Auditorium Theatre 2018-19 Issue 3 Alvin Ailey

2 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2018-19 - March 6 - March 30, 2019 Welcome to the Auditorium Theatre! Thank you for joining us as we continue our exhilarating 2018-19 Season. It has been a wonderful 2019 so far at the Auditorium: We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the 14 th annual Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah and were wowed by the National Geographic explorer Mireya Mayor . We hosted the Chicago return of the incredible Trinity Irish Dance Company on our landmark stage in February, and welcomed two of the world’s most renowned contemporary dance companies in early March: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company . This month, we are honored to commemorate Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 60 th anniversary — and the 50 th anniversary of the company’s first performances on our historic stage. In celebration of these exciting milestones, the company will give the Midwest premiere to its first-ever two-act ballet, Rennie Harris’ Lazarus , inspired by the life and legacy of company founder Alvin Ailey . We’ll also see new works by choreographers Wayne McGregor and Jessica Lang . Learn more about this legendary company’s history on pages 6-11 of this program. We are also thrilled to welcome the iconic songwriter and composer Alan Menken to our landmark stage on March 30 , performing his one-man show A Whole New World of Alan Menken . We can’t wait to hear the songs and stories that he has to share with us! We hope you’ll join us for the rest of our season in the following months: the incomparable American Ballet Theatre is here with its whimsical story ballet Whipped Cream April 11-14 . Mountaineer Hilaree Nelson closes out our National Geographic Live series dedicated to inspiring women on May 7 . We end the season with Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg , bringing its brand-new ballet The Pygmalion Effect to our landmark stage for its North American premiere May 17-19 . For more information about our upcoming events, please visit AuditoriumTheatre.org , and be on the lookout for information on our exciting 2019-20 Season, coming soon! See you at the theatre! Sincerely, Rachel Freund John Svoboda Interim Chief Executive Officer Chairman, Auditorium Theatre Board of Directors Rachel Freund John Svoboda