January 22, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: Opening of Rutherford and Son, Faculty Dance Concert, and more.
This week in the arts, attend a lecture about Asian porcelain near the Red Sea in the early eighteenth century, catch the first night of Rutherford and Son, listen to the UW Symphony and Seattle Symphony together at Benaroya Hall, and experience the Faculty Dance Concert, featuring choreographers Brian Brooks and Etienne Cakpo, plus four new works by UW dance faculty.
Opening: Rutherford and Son
January 23 to February 3 | Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
London, 1912: Rutherford and Son, a new play by an unknown playwright, “K.G. Sowerby,” has burst onto the scene, shattering box office records and drawing lofty accolades from critics, who are calling it the best play to premiere on the west end in 10 years, and comparing the author to theatrical titans like Ibsen. When it’s revealed that the play’s author is, shockingly, a woman named Githa Sowerby, she becomes the story, and her shattering tale of a tyrannical capitalist who loses his grip on his children is all but forgotten. As far as we can tell, UW Drama will only be the third theatre in the U.S. to ever present this transformational work of contemporary feminist drama. Be assured, time has only sharpened Sowerby’s withering excoriation of the golden age of patriarchy. The New York Post called a 2001 production “alive with human passions and tyrannies.”
$10 tickets are available to UW students. | More Info
Nancy Um: Wrinkles in the Global Narrative of Porcelain – Coffee Cups in the Red Sea
January 24, 4 to 5:30 PM| Allen Library
Referred to as “the first global brand,” Chinese porcelain, and particularly blue and white wares, occupied an unprecedented place in early modern global markets, inspiring widespread demand, but also artisanal imitations across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Yet the historians, art historians, curators, and archaeologists who have taken up porcelain as a topic in recent years have endeavored to move beyond general perceptions of universal desirability to trace the specific contours of regional markets and to highlight the needs of regional spheres of consumption. This talk contributes to this effort by digging deeper on a smaller scale, looking closely at one market for Asian porcelain, the Red Sea in the early eighteenth century. It will rely on various types of evidence, textual, material, and archaeological (both land-based and underwater) to explore the diversity of porcelain and ceramic wares that circulated in that market. By looking closely at this one sphere of circulation, we may add dimension to the larger overarching narrative of porcelain, while considering the difficulty of working with varied types of sources for the study of early modern material culture around the edges of the Indian Ocean arena.
UW Symphony and Seattle Symphony Side by Side
January 25, 7:30 PM | Benaroya Hall
Ludovic Morlot and David Alexander Rahbee share conducting duties in this program of music by Haydn and Bernstein, performed by members of the Seattle Symphony side-by-side with members of the UW Symphony.
Free| More Info
Faculty Dance Concert
January 25 to 27 | Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
This year’s concert features the Seattle debut of award-winning choreographer Brian Brooks and a collaborative new work for large ensemble by Kawasaki Guest Artist Etienne Cakpo. The evening also includes four premieres from nationally and internationally recognized faculty members Alethea Alexander, Rachael Lincoln, Dr. Juliet McMains and Jeffery Fracé.
Choreographer Brian Brooks is a Creative Research Fellow with the Creative Fellowships Initiative at Meany Center for the Performing Arts. His Seattle debut performance of Division is sponsored in full by the Floyd & Delores Jones Endowed Chair in the Arts.
Etienne Cakpo is sponsored in full by the Kawasaki Guest Artist Fund. Thank you to the Faculty Dance Concert’s media sponsor, KUOW.
$10 tickets for UW students | More Info
