The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater announced its 2025 Winter-Spring season, running Jan. 16 through June 14.

This coming season will present an extraordinarily unique tapestry of commissioned theater, music, dance, film and fine art exhibitions over six months.

The program delves into identity, legacy, memory, transformation and the intricate relationship between humanity, technology and the natural world.

Cultural and personal histories are examined through Eileen Myles’ reflections on life, as well as Zeinabu irene Davis’s cinematic portrayals of Black life and heritage. Annie Dorsen’s AI-driven reinterpretation of ancient tragedy and Will Rawls’ critique of media representation explores how technology influences lives and perceptions. Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek use opera to uncover the roots and consequences of prejudice in the highly interconnected world in a co-presentation with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects. Morgan Bassichis investigates queer creativity, paying tribute to an LGBTQIA+ trailblazer, while REDCAT, LA Phil Insight and the Grammy-nominated LA-based contemporary music ensemble Wild Up honor the legacies of Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell, uncompromising queer composers, with two separate performances and an exhibition as part of the To the Fullest festival.

The 2025 season will see REDCAT transforming its space and format with experiential theatrical settings. Faye Driscoll’s visceral meditation on the human impact on climate change will be performed within the intimacy of the theater-in-the-round while Tania El Khoury crafts a dinner party, inviting the audience to join an exploration of archival documents. REDCAT audiences will be invited behind the curtain for Mariana Valencia’s rehearsal as a performance and for the staging of Arthur Russell’s minimalist disco piece, the seats of the theater will be removed entirely, transforming the space into an immersive dance party.

The season features multimedia exhibitions with a series of individual presentations across various spaces at REDCAT. The exhibition World of Echo celebrates the legacies of Arthur Russell and Julius Eastman, emphasizing the queer body as a site of liberation and exploring the fusion of classical, minimalist and experimental forms to push the boundaries of music and art. CalArts alum Hande Sever’s exhibition examines the construction of historical narratives through cultural and political archives, while the work of Abigail Raphael Collins, also presented in the gallery, investigates the often-hidden connections between the military and the film industry, delving into issues of silence, trauma and the intergenerational transmission of history.

REDCAT continues its programmatic collaboration with CalArts showcasing the work of students and guest artists through an exciting series of events this year, beginning with Macarena Gómez-Barris’ talk as part of the Ecofeminisms: Practices of Survivance Lecture Series. The CalArts Film/Video Showcase will feature four nights of screenings showcasing new films by BFA and MFA students, including experimental animation and long-form works. The season will also highlight the CalArts Writers Showcase, featuring creative experimentation from the graduating MFA Creative Writing students. The CalArts Spring Dance program will showcase emerging artists Trisha Brown, Lil Buck, Genna Moroni, Omar Ramón de Jesús and Jobel Medina. This two-night event will feature performances by the graduating class of 2025, including a restaging of Brown’s “Glacial Decoy,” with costumes and set design by Robert Rauschenberg and new works by several choreographers.

“Our upcoming season embodies REDCAT’s commitment to experimentation, collaboration, and genre-expanding artistry, to amplify voices that challenge, provoke, and transform. It’s an invitation to experience LA art and performance at its best, with work that resonates across disciplines and opens new pathways for dialogue, discovery, and experimental mediums.” said João Ribas, Steven D. Lavine Executive Director of REDCAT and Vice President for Cultural Partnerships.

“The season is enriched by the creative work of the CalArts community, which includes students and alumni who have advanced in their careers, as well as a diverse faculty made up of artists, writers, filmmakers, and critics who have contributed in different moments to critical discussions in our Schools and beyond. Our season also reflects CalArts’ scholarship and academic research, exploring topics ranging from feminism and environmental justice to theories of sovereignty and necropolitics, all through the lens of art.” said Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Programs.

“This season features a wide variety of collective experiences and intimate investigations that reformat our understanding of REDCAT’s space–transforming our theater for each presentation to craft experiential, impactful programs that encourage visitors to see our world anew.” said Katy Dammers, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Performing Arts.

Highlights of the Season

Theater

Annie Dorsen: “Prometheus Firebringer” Each evening, the predictive text model GPT-4 generates speculative versions of the lost final play of Aeschylus’ Prometheia trilogy, how Prometheus stole the god’s fire for humans, performed by a chorus of AI-generated Greek masks. Prometheus Firebringer is part of the performance program for All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, which is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, presented by Getty.

Morgan Bassachis: “Can I Be Frank?” Comedian Morgan Bassichis, pays tribute to queer comedian and musician Frank Maya, one of the first openly gay comedians on network TV, who was on the verge of mainstream success before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1995. This “solo” performance seeks to honor Maya’s overlooked legacy and explores the queer search for fame and laughter in times of crisis. Director Sam Pinkleton most recently directed Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! at the Lucille Lortel Theater, New York, and choreographed Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are at The Shed, New York.

Tania El Khoury: “The Search for Power” Artist Tania El Khoury and historian Ziad Abu-Rish invite the audience to join them in an intimate exploration of archival documents, uncovering hidden knowledge and revealing power structures. Tracing the history of electricity in Beirut from colonial archives, they explore the intersection of public utilities, state politics, and popular resistance. The piece, a co-presentation with Fisher Center at Bard, unfolds as both an intimate performance and an audio installation.

Dance

Faye Driscoll: “Weathering” In this West Coast premiere, ten performers move on a raft-like stage surrounded by the audience, creating a dynamic, multi-sensory “flesh sculpture” that reflects the chaos of the Anthropocene. The audience is immersed in this storm, close enough to sense the sweat, breath and intensity of the living symphony.

Will Rawls: “[siccer]” Will Rawls considers how Black bodies are relentlessly documented, distorted, and circulated in the media. This dance performance, presented with the artist’s exhibition at the ICA LA, experiments using stop-motion visuals; collaborators Holland Andrews, keyon gaskin, jess pretty, Katrina Reid and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste are suspended in an uncanny reenactment of an iconic American film, playing within the intervals–taking advantage of a gap in surveillance.

Mariana Valencia: “Jacklean (in rehearsal)” In Jacklean (in rehearsal), Valencia (Herb Alpert Awardee 2024), and musician Jazmin “Jazzy” Romero improvise dance, sound and text, presenting rehearsal as performance. Rooted in their shared Latina heritage, the piece explores their queer, Brown, first-generation experiences. Valencia’s movement blends everyday gestures, social dance, and postmodern styles, while Romero’s music spans cumbia, punk, jazz and electronic.

Music

Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek : “Adoration” This contemporary opera follows Simon, an orphaned student grappling with family trauma, racism and digital-age intolerance in an adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film. When a teacher’s writing prompt leads Simon to recast a historical terrorist attack as one committed by his parents, the story goes viral. Presented in collaboration with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects, this marks the opera’s West Coast premiere.

Wild Up: “Julius Eastman: The Holy Presence” GRAMMY-nominated, LA-based orchestral collective Wild Up presents an evening of work by maverick composer Julius Eastman as part of the To the Fullest festival. Wild Up cellist and Eastman scholar Seth Parker Woods performs The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. This is accompanied by Eastman’s seminal work Prelude to The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc, followed by a new transcription of That Boy by Seth Parker Woods, composed by Eastman in 1973. Produced and co-presented with Wild Up and LA Phil Insight.

Wild Up: ” Arthur Russell: 24 to 24 Music” Arthur Russell’s minimalist disco piece, 24 to 24 Music, is presented as part of the To the Fullest festival. Originally performed in 1979 at The Kitchen with Julius Eastman, this open-form jam for ensemble, percussion, keyboards and voices connects Downtown New York’s new music scene with popular dance music. The performance at REDCAT will transform the theater into a large-scale dance party, inviting audiences to participate fully in the work.

PARTCH Ensemble: “Summer 1955 / Earth Studies / HEAVE HO” The Grammy Award-winning ensemble, renowned for performing Harry Partch’s music on his unique instruments, presents a triple bill of premieres by Evan Ziporyn, Stephen James Taylor, and Partch. The program includes the LA premiere of PARTCH’s Summer 1955, a five-part work blending texts from Psalm 137, Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland and a clarinet arrangement of Ulysses for Chet Baker. Composer Evan Ziporyn premieres “Earth Studies,” inspired by DesignEarth’s work, while Stephen James Taylor presents the world premiere of HEAVE HO, merging hip hop, minimalism, microtonal, pop and Afro-futurism.

Exhibitions

Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell: “World of Echo” This exhibition reexamines the intertwined legacies of composers Arthur Russell and Julius Eastman–and celebrates their expansive creativity across classical performance, minimalist composition, disco, dance, and experimental intermedia. Featuring Seth Parker Woods’s audio installation, The Holy Presence, and rare archival video and audio, it explores their collaborations from 1975 until their untimely deaths.

Hande Sever: “Take off your eyes” Sever (CalArts Art and Technology MFA 18) delves into cultural and political archives, unearthing texts and images that shape historical narratives. Often inspired by her family’s history of persecution, her work examines personal and collective memory, especially around military violence, surveillance, and censorship. Take off your eyes includes two projects rooted in Southern California collections: To Thread Air (2023), based on research at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’ (2025), from the Getty’s Ottoman Empire photography collection.

Abigail Raphael Collins: “BLACKOUT” Collins creates video installations and experimental nonfiction to explore the unspeakable, starting from a queer, feminist lens. Her work examines what is passed down across generations beyond words: gaps, silences, and stutters in intimate and historical dialogue. BLACKOUT, an experimental documentary seven years in the making, unravels ties between the film industry and the U.S. military. Beginning with her father, a method actor with PTSD cast in military roles, BLACKOUT weaves interviews with a combat videographer, a military role player, an Army script supervisor, and a TV writer funded by the military.

Talks

Eileen Myles – Join Chelsea Girls and Working Life poet and novelist Eileen Myles for an evening of sharp humor and life writing as the annual Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence organized by CalArts’ Creative Writing MFA program

Ecofeminisms: Practices of Survivance Series – Presented by the CalArts MA Program in Aesthetics and Politics, the series explores feminist intersections with ecopolitical issues, such as extractivism, Indigenous sovereignty, colonialism, war, and multispecies relations, featuring speakers Macarena Gómez-Barris, Salar Mameni, and Greta Gaard.

Film Program Highlights

Curated by Jheanelle Brown, CalArts School of Film/Video.

Zeinabu irene Davis: “A Powerful Thang” Two milestone films, the experimental drama Cycles (1989), situating the Black femme body between Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S., and A Powerful Thang (1991); the story of Yasmine Allen, a writer and single mother seeking intimacy and friendship, capturing Black life in Southwest Ohio in the 1990s.

Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias (CalArts Film/Video MFA 14) – West Coast Premiere of Pepe – The first and last hippopotamus killed in the Americas, “Pepe,” was controversially shot by Colombian authorities after being deemed an invasive threat. Dominican filmmaker de los Santos Arias tells Pepe’s story from the hippo’s perspective, immersing us in a world of layered stories and rich imagery, capturing the voices of communities who, like Pepe, lived and died without truly knowing where they belonged.

Vertical Blanking: “The Video Depositions of Vertical Blanking” Kicking off EZTV’s 45th-anniversary celebrations across Los Angeles, Elizabeth Purchell programs the first retrospective of Vertical Blanking, a video art and experimental music duo of Kamandalu (formerly Kim McKillip) and Michael J. Masucci. EZTV pioneered “desktop video” with analog video, modified computers, experimental sound, and live performance.

Emilia Beatriz: “West Coast premiere of barrunto” In Puerto Rico, “barrunto” refers to bodily unrest or an omen sensed through environmental signals (like aches before rain or ants before an earthquake). Beatriz’s film uses this concept to explore grief and resistance in shifting landscapes, blending digital, archival, and 16mm film processed in “grief tea.”

David Gumbs, Ezra Wube, Valentina Homem, Thanut Rajitanont: “Earthly Movements for Bodies Eternal” The West Coast Premiere of Earthly Movements for Bodies Eternal showcases animated and new media works connecting bodies and movement to the natural world. Films by David Gumbs, Valentina Homem, Thanut Rajitanont, and Ezra Wube employ diverse techniques: real-time sound, paint on glass, stop motion, and drawing. The program traces humanity from its terrestrial roots through the Anthropocene and envisions other worlds.

CalArts Programming

CalArts Film/Video Showcase

The CalArts School of Film/Video presents four nights of special screenings featuring new films by BFA and MFA students in its programs—offering a diverse collection of bold, innovative cinematic works.

Evenings are separated into the Experimental Animation Showcase, Long Form Showcase, Film Directing Program Showcase and Program in Film and Video Showcase.

CalArts Writers Showcase

This program presents a glimpse into the wild and varied work of the graduating class of CalArts’ MFA Creative Writing Program, featuring the incredible range of experimentation that characterizes the literary accomplishment of students in the program.

CalArts Spring Dance – Meet the next generation of dance artists at this year’s CalArts Spring Dance program. Featuring performances by the graduating class of 2025, this two-night engagement highlights this dynamic group of young artists’ agility, intelligence, and innovation. This dynamic program includes a restaging of Trisha Brown’s Glacial Decoy with costumes and set by Robert Rauschenberg, commissions from choreographers Lil Buck, Genna Moroni and Omar Ramón de Jesús, along with a piece by CalArts alum Jobel Medina (Dance MFA 21).

REDCAT, CalArts’ downtown center for contemporary arts, is a multidisciplinary center for innovative visual, performing and media arts founded by CalArts in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. Through performances, exhibitions, screenings and literary events, REDCAT introduces diverse audiences to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT continues the tradition of the California Institute of the Arts, its parent organization, by encouraging experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse.

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater. CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.

REDCAT is located within the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex at 631 West 2nd Street., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

For current program and exhibition information, visit redcat.org

Inferior Dionysia (2022), directed by Wenxin Zhou. CalArts Showcase.