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Works & Process presents Michael R. Jackson’s "A Strange Loop" with Raja Feather Kelly, Stephen Brackett, and Rona Siddiqui

Company:
Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Works & Process at the Guggenheim Announces Season Addition:
Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop 
with Raja Feather Kelly, Stephen Brackett, and Rona Siddiqui

April 3, 2022
Previously announced, on April 4, Michael R. Jackson joins Federal Hall: The Democracy Project 
Works & Process Program

“forward thinking”
“an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process”
- The New York Times

Please join us:
Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 7:30pm ET
Monday, April 4, 2022 at 7:30pm ET

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, is proud to announce an addition to the 21/22 season with Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, featuring Raja Feather Kelly, Stephen Brackett, and Rona Siddiqui on April 3, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Jackson’s appearance will be followed on April 4, 2022 with another performance as part of the previously announced Federal Hall: The Democracy Project with Larissa FastHorse, Michael R. Jackson, and Bruce Norris. Taking place in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all programs invite audiences to embrace artistic process and uniquely blend performance highlights with insightful artists discussions.

On April 3, 2022, ahead of the Broadway premiere of A Strange Loop, meet Usher: a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer...  
 
Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning, blisteringly funny masterwork exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he both loves and loathes. Hell-bent on breaking free of his own self-perception, Usher wrestles with the thoughts in his head, brought to life onstage by a hilarious, straight-shooting ensemble. See performance highlights and writer Michael R. Jackson, choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, director Stephen Brackett, and music director Rona Siddiqui discuss their creative process with moderator and staff writer for The Washington Post Peter Marks. 

On April 4, 2022, see Michael R. Jackson again with Federal Hall: The Democracy Project, a perspective-shifting odyssey through the 527 days when New York City was the nation’s first capital, the presidency was still new, the slave trade was in debate, and the United States Constitution—and the rights of all this land’s inhabitants—hung in the balance.

Written by Tanya Barfield, Lisa D’Amour, Larissa FastHorse, Melissa James Gibson, Michael R. Jackson, and Bruce Norris, directed by Tamilla Woodard, produced by Lynn Goldner and commissioned by the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, this new play will premiere in spring 2022 at Federal Hall National Memorial. At Federal Hall, the Conservancy is bringing together the nation’s finest storytellers and scholars, writers and artists, poets, playwrights, and pundits to probe the ideas and ideals, flaws and contradictions of our democracy, a Constitutional experiment that began at the historic site in 1789.

Prior to its premiere, members of the award-winning team of theater artists, including FastHorse, Jackson, Norris, and Woodward, discuss their collaboration and present performance highlights with Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director, Playwrights Horizons.

Throughout the pandemic, Works & Process continued to provide opportunities for artists and pioneered the bubble residency to support their work safely. The spring 2022 season will feature the official world premieres of works created by New York artists – many representing historically marginalized performing art cultures – and incubated during the peak of the pandemic inside 2020-21 Works & Process bubble residencies. Alongside the commissions, Works & Process will present performance excerpts of and artists discussions about new works prior to their premieres at leading organizations including BAAD!, Federal Hall, Glimmerglass Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet.

WORKS & PROCESS TICKETS 

$35, $15 partial view. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available for purchase online only at worksandprocess.org.

Health and Safety Information

• Every audience member must be fully vaccinated and will be required to show proof in person of vaccination authorized by the FDA or WHO against COVID-19 before entering the theater. Proof of vaccination may include a CDC Vaccination Card (or photo), NYC COVID Safe app, New York State Excelsior Pass, NYC Vaccination Record, or an official immunization record from outside New York City or the United States. Full vaccination is defined as being two weeks or more after receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks or more after receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine.
• Visitors over the age of 18 will also be asked to show a photo ID.
• At this time, children under the age of 5, for whom there is currently no available vaccination, will not be permitted to attend this performance regardless of the vaccination status of their guardian.
• Bring your three-ply face mask, N-95, or equivalent to keep yourself and one another safe. All individuals will be required to wear a face mask at all times.
• There is no coat check; please do not bring bags.
• Do not attend if in the ten days leading up to the performance, you have tested positive or experienced COVID-19 symptoms or come into close or proximate contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case. If you are unable to attend due to COVID-19 exposure, please contact boxoffice@guggenheim.org in advance of the performance.
• An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public environment where people are present. Those visiting the museum do so at their own risk of exposure.

Lead funding for Works & Process season is provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Evelyn Sharp Foundation, The Geraldine Stutz Trust with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Works & Process has received support from the U.S. Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and Paycheck Protection Program and NYC Employee Retention Grant Program.

Michael R. Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a songwriter, he has seen his work performed everywhere from Joe’s Pub to NAMT. He wrote lyrics and co-wrote book for the musical adaptation of the 2007 horror film Teeth with composer and co-bookwriter Anna K. Jacobs. He wrote book, music, and lyrics for the musicals White Girl In Danger and A Strange Loop (which will receive its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons Theatre in May of 2019). He has received a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2017 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a 2016/2017 Dramatist Guild fellowship, and was the 2017 Williamstown Theatre Festival Playwright-In-Residence. He has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions and LCT3.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim 

Described by The New York Times as “forward thinking” and “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” since 1984 Works & Process has welcomed New Yorkers to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed performers and creators of the performing arts. Led by Producer Caroline Cronson and Executive Director Duke Dang, Works & Process nurtures and champions new works, shapes representation, amplifies underrepresented voices and performing arts cultures, and offers audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Artist-driven programs blending performance highlights with insightful discussions are, when permitted, followed by receptions in the rotunda, producing an opportunity for collective learning and community building while also helping to cultivate a more inclusive, fair, and representative world.
Approximately fifty performances take place annually in the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed, 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Annually Works & Process produces a program at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain as well. In 2017 Works & Process established a residency program inviting artists to create newly commissioned performances made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020 Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created financially support 84 new works and over 280 artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. To forge a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform during the pandemic from summer 2020 through spring 2021, Works & Process pioneered and produced 250 bubble residencies supporting 247 artists, made possible through the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. On March 20, 2021, after over a year of shuttered indoor performances and with special guidance from New York State’s Department of Health, Works & Process was the first cultural organization to reopen live, indoor ticketed performances in the rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.