Performing Arts

Features interviews with retired artists' film and theater actors and actresses, set designers, cinematographers, casting directors, script supervisors, and so on—who reside in the Motion Picture Country Home in Los Angeles or in the Performing Arts Lodge in Toronto.

The 1950 debut of Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, a "mixture of social satire, Alice in Wonderland-type logic, verbal delirium and surrealist farce," stirred a sensation in Paris. For the fiftieth anniversary of the Theater of the Absurd's founding work, the piece has been adapted by The Center for Contemporary Opera into a delightful comic opera in English.

Weimar: A Modern Day Renaissance City is a celebration of the small town that has capped its triumphant comeback by being recognized as the Culture city of Europe in 1999. This video looks at Weimar's past and present.

This documentary chronicles one week in the life of street kids living in Cusco, Peru. Working in collaboration with a shelter for some of Cusco's 3,000 street kids, the filmmakers enlist several of the youngsters to form a street theatre company.

This video explores the vitality of ancient African traditions regarding the links between life and death.

This video examines the world of amateur Irish dancing, featuring interviews with Irish women in Great Britain who have passed on this cultural tradition within their own families and the wider Irish immigrant community.

Introduces viewers to the step show, an exciting dance style popular among black fraternities and sororities. In addition to many rousing, crowd-pleasing performances, the program examines the cultural roots of steppin' in African dancing, military marching and hip-hop music, and discusses its contemporary social significance on college campuses.

Profiling four artists who have had to cope with adversity, while persevering in their respective performing arts careers, this documentary celebrates the healing and restorative powers of music, dance and friendship.

Follows a class of six- and seven-year-olds through a six-week summer drama school at Philadelphia's Freedom Theatre, where intensive theater training provides the youngsters with valuable lessons of self-discipline and self-confidence.

A wacky, free-wheeling satire which examines key moments in the history of nuclear power, from the flowering of medieval alchemy in the 16th century, to the development of the atomic bomb, Hiroshima and its aftermath, and the cultural and political fallout of the Cold War '50s.

Robert Wilson is internationally regarded as one of the most significant and innovative theater artists working today. This behind-the-scenes video, drawing on rehearsal and performance footage, reveals how Wilson created his unique one-man performance of Hamlet and captures the rich texture of Wilson's multi-dimensional theatrical style.

The Bread and Puppet Theater has become famous in America over the last thirty years for its street theater and political satire utilizing giant papier-mâche puppets, masks and twelve foot high stilt walkers.

Portrays the life and career of this Italian husband and wife duo of actors and playwrights, who are best known for their satirical and politically radical theater presentations.

Examines the Communist Party's rigorously enforced art policies during China's Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976, when pictorial artists were given strict aesthetic guidelines for the production of works designed to promote the ideology and imagery of Mao Tse- tung's illusory new society.

Offers a fascinating overview of artistic activity in Croatia during the recent war in the former Yugoslavia, revealing the diversity and vitality of its artists as well as how their work was profoundly influenced by the conflict.

This music and dance spectacular, sung and danced by members of the award-winning Beija Flor Samba School and photographed during the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, dramatizes the legend of genesis according to Yoruba mythology.

This cinema-verite documentary explores the realities of life as a classical musician through the story of Hexagon, a newly-formed chamber ensemble. The documentary chronicles their challenging first year and a half, from the group's seemingly casual first rehearsal to its high-pressure launching into the mainstream of the classical music scene.

Chronicles the 1987 U.S. tour by the National Symphony Orchestra of the People's Republic of China, including interviews with conductor Zuohuang Chen, a survivor of the Cultural Revolution who studied music in the U.S., Chen's mentor, Seiji Ozawa, director of the Boston Symphony, plus stirring performances of both Western and Chinese music.

This behind-the-scenes documentary chronicles the collaborative efforts of young composer Peter Lieberson, pianist Peter Serkin, and conductor Seiji Ozawa as they shape Lieberson's first orchestral piece for debut by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

This contemporary portrait of folkloric traditions in Cuba, focusing on the everyday life of musicians and dancers.