Inspired by two books by acclaimed children’s author Mo Willems, the ingenious Emmy Award-winning company Manual Cinema (known for mixing low-fi props with interactive technology) has created Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster.

Poor Leonardo. He tries so hard to be scary, but he just… isn’t. Manual Cinema uses puppets, props, and songs to bring Willems’ books about courage and friendship to life.

Manual Cinema is a performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company that combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.

This performance runs 45 minutes and is appropriate for ages 3+.

One of the most charming performers ever returns to the Quick Center stage. Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli has been hailed by the Boston Globe for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz.” He has expanded that repertoire by including the music of Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and The Beatles.

Pizzarelli leaves audiences spellbound with his triple-threat combo of honey-smooth vocals, wry wit, and jaw-dropping guitar prowess, all while backed by a band of exceptional jazz artists.

John Pizzarelli has dedicated many of his albums to the great songwriters and performers who have helped to establish the Great American Songbook and the pop music canon: Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Richard Rodgers, and Duke Ellington, to name a few. With his latest album – Stage & Screen – Pizzarelli explores immortal songs of the past century, classics from Broadway musicals and Hollywood films.

When, in 1933, Lincoln Kirstein recruited choreographer George Balanchine to move to America to lead the faculty of his fledgling School of American Ballet, it was not based in New York City. It was in Hartford. The studio relocated to Manhattan the next year and remains the official school of the New York City Ballet.

Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates’ new performance project sources Balanchine's brief history in Connecticut to reflect on how the body and spirit of a choreographer scatters, living on in unexpected places. She draws upon her background as a former member of New York City Ballet, and working with Ain Gordon (direction and dramaturgy), Derek Lucci (performer), Charles Burnham (musician-composer), and Melvin Chen (pianist), Coates and her collaborators collage misplaced and overlooked archival traces and transmissions of Balanchine and related artists into a new whole.

In this intimate performance experience, the audience will be seated on stage with the artists.

Emily Carson Coates has danced with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp Dance, and Yvonne Rainer. She teaches at Yale University, where she has directed the dance studies concentration since its inception in 2006.

Scheduled to premiere at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in fall 2025, The Scattering, or the light (working title) is commissioned by Works & Process. The iterative development has included a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church (2025) in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave. The project will continue to be supported with a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York. Additional developmental support is provided by the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund. The Scattering was created in part during a residency at the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow, with additional support from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

When, in 1933, Lincoln Kirstein recruited choreographer George Balanchine to move to America to lead the faculty of his fledgling School of American Ballet, it was not based in New York City. It was in Hartford. The studio relocated to Manhattan the next year and remains the official school of the New York City Ballet.

Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates’ new performance project sources Balanchine's brief history in Connecticut to reflect on how the body and spirit of a choreographer scatters, living on in unexpected places. She draws upon her background as a former member of New York City Ballet, and working with Ain Gordon (direction and dramaturgy), Derek Lucci (performer), Charles Burnham (musician-composer), and Melvin Chen (pianist), Coates and her collaborators collage misplaced and overlooked archival traces and transmissions of Balanchine and related artists into a new whole.

In this intimate performance experience, the audience will be seated on stage with the artists.

Emily Carson Coates has danced with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp Dance, and Yvonne Rainer. She teaches at Yale University, where she has directed the dance studies concentration since its inception in 2006.

Scheduled to premiere at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in fall 2025, The Scattering, or the light (working title) is commissioned by Works & Process. The iterative development has included a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church (2025) in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave. The project will continue to be supported with a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York. Additional developmental support is provided by the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund. The Scattering was created in part during a residency at the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow, with additional support from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

Lost Lear is a moving and darkly comic remix of Shakespeare’s play told from the point of view of Joy, an elderly person with dementia. Joy is living in an old memory from her 30s, when she was rehearsing the title role in an avant-garde production of King Lear. Joy’s delicately maintained reality is upended by the arrival of her estranged son who, being cast as Cordelia, must find a way to speak his piece from within the limited role he’s given.

Described as “brilliantly conceived and executed” (Irish Examiner), Lost Lear is the creation of Irish theatre and filmmaker Dan Colley. Inspired by visiting his grandmother when she lived in a care home for people with dementia, Colley uses puppetry, projection, and live video effects to create Joy’s world, where layers of her past and present, fiction and reality, overlap and distort.

This remarkable play is a thought-provoking meditation on theater, artifice, and the possibility of communicating across the chasms between us.

This production runs 80 minutes.

Rayuela, a Spanish word for the children’s game of hopscotch, is the title of a new dance work created by flamenco sensation Marco Flores. The piece is inspired by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar’s stream-of-consciousness novel of the same name, a celebrated “antinovel” that can be read out of sequence and is noted for its multiple endings. The protagonist of the novel is always searching for elusive answers.

A winner of the National Flamenco Award in his home country of Spain, Flores celebrates the first 20 years of his career in this piece that is a metaphor for his life. One of the top male flamenco dancers of his generation, he is known as a fiery performer with impeccable technique, who incorporates elements of contemporary and tap dance to expand the possibilities of what flamenco can be. Flores is joined by two renowned musicians: singer Alfredo Tejada and guitarist José Tomás Jiménez. Francisco López is the director and dramaturge.

After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, a trip from coast-to-coast that used to take months was shortened to just under a week, allowing for the transport of goods and ideas across the continent in ways previously inconceivable. Profit-seeking corporations and the American government financed it, but the people who actually built it and who were most affected by it are the focus of this program of music – Indigenous and African Americans as well as Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and other immigrant laborers whose contributions have been largely erased from history. Silkroad’s American Railroad seeks to right these past wrongs by highlighting untold stories and amplifying unheard voices from these communities, painting a more accurate picture of the global diasporic origin of the American empire.

The American Railroad tour program includes commissioned pieces by jazz artist Cécile McLorin Salvant and film composer Michael Abels, as well as Silkroad artist and renowned pipa player Wu Man and Silkroad artist Layale Chaker. It also includes re-envisioned arrangements of folk songs by Silkroad artistic director, Rhiannon Giddens, and fellow Silkroad artists Haruka Fujii and Maeve Gilchrist.

Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

yMusic is a genre-leading American chamber ensemble. Now in its 16th season, the group is renowned for its innovative and collaborative spirit. yMusic has a unique mission: to work on both sides of the classical/popular music divide, without sacrificing rigor, virtuosity, charisma, or style. They were recently praised by NPR Music as “deeply, profoundly skilled. They’ve formed a language all their own.”

Named for Generation Y, yMusic has lent their instantly recognizable sound to commissions and projects by a dizzying array of artists including Andrew Norman, Anohni, Missy Mazzoli, John Legend, Paul Simon, and Caroline Shaw.

yMusic is Alex Sopp, flute; Mark Dover, clarinet; CJ Camerieri, trumpet; Rob Moose, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; and Gabriel Cabezas, cello. The group was founded by Rob and CJ in 2008, who chose its unique instrumentation based on their friendships and the players' adaptability.

PROGRAM

Judd Greenstein: Together (15')

yMusic: select compositions (20')

Gabriella Smith: Aquatic Ecology (40') [commissioned by Cal Performances, Tippet Rise, Carnegie Hall, Walker Arts Center, Yale Schwarzman Center, and Hirshhorn Museum]

This powerhouse tribute to the Allman Brothers Band has been earning rave reviews from fans and venues alike. Their performances capture the spirit, energy, and musicianship of the original band, leaving audiences thrilled and wanting more.

Their top-tier vocals and instrumental skills bring the Allman Brothers’ music to life with passion and authenticity. Fans consistently praise their ability to create an electric atmosphere that gets the crowd dancing and fully immersed.

Their growing & loyal fanbase travel to multiple shows, urging others to experience this incredible act.

The streamers are hung, the punch has been spiked, and the cake is just begging to be eaten! Now all Bill has to do is wait for his guests to arrive. Bill’s 44th is an original comedic show created by puppeteers Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck to create one very worried leading man – Bill. Many styles of puppetry, raucous balloons, and a cheeky piece of crudité all collide to examine the pitfalls of impatience, the wonder of loneliness, and the universal passage of time.

This performance runs 55 minutes.

More about the work from creators, Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck:

Bill’s 44th was originally conceived in 2016 as a five-minute slam-piece for Puppet Homecomings. The prompt: “They are coming,” inspired us to throw a birthday party where no one ever comes. But then, due to scheduling conflicts, we weren’t able to attend the slam and we stuffed Bill’s head (lovingly) into a box on a shelf.

Two years later we were asked by our friend Rowan Magee, who was curating one of the nights for Dixon Place’s Puppet Blok, if we wanted to revisit the idea. We did, and (10 minutes of) Bill was born! What followed next was a whirlwind that culminated in a 20-minute workshop at Dixon Place in 2019, where we shared the bill with the ingenious Shayna Strype, applying and receiving a Production Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation, planning a workshop performance at the New York State Puppet Festival, being a part of Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse, and readying for a premiere at Dixon Place in 2020!

Of course, things changed. While many of our ideas came to a screeching halt, Bill’s journey continued. Thanks to the New York State Puppet Festival in October of 2020 we were able to create Bill’s 44th (A Zoom Birthday), a 30-minute ‘zoom’ show performed live in our apartment. And finally, in June of 2021, Bill found his way to his premiere at Dixon Place as part of a puppetry series alongside artists Shayna Strype, Justin Perkins, and Maria Camia.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Bill’s 44th would like to thank The Jim Henson Foundation, Cheryl Henson, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the New York State Puppet Festival, and Dixon Place. Without their support the show would simply not exist.

The streamers are hung, the punch has been spiked, and the cake is just begging to be eaten! Now all Bill has to do is wait for his guests to arrive. Bill’s 44th is an original comedic show created by puppeteers Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck to create one very worried leading man – Bill. Many styles of puppetry, raucous balloons, and a cheeky piece of crudité all collide to examine the pitfalls of impatience, the wonder of loneliness, and the universal passage of time.

This performance runs 55 minutes.

More about the work from creators, Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck:

Bill’s 44th was originally conceived in 2016 as a five-minute slam-piece for Puppet Homecomings. The prompt: “They are coming,” inspired us to throw a birthday party where no one ever comes. But then, due to scheduling conflicts, we weren’t able to attend the slam and we stuffed Bill’s head (lovingly) into a box on a shelf.

Two years later we were asked by our friend Rowan Magee, who was curating one of the nights for Dixon Place’s Puppet Blok, if we wanted to revisit the idea. We did, and (10 minutes of) Bill was born! What followed next was a whirlwind that culminated in a 20-minute workshop at Dixon Place in 2019, where we shared the bill with the ingenious Shayna Strype, applying and receiving a Production Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation, planning a workshop performance at the New York State Puppet Festival, being a part of Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse, and readying for a premiere at Dixon Place in 2020!

Of course, things changed. While many of our ideas came to a screeching halt, Bill’s journey continued. Thanks to the New York State Puppet Festival in October of 2020 we were able to create Bill’s 44th (A Zoom Birthday), a 30-minute ‘zoom’ show performed live in our apartment. And finally, in June of 2021, Bill found his way to his premiere at Dixon Place as part of a puppetry series alongside artists Shayna Strype, Justin Perkins, and Maria Camia.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Bill’s 44th would like to thank The Jim Henson Foundation, Cheryl Henson, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the New York State Puppet Festival, and Dixon Place. Without their support the show would simply not exist.

While wadaiko (taiko for short) drums have been a part of Japanese culture for centuries, Ikuo Fujitaka, the founder and artistic director of Drum Tao (established in 1993), traces a bit of his inspiration to North America. After seeing Cirque du Soleil use a Japanese wadaiko drum in their show Mystère, he was inspired to build a production that would showcase traditional taiko drumming of Japan in a modern context.

Known for their virtuosity and power, Drum Tao creates a mesmerizing spectacle with dazzling staging, costumes, and lighting. You will be amazed by the thunderous rhythms, breathtaking choreography, and cutting-edge stagecraft. Based in Oita, Japan, Drum Tao performances have touched more than nine million spectators around the world.

An internationally renowned dance company based in Los Angeles, BODYTRAFFIC inspires audiences around the globe to simply love dance. Led by artistic director Tina Finkelman Berkett, the company is not one driven by a single choreographic voice. It aims to endorse established and new voices and be a home for an eclectic range of styles and perspectives that tell vital stories.

The BODYTRAFFIC program planned for the Quick Center is inspired by powerhouse musicians of the 20th century. Two pieces are choreographed by Trey McIntire, one set to music by soul-singing icon Etta James, and the other the music of Buddy Holly, who made an indelible impact on rock and roll despite dying in an accident when he was only 22. The third piece is choreographed by Matthew Neenan, inspired by the inimitable Peggy Lee, whose music spurs us to embrace the passion of living even in the darkest of times.

Named in tribute to Harriet Tubman (whose childhood nickname was Minty), Minty Fresh Circus brings to the stage a raucous, playful reimagination of circus and dance that infuses African performance rituals, ceremonies, and cultural traditions.

Conceived by Monique Martin, Minty Fresh Circus is a U.S.-based circus show performed by an all-Black cast, with a majority-Black creative team, celebrating the healing power of Black music and movement. The acrobats perform a range of movement sourced from the African Diaspora, including percussive dance, ritual movement, Lindy, hip-hop, poppin’ and lockin’, jukin’, hand games, and physical theater.

Eileen Ivers continues to push traditional fiddling boundaries from a folk music staple to a fiercely fresh, powerfully beautiful, intensely driving world stage experience. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, Ivers has performed and/or toured with such diverse artists as Sting, Patti Smith, Al Di Meola, Hall and Oates, and The Chieftains, and was a founding member of Cherish the Ladies.

Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated, Ivers has guest-starred with the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, over 60 symphony orchestras to date, and was the groundbreaking musical star of Riverdance. The daughter of Irish immigrants, her love of connecting her musical roots in both Ireland and the U.S. is palpable.

Recipient of Les Prix de la Danse de Montréal 2017 for performance as a solo with bang bang, Manuel Roque returns to the piece with a new energy, performed as a duet. This is a work that pushes artist and audience to the limit. Involving a repetition of jumps and athletic patterns counted in 11, bang bang demands exceptional concentration and physical commitment from the performers. This work gradually drips with combativeness and resistance, revealing the human-performers’ flaws. As a pair, the ordeal becomes a sharing of strengths and weaknesses, where continuing becomes at once absurd, poetic, and political.

“Manuel Roque does more than dance for us; he dances us, embodies our inability to dance, and generously restores dance to us, illuminating that precise place where the body becomes spirit and finds its illuminated unity.” – Jean Louis Perrier, Revue Movement, Montréal (translated from French)

Stamford’s Orchestra Lumos, led by music director Michael Stern, brings their Sunday encore performance to the Quick Center.

As part of their season dedicated to celebrating America’s 250th birthday, the March program of Orchestra Lumos is titled American Gems. It features the work of original American voices including Aaron Copland, old-world émigré Igor Stravinsky, and Scott Joplin, all composers who were inspired by the genius of J.S. Bach.

Soak in the sounds of the velvety melodies and smoky rhythms of incomparable vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Bobby Darin, when Jazz at Lincoln Center celebrates the golden age of jazz with a program called Great American Crooners.

Three remarkable young singers – Benny Benack III (Downbeat Magazine #1 Rising Star), Robbie Lee, and Shenel Johns – perform favorites like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Misty,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” and “Moon River.” Expect a dazzling concert of swoon-worthy hits and sentimental serenades.

For over three decades, Jazz at Lincoln Center has been a leading advocate for jazz, culture, and arts education globally. Under the direction of Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center has brought the art form of jazz from the heart of New York City to over 446 cities in more than 40 countries.

The JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER PRESENTS touring initiative provides an affordable opportunity to present great jazz programming, featuring up-and-coming musicians who have been identified as rising stars by JALC. The initiative also allows for expansion of the mission of JALC “to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.”

George Gershwin was at home in many different musical worlds, from Broadway and Hollywood musicals to opera and symphonic works. He was also a terrific pianist who amused and amazed his friends at parties with fascinating piano versions of his songs. This concert shines a light on Gershwin’s many achievements, including performances of many of Gershwin's songs in his own arrangements, including highlights from Porgy and Bess in a stunning arrangement by pianist legend, Earl Wild, and, of course, his most famous composition, Rhapsody in Blue.

Janoah Bailin’s delightful meSSeS features precarious unicycling, shimmering puppetry, jaw-dropping juggling, and mesmerizing motions. Janoah the Jester tosses together a tale of learning and labor, emerging ecstatically from a haphazard pile of props. Part performance, part workshop, entirely entertaining – YOU learn to juggle while watching this (optionally interactive) all-ages experience. In between acts, Janoah engagingly guides the audience through the essentials: throwing, catching, and messy-ing up!

This 60-minute family-friendly solo circus-theater performance was the winner of “Spirit of the Fringe” at the 2022 Elgin Fringe Festival.