Presented by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the 16th annual River to River Festival runs June 14-25. The free arts extravaganza will consist of contemporary-art performances and exhibitions throughout the Financial District and Governors Island. All told there will be more than 100 performances of 17 productions at 31 sites. Among the highlights:
The Dance Cartel Presents R2R Living Rooms
Pier A Harbor House, 22 Battery Place
How appropriate that a dance company “kicks” off the festival, though if you miss the opening-night event, you will have two other chances to participate. And audience participation is a key element to this event: While it begins with a performance by the Dance Cartel, guest DJs and musical performers then join in for an improvisational set, and the audience is invited to dance and interact as well.
Harbored
Brookfield Place New York, 230 Vesey Street
A site-specific theater piece being performed at Brookfield Place New York’s Winter Garden, Harbored commemorates the past 200 years of immigration to the United States. More than 50 performers, including the Downtown Voices Choir, will tell the immigration stories of fictional characters and real-life people—including passersby at Brookfield Place—through song, dance, and prose.
Harbored was created specifically for Brookfield Place New York’s Winter Garden.
[Image: Billie Grace Ward/Flickr]
A Marvelous Order
Fulton Center, 200 Broadway
The battle between urban planner Robert Moses and activist Jane Jacobs may not sound like the most promising subject for an opera. A Marvelous Order, with music by Judd Greenstein and libretto by Tracy K. Smith, is determined to prove otherwise. Scenes from the multimedia opera have been adapted specifically to be performed at transit hub Fulton Center. Singers, included Dashon Burton as Moses, and chamber-music innovators NOW Ensemble will perform for three evenings, but the accompanying animation and imagery will be presented on LED screens throughout the rest of the festival.
Excerpts from A Marvelous Order will be performed at Fulton Center.
[Image: Anthony Quintano/Flickr]
Rivers of Sound, Not Two
28 Liberty Plaza
Rivers of Sound is an ensemble of 17 instrumentalists from both Western and Middle Eastern traditions, under the leadership of composer/trumpeter/santur player Amir ElSaffar. This performance, on June 16, celebrates the release of its debut album, Not Two, in which traditional Arabic music and jazz intersect in a medley of oud and oboe, buzuq and bass, mridangam and saxophone.
For a full schedule of the River to River Festival, visit http://lmcc.net/program/river-to-river/.