March 22, 2016 | News,

What Just Happened and What’s Coming Next

Last weekend was beautifully hectic here. Inside The Paramount Center, the following happened in the span of 48 hours:

1. Lisa Dwan’s critically adored performances of three Samuel Beckett one-acts in near complete blackout conditions on the mainstage.
2. A screening of Sembene! (a documentary about a pioneer of African cinema) with a live Q & A following.
3. A showcase of student bands from across the city covering multiple genres as part of the #BlackBoxSounds series.
4. The next installment of Jae William’s Reel Life Experience, a multimedia experience bringing community and cinema together in one evening of entertainment.
5. A live concert featuring Boston bands like Palehound and Dirty Bangs who have performed, or are about to perform, at The Boston Calling Festival and have received rave reviews from NPR music, Pitchfork, and more.

It was perhaps one of the busiest weekends we have ever hosted at ArtsEmerson, especially considering it all happened at the same address. Audiences loved it and the AE team thrilled at making it all happen. And guess what? There’s more great programming right around the corner!

THEATRE IN THE CULTER MAJESTIC – APR 21 – 24 – With the grit and imagery of a graphic novel comes an overwhelming story that destroys the boundaries between domination and submission. Rising out of the aftermath of a generation’s ferocious domination by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and set against a dark and troubling story by the controversial French novelist Regis Jauffret, Historia de Amor is an unflinching journey inside the mind of man determined to possess a young woman he happens to meet on a subway. Chile’s renowned Teatrocinema combines live action with startling 2D and 3D animation to deliver a wallop on the subject of sexual predation and societal fragmentation. In Historia de Amor, one man’s twisted love story is one woman’s worst nightmare.

SCREENING IN THE BRIGHT FAMILY SCREENING ROOM – MAR 25 – 27 – SPIA Media Productions, Inc. and ArtsEmerson present The North American Theatrical Premiere of THE CONSUL OF BORDEAUX Alexandra Schmidt, a Portuguese journalist, travels to Viana do Castelo to interview the maestro Francisco de Almeida, who is going to retire. There she faces him with his real name, Aaron Apelman, which is not reported in official biographies. The journalist’s curiosity makes the conductor recall a series of events that occurred in the remote month of June 1940, when, at the age of ten and still bearing that name, he was saved from the nazi persecution by the action of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux.

PUBLIC DIALOGUES – TUE, APR 5 @ 7PM Paramount/Jackie Liebergott Black Box “Theatre Curation and the Politics of Listening” Moderated by Abe Rybeck, Artistic Director of The Theater Offensive. Featuring ArtsEmerson Leadership Team. How do we choose what art an audience gets to see? How do we know what they will like, what we like, what will entertain and provoke, and what will sell tickets? How is our curatorial practice a reflection of our own identities and the identities of the audiences we imagine? Finally, how much of curatorial expertise comes from knowing and how much from listening to the communities we represent?

APR 27 – MAY 1 – Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary presents the astonishing tale of three towering figures in the life of versatile performer Marissa Chibas. As she recalls her father, Raúl Chibás (who co-wrote the manifesto for the Cuban revolution with Fidel Castro), her uncle, Eddy Chibas (who was the frontrunner for the Cuban presidency in 1951), and her mother, Dalia Chibas (Miss Cuba runner-up in 1959), Daughter unfolds into an impassioned, live-wire performance propelled by Chibas’ magnetic presence and storytelling. This solo tour de force illuminates the intersection of the personal and historical through her own stories and key episodes in the history of her illustrious family.