UAlbany Announces 2023-24 Prime Performances

ALBANY — The UAlbany Performing Arts Center has announced its guest artists for the 2023-24 season.

The Prime Performances schedule includes a multi-disciplinary performance addressing global sustainability, shows that spotlight local artists, events celebrating the 70th anniversary of a dystopian novel and other diverse performances by regional, national and international touring artists.

Kicking off the series on Sept. 24 is a free performance of Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project, a program fusing original music with art, imagery and science which confronts a planet under siege and a future in peril while inspiring audiences to change course. With an original score by composer Laura Kaminsky, live musical performance by the Fry Street Quartet, lecture by physicist/climate educator Robert Davies and imagery by painter Rebecca Allen and environmental photographer Garth Lenz, the program provides hope as well as a path toward meaningful response.  The performers will also offer a high school matinee.  Both performances are presented in association with UAlbany’s Office of Sustainability.

Commemorating 70 years since it was published, Fahrenheit 451 will be the focus of activity in October through a collaboration with the New York State Writers Institute. Ray Bradbury’s work of science fiction imagined a future where all books are outlawed, and “firemen” tossed hidden tomes into bonfires.  Two versions of the film will be screened – the 1966 film on Oct. 13 and the more recent movie from 2018 on Oct. 20. Literature to Life’s verbatim stage adaptation will be performed on Oct. 26 by Rich Orlow who tells the story from the perspective of the protagonist and seamlessly transitions between the five other primary characters.  Book giveaways will take place during these events. There will also be multiple performances of the play for high school student groups.

Tickets for the events with admission charges can be purchased through the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s web site at https://www.albany.edu/pac/tickets. Educators wishing to bring groups to any of the 10am morning matinees can do so by contacting the UAlbany Performing Arts Center office at 518- 442-3995 or PAC@albany.edu. Admission is free but reservations are required.