News & Media

The Redfern Arts Center Announces Spring 2021 Season of Dynamic Digital Programming

The Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College announces its spring season, welcoming artists for virtual residencies and presenting compelling, multifaceted arts experiences that celebrate ingenuity and contribute to the health and well-being of campus and community members. While the Redfern remains closed due to current state and College Covid-19 restrictions, the spirit of the Redfern remains alive and active. All season our virtual stages provide audiences in the Monadnock region with a window into what artists are creating during these turbulent times with a varied line-up of online programming, including music, theatre, dance, performance, and engagement offerings with visiting artists.

From February through May, the Redfern will present four virtual artist residencies and performances, innovative productions from Keene State’s Theatre and Dance department, a steady stream of music series from the Keene State Department of Music, a new season of the Redfern’s monthly podcast series called Inside the Redfern, and ongoing behind-the-scenes glimpses into how the Redfern is thriving through this pandemic and engaging with communities in Cheshire County. Performance updates are ongoing and will be available on Redfern’s website at http://www.keene.edu/arts/redfern.

Kicking off the Spring season, the Keene State Music Department will present a free, virtual Faculty Performance Series concert on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. entitled Moving Forward/ Looking Backwards, featuring KSC Professor of Music Dr. Christina Wright-Ivanova, piano with HUB New Music, and Ashley Stone, mezzo-soprano, in a performance that observes our history while celebrating our future. Works include themes of immigration, hope, survival, childhood, and overcoming and inspires the audience to think of their own individual journeys. The concert includes compositions from Joseph Schwantner, Pierre Jalbert, J.S. Bach, Professor of Music Dr. Heather Gilligan, and more. Called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” by The Boston Globe, HUB New Music is forging new pathways in 21st-century repertoire. HUB New Music will offer a public talk at 2 p.m. on the 17th for all audiences.

On Saturday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. the Faculty Performance Series features A Performance and Conversation with Composer Michael Grebla, winner of the 2020 Call for Scores competition. Over the course of the semester, the Keene State Music Department offers prolific world-class and international performance series, including the Faculty Performance Series, Music Ensemble Recital Series, Student Recital Series, Workshops with guest artists, and more.

From February 25-29, Maine-based artist Sara Juli’s Burnt-Out Wife takes on topics such as intimacy, loneliness, monogamy, and other marital taboos. Juli employs her comedic text-driven dance style to explore the decay and detritus of marriage with equal parts wit and vulnerability. Taking place in a Pepto-Bismol pink bathroom, this evening-length dance-theater-comedy will spark intimate conversations while blowing up the institution with humor, reflection, and a complete re-imagining. The performance runs 60 minutes, will premiere on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. and be available on-demand through Sunday, February 29. Burnt-Out Wife is for mature audiences only.

“Burnt-Out Wife isn’t a dance show. It’s an everything show performed by one woman who knows how to use movement to get her point across,” says DanceInforma. Created and performed by Sara Juli with dramaturgy by Michelle Mola, set design by Pamela Moulton, costumes by Carol Farrell, sound design by Ryan MacDonald, and lighting design by KSC alumnus Justin Moriarty. The performance is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

On March 3-4, the Flamenco Dance Project will provide a virtual residency and performance excerpts of their piece Flamenquando! on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. Flamenco Dance Project is a company of artists dedicated to the evolving art of Flamenco dance and music. Founded in 2009 by Sabrina Avilés, its mission is to promote intercultural understanding, community growth, and cultural diversity by showcasing the exceptional talents of US-based flamenco performers. Avilés has performed extensively throughout New England in major venues such as the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out Series, and the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. During their Keene residency, the artists will offer workshops on the history and structure of Flamenco Music and Dance and will explore flamenco as a modern art form.

Dan Froot and Company (DF&Co) will conduct a five-day virtual performance residency during the week of March 15. DF&Co will intersect with a variety of campus and community groups focusing on food insecurity and community health. Residency activities include Instagram takeovers, TikTok challenges, guest classes and workshops at Keene State College, and listening parties of the company’s Pang! Podcast, an immersive audio iteration of the project (Pang! has been downloaded over 2,800 times in 30 countries). From March 17-19 at 6 p.m., the company will perform excerpts from their evening-length performance, Pang!, involving three short radio plays based on real families around the country who are living with food insecurity. The performances will be co-hosted with the departments of Public Health, the Wellness Center, and the Keene Kids Housing Collaborative, with each performance followed by virtual “Kitchen Table” community forums, providing space to socialize, eat, and dialogue across socio-economic lines.

The Theatre and Dance program at Keene State presents the musical The Last Five Years, written by Jason Robert Brown, from March 30- April 3, 2021. The show explores the five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. The work originally premiered at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre in 2001 and has since had numerous productions both in the United States and internationally. The KSC production, directed by Kirstin Riegler, Associate Professor in Theatre and Dance, will feature a double cast, inviting multiple experiences of the characters’ gender and relationship dynamics.

From April 19-22, David Dorfman Dance rounds out the Redfern’s virtual artist residency series with workshops, class visits, a community brown-bag conversation, and a behind-the-scenes presentation of their new work A(Way) Out of My Body on April 22 at 7:30 p.m. Created by award-winning, internationally recognized choreographer David Dorfman, (A)Way Out Of My Body uses the “out of body” experience as a metaphor for our times. During the evening presentation, Dorfman and company members will unpack the themes and the creative process while video excerpts of the production and process shall be incorporated as part of the evening event along with a Q&A session with the audience. DDD creates innovative, inclusive, movement-based performance that is radically humanistic. The residency marks a return to Keene for the company, who were in residence at the Redfern in January 2021 to develop A(Way) Out of My Body, and who have contributed work for the Theatre and Dance program’s 2019 Evening of Dance performance.

Ingenuity and resilience continue to be the underlying themes of Redfern’s monthly podcast series, Inside the Redfern. Developed as a partnership with the KSC Department of Journalism, Multimedia, and Public Relations, the podcast explores how and why artists, students, and faculty at the Redfern create, collaborate, and share their work, providing listeners with more connection to the arts in Keene. This season, Inside the Redfern is joined by new co-host Kirstin Riegler, Associate Professor in Theatre and Dance. Episodes can be accessed via Redfern’s website http://www.keene.edu/arts/redfern or https://redfernarts.podbean.com/.

The Spring 2021 Season is supported through the generous funding of the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, The Kingsbury Fund, C&S Wholesale Grocers, and Frazier & Sons.

Redfern in-person events are open only to faculty, staff, and students who have been approved to be on campus. Virtual performances and activities are free to audiences, with some events requiring a registration process. Attendees are encouraged to make a contribution in lieu of purchasing a ticket, or purchasing a membership to support the breadth of cultural programming that audiences value at the Redfern. For questions regarding upcoming events, call the Box Office 603-358-2168 or email boxoffice@keene.edu. Audience members are encouraged to sign up for Redfern’s newsletter for more information and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @RedfernArtsCenter.

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