UCLA Live: UCLA Live steps into new year
By David Chang
Sept. 20, 2003 9:00 p.m.
For the past two years, UCLA Live has been tirelessly praised as
eclectic, genre-bending, unconventional, eclectic, avant-garde and
eclectic. With another fruitful season set in motion, nobody seems
to care that UCLA Live has the Los Angeles arts community spoiled
rotten.
The 2003-2004 season features a premium blend of roughly 170
performances in theater, dance, music and spoken word. From
political commentator Michael Moore and dance savant Mikhail
Baryshnikov to legendary percussionist Doudou N’Diaye Rose
and the renowned Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the season
offers artists who are regarded as the best in their field.
Performances will be held at Royce Hall, Schoenberg Hall and the
Freud Playhouse.
“I’m trying to put together a mix of programming so
what you end up with is a very broad range of works,” UCLA
Live director David Sefton said. “It’s not exactly a
philosophy, but more of a checklist. (The process) is a combination
of traveling to see as much as possible and taking recommendations.
For music, I can go by reviews by critics. Theater is less
straightforward. It’s more of a judgment call on my part
since many plays haven’t been seen before.”
Sefton, who came to UCLA in October 2000 after serving as head
of contemporary culture at the Royal Festival Hall in London, has
revolutionized UCLA performing arts in three short years. With his
flair for the eclectic, the Liverpool native has elevated the
program to the top of the West Coast arts and entertainment scene.
This past year’s inaugural International Theater Festival saw
UCLA Live acquire theater performances before they debuted on the
East Coast, specifically in New York.
“It would be immodest of me to suggest that (the turning
point) was last year,” Sefton said. “UCLA has had a
reputation for a long time as a great presenter. What we’re
doing is bringing in work that the country hasn’t seen
before. Obviously, that puts Los Angeles at a different place in
terms of being a major international presenter of
theater.”
The International Theater Festival, which garnered most of last
season’s media attention as well as UCLA Live’s budget,
returns with exclusive debuts of a number of avant-garde troupes
from Europe, such as üBUNG (“Victoria”) and the
Improbable Theatre (“The Hanging Man”). The crowning
jewel is arguably the Globe Theatre’s rendition of
“Twelfth Night,” which will be executed through
“original practices” with props true to
Shakespeare’s time.
“The festival ranges from the very mainstream like the
Globe to the very experimental like Jewess Tattooess,” Sefton
said.
The artist-in-residence tradition (another Sefton creation)
continues this year with innovative music producer Hal Willner.
This season introduces “Our Favorite Writers,” a series
curated by the UCLA English department that features writers
Jeffrey Eugenides, Alice McDermott, Peter Carey, Tobias Wolff,
Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens chatting and reading with UCLA
English professor Mona Simpson.
“I’m just looking for the best writers working in
English now,” Simpson said. “We’re hoping to
create a series of literary writers, famous and obscure, for
students and people in the community who love to read.”
The ’03-’04 season is attempting to surpass the
commercial success of last season, which sold more tickets than any
other UCLA season.
“You just have to cut your profit according to your
means,” Sefton said. “We think we’ve maintained a
level of work that doesn’t look like it has suffered from the
restrictions in funding.”
