CalArts_Center_for_New_Performance

The CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) is the professional producing arm of the California Institute of the Arts. It provides a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, media, and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national, and international levels, CNP offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts. It also enables CalArts students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond their curriculum. Transformative artists from around the world develop work with CNP that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance, infusing their work with the talent, vitality, and impulses of emerging artists in the CalArts community.
Founded in 2002 by Susan Solt, Travis Preston, and Carol Bixler and launched with Travis Preston's groundbreaking all female production of King Lear, and originally called the CalArts Center for New Theater, the name was changed in 2005 to reflect the expanded mission, aspiration, and embrace of the larger performance landscape.