William Kentridge's Centre for the Less Good Idea, and more L.A. arts and culture this weekend

Los Angeles Times

31-01-2025

A big Los Angeles welcome to the Centre for the Less Good Idea, a Johannesburg-based interdisciplinary incubator co-founded by William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace, for its weeklong residency here. And we Angelenos are in for a treat: Back in 2017, Times classical music critic Mark Swed reviewed a Kentridge installation and called him 'an amiable, professorial emcee' who 'surrounded himself with fabulous dance; potent singing, operatic and otherwise (mostly otherwise); multidimensional video imagery; quirky music; even quirkier machinery on stage.'
Collectively titled 'Three Less Good Ideas in Los Angeles,' the residency begins at UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance with 'A Defense of the Less Good Idea' (8 p.m. Saturday), which featuring a series of three short form works — 'Mnquma,' 'Commission Continua' and 'Umthandazo' — and a performance-based lecture by Kentridge and Lace. Combining elements of text, live performance and video projection, the Nimoy Theater event is the Centre's definitive talk about art, meaning and understanding.
The exploration continues at the Broad with 'Unsettled Voices' (1 p.m. Sunday), in which Tongva educator and musician Lazaro Arvizu Jr. and Khoi Khoi violist Lynn Daphne Rudolph will perform a new work at Oculus Hall. During the Indigenous music, visual and spoken word performance, the audience will partake in a creative call-and-response and dialogue that considers what reconciliation means in the land of today's L.A. (This is also connected to the museum's 'Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature' exhibition and local reforestation effort.)
It all concludes at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with five performances of 'The Great Yes, The Great No' (Feb. 5-8), a chamber opera about the historic 1941 escape from Vichy France by surrealist André Breton, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, communist novelist Victor Serge and author Anna Seghers aboard a cargo ship bound for Martinique. Conceived in collaboration with theater maker Phala Ookeditse Phala and choral composer Nhlanhla Mahlangu and directed by Kentridge, the production merges surrealist imagery with real-life events and South African choral music, dance and poetry.
I'm Times staff writer Ashley Lee, here with my colleague Jessica Gelt with more Essential Arts headlines and happenings:
'Appropriate'I missed previous stagings of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' domestic drama, including L.A.'s 'muscular production' in 2015 and Broadway's three-time Tony-winning revival. But the Old Globe's production of the ensemble piece, in which estranged siblings reunite to settle their late father's Arkansas estate, left me agape in its brilliant indictment of how white Americans (do or don't) deal directly with their historical legacies. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, this San Diego premiere runs through Feb. 23. Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. theoldglobe.org
Doug Varone and Dancers'Condense Doug Varone's elongated commentary about his choreographic processes down to his most significant insights, and it would be these: that his dances are kinetic artwork about human passions, and that every single move has a carefully crafted context,' dance critic Laura Bleiberg wrote for the Times in 2013. The acclaimed choreographer and his company will take the stage in Orange County to perform three pieces — one of which will also feature Chapman University dance students, as part of the company's education performance project. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University, 415 N. Glassell, Orange. muscocenter.org
'Arteonica*: Art, Science, and Technology in Latin America Today''A fascinating look at the convergence of art and electronics that gave rise to a relatively obscure art movement in Latin America,' Gelt writes of the PST Art exhibit that draws from the work of Brazilian artist Waldemar Cordeiro, whose 1971 show 'Arteônica' examined the computer as a tool for positive change. The exhibition, on view at the Museum of Latin American Art through Feb. 23, also includes works by artists that have expanded on Cordeiro's ideas, as well as modern thinkers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave, Long Beach. molaa.org
— Ashley Lee
FRIDAYOrange County Museum of Art Two new openings: 'Searching the Sky for Gold,' painter Su Yu-Xin's first solo museum exhibition outside of Asia, and 'Unearthed,' a group show exploring the connection of ceramics to land, place and geology.Through May 25. OCMA, 3333 Ave. of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art
SATURDAYCelebrating MTT Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the L.A. Phil and pianist Yuja Wang in his own compositions and works by Debussy, Poulenc, Gershwin and Britten. Update: Due to illness, Michael Tilson Thomas and Yuja Wang will not appear. Susanna Mälkki, Edwin Outwater and Jon Kimura Parker will instead perform the scheduled program.8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Pacific Jazz Orchestra Broadway and West End star Eva Noblezada joins the ensemble to kick off the Jazz at Naz fest.8 p.m. The Soraya, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St. thesoraya.org
SUNDAYRoots and Renewal: Honoring the New Year of the Trees The Skirball reopens with a free community day featuring artist-led talks, a curated Tu B'Shevat experience, food samples, guided campus walks, panel discussions, art making and more.11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. skirball.org
Tick, Tick … Boom! Chance Theater presents Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical about a struggling young composer in New York City, circa 1990.Thursdays through Sundays, closes Feb, 23. Chance Theater, Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. chancetheater.com
Larissa FastHorse is the first Native American playwright to be produced at Center Theatre Group's Mark Taper Forum. Her new satire, 'Fake It Until You Make It,' is currently staging its world premiere more than a year after being put on hold when the Taper shut down indefinitely in 2023. Ashley Lee sat down with Fasthorse for a discussion about the play and its journey to stage. Read the Q&A.
The Hammer Muesum announced the 27 artists participating in its highly anticipated Made in L.A. biennial, which runs from Oct. 5 to Jan. 4, 2026. The seventh edition of the biennial is curated by Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha, who told The Times that they tried to avoid any particular theme. 'There is a conversation happening between the artists, the work that they make and the context in which they make it — and that context being Los Angeles,' Pobocha said. Find out who the artists are.
'Evanston Salt Costs Climbing' — a play about two salt truck drivers and an administrator at the city's public works department — is receiving its Southern California premiere in a Rogue Machine production at the Matrix Theatre. Written by Will Arbery, the show is 'a most delectably weird play, experimental in form and frenetically playful in language,' Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes in his review. Don't be fooled by the dry title.
In response to President Trump's executive order halting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the Smithsonian announced that it is shuttering its Office of Diversity and freezing all federal hiring.
The art world is lamenting a brash heist in the Netherlands that resulted in the theft of a 2,400-year-old golden helmet and 2,000-year-old gold bracelets, which have been traced to Romanian royalty. Thieves blasted open the door to the Drents Museum in the northeastern town of Assen and stole the artifacts, which date to the Dacian kingdom in present-day Romania.
Soon after a leaked memo written by Louvre Director Laurence des Cars shed light on alarming maintenance issues at the famous museum, including leaks and an inability to sustainably cope with the annual massive number of visitors, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the facility would undergo a major renovation costing around $730 million. The president also announced that the museum's crown jewel — Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa — would be housed in a new custom built room all her own.
— Jessica Gelt
Behold — a Guinness World Record for visiting the most museums in 24 hours.