Links to the rest of the INDY’s 2024 Fall Arts preview can be found here.
Native | North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater, Raleigh | Sep. 13-22
Oh, to be a fly on the wall as North Carolina playwright Paul Green and author Richard Wright discussed (and argued over!) the Broadway adaptation of Wright’s Native Son in 1941. The play Native, by Ian Finley, imagines what those conversations, many of which took place in Chapel Hill, were like. In Native as in real life, the pair’s musings on race, politics, and religion come to a head in a disagreement over a single page of the script—ultimately ending their collaboration and their friendship. A co-production of North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater, Reclaiming Our Time, and EbzB Productions, Native will place a Tar Heel legend (recently memorialized in a new book of essays) in the broader context of American racism and American theater.
Ayodele Casel: Rooted | Duke Arts Presents, von der Heyden Studio Theater, Durham | Sep. 27-28
Ayodele Casel is one of tap dance’s most exciting voices, known for her dynamic collaborations with musicians like Arturo O’Farrill and her ability to embody the past, present, and future of the art form through her joyful work. Casel comes to Duke in September with a crew of musicians, dancers, and spoken word artists in tow for a collaborative work called Rooted, directed by Casel’s partner (in life and art), Torya Beard. Duke students and faculty members will get in on the collaboration, too, during a residency leading up to the public performances, which will explore how jazz music, tap dance, and spoken word share collective “roots.”
Black Label Movement’s Battleground | American Dance Festival | Bahama Bluebs, Bahama | Oct. 11-13
Can a 30-by-25-foot dirt pit on a farm outside of Durham be the site of a movement-driven examination of America’s military-industrial complex? That’s the proposition of Battleground, a daring new dance work commissioned by American Dance Festival from Minneapolis-based choreographer Carl Flink and his company, Black Label Movement. It makes sense that Flink and his troupe are interested in violence and its consequences: the choreographer’s signature movement style, called bodystorming, is highly physical and involves “contact-sport-level impact” (don’t worry, it all happens at a “responsible level of risk”). They’ll put that athleticism to use as they plow through the soil and dig up hard truths about our country’s glorification of war and violence.
The weeks leading up to the election feel like a good time for a refresher on our country’s Constitution. But in Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, an almost one-woman show performed by Julia Gibson at PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, don’t expect something out of your high school government classes.
Instead, Schreck’s play, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 2019 and is available to stream on Amazon Prime, is profoundly personal and riotously funny, as Schreck lays bare the ways that our Constitution has failed and continues to fail women. What the Constitution Means to Me is as hopeful as it is searing, radically imagining ways our country could be better. Who couldn’t use a little pre-election optimism?
Huang Yi’s HUANG YI & KUKA | NC State Live | Stewart Theatre, Raleigh | Nov. 15-16
Man meets robot. They dance, and it’s … surprisingly beautiful? Huang Yi’s HUANG YI & KUKA, named after the inventor, performer, and choreographer and his industrial creation, may dispel your preconceived notions about robots. (Be warned: This hunk of metal may make you feel things, too.) Huang and the other dancers partner with KUKA as if it, too, is made of flesh, resulting in tender moments of human-robot connection.
KUKA’s artistry may have you forgetting that there’s some serious science behind those moves: each minute of choreography took Huang 10–20 hours to program. Thankfully, it seems to have been worthwhile for Huang, as a video of him performing with the robot at a TED event has gone viral and reached audiences worldwide. Those looking for more opportunities to talk robots can reserve tickets to the pre-show dinner or stay for the post-show talk-back on the 15th, or attend the post-show robot party (!) after the family matinee on the 16th.
In a dystopian medical ward, a man inches towards death. As he gets closer, his hospital room fills with dirt, first appearing in subtle tricks and eventually in droves.
It’s an obvious metaphor, but a powerful one. (It’s also not the only time that a performance on this list employs dirt to represent something akin to death: see Battleground a few entries prior.)
Last Ward, a dance theater piece created and performed by Yaa Samar! Dance Theater, an imaginative company based between New York City and Palestine, is at times absurd and even humorous, with medicine-induced hallucinations and mundane hospital machinations. But the universality that is the experience of dying—and watching those you love die—comes through in even the strangest of moments, conveyed movingly by the troupe’s dynamic performers.
Duo Concertant is one of the simplest yet most enduring works by the late George Balanchine, the father of American ballet and one of the form’s most influential voices. Two dancers, a man and a woman, seem to personify the Igor Stravinsky score, in turns embodying the nimble notes of the piano or the expansiveness of the violin. At times, they stop dancing, wandering over to the two onstage musicians just to listen and admire, and the music takes the spotlight.
Carolina Ballet will take on the beloved classic as part of its fall season, paired with a work that is sure to provide a striking contrast: Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Carmina Burana, a contemporary reimagining of the familiar score, sung live by the North Carolina Master Chorale. Taylor-Corbett’s style of highly theatrical contemporary ballet is often seen on the Carolina Ballet stage in her role as the troupe’s principal guest choreographer; in this work, she explores love, obsession, and Wall Street greed through the story of a working-class man who wins the lottery.
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