Soccer Fans Storm the Arts Plaza

Fans for The Netherlands and Argentina gather on the Center’s Arts Plaza

Soccer fans at the Center

There’s been ballet, dance classes, opera, an electric guitar concert, parties, rock bands, The Car Plays, Movie Mondays, community festivals, Walks for various causes – and now – World Cup soccer! The Center welcomed soccer fans to watch The Netherlands vs. Brazil on Saturday, July 12th and Argentina vs. Germany on Sunday, July 13th (lucky 13 as it turned out for Germany). The games were shown on LED jumbotrons. Food trucks fed the hungry, and the Center’s children’s Imagination Playground provided diversions for little ones not yet in the soccer groove. 

The great Russian dancers Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, with Russian 
impresario, dance producer and artist manager Sergei Danilian, center. Vasiliev 
and Osipova took time off from their rehearsals for Solo for Two, in which they will 
perform a world premiere and two American premieres July 25 – 27.

And the tension builds.

A little advertising for Segerstrom Center worn by 
Director of Education Jason Holland at the Imagination Playground.

And the win goes to Germany!

For more fun on the Arts Plaza, don’t miss the Center’s Movie Mondays: Gigi on July 21, Cabaret on July 28 and ending with Sweet Charity on August 4. For more information about Movie Mondays, click here. 

All photos by Doug Gifford.

Nearly 15,000 Attended Movie Mondays 2013

Meet-Up at Movie Mondays

Setting a new Movie Monday box office record, nearly 15,000 gathered this summer to watch award-winning film musicals on the Center’s Arts Plaza. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita closed the 2012 – 2013 series (However, if you missed the screening or would like to enjoy Evita live on stage, the critically acclaimed Broadway revival opens the Center’s 2013 – 2014 Broadway Series on December 10.). These family-friendly evenings, co-presented with the Newport Beach Film Festival, welcomes creative al fresco picnic dinners, Meet-Ups, family celebrations and creative costumes. 

President Terry Dwyer and Doug McKay from Macy's

Volunteers participated in the highly anticipated contests and trivia trials as the sun set. Capping the evening, Doug McKay, Macy’s Operations Manager and District Grant Operations Manager, presented Center President Terry Dwyer with a check in the amount of $25,000 to underwrite the screenings of Mulan and Evita. 

Valerie Randall, Lori Shapiro, Denise Shue and Bill McKee

Suggestions are being taken for next summer’s line-up of film musicals. Send your nominations to www.SCFTA.org/mmpoll.

Elizabeth, MacKenzie, Michael and Tomai of Orange

On far right, Max.

All photos by Joesan Diche.

This Friday on the Arts Plaza: Pacific Symphony’s “Target Symphony in the Cities”

Music Director Carl St.Clair conducting.

Pacific Symphony’s annual free summer evenings of outdoor music and entertainment come to Segerstrom Center’s Arts Plaza for the first time this Friday, July 26 beginning at 5:30 p.m. The 2013 Target Symphony in the Cities concert series on the Center’s Arts Plaza will also help to celebrate Costa Mesa’s 60th Anniversary. PSO Music Director Carl St.Clair will conduct well-loved tunes by Shostakovich, Massenet, Strauss (Jr. and Sr.!) and American legends John Williams, Leonard Bernstein and John Philip Sousa. Special guest performers are the doo-wop group The Alley Cats and violinist Kotaro Tsutsumi. 

Don’t miss the pre-concert events at the Symphony’s Musical Playground and lots of interactive and hands-on activities for kids and families: make an instrument, play in a drum circle, visit the instrument petting zoo and meet real live Symphony musicians. Maestro St.Clair will offer his conducting workshop, starting at 6:45 p.m. in preparation to assist him in leading Sousa’s “Hands Across the Sea” during the concert. 

Guests are encouraged to bring beach chairs or other easily portable seating items, as well as snacks and picnic suppers. Barbecues and similar food preparation are not permitted.  

Center Campus. Photo by Chris Costea

It’s Drew, It’s Drew! Movie Mondays 2013 Is Finally Here!

Mark Phillips, Jake Eyerman, Alan Sullivan, Ed Eyerman
and Tim Woods at Movie Mondays

The summer season’s beloved Movie Mondays opened last night with a great turnout of nearly 2,500 fans who came to enjoy the ‘80s-inspired romantic comedy The Wedding Singer. The Arts Plaza was filled with totally awesome ‘80s music as guests were enjoying their picnic dinners. New this year, Patina Catering is providing themed-menu dinners, and last night’s included rockin’ sliders, grilled cheese sandwiches and, of course, wedding cake for dessert! Also, the fabulous new Segerstrom Center t-shirts made their debut last night and will be available every Monday for $18 each.

Wedding cake from Patina Restaurant Group catering

Segerstrom Center for the Arts t-shirts

Acura, the Official Automotive Sponsor of the Center, parked in Arts Plaza

The popular pre-film contests paid homage to the film’s stars: Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler and included a rousing game of “Drew or False” along with “Tongue Twisters.” Grand Prize winners received either passes to visit the beautiful and historic Mission San Juan Capistrano or tickets to attend the Center’s next divine Broadway musical, SISTER ACT arriving August 6. All participants received blueberry pies (something borrowed, something blue) courtesy of Corner Bakery Cafe.

Gary and Sue Mammen at Movie Mondays

Movie Mondays continues on July 15 with the acclaimed music documentary Buena Vista Social Club in anticipation of the September 17 opening of the Center’s 2013 – 2014 Season with Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Off Center Festival Off to a Great Start

The Car Plays © Steve Dawson

The Off Center Festival is giving Southern California music, dance and theater fans a lot to enjoy and to think about. The Car Plays has vehicles lined up on the Arts Plaza for series of 10-minute plays within the vehicles themselves – each with audiences of just two.

Doug Varone and Dancers in "Dressed" © Steve Dawson

Doug Varone and Dancers began their program discussing and demonstrating the creative process of their featured work in “Stripped” and return to perform the finished work in costumes and theater lighting for part two, “Dressed.” 

Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker © Steve Dawson

Belarus Free Theatre performed its politically powerful and thought-provoking Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker. This festival of innovative contemporary entertainment and culturally significant works continues January 28 through February 2 with indie bands Sea Wolf and The Donnies The Amys, Fleur Elise Noble’s 2 Dimensional Life of Her, Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Word Becomes Flesh and more of The Car Plays. 

The Off Center Lounge © Steve Dawson

Every evening ends with audiences and artists gathering at the Off Center Lounge in Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge. 

Trey's Back and Costa Mesa's Got Him!

Trey McIntyre Project, one of the nation's most innovative and creative dance companies, has returned to Segerstrom Center and Orange County dance audiences. Trey, in glasses, is seen here with colleagues and stage crew as they prepare for the World Premiere of Ways of Seeing. Four works will be presented by TMP November 23-25: Ways of Seeing (commissioned by the Center and begins in Segerstrom Hall and transitions to the Arts Plaza), The Unkindness of Ravens (a Center co-commission and West Coast Premiere), Bad Winter and Ladies and Gentle Men. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.