NYU SKIRBALL IN THE NEWS

"For three hours, we observe two women in various states of mutual dependence, sometimes fascination, other times a struggle for independence. There's no overt eroticism, but there are many exchanges of meaningful, emotionally charged glances…The audience is also drawn into the game of gazes. The performers rearrange the chairs several times, adding more and inviting the audience to sit on them. Smaller scenes, as it were, are created within the initial stage area. We are encouraged to observe the artists closely. And our gaze becomes thematized. We are voyeurs, but that's not an accusation."

By: Tomasz Plata

"Children 12 and older are invited to “The 4th Witch,” Manual Cinema’s riff on “Macbeth” that uses overhead projectors, paper puppets and tiny sets, at NYU Skirball from Oct. 15 to 17."

By: Erik Piepenburg

"‘THE 4TH WITCH’ In Manual Cinema’s stylized refraction of “Macbeth,” a witch gives refuge to a girl orphaned by war. Expect intricate shadow puppets, live actors, overhead projectors and a musical underscore…‘DEAF REPUBLIC’ After occupying soldiers kill a deaf boy for not following verbal orders, the people of his town go deaf in this play from the Dublin company Dead Centre, performed in spoken English and American Sign Language by deaf and hearing actors. With captioning."

By: Laura Collins-Hughes

"Skirball’s two dance presentations this fall sit at opposite ends of a spectrum — one intimate, one epic. “This resting, patience” seats a small audience onstage to observe the choreographer Ewa Dziarnowska’s cyclical duet with Leah Marojević at close range (Oct. 1-2). “Totem,” performed by the all-male Butoh company Sankai Juku, builds a dramatic world around its towering titular set piece (Nov. 5-7)."

By: Margaret Fuhrer

"This month, Jay Wegman celebrates his tenth year as artistic director at the New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The past decade also happens to be a period in which many New York institutions retreated from the world stage. In 2017, the twenty-second edition of Lincoln Center Festival turned out to be its last. The following year, Joseph V. Melillo retired from Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the Next Wave Festival has contracted ever since. Then COVID-19 came along, halting imported performance. Today, you can still catch foreign-born work at BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, or the Shed, to name three, but often it originates from England or Australia."

By: David Cote

Rabih Mroué and Lina Majdalanie explore the playwright’s life, and their journey from Beirut to Berlin, in an absorbing show at the Edinburgh international festival

By: Mark Fisher

The stage is shrouded in darkness as eerie moans, cackles and chirps pierce the air. The outline of a back gradually becomes visible. As the setting brightens, that shape turns into a woman, Beatrice Cordua, an 83-year-old ballet veteran, seated with her back to the audience. She makes her way to her feet and holds her arms out in welcome.

By: Gia Kourlas

The Pelicot Trial reconstructs testimony from the Gisèle Pelicot trial in a nearly five-hour performance.

Kyle Abraham's Cassette Vol. 1 blends the rhythmic DNA of 1960s postmodern dance with 1980s–90s pop music.

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham performs the New York premiere of Cassette Vol.1 at NYU Skirball.