PS21 announces season lineup, including expanded community programming for residents of Columbia County, U.S. company debuts, world and North American premieres, international artists, and performances of work developed in our growing artists’ residency program.
More than 50 events, staged to conform to current safety protocols, in the theater, in our fields, and along our trails, by a constellation of celebrated and emerging dancers and choreographers, musicians and singers, actors, directors, and international street artists who are breathing new life into traditional genres and creating new ones. Expanded PS21’s Pathways, our popular pas de deux between nature and the arts, at its largest and most ambitious, still free of charge to the community.
- International Dance
From Lagos, Nigeria: Re:INCARNATION, by QDance, an ode to the richness of Nigerian culture, celebrating the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and Africa’s powers of reinvention in a show that draws on Afrobeats, Afro dances, and Black aesthetics.
From Israel: One. One & One, by Vertigo Dance Company, an entrancing piece about our yearning for wholeness and spiritual connection to the natural world and the tension between the competing desires for independence and connection—“the individual and his or her tribe” (Financial Times).
- International Theater
Farm Fatale, “a theater of post-apocalyptic deceleration” by French director and visual artist Philippe Quesne, where following an environmental collapse, the sole survivors, five scarecrows, embrace new roles as dreamers, poets, and activists in a quest for a kinder, less destructive future for our planet.
“And So You See . . .” by Robyn Orlin (South Africa), political cabaret performed by Albert Khoza, exuberant, baroque, and entertaining, both scathing and enthralling. A jubilant purge, a reinvention of Africa’s relationship with the West. The art of South Africa-born Robyn Orlin is a loaded machine gun, firing fusillades that shatter our political preconceptions with humor, irony, and inventiveness and upend our ideas about the borders between performance art and dance.
The Legend of the Waitress and the Robber, the groundbreaking creative collaboration between Concrete Temple Theatre, Seoul, Korea-based Playfactory Mabangzen, and Yellowbomb, in partnership with Korean Cultural Center NY. Developed in residency and premiering at PS21.
- PS21 House Blend
Our Modern Music series, brewed with audiences in mind. PS21’s provocative House Blend programs, featuring celebrated soloists and ensembles, marry classic virtuosity with contemporary ingenuity. New music at its most invigorating, including the world premiere of “I am the utterance of my name,” a music-theater piece by composer-percussionist Nathan Davis, and Bang on a Can performing Michael Gordon’s Field of Vision, a large-scale, site-specific work for 48 percussionists.
- Global Music
Xenia Franca from Bahia Brazil, a 2018 Latin Grammy nominee
Vox Sambou, a Montreal based hip-hip collective, that focuses on the traditional rhythms of Haiti mixed with elements of Afrobeat, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop
- PS21/Chatham Pathways
Free and affordable performances, classes, workshops, and encounters; community programs tailored to the area’s permanent residents: Pathways: Blazing Trails for a Sustainable Future: a staple of PS21’s annual community programming and central to our mission, Pathways’ season-long series of art installations, participatory theater, educational workshops, and processional arts offered to our growing community free of charge.
- Unfolding dramaturgies of the Anthropocene and beyond
2022’s expansive programming includes Philippe Quesne’s ecological fable Farm Fatale; C’est pas là, c’est par là (It’s Not That Way, It’s This Way!) by Compagnie Galmae, an outdoor participatory theater installation by Juhyung Lee, a South Korean artist based in France; and Bang on a Can performing Michael Gordon’s Field of Vision, a large-scale, site-specific work for 48 percussionists.
Movement without Borders: May–September: Yoga, Pilates, and Dance with Hudson Valley- based theater makers and Master Classes with visiting artists and other performers throughout the summer
“Free on Friday!” Programs for Young People: PS21’s annual series of Friday afternoon performances and workshops by visiting companies, tailored for kids and their families, as well as other Immersive Workshops, Classes, and Encounters with the Arts and Nature.
Our Pathways initiative targets communities in Columbia County, providing access to cultural resources they otherwise lack and creating distinctive programming that forges connections between local cultures and the larger world.
- Residencies
The Legend of the Waitress and the Robber, Concrete Temple Theatre, Playfactory Mabangzen and Yellowbomb (South Korea) at PS21, May 1–23, world premiere May, 21 & 22
QDance (Lagos, Nigeria) perform Re:INCARNATION and engage in community based initiatives, May 30–June 6
Mark Morris Dance Group, works from the company’s classical repertoire, a premiere, and in residency, Aug 1–6
Jamal Jackson Dance Company members working with students of Hudson-based youth service organizations to create dances and percussion compositions based on dama, the masked dance rituals practiced by the Dogon people of Mali and Burkina Faso, August 7–14
Berkshire Opera in a weeklong technical development residency for Three Decembrists by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, July 17–23. New York premiere at PS21, July 21 & 23
Composer-percussionist Nathan Davis, actor-playwright Sylvia Milo, and choreographer Joanna Kotze, developing “I am the utterance of my name,” March 14–18 and July 8–10, world premiere, July 10
Paul Taylor Dance Company rehearsing and performing works from its repertory of modern classics. August 21–25
Performances in our open-air Pavilion Theater at PS21/Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, a state-of-the-art theater located on 100 acres of orchards, meadows, and woodlands in the heart of the Hudson Valley. Tickets on sale: March 14; info@ps21chatham.org; 518.392.6121
PS21, Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, 2980 NY-66, Chatham, NY 12037
Season Dates:
May 21–22 World premiere, The Waitress & The Robber, Concrete Temple Theater/ Playfactory Mabangzen and Yellowbomb (South Korea)
June 2 “Best of Columbia County” event, with local businesses
June 3–4 U.S. debut and premiere, Re:INCARNATION, Qudus Onikeku, Lagos, Nigeria
June 10 Emerging Artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Sean Mason Quintet
June 17 Vox Sambou, Haiti/Canada
June 24 House Blend I: Bach, Wuorinen, Lansky, Schoenberg
June 26 House Blend II: Kagel, Helps, Alvarez, Schubert, Kondo, Gerhard
July 10 House Blend III: Druckman, Kancheli, Aucoin, Bernstein
July 3 Xenia Franca, Bahia, Brazil
July 10 Nathan Davis/Sylvia Milo/Joanna Kotze, “I am the utterance of my name”
July 21 & 23 Three Decembers, copresented with Berkshire Opera. In residency, July 17–23
July 25 Michael Gordon, Field of Vision, with Bang on a Can, Doug Perkins, and 48 percussionists
July 28–29 One. One & One, Vertigo Dance Company, Israel
August 1–6 Residency, Mark Morris Dance Group
August 5 PS21 Benefit Gala, Mark Morris Dance Group, dinner in the fields
August 6 Mark Morris Dance Group
August 7–14 Residency, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, 846, a premiere
August 21–25 Residency, Paul Taylor Dance Company
September 2–3 Farm Fatale by Phillippe Quesne, “a theater of post-apocalyptic deceleration,” a centerpiece of PS21 Pathways: Blazing Trails for a Sustainable Future
September 3 C’est pas là, c’est par là (It’s Not That Way, It’s This Way!) by Compagnie Galmae, a Pathways outdoor participatory theater installation by Juhyung Lee
September 4 Season Closing Celebration with The Moles by Philippe Quesne and C’est pas là, c’est par là, participatory installation, Compagnie Galmae (France)
September 16 And So You See… Political cabaret by Robyn Orlin (South Africa)
All events at PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century adhere to current guidelines set by local government & public health officials. As these evolve, we will update protocols accordingly.
About PS21
Since we completed our state-of-the-art green-energy theater in 2018, PS21 has evolved into the Hudson Valley’s mecca for innovative programming by leading and emerging artists in music, dance, theater, contemporary performance, and the visual and multimedia arts. Our year-round open-air Pavilion and Black Box theater is surrounded by an unspoiled 100-acre campus, an old apple orchard surrounded by meadows and woodlands in the heart of the Hudson Valley. In addition to fostering creativity through residencies and encouraging collaborations between performers working across disciplines and genres, PS21 serves the community via free and low-cost workshops, performances, and other programming.
Established in 2006, PS21’s mission is to provide support for innovative performing artists and creators and to introduce their work to a broader audience, while also providing the surrounding region with opportunities for arts engagement regardless of economic status, cultural background, or age.
In its new, state-of-the-art, green facility, PS21 offers resident makers and performers involved in the creation of new work the tools and flexibility for successful innovation and collaboration in the development of sophisticated multi-media work. Few other US facilities are able to provide this level of technical support. PS21’s campus of over 100 acres of open spaces, meadows, woodlands, and orchards is an important resource for artists and the community. Our commitments are incorporated in the design of our new theater and the surrounding grounds: open, inviting, and optimized for the public’s enjoyment and to encourage citizen expression and participation.