The Krannert Dress Rehearsal (KDR) programs provide an opportunity to hear context about a performance from a director or other expert, and then to experience the production. The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an educational and performing arts complex located at 500 South Goodwin Street in Urbana. Students may register for Krannert Dress Rehearsal (KDR) events on the events calendar.
The following Krannert Dress Rehearsals are available for registration on our calendar on Friday, August 25, 2023. You must attend the talk and the performance to receive credit for the KDR. If the program is full when you go to register, please email chp@illinois.edu to be placed on a waitlist, and if there is a spot open, you will be notified by the day of the events.
October Dance
Presenter and Choreographer Alexandra Barbier
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Presentation: 6:30 – 7:15pm, Krannert Room
Performance: begins at 7:30pm, Tryon Festival Theatre
Description:
October Dance features the historic work Steps in the Street (from Chronicles) by Modern Dance pioneer Martha Graham, which was created in 1936 as a vigorous protest to the rise of Fascism in Europe. This powerful, iconic group work will be performed to live music by the American modernist composer, Wallingford Riegger. Undergraduate student Nawal Assougdam’s work features music and movement of the Amazigh Sous regions of Morocco. This work invites you to share a warm cup of tea (atay) – a staple in Moroccan culture.
Professor Cynthia Oliver’s new work captures the visceral and sonic reverberations riding in sound and throughout the body. Beats, breaks, drum hits, and rim shots collide to music by local musicians James Mauck, Mark White, and Jason Finkelman. Set to a new score by Elliot Reza Emadian, choreographer Anna Sapozhnikov asks the dancers to traverse deep memories. Heartbeats, bells, and other sounds of nostalgia interrupt and disrupt their paths, forcing them to careen and ricochet off each other into space. Assistant Professor Alexandra Barbier’s piece is a playful tribute to her memories of adolescent realms, recalling the movements and rhythms of playgrounds, bus rides, church fairs, slumber parties, and school dances.
The Realness
By William Shakespeare
Director Aaron Munoz
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
Presentation: 6:30 – 7:15pm, Krannert Room
Performance: begins at 7:30pm, Studio Theatre
Description:
This theatrical experience interweaves spoken word, rap, and traditional dialogue for a hip hop tale of love & authenticity set in the late 1990s. In The Realness, we meet T.O. – a young man thrust into a captivating hip hop scene filled with stories, struggles, and a mesmerizing female MC, Prima. Is T.O. real about his infatuation with culture and music? Is he for real about his feelings for Prima? Is she really real about her feelings for him? The Realness will bring University of Illinois and Krannert audiences along for a journey that explores the discovery of our own authentic voice, growing up and falling in love.
The Wild Party
By Andrew Lippa
Directors Danny Yoerges and Rachel Rizzuto
Conductor Julie Jordan Gunn
Date: Monday, November 6, 2023
Presentation: 6:30 – 7:15pm, Krannert Room
Performance: begins at 7:30pm, Tyron Theatre
Description:
A steamy prohibition tale, steamrolling and roaring its way across the stage, Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party was an Off-Broadway gem that garnered an array of industry accolades, including Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie awards. Based on Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 narrative poem of the same name, this darkly brilliant show features one of the most exciting, pulse-racing scores ever written.
Lovers Queenie and Burrs decide to throw the party-to-end-all-parties in their New Orleans row house. After the colorful arrival of a slew of guests living life on the edge, Queenie’s wandering eyes land on a striking man named Black. As the decadence is reaching a climax, so is Burrs’ jealousy, which erupts and sends him into a violent rage. Gun in hand and inhibitions abandoned, Burrs turns on Queenie and Black. The gun gets fired, but who’s been shot?
**This performance contains sexual content and violence, and is intended for mature audiences only.**