Performance Schedule For The 2020/2021 Elevator Project Season

The Center is pleased to announce the partial performance schedule for the 2020/2021 season of The Elevator Project, featuring the diverse work of small and emerging arts groups performing on the Center’s campus in the Dallas Arts District. The Elevator Project’s new season will feature productions from eight Dallas-based performing arts companies. Six of the groups have dates and venues confirmed and are now on sale. The details and on-sale dates for the remaining two groups will be announced soon.

The art forms include dance, theatre, music, multi-media, and several explore themes of race, gender and LGBTQ equality. The performances will take place in Hamon Hall in the Winspear Opera House, 6th Floor Studio Theatre in the Wyly Theatre, or outdoors in Sammons Park.

General admission tickets for each show are $29.50 each. Self-parking is $12.00 per show if purchased along with tickets.

The Elevator Project is presented with support from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and TACA.

THE ELEVATOR PROJECT 2020/2021 SEASON

BOMBSHELL DANCE PROJECT
The Great 30

Inspired by the experimental nature of the Elevator Project, the production proposed is an interactive, site-specific, dance performance taking place on a complete tour of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Using the entirety of the campus as a stage, Bombshell Dance Project will lead audiences on an active tour of the Center, including its outdoor spaces, during which they not only change locations with the performers, but also move with them. In many parts of the show, the audience will be asked to move with the performers through very simple choreographed exercises designed to both get the audience moving and activate their creative minds. The show’s title, The Great 30, refers to 30 movements used throughout the performance, although no memorization will ever be necessary. Throughout the performance, the audience will travel with the performers to each location, sometimes moving and sometimes watching pieces of site-specific dance work created by choreographers Emily Bernet and Taylor Rodman to fit these unique spaces. The choreographers are working to be inclusive of a variety of mobility levels and will collaborate with Center staff to ensure seating, assistance moving between locations, and adherence to all ADA regulations.

Performance Schedule (3 performances):
Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House
Thursday, March 25, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 26, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 27, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.

VENA CAVA PRODUCTIONS
Animal Crackers

Set shortly after the 2016 election, Animal Crackers is an absurdist drama about what happens when white people assume that political correctness equates social awareness.

De’Von is your average young black man home from school for fall break. Caroline, his adoptive white mother, is thrilled to have her baby back. However, after a racial slur is spray-painted onto her home, she becomes determined to prove to De’Von that the world is changing for the better, and she and De’Von’s siblings plot to catch whoever did it to make them suffer.

Performance Schedule (6 performances):
Wyly Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6
Thursday, April 8, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.
Friday, April 9, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 10, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 15, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.
Friday, April 16, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 17, 2021 – 8:30 p.m.

TEJAS DANCE
kadAcit-Once Upon a Time

Tejas Dance will transport audiences to a far-away mystical land in India, at a time when humans lived in harmony with nature and our lives were intertwined and cohesive. kadAcit will provide a passage to a world where rules and principles were governed by something much simpler – Love.

Tejas Dance will premiere a theatrical dance production, in Bharatanatyam margam format with an exciting brand-new score. Come experience the whimsical journey through inspiring and exciting stories and poetry.

A traditional Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance form) repertoire is called a Margam. This framework was created in South India in the early 19th century. It is a well-thought-out plan to approach a dance performance in Bharatanatyam. Margam, literally means a path. The sequence of dances in the Margam are set to facilitate the physical and spiritual journey towards self-discovery.

Performance Schedule (3 performances):
Wyly Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6
Thursday, April 29, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 30, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 1, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.

mixtamotus
#DigitalConnection

#DigitalConnection is presented by mixtamotus, a human-digital interface art exploration. It is a diverse collaborative work that blends dance, music, and video mapping to create a weekend-long immersive installation in the 6th Floor Studio Theatre in the Wyly Theatre. The performance concludes with a post-show, behind-the-scenes experience educational component including a facilitated Q&A with the collaborators, photo/video opportunities, and technology playtime. This new work was conceptualized in response to the current siloed social environment in the United States. mm offers #DigitalConnection as commentary on the importance of human connection, community, and creativity in the digital age. We acknowledge the impact of the digital age and create an opportunity to experience and discuss the impact of technology on art, art-making, artists, and our world. Content for this project is sourced from the digital space including Instagram polls, Instagram/Facebook Live conversations, and Instagram Stories ‘Questions’. Connect and contribute to our creative process online. @mixtamtous #DigitalConnection2021 #mixtamotus mixtamotus.com

Performance Schedule (3 performances):
Wyly Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6
Thursday, May13, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 14, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 15, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.

VERY GOOD DANCE THEATRE
TENANTS/TENETS

TENANTS/TENETS is a futurist dance theatre performance that spontaneously generates a fully functioning society in which its community must determine their responsibility to each other, based on their individual identities, in 90 minutes.

Technology (i.e. projections, interactive social media elements, responsive sound cues) will assist in creating the society in which the performance will occur. Throughout the process of creating this work, an interview process will devise the performance which will also create an experiential encounter for the audience, revealing the process behind the performance through engaging the audience in the interview process. This will inform the actions of the performance by both the audience and the performers, while blurring the lines between witness and participant.

Performance Schedule (3 performances):
Wyle Theatre – Studio Theatre Level 6
Thursday, May 27, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 28, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 29, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.

PRISM MOVEMENT THEATER
Lucha Teotl

Lucha Teotl is a new production from Prism Movement Theater featuring a mix of local Dallas acting talent and local luchadores, or wrestlers. Lucha Teotl is an immersive experience, with the audience ringside watching luchadores wearing the masks of Aztec gods, playing out a sincere and exciting wrestling storyline.

This bilingual show follows a young rambunctious male luchador teaming up with a more experienced female luchador to gain the championship title, evoking the epic, multi-year storylines that occur throughout lucha libre. Prism’s goal is to respectfully reflect the high drama and rich cultural history of lucha in a theatrical narrative. They are working with seasoned lucha libre performers in authentically creating the production to represent the community and the craft of this popular entertainment.

Performance Schedule (7 performances):
Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House
Thursday, July 8, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 9, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 10, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 11, 2021 – 2:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 15, 2021 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 16, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 17, 2021 – 8:00 p.m.

VERDIGRIS ENSEMBLE
the national anthems

We were slaves. We were scorned. But now, our future is ours.

In his piece the national anthems, David Lang brings together excerpts of every national anthem to form a sweeping picture of the common human hopes that underpin national identity and ambition. Dallas’ most exciting choral ensemble returns to AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project to perform the TEXAS PREMIERE of David Lang’s the national anthems. Through never-before-seen video projection and choreographed movement, Verdigris Ensemble envelops audiences in innovative multi-sensory storytelling. Relive our shared human history. Experience our collective truth.

We have one wish. We have one goal. And we hear her call.

Performance Schedule (TBD):
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre – Potter Rose Performance Hall

FLEXIBLE GREY THEATRE COMPANY
Bridges: Sisters of Salem

Bridges: Sisters of Salem is the third iteration of Flexible Grey’s popular interview play series, Bridges. Sisters of Salem will focus on women in power and how opinions could sometimes lead to being burned at the stake. Bridges: Sisters of Salem shares stories from modern day women in power and compares their stories to past women who were persecuted for using their own voice. Throughout history, people were hung for often-baseless offenses, and real witchcraft was severely misunderstood. Anyone who was deviant from the expected norm of society was at risk of being accused, often disproportionately poor women and women of color, who still stand to suffer the most today. The image of the witch has persisted both in fear of magic and fear of women themselves; women in leadership positions are still painted this way. This play will be based largely around local women, conducting interviews with female leaders in the Dallas area about their experiences, and how they relate to our society and city. The monologues will be delivered by local actors. This production will serve the Dallas community by lifting local, often-marginalized voices and giving them control of their stories, which will reach beyond traditional theater audiences. Flexible Grey’s use of the Donor Reflecting Pool is intended to be reminiscent of the era where women+ were drowned as punishment and proof of their offenses.

Performance Schedule (TBD):
Hamon Hall – Winspear Opera House