Isango’s Baltimore stop on world tour is Oct. 17-19

Award-winning South African theater company, the Isango Ensemble, will stop at Baltimore’s Center Stage during its U.S. tour to perform its adaptations of Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo), and Shakespeare’s epic love poem, Venus and Adonis, for one weekend only, Oct. 17 to 19.

The 30-member company reimagines Mozart’s 1791 masterpiece through South African eyes, with the original score faithfully transposed for an on-stage orchestra of marimbas, drums and other South African percussion instruments. Mozart’s operatic fairy tale of a love-struck prince’s quest to rescue the Queen of the Night’s daughter with the aid of a magic flute is reimagined through an African prism and set in an African township.

Based in Cape Town, the Isango Ensemble reinvents classics from the western theater canon into African settings. Its spirited interpretation of The Magic Flute won an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and the Globes de Cristal for Best Opera Production following a sold-out season at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

“This production has received accolades, awards and standing ovations from Tokyo to Paris. So when the opportunity arrived to have Isango play Center Stage directly after our production of Amadeus, it was just too irresistible an opportunity to let pass,” says Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah. “There is a whole section ofAmadeus dedicated to the creation of the Mozart’s masterpiece, The Magic Flute. Being able to see the opera reimagined in such an exciting way will be a truly unique experience.”

The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo) will be performed Friday evening, Oct. 17, and Saturday afternoon and evening,Oct. 18. There will also be a student matinee Friday.

One performance of Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis transformed through Isango’s music, dance and magical theatricality will be offered at Center Stage on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19. This interpretation– originally a 2012 collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in England– tells in three African languages and English Shakespeare’s seductive story of Venus’ enchantment with Adonis after her son, Cupid, wounds her.

“Isango’s production at Center Stage is an example of the continued realization of Kwame’s goal to bring international and innovative productions to Baltimore,” says Center Stage Managing Director Stephen Richard. “We are also doing that this season with Marley, a new musical written by Kwame based on Bob Marley’s life and music.”

Isango’s performances are special additions to Center Stage’s music-filled 2014/15 Season, which continues with the opening of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal, on Oct. 15.

For ticket information, visit www.centerstage.org. Tickets to Isango’s performances will be available at a discounted price to Center Stage members.

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Dean Rogers

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I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

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As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

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