LA's Ford Amphitheatre opens 2007 Season

Known for providing L.A. audiences with adventurous contemporary and world arts programming, the historic open air Ford Amphitheatre hosts an impressive range of music, dance, theatre, film and family events in summer 2007. The 23-week season runs from May 11 to October 14, opening with a brand new retro-slide show comedy performance by histo-tainer Charles Phoenix and closing with the Ford’s first evening of music from Ghana.

The Ford Amphitheatre season is a program of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and is produced in collaboration with Los Angeles County-based arts organizations. Complete 2007 season information is available on the Ford web site, www.FordTheatres.org or by calling the Ford box office, 323 GO 1-FORD (461-3673).

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose Third District is home to the Ford, declared that, "The 2007 Summer Season has something for everyone – dance, world music, comedy, film, you name it. The Ford is a place where audiences can discover the whole spectrum of the arts in a beautiful, intimate setting."

Highlights of the Ford Amphitheatre 2007 Summer Season programming include: 

FORD FIRSTS

In the first Ford presentation spotlighting Taiwanese artists, the popular and award-winning a cappella “air band” vocal group SEMISCON performs jazz, pop, classical, folk and contemporary music as part of the 7th Annual Taiwanese American Heritage Week Celebration (May 19).

A blend of symphonic sound and exotic music and dance of the Middle East is the centerpiece of a program by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and the ensemble led by Yuval Ron, who composed the score for the Oscar-winning West Bank Story (July 15).

The first Ford evening devoted to Colombian music presents traditions from across the country including Petrona Martinez (Afro-Caribbean region), Banda de Flautas Chicha y Guarapo (southern Andean region), Jorge Veloza and Los Carrangueros (northern Andean region), Guafa Trio (Central Andean music) and Elda Florez (Colombo-Venezuelan region) (August 5).

Latin American Cinemateca of L.A.’s Mexico! Mexico! Rock! Rock! Rock! is the first Mexican rock ‘n roll program at the Ford combining a screening of 1960s film A ritmo del twist with Los Hooligans, The Crazy Boys, Los Rebeldes del Rock with a live music performance and art exhibit (September 30).

Breakin’, pop-lockin’, and uprockin’ are all part of the first Ford show focusing on street dance with the artists of Lux Aeterna Acrobatic Dance Company, Get Down Dolls, Outer Circle and Antics Performance (October 5).

The Ford’s first program of Ghanaian music brings four masters of Ghana's “highlife” jazz fusion genre to the stage: trumpeter-flugelhornist Kpakpo Addo, trumpeter-percussionist-composer Eddie Quansah, traditional drummer Obo Addy and his dancers, and funky-jazzy rap-style highlife interpreter Gyedu Blay Ambolley (October 14).


NEW THEATER & DANCE SERIES FEATURES

The weekend afternoon series in the Ford’s 87-seat indoor theatre, [Inside] the Ford, devoted to playreadings for several summers, expands to include performance art, spoken word and sketch comedy. Newly christened The [Inside] Performances, the nine-event series features new and in-progress works by Latino and Asian/ Pacific Islander artists including Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Oliver Mayer, John Michael Garcés, Philip W. Chung, Chicano Secret Service, OPM (Asian comedy group), Prince Gomolvilas, Kristina Wong, Luis J. Rodriguez, Walter Wong, Melinda Corazon Foley, Gabriela Lopez de Dennis and Augusto Federico Amador. (June 3 to August 25)

Student and child tickets to Ford 2007 dance events for full-time students and children 12 and under will be available for $5 rather than the regular Ford student/child price of $12 thanks to a grant from Target, sponsor of Target Dance Series at the Ford. Target strives to make the arts affordable and accessible to youth and families because the arts help foster an appreciation and understanding of various cultures and points of view.

PREMIERES

“Histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix opens the Ford 2007 season with a brand new retro slideshow performance, “The United States of Charles Phoenix: A Comedy about Mid-Century Americana,” celebrating 1950s and 60s theme parks, tourist traps, car culture, space age style and more (May 11).

The Target Dance Series at the Ford boasts several world premiere performances.

In a program entitled “Unearthing Sleeping Beasts,” three Los Angeles based companies reflect the raw energy and investigative spirit of L.A. contemporary dance in premieres probing the vices, truths and courage that lie beneath the surface in all of us.
Kate Hutter’s L.A. Contemporary Dance Company PASSION PLAYS
Maria Gillespie’s Oni Dance THE SPLENDOR OF GRETEL
Holly Johnston’s Ledges and Bones Dance Project DEPARTURES FROM COMMON
(July 6)

Pacifico Dance Company’s newest creation is a work that re-creates a small town fiesta in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas (July 28).

Hysterica Dance Company will feature premieres along with past Ford hits from Noir, Threads and Sticks & Stones on their tenth anniversary program, “Hysterica X” (August 3).

blue 13 Dance Company unveils Paheliya – The Story of Alice, a two-night run of this Bollywood version of Alice in Wonderland (August 24 & 25)

Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company’s “México y Su Costa de Oro” features the premiere of La Guelaguetza, a dance suite representing Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza celebration, the largest folk event in North America (October 6).


The Ahn Trio, the brilliant piano trio known for pushing the boundaries of chamber music,  plays the West Coast premiere of Kenji Bunch’s Danceband along with music by Michael Nyman, Chick Corea and The Doors (June 1). The Ahn’s appearance is the Zev Yaroslavsky Distinguished Artist Event of the Ford 2007 season.

Great American-inspired chamber music by the Cypress String Quartet, narration by American Soul author Jacob Needleman and film montages by award winner Michael Schwarz fuse in the West Coast premiere of this thought provoking, multimedia event, Inspired by America (June 22).

The performance art piece Jukebox Stories by Prince Gomolvilas & Brandon Patton, a storytelling, song-singing, bingo-playing hit from Berkeley, has its L.A. premiere on The [Inside] Performances series. (June 3 & 10 at 1:00 p.m.)

State Street Ballet presents the Los Angeles premiere of William Soleau’s full-evening ballet, Carmen, based on Bizet’s opera of the same name (August 17).