The Roy and Edna Disney CalARTS Theater (REDCAT) presents the 21st annual New Original Works (NOW) Festival, a celebration of new and innovative dance, theater, music, and performance by Los Angeles artists presented over three weekends this fall.

Committed to an investigation of history and contemporary norms, these nine works use humor, improvisation, and multidisciplinary collaboration to disrupt power dynamics, craft collective rituals of care, and build new modes of community abundance.

Each of the three festival weekends features a triple bill of performances in a shared evening. Each program will premiere on Thursday and repeat Friday and Saturday at 8:30 PM. Performances will also be livestreamed each Saturday during the festival's run.

In the spirit of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), REDCAT's parent institution, the NOW Festival has served as a catalyst for creativity and new ideas for more than two decades.

Each year, NOW Festival premieres new and innovative work in contemporary dance, theater, music, and multimedia performance by Los Angeles-based artists. All artistic teams receive rehearsal space, production and technical support, artist fees, and participate in development workshops. Since the first edition in 2004, NOW Festival has presented the work of over 200 artists who continue to be seen on stages throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Schedule of Events

Ajani Brannum, Sophia Cleary, Tijuana Dance Company

The 21st Annual New Original Works continues with a program of works by Ajani Brannum, Sophia Cleary, and Tijuana Dance Company. Committed to an investigation of history and contemporary norms, these works use humor, improvisation, and multidisciplinary collaboration to disrupt power dynamics, craft collective rituals of care, and build new modes of community abundance.

Ajani Brannum
CONGRESS

As a national mythos slides into decay, CONGRESS builds a crypt for its ghosts. In this performance, five (alleged) men move, speak, and sing as representatives of both themselves and their historical inheritances. They conjure and confront patriarchy's ghosts—descending into the space where social violence takes physical, psychic, and energetic shape. This theatrical convening extends Ajani Brannum's investigation into what performers do on behalf of those who witness them. Part ceremony and part town hall, this interdisciplinary performance draws the audience in to confront bodily forms of oppression and remake the roles that hold together a suffering society.

Sophia Cleary
Read The Room

Framed as a theatrical rehearsal between an Actor and her Director, Read The Room reconsiders these roles and their relationship to the audience in an unsettling, comedic, and outrageous experience. Interdisciplinary artist Sophia Cleary investigates the tension between script and improvisation in theater and the illusion of control in a performance that embraces liveness: you cannot fast forward or rewind–you can only move without knowing what comes next. This two-hander play manifests as a metaphor for the contemporary climate where fact and fiction are no longer discernible and investigates what laughter seemingly condones–ultimately calling attention to what contracts can be upended rather than being consumed as spectacle.

Tijuana Dance Company
Salón México

The Tijuana Dance Company presents Salón México, an examination of the borderland staged in a dance hall. Directed and choreographed by Dulce Escobedo, this dance theater piece reveals the stories and complex interactions that pulse through Tijuana's nightlife. An intricate choreography of identity, power, and survival emerges as individuals carve out spaces for personal and collective expression on the dance floor.

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