The Kennedy Center has responded to stage workers and IATSE Local 22’s negotiations and strike threats. The company noted that “after more than a year of discussions and over 16 hours of talks yesterday, the Kennedy Center is disappointed that negotiations with its stagehands, IATSE Local 22, have now stalled over a single issue. Despite the Union’s claims, at the {…}
After 16 months of negotiations, stagehands at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts unanimously voted to strike. The strike vote was in response to threats by the performing arts center’s management to slash wages 40 percent and eliminate jobs along with the imposition of other draconian cuts and changes to working conditions. The vote by the members {…}
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. have announced that they will require that all audience members be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The theaters announced that the new policy will also include a vaccine mandate for all artists, staff, ushers, and volunteers. Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said, “Our audiences have {…}
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced a lineup of Spring/Summer Performances. The center will offer free in-person activities featuring Millennium Stage’s return to the REACH campus and will also showcase the return of Washington National Opera’s Pop-up Opera Truck with the premiere of Mo Willems’s first opera. The performances will be a lead-up to its highly {…}
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced plans for its 50th Anniversary season. The anniversary will begin in September 2021 with a grand reopening of its stages and campus and will culminate in September 2022 with an interpretation of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” which opened the center in 1971. The Mass will be staged by Francesca Zambello {…}
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced the first performance in front of a live audience in months. The performance, scheduled for Sept. 26, will feature Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams in a concert entitled “A Time to Sing: An Evening with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams.” The concert will feature music direction by Rob Mathes {…}
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced the cancellation of all announced programmed performances and events through the end of 2020 due to ongoing effects of COVID-19. The company announced that the decision was made in accordance with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s current guidelines for re-opening. However, the Kennedy Center noted that its leadership, programming, and {…}
The National Symphony and the Kennedy Center have reached an agreement to not furlough its musicians after weeks of discussions due to the musicians being laid off. In a statement Deborah Rutter said, “After several days of collaborative discussions, Kennedy Center leadership and the musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) have reached a new agreement, a significant step in {…}
The ink wasn’t even dry on the stimulus package, which guaranteed the Kennedy Center $25 million, and the arts organization was already laying off members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Per a report from the Washington Post, the orchestra members, who are worth $1.6 million per month on the payroll, will get one additional paycheck at the end of this {…}
The Kennedy Center has canceled all performances until March 31 due to the coronavirus. In a statement the Kennedy Center announced that its “highest priority is the health and well-being of all our patrons, artists, volunteers, and staff. In conformance with the specific public health recommendations issued by D.C. Health and Mayor Bowser, and due to the increasing threat of COVID-19, {…}
(Credit: Jonathon Tichler) The REACH has announced its “inclusive, multi-genre, multidisciplinary” 2019 Opening Festival, which marks its first-ever expansion to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For the purpose of this article, we focus on opera-related events. The Festival’s “Opening Day” will “illustrate the breadth of experience that the REACH is designed to foster,” according to the {…}