Coming to Guild Hall this week will be a solo dance performance by Lloyd Knight of the Martha Graham Dance Company, a show-business evening with Marc Shaiman, Susan Stroman, and Robyn Hurder, and a panel discussion led by Nina Channing about how much growth is too much.
"The Drama," which will unfold Saturday at 7 p.m., was written and performed by Knight and directed and choreographed by Jack Ferver, with production design by Jeremy Jacob, a filmmaker. It highlights the life of Knight, who is a principal dancer in the Graham company, in a work inspired by two important women in his life: his mother and Martha Graham.
Illuminating what it takes physically and psychologically to pursue a life in dance, it also touches on what drew Knight, at an early age, to dancing. "The Drama" uses movement, spoken word, sound, video, and colorful projection to explore ideas around femininity and iconic roles within the Graham canon. It was commissioned by Works and Process and DANCECleveland and developed over a series of residencies at Bridge Street Theatre, Modern Accord Depot, and the Watermill Center.
Tickets are $71.
Shaiman, a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning composer and lyricist, will be at Guild Hall on Sunday evening at 7 to celebrate his memoir, "Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner."
Known for his work across theater, film, and television, including "Hairspray" on Broadway and the film "Mary Poppins Returns," Shaiman will reflect on his five-decade career in conversation with Stroman, a Tony Award-winning director and choreographer who helmed and choreographed the Broadway production of "Smash," for which Shaiman wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics.
The evening will also feature a performance by Hurder, a musical theater actor who worked with Stroman and Shaiman in "Smash" and originated the role of Nini in the Broadway production of "Moulin Rouge!"
Lin-Manuel Miranda called "Never Mind the Happy," published in January by Regalo Press, "a hilarious and moving memoir," while Publishers Weekly characterized it as "a lovely, heartfelt chronicle of creativity, survival, and the enduring pull of the spotlight."
Copies of the book will for sale in the lobby following the performance, and the author will sign them. Tickets to the evening's events are $69.
The Matthiessen Talks, a series that brings together activists, cultural voices, and leading thinkers to explore our interconnectedness with the natural world, will return to Guild Hall next Thursday at 6 p.m. with "The Idolatry of Growth -- How Much Is Enough?"
Presented by the Peter Matthiessen Center and Guild Hall and moderated by Channing, a writer and editor, the program will bring together three thinkers whose work examines the values shaping contemporary life.
Audrea Lim, who writes about climate change, labor, migration, and social and environmental justice, will focus on how communities imagine more equitable and sustainable futures.
A novelist and cultural critic, Tara Isabella Burton, the author of "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World," will discuss new forms of belief, identity, ritual, and belonging that emerge in an increasingly secular and consumer-driven culture.
Jamieson Webster, a psychoanalyst and writer, will home in on questions of desire, freedom, anxiety, and the psychological underpinnings of modern life.
Tickets are $35.
