The CalArts Center for New Performance is the professional producing arm of the California Institute of the Arts, established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, media, and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national, and international levels, CNP offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts. It also enables CalArts students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond their curriculum. Seminal artists from around the world are brought to CNP to develop work that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance. CNP fosters the future of live performance by infusing the work of such transformative artists with the talent, vitality and impulses of emerging artists in the CalArts community. Since its modest beginning, CalArts Center for New Performance has produced work that has had immediate and startling effect on the national and international performance environment. CNP represents an integral part of the Institute’s commitment to provide a home for alternative theater and cross-disciplinary work on CalArts’ Valencia campus, at REDCAT, and at other national and international venues.
History
CalArts Center for New Performance was founded in 2002 by Susan Solt, Travis Preston, and Carol Bixler and launched with Travis Preston’s groundbreaking all female production of King Lear – staged in six locations within the massive factory spaces of the Brewery Arts Complex in downtown Los Angeles. Originally called the called the CalArts Center for New Theater, the name was changed in 2005 to reflect the expanded mission, aspiration and embrace of the larger CalArts performance landscape.
Productions and programming
''Prometheus Bound''
In September 2013, the Getty Museum and CNP, in association with Trans Arts, presented Prometheus Bound, the eighth annual outdoor theater production in the Getty Villa's Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater. Featuring a newly translated text by noted poet and essayist Joel Agee, Prometheus Bound was directed by Travis Preston and included original music by composer Ellen Reid and jazz multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia. The central element of this original production of the ancient Greek drama was a mammoth steel wheel, twenty-three feet tall that was installed in the outdoor theater. As envisioned by director Preston and scenic designer Efren Delgadillo, Jr., the remote mountaintop is represented by this enormous steel wheel, to which Prometheus is strapped in the opening scene of the play. The production featured 17 cast members, including a Greek chorus of 12, all of whom climb on and off the giant wheel throughout the play.
Leadership
Travis Preston, Artistic Director, Dean/CalArts School of Theater Rachel Scandling, Producer Marissa Chibas, Director of Duende CalArts Amanda Shank, Associate Artistic Director Chi-wang Yang, Associate Artistic Director Paul Turbiak, Communications Liaison George Lugg, Consulting Producer
Awards and accolades
King Lear
Three NAACP awards including Best Performance by a Female for Fran Bennett as King Lear, Best Production and Best Lighting Design
