Show To Turn Brooklyn Theater Into A Beach: BAM Fall Line-Up

BROOKLYN, NY — A new show on its way to the Brooklyn Academy of Music will transform its theater into a bustling beach, kicking off the fall season of performances at the venue.

The recently-announced line up at BAM will start in September with Sun & Sea, an award-winning theatrical installation that will be making its U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn venue.

The show will use 25 tons of sand to transform BAM's Fisher space into a beach, which will offer a backdrop for a story about climate change and the relationship between people and the planet, according to the venue. The piece includes 13 vocalists and 25 community members who act as beach-goers.

Tickets for the show, and the others in the fall line-up, go on sale to BAM Members and patrons on Tuesday and will be available to the general public next week at BAM's website.

“The hunger for artistic adventures has never been greater as our world continues to change
around us,” BAM Artistic Director David Binder said in a release about the fall shows. “Our 2021-22 season kicks off with works from a cohort of remarkable international artists, all of whom are making their BAM debuts. New forms and new ideas will abound in the Fisher, as they create singular experiences that can only happen at BAM.”

Here's a look at all the shows debuting this fall:

Sun & Sea

WHEN: Sep 15—26

WHERE: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl.

WHO: Direction and set design by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė; Libretto by Vaiva Grainytė; Music and musical direction by Lina Lapelytė; Curated by Lucia Pietroiusti

WHAT: "Using twenty-five tons of sand to transform the theater into a bustling beach, sunbathing characters offer up a range of seductive harmonies and melodic stories that glide between the mundane, the sinister, and the surreal. From the sprawling narrative of their lives emerges a piercing exploration of climate change, shining light on the complex relationship between people and our planet. The piece is brought to life by 13 vocalists who are surrounded by approximately 25 adventurous local community members who act as fellow beach-goers."

100 Keyboards, ASUNA

WHEN: Sep 30—Oct 2

WHERE: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl.

WHAT: "In ASUNA’s immersive work, 100 Keyboards, the performance begins with one note played and sustained on a battery-operated toy keyboard. The artist then meticulously repeats this process on 99 more keyboards throughout the space, until the sound climaxes to a singular resonant reverberation. As the frequencies multiply, sound waves hover together in space, giving way to nuanced acoustic variations, changing the sound as the piece progresses and creating a moiré pattern of sound interference. Audience members are encouraged to gather and move about the space as ASUNA nimbly manipulates this unusual, and sublime sonic bath which is simultaneously analog and electronic, minimal and complex, meditative and mesmerizing."

By Heart

WHEN: Oct 5—17

WHERE: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl.

WHO: Written and performed by Tiago Rodrigues; Text with fragments and quotes by William Shakespeare, Ray Bradbury, George Steiner, Joseph Brodsky, among others; Set and costume design by Magda Bizarro; English translation Tiago Rodrigues, revised by Joana Frazão

WHAT: "Portuguese playwright-actor Tiago Rodrigues’ By Heart is about the importance of transmission, the invisible smuggling of words and ideas that only keeping a text in your memory can provide. He invites 10 audience members to join him in a deeply personal poetic experiment. What appears as a relatively simple task —memorizing a poem— quickly unfolds into something more expansive, as stories and characters and unexpected connections emerge between Boris Pasternak, Ray Bradbury, and a cook from the north of Portugal. By Heart is written and performed by Rodrigues in his first US performance since being appointed the next director of the Avignon Festival, becoming the first Portuguese and non-French artist to lead the prestigious theatrical event. He will present his first season in July 2023.

Cria

WHEN: Nov. 2—6

WHERE: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl.

WHO: Choreography by Alice Ripoll; Lighting design by Andréa Capella; Costume design by Raquel Theo

WHAT: "Cria is the embodiment of youth. Taking the movement vocabularies of dancinha, a hot mix of funk, samba, and breakdance, and passinho, the life force of favela culture, choreographer Alice Ripoll relocates the wild exuberance of adolescence through dance. Driven by the social injustice in Brazil, the piece alternates between intense states of exultation and celebration, with the highly charged group absorbing and reconstructing the music’s rapid and jerky rhythm. Ripoll and the 10-member group Suave—an all-Black company of cis and trans performers from Rio de Janeiro, each brings their own narrative, dance history, and physicality to the stage—as they make their US debut."