It’s worth bending over backwards to see Pilobolus ...

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Pilobolus dance company
As zany as the Marx Brothers, as clever as Houdini, this sextet of adept acrobats converts bodies into interlocking and interchangeable parts, erecting structures on stage that are closer to sculpture than dance.  <i>Newsweek</i> magazine

This dance company takes its name from Pilobolus crystallinus, a sun-loving fungus that grows in pastures. Pilobolus, the arts organism, germinated in the fertile soil of a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What emerged was a collaborative choreographic process and unique weight-sharing approach to partnering that gave the young company a nontraditional but powerful new set of skills with which to make dances. 8 p.m. Nov. 12, Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Post-performanmce question-and-answer session. School matinee, for grades 4-12, 11 a.m. Nov 13, Jackson Hall.

... not to mention Globe Theatre actors, Paul Dresher’s Schick Machine and the Philharmonia Baroque, all at the Mondavi Center.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre: Love’s Labour’s Lost For the first time, the London stage troupe brings its authentic take on Shakespeare to the Mondavi Center, which is in its third year of an educational partnership with the Globe.

In this comedy, the King of Navarre persuades three friends to join him in a vow of celibacy so that they can concentrate on their studies. What they did not anticipate was a visit from the beautiful princess of France and her three ladies-in-waiting. 7 p.m. Nov 11, Jackson Hall.

Globe Theatre school matinee: Talking Theatre for Youth — For grades 7-12, with audience members seated on the stage, 11 a.m. Nov. 10, Jackson Hall. Talking Theatre for Youth is designed to acquaint students with the challenges and discoveries involved with putting on this play. With interactive costume demonstrations and interviews with the actors and creative team, Talking Theatre also seeks to demystify the process by which theater is created.

Paul Dresher Ensemble: Schick Machine — Dresher makes music in an astounding variety of ways: He composes and performs experimental opera and music theater, chamber and orchestral music, and instrumental electroacoustic music. He also creates and performs on newly invented instruments.

In this new music theater work for solo percussionist (Steven Schick), everything about the stage — every object and surface — is sonically active. As the work unfolds, two distinct personalities emerge: Schick, the individual, and the sound machines that are seemingly controlled by an unseen power. Schick explores the relationship of man vs. machine, using both traditional percussion and large, new instruments designed and built by Dresher. 8 p.m. Nov. 12-14, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Preperformance lecture by Dresher, 7 p.m. Nov. 12, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre; and postperformance question-and-answer session, Nov. 12.

Paul Dresher Ensemble school matinee — For grades 4-12, 11 a.m. Nov. 12, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

Philharmonia Baroque — With Nicholas McGegan, conductor, and Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano. Historically informed baroque, classical and early Romantic music, performed on original instruments.

The ensemble’s Mondavi Center concert features an all-Purcell program: The Tempest (excerpts), Chacony in G Minor, Suite from Abdelazer and Dido and Aeneas. 8 p.m. Nov. 14, Jackson Hall. Preperformance lecture by McGegan, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall.

Tickets: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org. Educators interested in purchasing school matinee tickets should call (530) 754-4689.

Media Resources

Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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