Gelsey Bell News

Hailed as “a remarkably strong and diverse exploration of everything opera can be in the city (The New York Times),” the New York Opera Fest celebrates its fifth season with performances by 20+ local opera companies in all five boroughs of New York City.

Each spring HERE offers a window into the creative process of their nationally recognized HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). For 21 years, this exploration of new work in development, previously known as the Culturemart Festival, has blurred the boundaries between theatre, music, dance, new media, and visual art. The 2020 edition, which runs February 23-March 1, not only features seven daring workshop presentations but a new name that better captures the essence of the experience: HERE RAW / Resident Artist Works.

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

Four actors, four interwoven stories - one clever, ghostly musical. Penfold Theatre's GHOST QUARTET is perfect Halloween fun for theatergoers who love a good story put to song.

HERE has announced that applications for the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) are currently open. This multi-year, $100,000 residency program was created in 1999 and serves as a national model. HARP provides commission funds, development support, career planning, fiscal sponsorship, and a full production to recipients, all within a collaborative environment of peers working across artistic disciplines including theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual art, and new media. HARP provides significant long-term support, as well as up to $50,000 in cash and more than $50,000 in space, equipment, and services over two to three years. Each residency is tailored to the needs of the artist.

Imaginary Theatricals presents Douglas Carter Beane's biting and extremely funny THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED, directed by Tripp Pettigrew-Rolapp (Irving Berlin's White Christmas) and starring Andy Kenareki (Llamas in Disguise, Andy K Comedy) as Alex. THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED will open on Tuesday, August 6th at 8 pm and will perform through Sunday, August 11th at The Reef, Floor 7, 1933 S Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles.

Dave Malloy's staged song cycle GHOST QUARTET is a madcap romp through seven centuries of mythology, folk tales, gothic horror stories, murder ballads, and more. Described in the lyrics as a 'circular story,' the nonlinear plot follows four friends through interweaving stories that include two sisters in a murderous love triangle, a modern-day subway platform homicide, and retellings of Arabian Nights and Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Malloy's musical influences are as eclectic as his literary sources, and fans will recognize many of the styles present in his best-known work, the Tony Award-winning NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812.  

The Tank will present their third annual Lady Fest, featuring new work by some of the most exciting lady-identified artists out there, in celebration of womxnhood and the female voice, in all its glory.

HERE has announced its 2019-2020 season, which marks the OBIE-winning institution's 27th year of producing daring new hybrid performances by artists from all disciplines - theatre, opera, music, art, dance, puppetry, and media art.

Peak Performances announces its 2019-2020 season, considering the vocabularies of the body, genre and form, artistic practices and legacies, cultures, and language itself-how they persevere, disappear, or shift over time with new influences and perspectives. This season, Peak Performances offers its state-of-the-art platform to artists who work with-and sometimes against-these established vocabularies in the creation of exhilarating new performance works and the reinvigoration of preexisting texts, compositions, and choreographies. All performances take place at the Alexander Kasser Theater (1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043).

On June 24, (Le) Poisson Rouge hosted 'JACK Moves,' a benefit concert for OBIE Award-winning performance venue JACK, located in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Emcee'd by Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and Octet composer Dave Malloy, 'JACK Moves' was a vibrant evening of life-affirming music, featuring an adventurous group of performers from the Broadway, Downtown, and Brooklyn theater and music scenes, all in support of JACK's move to a larger space in the same neighborhood.

Nestled in the Catskill Mountains, Mount Tremper Arts (MTA) is an artist-founded laboratory space dedicated to supporting artists in the creation and presentation of new works of contemporary art. Beginning on June 15, they will present eight new experimental performances-deeply rooted in collaboration and activism-through their Watershed Lab. Guided by the metaphor of the Catskills as the watershed for New York City, MTA serves as the artistic headwaters for works that are incubated through residencies and performances before traveling to presenting partners in NYC.

On June 24, (Le) Poisson Rouge will host 'JACK Moves,' a benefit concert for OBIE Award-winning performance venue JACK, located in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Emcee'd by Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and Octet composer Dave Malloy, 'JACK Moves' is a vibrant evening of life-affirming music, featuring an adventurous group of performers from the Broadway, Downtown, and Brooklyn theater and music scenes, all in support of JACK's move to a larger space in the same neighborhood.

HERE welcomes composer and singer Gelsey Bell, OBIE and Doris Duke award-winning playwright Julia Jarcho, and NAACP-nominated theatre-maker Nia O. Witherspoon as new members of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

You may have your own idea about what “opera” means and is, but I'd bet it's a world away from what composer Robert Ashley--whose 1985 work, IMPROVEMENT (DON LEAVES LINDA), has been running this week at the Kitchen in west Chelsea--had in mind.

The Kitchen presents the late composer Robert Ashley's newly reconstructed 1985 opera Improvement (Don Leaves Linda).

On April 16, 2019-the late, legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham's 100th birthday-the largest Cunningham Event ever staged will take place in London, New York City, and Los Angeles.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announces their fall 2018 season and the appointment of Executive Director Rebecca Sigel.

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Gelsey Bell and Viva DeConcini in Molly Rice's ANGELMAKERS:  Songs for Female Serial Killers on August 15th at 9:30pm.