Boston Court Pasadena is ready to brighten up 2022 with a spring season of live, in-person events and complementary virtual programming.
Artistic Director Jessica Kubzansky says, “We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome live performance back to the building! We finally get to share work that we nurtured and grew during the pandemic, as well as concerts that have been pandemic-paused for almost two years now.”
“We desperately missed connecting with our audience in person last year,” she adds, “We were happy to offer concerts and readings virtually, but of course there is nothing like the live exchange between artist and audience.
“We are at the same time very grateful for the incubation time last year afforded us, enabling us to lean into long-form development. We called 2021 the year of ‘Making Scripts Happen.’ and we’re overjoyed that one of the plays we spent time developing and workshopping last year will be our first live production back.”
In fact, the world premiere of Carolyn Ratteray’s Both And (a play about laughing while black), directed by Andi Chapman, will open on April 16, 2022. This extraordinary piece of theatre–conceived, written, and performed by Carolyn Ratteray–was workshopped virtually last year, and was recently awarded one of the inaugural Los Angeles New Play Prizes. Through clowning, poetic text, and a tour-de-force performance, the play deeply investigates the nucleus of Black joy. As her mother is dying, Teayanna finds herself in a netherworld between life and death, struggling to help her mother cross over. The journey reveals the wisdom of the ancestors, invokes the legacy of the Middle Passage, and unfolds the surprising secrets within her mother’s purse. This unique and powerful story, rich with humor, raw honesty, and passion, becomes a brilliant meditation on how to reconnect with joy.
If that isn't enough to lift your spirits, Boston Court also has a series of exciting concerts that will revitalize and delight you.
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Amanda McBroom
Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues: A Shakespeare’s Heroines Cabaret
[Cabaret]
March 5, 2022, 8PM
In Person | Main Stage
Often called “the greatest cabaret performer of her generation,” Golden Globe winner and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Amanda McBroom returns to Boston Court to celebrate the power of the Bard, performing her own contemporary songs that give voice to Shakespeare’s heroines. A trio of brilliant musicians, under the musical direction of highly acclaimed pianist and composer Michele Brourman, come together with Amanda to make a stunning musical event.
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Women of Will: Shakespeare’s Heroines with Amanda and Miranda
February 26, 2022, 4PM PT
Virtual | Zoom
Shakespeare scholar Miranda Johnson-Haddad joins cabaret legend Amanda McBroom for a spirited discussion on the Shakespearean heroines given voice in Amanda’s upcoming concert Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues and the portrayal of women in Shakespeare’s plays.
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A Bridge to Everywhere
[New Music]
March 18, 2022, 8PM
In Person | Branson Performance Space
Los Angeles-based chamber ensemble Bridge to Everywhere returns to Boston Court Pasadena for a cross-cultural program of contemporary music that reflects our interconnected world. This intimate concert features new works by its ensemble members and explores connections found across diverse musical traditions including Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, traditional West African music, American folk music, Arabic music, Western classical music, and jazz.
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Josh Nelson’s Ode to Sondheim
[Jazz/Musical Theatre]
March 26, 2022, 8PM
In Person | Branson Performance Space
Jazz pianist/composer Josh Nelson honors the brilliant Stephen Sondheim by leading a specially curated ensemble of vocalists and musicians through a program of popular and lesser-known Sondheim masterpieces.
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Michael Michetti Honors Sondheim
March 22nd, 7PM PT Virtual | Zoom
Artistic Director Emeritus Michael Michetti honors the late Stephen Sondheim on what would have been the composer’s 92nd birthday, takie us on a journey through Michael’s lifelong, ever-evolving relationship with Sondheim’s work.
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Pianist Inna Faliks: A Journey Toward Light
[European Classical]
May 21, 2022, 8PM
In Person | Branson Performance Space
Clara Schumann's passionate and rarely heard G Minor Sonata joins “Manuscripts Don't Burn,” a piece written for Faliks by Maya Miro Johnson, and the live world premiere of Julia Adolphe's “Three Magnetic Etudes'' for piano. The stormy fugues and shimmering trills of Beethoven's transcendent last piano sonata Opus 111 round out Inna Faliks’s program of pieces that search for meaning through what might have been, and what is yet to be, looking ahead toward an innovative and daring future.
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Synchromy Opera Festival
[Opera]
June 11 & June 12, 2022
In Person | Main Stage
The Synchromy Opera Festival brings two brand new operas to Boston Court! Double by Vera Ivanova, Libretto by Sarah LaBrie, places Dostoevsky's classic tale in the modern world as a man is pursued by his double that may or may not simply be the plurality of his own self. The Other by Ian Dicke explores the plight of virtual echo chambers, polarization, and the paradox of developing human-like computers to work in tandem with increasingly machine-like human workforces.
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Billy Childs
[Jazz]
June 18, 2022, 8PM
In Person | Main Stage
Multiple-Grammy-winning pianist and composer and Pasadena native Billy Childs brings his glorious Jazz artistry to the Boston Court stage for the first time, leading his band in some of some of his latest recording projects, “Acceptance” and “Rebirth” - the latter of which won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
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About Boston Court Pasadena ---
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Boston Court Pasadena is dedicated to creating and presenting works that are innovative, diverse, vital and adventurous in an intimate setting. Founded in 2003 by philanthropist Z. Clark Branson and Founding Producing Director Eileen T’Kaye, Boston Court features a state-of-the-art, intimate facility designed to bring audiences and artists closer together. The 80-seat Marjorie Branson Performance Space and the 99-seat Main Stage serve as homes for Boston Court's season of adventurous theatre and its richly eclectic music series, now under the leadership of Jessica Kubzansky, Artistic Director, and Cheryl Rizzo, Managing Director. For more information about Boston Court Pasadena visit BostonCourtPasadena.org or call 626.683.6801.