Museum of Performance + Design

MP+D mourns the loss of dance pioneer, Anna Halprin (1920-2021). Halprin was a seminal American dance figure of national and international renown and is one of MP+D's most researched subjects. Halprin's ground-breaking work in choreography and participatory performance is documented at MP+D through 65+ linear feet of archival materials and her many original dance scores. Last year, MP+D celebrated Halprin's 100th birthday with a virtual exhibit,"Anna at 100!". Earlier this ye...ar, MP+D presented a new virtual exhibit "Mapping Dance: The Scores of Anna Halprin", which features some of Halprin's iconic choreographic scores that are part of MP+D's permanent collection. To view these exhibits and learn more about Halprin, please click below: "Anna at 100!": https://annahalprindigitalarchive.omeka.net//anna-halprin- "Mapping Dance: The Scores of Anna Halprin": https://annahalprindigitalarchive.omeka.net//show/mapping-

Join us TONIGHT at 7:00PM for a free virtual lecture - "Curtain Going Up: Entertainment in San Francisco Before the 1906 Earthquake" presented by Dr. William S. Eddelman (Associate Professor Emeritus, Stanford University). To join, click here: https://www.mpdsf.org//tuesday-may-25-7pm-virtual-lecture-

Join us for our first Virtual Open House on Saturday May 15 from 1:00pm-5:00pm! https://www.mpdsf.org/blog/2021/4/24/virtual-open-house

Join us for our first Virtual Open House on Saturday May 15 from 1:00pm-4:00pm! https://www.mpdsf.org/blog/2021/4/24/virtual-open-house

Virtual Lecture: Curtain Going Up: Entertainment in San Francisco Before the 1906 Quake with William S. Eddelman (Associate Professor Emeritus, Stanford University) https://www.mpdsf.org//virtual-lecture-curtain-going-up-en

New online exhibit - "Mapping Dance: The Scores of Anna Halprin" MP+D launches a new online exhibit, Mapping Dance: The Scores of Anna Halprin, based on an exhibit originally curated by Elliot Mercer and Muriel Maffre. The exhibit features some of pioneer dance artist Anna Halprin's iconic choreographic scores that are part of MP+D's permanent collection. Anna Halprin, who celebrated her 100th birthday last year, is a seminal American dance figure of national and internation...al renown and is one of MP+D's most researched subjects. Halprin's ground-breaking work in choreography and participatory performance is documented at MP+D through 65+ linear feet of archival materials and her many original dance scores. Visit this new online exhibit here: https://annahalprindigitalarchive.omeka.net//show/mapping-

Did you know SF Ballet’s first A Midsummer Night's Dream was danced outdoors? For the Company’s 1940 appearance at the Stern Grove Festival, SF Ballet Director ...Willam Christensen restaged a version that had been created by his brother Lew two years previously in Oregon. Read more about SF Ballet's history with Midsummer here https://bit.ly/2N0tyQp then check out our stream captured in 2020! : Janet Reed in Lew Christensen's A Midsummer Night's Dream // Courtesy of Museum of Performance + Design See more

For more information about the Christensen Brothers, please visit MP+D's online exhibit at christensenfamilycollection.omeka.net, which includes vintage photographs and press clippings, such as this review of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" featuring Janet Reed and choreographer Willam Christensen's brother Lew, who would later succeed Willam as SF Ballet's artistic director: https://christensenfamilycollection.omeka.net/items/show/288

Visit our newest virtual exhibit honoring San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer - Helgi Tomasson: 35 Years of Artistry: https://www.mpdsf.org//new-online-exhibit-helgi-tomasson-3 https://mpdsfdance.omeka.net/exhibits/show/tomassonat35

In honor of Juneteenth, MP+D would like to highlight one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993) was the first black singer to perform at the White House and break the Metropolitan Opera's color barrier. In 1939, she became an important figure highlighting the racial prejudice faced by African-Americans when the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from performing at their Constitution Hall. Subsequently, First Lady Eleano...r Roosevelt resigned from the DAR, and Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes arranged for her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The concert drew 75,000 people, including members of Congress and the Supreme Court. Anderson made her San Francisco debut on February 24, 1937, performing a solo concert at the War Memorial Opera House. Ten days later, Anderson appeared as a guest soloist with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux.

While MP+D is temporarily closed to the public, we would like to highlight performers from the past featured in our archives. The original Joe in the musical "Show Boat", one of the most acclaimed Othellos of the last century, a celebrated concert singer, and a controversial, blacklisted performer, Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976) was an extraordinarily accomplished individual. The son of an ex-slave turned preacher, Robeson was an All-American football player at Rutgers University..., Phi Beta Kappa his junior year, and valedictorian of his senior class. He played for two teams in the National Football League, gave recitals and made his Broadway debut while earning his law degree from Columbia University. In 1925, he was the lead in a revival of The Emperor Jones on Broadway and in 1930, his performance as Othello earned a reported twenty curtain calls in London. Robeson was an outspoken critic of racism in America with a fondness for the Soviet Union. During the McCarthy witch hunts, he was blacklisted and had his passport revoked when he refused to sign the non-Communist oath. Although he had performed at the War Memorial Opera House in the 1940s and at a 1943 benefit concert for the United Nations in San Francisco, his 1952 War Memorial Opera House concert was cancelled. Robeson instead appeared at the Third Baptist Church in the city's Western Addition area. A 1958 concert at the Oakland Auditorium helped Robeson's professional career in the U.S. as he neared the end of his eight-year campaign to regain his passport. After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered his passport be reinstated, Robeson toured and lived abroad until returning to the United States in 1963. After his wife of forty-four years passed away in 1965, Robeson lived the remainder of his life quietly at his sister's home in Philadelphia.

While MP+D's physical location may be closed, more than 4,300 photographs, audiovisual recordings, & printed memorabilia from our collection can be viewed online. For more information, please check out this write up on the Society of American Archivists Performing Arts Section's new blog by MP+D Project Archivist/San Francisco Ballet Archivist Supriya Wronkiewicz: https://wp.me/pbJrER-1w or visit our website https://www.mpdsf.org

NEW EXHIBIT NOW OPEN - HELGI TOMASSON: 35 YEARS OF ARTISTRY celebrates Tomasson's 35th anniversary as the longest-serving, sole artistic director of not only San Francisco Ballet, but of any major dance company in the United States. During his tenure, Tomasson has choreographed more than 50 works, including five full-length ballets, the most by any company director in SF Ballet's history. The exhibit looks back at Tomasson's works for the company, highlighting his full-lengt...h works -- "Swan Lake" (1988), "The Sleeping Beauty" (1990), "Romeo & Juliet" (1994), "Giselle" (1999), and "Nutcracker" (2004), and includes posters, original photographs, original designs, programs, and video from the San Francisco Ballet Archives and MP+D’s holdings. The exhibition is open free to the public Tuesday - Friday from 1pm - 6pm and the first Saturday of each month from 1pm - 5pm through May 2, 2020. (Image - Original design by Sandra Woodall for Helgi Tomasson's "Twilight", 1998, Sandra Woodall Papers, Museum of Performance + Design)

2020 Arts Medallion honoring San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson on April 23, 2020, at Saint Joseph's Arts Society (Photo: Helgi Tomasson // Erik Tomasson) https://www.mpdsf.org//2020-arts-medallion-honoring-helgi-

Coinciding with the completion of its year-long preservation / access project "More Life: Preserving San Francisco Bay Area Theater Recordings," funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and our supporters, MP+D opens its new exhibition Preserved! The exhibition features photographs, programs, original designs, set models, and clips from several of the notable productions preserved through this video digitization project.... Highlighted in the exhibition is the world-premiere production of Eureka Theatre's "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes" (1991), A.C.T.'s "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1987) featuring Charles S. Dutton, Theatre of Yugen's "Noh Christmas Carol,"and Eureka Theatre's 1977 production of "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" starring Danny Glover and Carl Lumbly. The exhibition is open free to the public Tuesday - Friday from 1pm-6pm and the first Saturday of each month from 1pm-5pm through December 7, 2019. To learn more about the "More Life" preservation/access project visit: https://www.mpdsf.org//mpd-receives-neaart-works-grant-for Image: Set design sketch by Jesse Hollis for A.C.T.'s Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1987)

On Tuesday, Michael Tilson Thomas was awarded the San Francisco Arts Medallion by the Museum of Performance + Design, in recognition of his visionary leadership, action, and generosity which has benefited the cultural life of the San Francisco Bay Area.

MP+D's 2019 San Francisco Arts Medallion Reception and Ceremony Honoring Michael Tilson Thomas on Tuesday May 14, 2019 at Saint Joseph's Arts Society in San Francisco. All photos by Drew Altizer Photography

Thank you, California Humanities!

Thank you to everyone who attended "The Latin Quarter: Maclovia Ruiz and the Missing Beat" at the Brava Cabaret last night. We had a great turnout and the event was well-received. Thank you to California Humanities for supporting this event, Alejandro Murguia for writing and directing, our perfomers Caleb Cabrera, Claudia Deveze, and Rebecca Rose Rodriguez, and most of all, everyone who attended and expressed interest in the performance! (Photos of Alejandro Murguia and the cast during bows and with a guest during the subsequent Q&A).