Event Calendar

Upcoming Events

Laurie Anderson brings her UFPA co-commissioned work Homeland to the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Performer: Laurie Anderson - Homeland

Filed under Press Releases on August 26, 2008.

University of Florida Performing Arts
315 Hull Road
PO Box 112750
Gainesville, FL  32611-2750

For press inquiries, please contact Amy Douglas at 352-273-2476

August 26, 2008

Laurie Anderson brings her UFPA co-commissioned work Homeland to the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Laurie Anderson has built a reputation for creating multimedia filled performances.  Often incorporating cutting-edge special effects, Anderson’s work is known for both its technological sophistication as well as it political and social commentary.  For her latest artistic endeavor, however, Anderson has gone back to her roots, focusing on an experience that emphasizes language and music.  Homeland, which was co-commissioned by the University of Florida Performing Arts, makes its Florida debut at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday, September 16. 

Laurie Anderson is one of today’s premier performance artists. Born in Chicago, she moved to New York City in the mid-1960s, quickly joining its avant-garde scene and staging experimental performances.  Among her earliest efforts were O-Range, where 10 people stood in a stadium shouting stories through megaphones and As: If, which involved Anderson standing on stage wearing skates frozen in blocks of ice. 

Anderson’s first mainstream “hit” came in 1982 when O Superman, from her eight-hour opera United States I-V (a piece that was highly critical of the Reagan government) caught the ear of UK radio DJ John Peel.  Peel began playing it on the radio and O Superman shot to number two on the UK charts – quite a feat for a song that was more than eight minutes long. 

Since O Superman achieved hit status, Anderson has released a number of musical outpourings on the Warner Brothers label, including Mister Heartbreak, United States Live and Strange Angels, and toured around the world with her stage shows, including Empty Places, The Nerve Bible and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick, based on Herman Melville’s novel.  In 2002, Anderson became the first artist-in-residence at NASA, from which she developed her solo performance The End of the Moon.

Her latest work, Homeland, is a series of stories and songs that creates a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture.  Conceived as one long piece of music, Homeland moves through many worlds – from Greek tragedy to American business models.  The stories and songs that make up Homeland are all marked by a political urgency.  They address the current climate of fear, obsession with information and security.  They are also – as with all of Anderson’s work – personal and unique.  At the heart of Homeland is storytelling.

“One of the reasons that I’m interested in telling stories is that stories are so powerful,” said Anderson in a podcast interview with Australia’s Dig Radio.  “I also think that when you’re telling a story or listening to it, you kind of in a way act on it. They’re magic. You can make things come true.”

Homeland was commissioned in part by: The Barbican Centre, London; Cal Performances at UC Berkeley; Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, Toronto; Melbourne International Arts Festival; Society for the Performing Arts, Houston, Texas; University of Florida, Gainesville.

###

Laurie Anderson - Homeland
Tuesday, September 16, 7:30 p.m.
Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Sponsored by the Independent Florida Alligator

Ticket Prices: $20-50

Web sites:  
University of Florida Performing Arts: http://www.performingarts.ufl.edu/
Laurie Anderson: http://www.laurieanderson.com/

To Purchase tickets, call the Phillips Center Box Office at 352-392-ARTS (2787) or 800-905-ARTS (toll-free within Florida) or call Ticketmaster at 800-277-1700 (toll-free).  Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Phillips Center Box Office, the University Box Office at the University of Florida Reitz Union or from any Ticketmaster outlet, or online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/. Cash, checks, MasterCard and Visa are accepted.

For interviews and other  press inquiries, please contact Amy Douglas at 352-273-2476.
 
For high resolution photos and/or artwork, please click here.

Performance dates, times and programs are subject to change.

University of Florida Performing Arts does more than entertain.  It breaks down walls.  It breaks down the walls between people by increasing cultural awareness through programming that attracts artists and audiences from around the globe.  It breaks down the wall between patron and performer with educational programs such as master classes, artist residencies and pre- and post-performance discussions.  It breaks down the wall between health and illness with AIM Together, a collaborative program between UFPA and Shands HealthCare that brings world-class performing artists to those who are hospitalized.  It breaks down the wall between idea and realization by commissioning and nurturing new work.  Art doesn’t have walls.  But sometimes life does.  UFPA breaks down the walls, enriching the lives of the citizens in the Heart of Florida, helping to make Gainesville “the #1 place to live.”