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.

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 20^thanniversary 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.

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.

Never afraid to speak her mind, pop culture icon Whoopi Goldberg shares her musings on life and unique observations on current events, coupled with an unscripted audience Q&A, in the Music Center at Strathmore on Saturday, May 27, 2017 at 8 p.m. The woman who blessed the internet with the “you in danger, girl” meme is one of an elite group of artists who have won a Golden Globe plus an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). She is also a prolific producer and well known for her humanitarian endeavors on behalf of children, the homeless, human rights, education, substance abuse, and the battle against AIDS. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 10 a.m.

Born and raised in New York City, Goldberg worked in theatre and improvisation in San Diego and the Bay Area, where she created the characters which became “The Spook Show” and evolved into her hit Broadway show, Grammy-winning album, and the HBO special that helped launch her career.

Goldberg made her motion picture debut in Steven Spielberg’s film version of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, for which she earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award, while her performance in Ghost earned her Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actress. Goldberg has starred in such films as Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Clara’s Heart, The Long Walk Home, Soapdish, Sister Act, Made in America, Boys on the Side, Ghosts of Mississippi, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted, and The Lion King, among others.  She appeared in the 2015 feature film adaption of Adriana Trigiani’s beloved novel, Big Stone Gap, opposite Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, and Jenna Elfman.

Goldberg’s many television credits range from series, mini-series, and talk shows to movies and specials. She currently moderates ABC’s The View, for which she has won a Daytime Emmy.

Goldberg has also produced numerous series, specials, and movies for television, as well as theatrical productions on Broadway and around the world, including the Tony Award-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie and the Tony-nominated Sister Act: The Musical. She produced and made her directorial debut with the Emmy-nominated documentary Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival before its critically-acclaimed run on HBO. Goldberg and business partner Tom Leonardis produced the docu-series According to Alex for BET and Strut, an original series which follows transgender models breaking down barriers in the world of fashion, for Oxygen.

Whoopi’s Broadway credits include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Xanadu. She made her West End stage debut in a special limited run as Mother Superior in Sister Act: The Musical in 2011.

In 1992, Whoopi made her debut as an author with her first children’s book, Alice.  She also wrote Whoopi’s Big Book of Manners and the Sugar Plum Ballerinas book series for young readers. Her books for adults include Book, Is It Just Me?, and If Someone Says “You Complete Me”…Run!.