The MCA Stage is the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

’s performing arts program. Founded in 1996 with the opening of the MCA’s new building in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

History

In 1996, Peter Taub was appointed as the MCA director of Performance Programs. Before joinging the MCA, Taub was the executive director of the

Randolph Street Gallery Randolph Street Gallery (RSG) was an alternative exhibition space in Chicago, Illinois, from 1979 until its closing in 1998 and a vital local force in the development of a variety of new art forms and the contemporary national and international art ...

. His first year of programming included Latin-jazz trumpeter

Jerry Gonzalez Jerry may refer to: Animals * Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National * Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...

, experimental reedist

Douglas Ewart Douglas R. Ewart (born 13 September 1946 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder. He plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes ('' shakuhachi'', ''ney'', and panpipe ...

, and local free-improv artist Liof Munimula. In its 15-years history, the MCA stage has featured global wide theater, dance, music, multimedia, and film performances. In addition to working with local community organizations for the co-presentations of performing arts, the MCA stage is also known as the "most active interdisciplinary arts presenter in Chicago". The performance program developed "Artists Up Close", which is a series of post-show talks, panels, discussions, and artist-led workshops designed to engage the audience with the artists. The 2009 season saw 80 performances' featuring dance, music, theater, and cross-disciplinary forms, as well as 40 Artists Up Close discussions or workshops.

Productions

In 2011, the Japanese American dance artists

Eiko & Koma Eiko Otake and Takashi Koma Otake, generally known as Eiko & Koma, are a Japanese performance duo. Since 1972, Eiko & Koma have worked as co-artistic directors, choreographers, and performers, creating a unique theater of movement out of stillness ...

performed ''Time is Not Even, Space is Not Empty'' as the first combination exhibition and performance project Taub curated for the MCA. The exhibition consists of three performances—Naked, The Caravan Project, and Regeneration—and a gallery presentation. In September 2010, the MCA and Chicago-based

Redmoon Theater Redmoon Theater was a Chicago based not-for-profit theatrical company under the direction of Jim Lasko and Frank Maugeri that specialized in site-specific productions emphasizing visual spectacle. Productions were often out of doors, sometimes ti ...

co-produced the project ''The Astronaut’s Birthday'', a multimedia public art spectacle inspired by science fiction and comic books that was projected onto the MCA façade as audience members watched from the MCA plaza. The production used new technologies, live performers, and hand-illustrated shadow imagery to display the 80-foot tall production. New York-based theater company

Elevator Repair Service Elevator Repair Service (ERS) is a New York-based theater ensemble founded by director John Collins and a group of actors in 1991.F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

’s ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

''—took six hours as performers reenacted the story.

Additional Performances

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

of Ireland (2011) *

Trisha Brown Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017) was an American choreographer and dancer, and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Brown’s dance/movement method, with which she and her dancers ...

Dance Company (2011) *Cie Heddy Maalem (2011) * Olafur Arnalds (2011) *

John Jasperse John R. Jasperse (born October 8, 1963) orgenroth 2004 p.187 is an American choreographer and dancer. Since 1990 he has been artistic director and choreographer of the New York City-based John Jasperse Company.John Jasperse performer biography i ...

Company (2011, 2005, 2003) *

Young Jean Lee Young Jean Lee is an American playwright, director, and filmmaker. She was the Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work. She has written and directed ten shows for Yo ...

’s Theater Company (2010) * Akram Khan Company (2010) *

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

(2009) *

Anna Halprin Anna Halprin (born Hannah Dorothy Schuman; July 13, 1920 – May 24, 2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to hers ...

/Anne Collod & guests (2009) *Compagnie

Marie Chouinard Marie Chouinard OC (born 14 May 1955) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance company director. Life and work In 1978, Chouinard presented her first work, ''Crystallization''. After 12 years as a solo performer and choreographer, Chouina ...

(2009) *

Lucinda Childs Lucinda Childs (born June 26, 1940) is an American postmodern dancer/ choreographer and actress. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest mov ...

(2009) * Bill T. Jones (2008) *

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

(2008) *

Mike Daisey Mike Daisey (born January 21, 1976) is an American monologist, author, and actor. His monologue ''The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs'', about the labor conditions under which Apple devices are made, was used as the basis for a widely share ...

(2008) * Complaints Choir (2007) * Diamanda Galas (2007, 2012) *

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She wa ...

(2007) *

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

(2007) *

Chunky Move Chunky Move is an Australian contemporary dance company from Southbank, Victoria It was founded in 1995 and debuted at the Melbourne International Arts Festival with artistic director Gideon Obarzanek. The company's work is diverse and has includ ...

(2007) *

Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group is a Brooklyn-based dance performance group created by Reggie Wilson in 1989. The group blends contemporary dance with African traditions in what the founder and choreographer terms “Post-African Neo H ...

(2007) *

Paul Taylor Dance Company Paul Taylor Dance Company, is a modern dance company, formed by dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor (1930—2018). The modern dance company is based in New York, New York and was founded in 1954. Taylor originally performed in the companies of ...

(2007) *

Liz Lerman Liz Lerman (born 1947 in Los Angeles, CA) is an American choreographer and founder of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange . Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,” she and her dancers ...

Dance Exchange (2006) * Mark Morris Dance Group (2006) * Kiki & Herb (2005) *Emio Greco PC (2005) *

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...

(2004) *Societas Raffaello Sanzio (2002) *

dumb type Dumb Type is an artist collective based in Kyoto, Japan founded in 1984. Dumb Type is a group of creative art forms that express the new and daily life of the twentieth century modern and technological world of Japan. During the 1980s Dumb Type ...

(2002) * Roger Guenveur Smith (2002)

References

{{Chicago mtp Performing arts centers in Illinois Theatre companies in Chicago