Special Note for Sarah Treem: Meredith Monk at REDCAT

A few months back I took in a performance of Sarah Treem's play A Feminine Ending at South Coast Repertory. Though it was by and large an enjoyable piece, the music lover in me couldn't help but be irked when the main character -- a young wannabe composer with the aggravating name of Amanda Blue -- monologued at length about how she had searched extensively but had yet to discover a single major female composer. Sitting in my seat, I could think of at least three, and the fact that the character couldn't meant either that she was remarkably uneducated in her chosen field or that the playwright who created her had deliberately skimped in her research, probably for thematic expediency's sake.

All of which is a roundabout way of getting to the point, which is that next week the Los Angeles REDCAT center will host the area premier of Songs of Ascension by Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton.


Songs of Ascension Preview
The REDCAT website, ever willing to reduce its hyperbole to the merest whisper, describes the performance thusly: "Soaring to a grand scale of artistic gesture and ambition, this major new multimedia work reunites two of the most influential artists in the United States today. Monk’s signature form of incantatory music-theater finds an uncanny match in Hamilton’s sensuous visual artistry as the full-evening piece channels an exploration of the spiritual, vocal, and physical notions of ascension across geography and time."

Future Amanda Blues of our readership would do well to check out Peter Greenaway's documentary on Ms. Monk, thoughtfully broken up into component parts and posted for all of the internet to enjoy on the ever-useful YouTube:


(Further segments of the documentary can be found here.)

WHERE: The REDCAT theater in Los Angeles.
WHEN: October 28th through November 2nd, 2008.
COST: $30-$35 general admission, $24-$28 students
MORE INFO: REDCAT Website