September 2017 WEST COAST WOMAN 33

happening this month

The 2017 Ringling International Arts Festival (RIAF 2017) will run from October 18-21 and present an array of innovative, expressions

of music, movement, and mass spec-tacle. These eclectic productions will be staged throughout The Ringling – at the Historic Asolo Theater, the Ringling Circus Museum, the Museum of Art, and the West Courtyard.

RIAF 2017 will feature 24 performances of seven varied productions, from the intimate “thumb cinema” created by German photographer Volker Gerling to WANTED the outdoor three-story spec-tacle of aerial theater by eVenti Verticali. The festival opens on October 18 with a celebration in the Courtyard and includes a special introduction of RIAF’s guest art-ists as well as a performance of Wanted.

Performances:N RIAF 2017 First Night:

WANTED. October 18, 6:30-10 p.m.RIAF 2017 First Night begins with a cel-ebration in the West Courtyard of the Museum of Art featuring a performance of WANTED by eVenti Verticali. A spe-cial presentation will feature the Guest Artists and a preview of what lies ahead. Hors d’oeuvres, complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks (cash bar available).

At 8 p.m. eVenti Verticale will perform WANTED. High overhead, two “wanted” men are on the run. Suspended before a mammoth video screen, they take us on an adventurous trip that teeters between the fictions of animation and the pseudo-reality of computer graphics in this exhila-rating outdoor aerial spectacle from Italy.

N White Rabbit Red Rabbit: October 19-21

Forbidden to leave his native Iran, Solei-manpour has distilled the experience of

a generation born amidst the hardship of the Iran-Iraq war into a wild, utterly original play, White Rabbit Red Rabbit. The script arrives in sealed envelopes and is presented to a solo actor at the onset of each performance. There is no rehearsal and no direction. The drama is realized in real time by both actor and audience in a cold reading. Entertain-ment Weekly described it as, “A daz-zling, transcendent piece of alive-and-kicking theater...I experienced a play that no one in the world will ever experi-ence again... the whole building felt like it was living and breathing.” Performances will be held in the Circus Museum on:

Oct 19: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.Oct 20: 2 p.m.Oct 21: 2 p.m.

Following RIAF, White Rabbit Red Rabbit will continue at Urbanite Theatre October 25 – November 5.

N Nobuntu: October 19-21

Having performed throughout Africa and across Europe, this ensemble of young women is touring the US for the first time with an inventive program ranging from traditional Zimbabwean songs to Afro Jazz and Gospel. Per-formed with pure voices, augmented by minimalistic percussion, traditional instruments, and authentic dance, No-buntu honors its eponymous values of humility, love, unity, and family with an aim to transcend racial, tribal, and reli-gious boundaries.Performances will be held in the Historic Asolo on:

Oct 19: 2 p.m.Oct 20: 8 p.m.Oct 21: 2 p.m.

N Volker Gerling: October 19-20

Since 2003, this German photographer has walked over 3,500 km across his na-tive country creating flipbook portraits of those he meets. The show Portraits in Mo-tion presents a selection of his favorites, whereby he holds each on under a video camera so that its moving images are projected onto a large screen. Portraits in Motion received the Total Theatre Award for Innovation at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was called, “uniquely heart-warming” by The New York Times. Performances will be held in the Historic Asolo on:

Oct 19: 5 p.m.Oct 20: 2 p.m.

N James McGinn: October 19-21Operatic in scope and scale, Ing an Die, a new work by choreographer James McGinn, weaves a palate of choreo-graphic languages with symbolic imag-ery into a shape-shifting love story told amidst a pre-apocalyptic landscape. Performances will be held in the Historic Asolo on:

Oct 19: 8 p.m.Oct 20: 5 p.m.Oct 21: 5 p.m.

N Monica Bill Barnes & Co.: October 19-21This contemporary American dance ensemble “brings dance where it does not belong” and celebrates individual-ity, humor, and the innate theatricality of everyday life. For Happy Hour, the Ringling Circus Museum is transformed into the Side Show Cabaret, where ‘two guys” – desperate to be popular – crash an after-hours party only to be hilari-ously inept in their quest. Performed by Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, Hap-py Hour starts with cocktails and laughs yet evolves into a life-changing event. Performances will be held in the Circus Museum on:

Oct 19: 5 p.m.Oct 20: 5 p.m. & 8 p.m.Oct 21: 5 p.m.

N ensemblenewSRQ: October 19-21The Sarasota musical group brings two provocative encounters with new music to the galleries of The Ringling Museum of Art. In the first, the mysteries of sound and space are explored in the music of John Luther Adams as performed in the James Turrell Skyspace; in the second, the profound challenges of Luciano Berio’s Sequenzas are embraced in an immersive experience set in the

Huntington Gallery.

• Program One: The Space Around You: Musical Reflections in the Turrell Sky-space:

Oct 19: 5 p.m.Oct 20: 5 p.m.

• Program Two: The Magical World of Berio’s Sequenzas in the Huntington Gallery:

Oct 20: 5 p.m.Oct 21: 2 p.m. & 5 p.m.

N eVenti Verticale: October 18-20Founded in 2006, this Italian perfor-mance group brings together theater, circus, graphic art, acrobatics, dance, music, visual comedy and new technolo-gies – all on a vertical stage. In their piece Wanted, two men are on the run. Suspended in front of a massive video projection, they take the audience on an adventurous trip that teeters between the fictions of animation and the pseu-do-reality of computer graphics. Performances will be held in the West Courtyard on:

Oct 18: 8 p.m. (this is part of the RIAF first night celebration)

Oct 19: 8 p.m.Oct 20: 8 p.m.

N Portraits in Motion: October 21, 7-10 p.m.After the final curtain comes down, join the artists and audiences of RIAF 2017 for one LAST NIGHT of music, dancing, and fun. Food and beverages available for purchase. 941-359-5700. Held in the Museum of Art Courtyard.

Tickets:Tickets for performances are $35, with discounts available for ticket packages and museum members. Tickets may be purchased at the His-toric Asolo Theater Box Office, John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion, 5401 Bay Shore Road, by calling 360-7399 or at www.ringling.org.

Ringling International Arts FestivalRuns October 18-21 at The Ringling Museum

eVenti Verticali WANTED

Nobuntu

Volker Gerlingphoto by Franz Ritschel

ensemblenewSRQ