Charleston Gaillard Center’s 2021-2022 Series Single Tickets On Sale August 6

FOR RELEASE MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021 MEDIA CONTACTS: Kellie Lawson Director of Marketing 843-242-3105 klawson@gaillardcenter.org GAILLARD CENTER SOCIAL MEDIA: @gaillardcenter @gaillardcenter facebook.com/thegaillardcenter

Charleston Gaillard Center’s 2021-2022 Series Single Tickets On Sale August 6 August 2, 2021 – Charleston, SC – The Charleston Gaillard Center is thrilled to announce 2021-2022 Series single tickets are on sale Friday, August 6 at 11am for seven performances.

Additional performances will go on sale later this month. Featuring ten incredible performances, from award-winning Broadway to stunning dance performances, the 2021-2022 Series creates unforgettable, world-class experiences here in the Lowcountry.

You still have the opportunity to purchase a Series Subscription. Our Series Subscription allows you to choose what you see, when you want to see it. Choose the exact shows you want with our “Make Your Own Series” Subscription. Select four, six, eight, or more shows and save up to 25% off of regular season, single ticket prices.

DOWNLOAD HI-RESOLUTION IMAGES HERE Gaillard Center Members receive presale access. Become a Member today! Contact our Development Office at development@gaillardcenter.org or (843) 579-6468 for more information.

2021-2022 SERIES PERFORMANCES ON SALE FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 EMERSON STRING QUARTET OCTOBER 10, 2021 | 2PM

Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer – Violins Lawrence Dutton – Viola Paul Watkins – Cello Program Hayden Seven Last Words Beethoven String Quartet in A Minor, op. 132 Philip Setzer 1st Violin for Beethoven op. 132 and Hayden Seven Last Words (#s 2, 4, 6) Eugene Drucker 1st Violin for Hayden Seven Last Words (Introduction, #s 1, 3, 5, 7, Earthquake) The Emerson String Quartet has maintained its status as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades. “With musicians like this,” wrote a reviewer for The Times (London), “there must be some hope for humanity.” The Quartet has made more than 30 acclaimed recordings, and has been honored with nine GRAMMYs® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award. The Quartet collaborates with some of today’s most esteemed composers to premiere new works, keeping the string quartet form alive and relevant. The group has partnered in performance with such stellar soloists as Reneé Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Evgeny Kissin, Emanuel Ax, and Yefim Bronfman, to name a few.

The Emerson String Quartet’s 2019-2020 season, which begins with a seven-city tour of Australia, includes a number of high-profile projects. Among the North American highlights is a three-concert stint at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series featuring Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartets and the complete Bartok cycle. The Quartet performs in its 41st series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and makes appearances at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Friends of Chamber Music in Vancouver, Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, MI, South Mountain Concerts, Wooster Chamber Music, Chamber Music Cincinnati, Chamber Music Louisville and Friends of Music Concerts in Millwood, NY. Overseas, the Quartet performs the complete Beethoven Cycle at the Seoul International Music Festival, and embarks on three European tours, with stops in Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, and Spain.

The Quartet’s extensive discography includes the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartok, Webern, and Shostakovich, as well as multi-CD sets of the major works of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorak. The ensemble also has recorded music by Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Debussy, Ravel, Barber, and Ives. In April of 2019, the Quartet joined forces with GRAMMY®-winning pianist Evgeny Kissin to release their debut collaborative album for Deutsche Grammophon, recorded live at a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 2018.

Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson String Quartet was one of the first quartets to have its violinists alternate in the first chair position. The Quartet, which takes its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, balances busy performing careers with a commitment to teaching, and serves as Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. In 2013, cellist Paul Watkins—a distinguished soloist, award-wining conductor, and devoted chamber musician—joined the original members of the Quartet to form today’s group. In the spring of 2016, the State University of New York awardedfull-time Stony Brook faculty members Philip Setzer and Lawrence Dutton the status of Distinguished Professor, and conferred the title of Honorary Distinguished Professor on part-time faculty members Eugene Drucker and Paul Watkins. The Quartet’s members previously had received honorary doctorates from Middlebury College, the College of Wooster, Bard College, and the University of Hartford.

In January of 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

The Emerson String Quartet enthusiastically endorses Thomastik strings.

AN EVENING WITH AUDRA MCDONALD NOVEMBER 6, 2021 | 7:30PM Audra McDonald performs her trademark mix of songs from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and beyond.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received a National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honor for achievement in the field—from President Barack Obama.

In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination). A Juilliard-trained soprano, her opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her

two Grammy Awards. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice. She won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center and has received nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Having first appeared as Liz Lawrence on CBS’s The Good Wife, she can now be seen in The Good Fight on Paramount+ as well as in Spectrum’s pandemic-themed drama The Bite. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, and MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.

McDonald has released five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy, with the New York Philharmonic, on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. A founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQAI+ rights, her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother.

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN DECEMBER 14, 2021 | 7:30PM AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, based on the Oscar-winning film starring Richard Gere, is a breathtaking production that celebrates triumph over adversity and includes one of the most iconic and romantic endings ever portrayed on screen. Featuring the Grammy Award winning, #1 hit single ‘Up Where We Belong’, and a score based on the 1980’s catalogue of music that gave voice to a generation, the live stage production is a new adaptation by multiple Tony Awards nominee Dick Scanlan (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture), based on the original screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart. The musical is directed by Scanlan with choreography by Patricia Wilcox (Motown, A Night with Janis Joplin).

Zack Mayo’s got smarts and a body built for US Navy pilot boot camp, but he also has too much swagger… until he meets a drill sergeant who’s determined to drill his arrogance out of him. Zack finds comfort in the arms of a local factory girl. But it isn’t until tragedy befalls a fellow candidate that Zack learns the importance of love and friendship, and finds the courage to be his best self and win the heart of the woman he loves.

RENT JANUARY 27, 2022 | 7:30PM The Farewell Season of Love For a quarter of a century, Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece RENT has inspired us to choose love over fear and to live without regret. Its immeasurable emotional impact has forever changed the world of musical theatre.

RENT follows a year in the lives of a diverse group of artists and friends struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. This powerfully resonant phenomenon has become more than a musical – it’s a cultural touchstone, a rite of passage and a source of joy and strength for millions. The extraordinary RENT fan community spans every continent and every generation – including many born over a decade after the show opened on Broadway.

Whether you’ve never seen RENT or have completely lost count, you can’t miss it this time around – the 25th Anniversary “Farewell Season of Love” is your FINAL CHANCE to experience this illustrious touring production.

Come join us to celebrate 25 years of “La Vie Bohème.” 13,140,000 minutes of the one and only RENT.

SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL FEBRUARY 7, 2022 | 7PM She was a girl from Boston with a voice from heaven, who shot through the stars from gospel choir to dance floor diva. But what the world didn’t know was how Donna Summer risked it all to break through barriers, becoming the icon of an era and the inspiration for every music diva who followed. With a score featuring more than 20 of Summer’s classic hits including “Love to Love You Baby,” “Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff,” this electric experience is a moving tribute to the voice of a generation.

WAITRESS APRIL 26, 2022 | 7:30PM Meet Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage. Pouring her heart into her pies, she crafts desserts that mirror her topsy-turvy

life such as “The Key (Lime) to Happiness Pie” and “Betrayed By My Eggs Pie.” When a baking contest in a nearby county — and a satisfying encounter with someone new — show Jenna a chance at a fresh start, she must find the courage to seize it. Change is on the menu, as long as Jenna can write her own perfectly personal recipe for happiness.

Brought to life by a groundbreaking all-female creative team, this hilarious hit Broadway musical features original music and lyrics by Grammy® Award winner Sara Bareilles ("Brave," "Love Song"), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam), original choreography by Lorin Latarro (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Waiting For Godot), recreated by tour choreographer Abbey O’Brien and original direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Hair, Pippin), recreated by tour director Susanna Wolk.

“WAITRESS is a little slice of heaven!” says Entertainment Weekly, and is “sweet, sassy and passionate,” according to New York Magazine.

"It's an empowering musical of the highest order!" raves the Chicago Tribune. Don't miss this uplifting and hilarious musical celebrating friendship, motherhood, and the magic of a well-made pie.

BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL MAY 10-11, 2022 | 7:30PM Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll. But it wasn’t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice.

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Featuring a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, including “I Feel The Earth Move,” “One Fine Day,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend” and the title song, BEAUTIFUL has a book by Tony®

Award-nominee and Academy® Award-nominated writer Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni, choreography by Josh Prince and took home two 2014 Tony® Awards and the 2015 Grammy® for Best Musical Theater Album.

ABOUT THE CHARLESTON GAILLARD CENTER The Charleston Gaillard Center is a 501c3 nonprofit performing arts organization in Charleston, South Carolina, committed to enriching lives through unforgettable experiences. Throughout the year, we provide exceptional programming and vibrant educational opportunities for the community.

Please consider a contribution as we continue to find innovative ways to connect, inspire, and entertain. Donate to support the arts in your community. You can learn more about our educational resources and programming at gaillardcenter.org. ###