BEST BETS: January 19th – January 25th

The return of two important festival, a celebration of dance, an audacious pairing of plays and something entirely new find their way onto Best Bets: January 19^th – January 25^th:

MODERN MILESTONES – Yorke Dance Project – Royal Opera House Lindbury Theatre – London, England – January 19^th – January 22^nd

YDP is doing a lot of celebrating in this new program: Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100^th anniversary, the centenary of dancer/choreographer Robert Cohan’s birth, choreographer Christopher Bruce’s 80^th birthday and the 60^th anniversary of Lewitzky Dance Company.

The program accomplishes this by performing Graham’s Deep Solo, Cohan’s Lacrymosa, Bruce’s Troubadour (set to the music of Leonard Cohen) and Lewitzky’s Kinaesonata.

Since it is also Liam Francis’s year as YDP’s first associate artists, his CAST [x] is also being performed.

This should be a fascinating program of modern dance.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

AN ARK – The Shed – New York, NY – Now – March 1^st OPENING NIGHT: January 21^st

An Ark seems like an oxymoron: a play about living, grieving and connecting is presented through “mixed reality.” Meaning, through glasses you experience the cast perform this piece by Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) individually while in a theater with countless other people. The actors aren’t in person.

The cast is Arinzé Kene, Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel and Rosie Sheehy.

Anything McKellen is doing is something worth exploring. Stephens is a great writer and director Sarah Frankcom has a terrific pedigree.

One hopes that this “understanding of the human condition, encompassing the joy of first love and the inevitability of death” will lead audiences to make more personal connections after taking the glasses off and seeing the world through their own eyes. It’s a journey I’d happily take.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATER FESTIVAL – Multiple Venues – Chicago, IL – January 21^st – February 1^st

As a lifelong fan of puppetry (and I’m not talking about the Punch and Judy style), I will always include this festival in Best Bets. This is a world class festival featuring puppetry from around the world. This year’s festival includes artists and companies from Denmark, England, France, India, Norway, Scotland, South Korea and Spain. There are also US-based companies and local Chicago-based ones as well.

Amongst this year’s participants that intrigue me the most are Blind Summit Theatre’s The Sex Lives of Puppets, Plexus Polaire’s A Doll’s House, Untitled Theatre Co. No. 61 and Yara Arts Group’s The Left Hand of Darkness and Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust’s About Ram.

Those titles alone indicate that not every show here is made for children. Though there are some of those, too.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

DANCE CAMERA WEST 2026 FESTIVAL – Multiple Venues – Los Angeles, CA – January 22^nd – January 25^th

Dance films, those specifically made to showcase dance, get no better festival than DCW’s annual festival. This year’s festival will include over 40 films (both shorts and documentaries) from all over the world.

Amongst the titles that most intrigue me are West by Thomas Bos, One & One Other [Episode 1] by Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern and Emilie Leriche; Carmen by Andrew Margetson and Waiting Places by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber.

The festival will have a David Roussève retrospective that features a screening of his film and a talk back with the dancer/choreographer. You might remember we interviewed him for the world premiere of Becoming Daddy AF. You can watch that interview HERE.

There is also a celebration of Shirley Clarke and this year’s LA POPS UP is curated by Kitty McNamee. You can see Cultural Attaché interview with her HERE.

Events are taking place at Colburn’s Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles, the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz and Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in West Los Angeles.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

GOD OF CARNAGE/WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? – South Coast Rep – Costa Mesa, CA – January 23^rd – March 21^st

This is an audacious pairing that I hope succeeds brilliantly. Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage and Edward Albee’s landmark play are playing in repertory on the Segerstrom Stage. Two plays that look at marriage and relationships in very different ways.

Both plays will feature Kim Martin-Cotten and Brian Vaughn. They play Martha and George in Virginia Woolf and Annette and Alan in God of Carnage. I hope they have good throat lozenges!

Joining them in Carnage are Don Donohue and Melinda Page Hamilton. Appears as Nick and Honey in Virginia Woolf are Gabriel Gaston and Elysia Roorbach.

So many productions of both these plays rely on star power. After all, they are juicy roles. That these productions feature well-established stage actors without the baggage of celebrity should offer a refreshing look at both plays.

For tickets and more information for GOD OF CARNAGE, please go HERE. For tickets and more information for WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, please go here.

That’s all for BEST BETS: JANUARY 19^th – JANUARY 25^th. Enjoy your week and go see a show!

Main Photo: The Sex Lives of Puppets (Photo by Charlie Lyne/Courtesy Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival)

Note: A previous version of this story listed Kim Martin-Cotten’s last name as Cotton and Brian Vaughn’s last name as Vaughan. Cultural Attaché regrets the error.