UCLA Live cuts theater festival from 2010-11 season lineup

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There’s something major missing in the schedule for UCLA Live’s upcoming 2010-11 season.

Organizers of the critically lauded cultural series said that budgetary and economic concerns had forced them to cut the international theater festival from the season’s lineup. Last season, UCLA Live offered seven theater productions, including an original staging of ‘Medea,’ starring Annette Bening.

This season, the number of theater productions will be zero.

The decision to cancel the theater festival ‘was made with absolutely no pleasure at all on our parts,” said Christoper Waterman, dean of UCLA’s art and architecture school. “Hopefully, it’s not a permanent decision. If the economic prognosis improves, we will be interested in staging theater at UCLA, no doubt about it.”

David Sefton, the artistic director of UCLA Live of nearly 10 years, resigned in May over differences with the direction that the series was taking.

For 2010-11, UCLA Live will present a total of 47 individual performances in the fields of dance, jazz, classical music and more. That’s down from 85 performances last season.

Read the full story about the 2010-11 season at UCLA Live.

-- David Ng

UCLA Live

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