Redfern Arts Center 26th Season Has an International Flavor

KEENE, NH 7/21/06 - Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond’s 2006-2007 Presenting Series will have a strong international flavor when it opens on Thursday, September 14th with the premiere of The Story of the Dog. The production is a collaboration of Sovanna Phum from Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Sandglass Theater of Putney, Vermont. It features award-winning rod puppetry, Cambodian dance and shadow puppetry, and original live music played on authentic Cambodian musical instruments.

In fact, the Redfern’s twenty-sixth season will have a strong international presence. “I like to think that this year’s Presenting Series is bringing a bit of the world to the region,” remarked the Redfern’s Director, Bill Menezes, upon announcing the season.

The fall will also find a visit by the Chilean folk ensemble Inti-Illimani. The “Intis” are considered the foremost Latin-American folk ensembles performing today and have been entertaining audiences for over 40 years. They will be heard in two performances on Wednesday, October 24 the first, a special morning school performance followed by an evening performance for the general public.

On Wednesday and Thursday, February 14 and 15 Dancing Across Borders will meld the talents of dancers and musicians of Montreal and New England. It continues the Redfern’s commitment to support Canadian artists. On Saturday, February 24the hypnotic, percussive music and dance of Bali and the South Seas will echo throughout the Arts Center when the Northeast’s foremost gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Galak Tika, will make its area debut.

Returning for its eighth year is the popular British/American theatre ensemble, Aquila Theatre Company, in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Company will appear in two performances on Wednesday, September 27, the first a morning school performance followed by an evening performance for the general public.

The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company will explore the world of Greek and Roman mythology with Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The production is co-presented with Keene’s Colonial Theatre and will be seen in a special school performance Friday, November 3 and for the general public on Saturday evening, November 4.

KSC’s Department of Theatre and Dance will produce Aeschylus’s Agamemnon in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire and Plymouth State University. The three schools will produce three Greek tragedies, which will tour all three campuses. Agamemnon, directed by Ron Spangler, will be seen Wednesday, February 28; Friday, March 2; and Sunday, March 4. PSU’s The Trojan Women by Euripides will be presented in Keene on Thursday, March 1, and UNH’s Electra by Sophocles will be performed on Saturday, March 3.

Other performances include the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island String Quartet, on Wednesday, October 11. Turtle Island’s particular jazz/classical fusion has made it the most popular ensembles of its kind throughout the world. On October 19 the Triple Helix Piano Trio will entertain with an evening of classical favorites old and new.

On February 1 Snappy Dance Theater will make its area debut in an evening of works from their repertory and a complete performance of The Temperamental Wobble, inspired by the drawings of Edward Gorey. One dance critic remarked that Snappy Dance’s work had “a sharp sense of humor…both poetic and very funny.”

On March 10, the family-friendly Imago Theatre returns to Keene with its latest creation Biglittlethings. This work is described as, “a wild menagerie of fantastic creatures and amazing illusions. Performed without words and accompanied by an original score, Biglittlethings is a feast for the eyes, a twister for the mind, and a bundle of laughs for all ages.”

The United State’s foremost brass ensemble, The Dallas Brass will perform on Wednesday, April 4. The ensemble’s repertoire includes classical masterpieces, Dixieland, swing, Broadway, Hollywood and patriotic music.

The Presenting Series will include two performances by the Keene State Department of Music. The KSC Chamber Orchestra will perform on Wednesday, November 29. Artist-in-Residence Don Baldini leads an ensemble of Keene State music students, faculty, and community musicians in a concert of classical compositions.

The sixth annual KSC Faculty Composers Recital will be heard on Wednesday, March 7. The works are performed by faculty and visiting artists and feature solos, duets, trios, and quintets.

The Presenting Series will conclude with An Evening of Dance. Directed by Marcia Murdock, it features contemporary dances choreographed and performed by KSC faculty, staff, alumni, and students. Performances run April 18-21.

Tickets are now on sale for all shows at Brickyard Pond, including other Department of Music and Theatre and Dance performances. They may be ordered by calling 603-358-2168 or on the web at www.keene.edu/racbp.

Memberships that offer 20-percent discounts on all Presenting Series performances are also available. Priority seating will be given to those who enroll as members.