette Square from the White House. The historic Hay-Adams offers guests Washington’s most prestigious address with views overlooking the White House, Lafayette Square and St. John’s Church, the “Church of the Presidents.” The hotel is just minutes from the Smithsonian, the Museums, the Washington Monument, the National Mall, as well as convenient to Metro stations and the convention center. For reservations or more information call (202) 638-6600 or visit their website atwww.hayadams.com.
Charlotte Hollister Annual Gala |
What: Charlotte Hollister Annual Gala at the Arlington Arts Center Featuring: Jane Franklin Dance Directions to the Arlington Arts Center at DIRECTIONS Details: About Charlotte Hollister Annual Gala Tickets: ONLINE – http://www.janefranklin.com, $100 (VIP: online access to silent auction) |
PAUL D. MILLER aka DJ SPOOKY: REBIRTH OF A NATION
Tuesday, May 23, 2017, 8 p.m.
By Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Featuring Sound Impact
Eisenhower Theater–from $19
Conceived as a reimagining of director D.W. Griffith’s infamously racist 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation, DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation is a culturally significant project that examines how “…exploitation and political corruption still haunt the world to this day, but in radically different forms.” Today, more than a century since the release of The Birth of a Nation, the project continues to be presented internationally, engaging audiences in themes of civil rights and freedom, seen through the lens of DJ Spooky’s unique art of remixing. Dr. King once said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”—one of the drivers behind Miller’s work is influenced by this. “I try to give people thought tools for mindfulness, or for thinking about the patterns we inhabit as not fixed of locked down, but changeable. It’s the beauty of that, which makes life worth living.” The Kennedy Center debut of Rebirth of a Nation is a multimedia performance featuring a string quartet from D.C.-based music ensemble Sound Impact. Two violins, a viola, and a cello will accompany three screen video projections, controlled live on stage by DJ Spooky.
THE WASHINGTON BALLET
Frontier
Thursday, May 25–27, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Opera House-from $25
The Washington Ballet, in a self-presentation at the Kennedy Center, has independently commissioned Frontier, choreographed by former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Ethan Stiefel, inspired by President Kennedy and his aspirations for America as a leader of artistic, cultural, and intellectual excellence. His historic May 25, 1961 “Urgent Needs” address to the United States Congress serves as the impetus for this work. The seminal speech launched what became a legacy in U.S. space travel and exploration. Stiefel investigates space exploration through the perspective of the astronaut, delving into the emotional and physical rigors required for space travel. While Kennedy used space as a model for national achievement, Stiefel uses his art as a conveyance for this message and for Kennedy’s affirmation that America must fulfill a desire to achieve and be exceptional in the arts.
THE WASHINGTON BALLET
Frontier
Thursday, May 25–27, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Opera House-from $25
The Washington Ballet, in a self-presentation at the Kennedy Center, has independently commissioned Frontier, choreographed by former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Ethan Stiefel, inspired by President Kennedy and his aspirations for America as a leader of artistic, cultural, and intellectual excellence. His historic May 25, 1961 “Urgent Needs” address to the United States Congress serves as the impetus for this work. The seminal speech launched what became a legacy in U.S. space travel and exploration. Stiefel investigates space exploration through the perspective of the astronaut, delving into the emotional and physical rigors required for space travel. While Kennedy used space as a model for national achievement, Stiefel uses his art as a conveyance for this message and for Kennedy’s affirmation that America must fulfill a desire to achieve and be exceptional in the arts.
KENNEDY CENTER OPEN HOUSE: CELEBRATING JFK AT 100
Saturday, May 27, 2017, 12 p.m.–10 p.m.
With world premiere commission and activities for all
Campus-wide–FREE
In celebration of John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday, the Kennedy Center will host an Open House. This free event welcomes the public to explore and experience the performing arts through the halls, theaters, and plazas of the Kennedy Center through more than 30 free performances, activities and events for all ages and tastes. The arts program will feature artists from across the U.S., the Washington, D.C. region, and abroad.
Highlights include:
- Bandaloop, the pioneers of vertical dance, will present multiple performances suspended from the roof of the Kennedy Center throughout the day.
- Company E, a D.C-based contemporary dance company, will perform a Kennedy Center JFK Centennial-commissioned work and world premiere, (In) Security or Jack and Nikki Do the Cold War Tango, in the Grand Foyer using both Millennium Stages simultaneously to explore the John F Kennedy/ Nikita Khrushchev relationship.
- Flexn will present five different performances throughout the day in the Eisenhower Theater of flex dance which is an electrifying form of street dance evolved from Jamaican bruk-up and reggae. Each performance will be in a different format (solo, two-on-two battles, full company), and each focusing on one of the five JFK Centennial ideals as well as opening with a discussion of the works by Peter Sellars and Reggie Gray.
- Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music, and Media will return with a skate park and music stage open and active throughout the day on the plaza.
- Citizen Artist Fellow Paige Hernandez and Baye Harrell will perform “All the Way Live!” in the Family Theater.
- The National Memorial Day Choral Festival in the Concert Hall will present patriotic repertoire which will include works that celebrate President Kennedy such as the “Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Inauguration,” and “To the Moon.”
- Local Washington Ballet will participate in Open House activities by presenting their independent commission Frontier.
All of the programming in the three largest theaters and the Grand Foyer will explore and celebrate the legacy of President Kennedy.
THE WASHINGTON BALLET
Frontier
Thursday, May 25–27, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Opera House-from $25
The Washington Ballet, in a self-presentation at the Kennedy Center, has independently commissioned Frontier, choreographed by former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Ethan Stiefel, inspired by President Kennedy and his aspirations for America as a leader of artistic, cultural, and intellectual excellence. His historic May 25, 1961 “Urgent Needs” address to the United States Congress serves as the impetus for this work. The seminal speech launched what became a legacy in U.S. space travel and exploration. Stiefel investigates space exploration through the perspective of the astronaut, delving into the emotional and physical rigors required for space travel. While Kennedy used space as a model for national achievement, Stiefel uses his art as a conveyance for this message and for Kennedy’s affirmation that America must fulfill a desire to achieve and be exceptional in the arts.