For 25 years, Pomegranate Arts has championed bold and ambitious artistic ideas.
These are some of the signature projects and artist relationships that have defined us:
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
From 2013 – 2023, Pomegranate Arts partnered with acclaimed performance artist Taylor Mac to co-produce his most ambitious (and our most unforgettable) work to date – a unique 24-part performance art concert series that creates a subjective history of America since its founding in 1776. Years in development, the project culminated in a one-time 24-hour marathon performance for a sold-out audience at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY on October 8, 2016. Over 200 performers appeared in the NY run, including a 24-piece orchestra, an ensemble of “dandy minions”, and countless special guests.
Among many accolades, the project was placed on the New York Times’s Top 10 lists for Best Performances, Best of Theater, and Best of Classical Music of 2016. NY Times critic Wesley Morris wrote of the marathon performance: “Mac gave me one of the great experiences of my life.”
CREATIVE TEAM
Taylor Mac
Machine Dazzle
Matt Ray
Niegel Smith
Jocelyn Clarke
Mimi Lien
John Torres
Jimin Brelsford
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Available Light
This seminal collaborative work by composer John Adams, choreographer Lucinda Childs and architect Frank O. Gehry was originally created as a site-specific work for LA MOCA’s Temporary Contemporary exhibition space in 1983. The piece is an hour-long multi-layered work composed of eleven dancers, original music for synthesizers, a set made of industrial platforms and chain link fencing material and light. In the 2015 Pomegranate Arts-produced remount, Available Light was reinvented for the Lucinda Childs Dance Company with a set re-conceived for touring by Frank Gehry and new costumes by Kasia Walicka-Maimone.
CREATIVE TEAM
John Adams
Lucinda Childs
Beverly Emmons
Frank Gehry
John Torres
Kasia Walicka-Maimone
Bassem Youssef
Bassem Youssef, dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, was the host of popular TV show AlBernameg – which was the first of its kind political satire show in the Middle East. Throughout its three season run, AlBernameg remained controversial due to its hilarious and bold criticism of the ruling powers. During its final season, the show achieved unprecedented ratings before Youssef announced its termination due to overwhelming political pressures on the show and the airing channel. In 2013, Youssef was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). After Bassem relocated to the United States, Pomegranate launched his touring career as a live speaker and developed new work for the stage with this provocative thinker and activist.
PROJECTS
An Evening with Bassem Youssef
Bassem Youssef Live
The Joke Is Mightier Than The Sword
Batsheva Dance Company
Batsheva Dance Company under the director of house choreographer Ohad Naharin, has been critically acclaimed and popularly embraced as one of the foremost contemporary dance companies in the world. Together with its junior Batsheva Ensemble, the company boasts a roster of 34 dancers drawn from Israel and abroad. Based in Tel Aviv, Batsheva maintains an extensive performance schedule locally and internationally with over 250 performances and over 100,000 spectators per year.
Since 2017, Pomegranate Arts has served as the tour producer for the company’s US appearances.
PROJECTS
Venezuela
Decadance 2017
Hora
MOMO
Book of Longing
An evening-length work by Philip Glass based on the poetry and images of Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing was composed for ensemble, singers, spoken word, and imagery. The culmination of years of mutual admiration between two of the most celebrated musical artists of their generation, the piece featured new music by Glass inspired by Cohen's book of the same name published in 2006.
CREATIVE TEAM
Leonard Cohen
Philip Glass
Christine Jones
Michael Riesman
Kasia Walicka-Maimone
Scott Zielinski
Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes occupies a unique place in American music where sea shanties, English music hall, North American and West Indian folk music, play party songs, the spirit of early rock-and-roll and soulful originals collide. From 2002-2012, Pomegranate collaborated with Dan to elevate the live concert experience parents could expect to enjoy with their children. With his band, Dan Zanes and Friends, he has toured the world sharing handmade 21st century social music with enthusiastic crowds of kids and kid sympathizers.
PROJECTS
Dan Zanes and Friends
Dan Zanes Holiday House Party
DANCE
A seminal collaboration emerging out of one of the most vibrant and prolific periods in New York’s art world, DANCE is a signature work by master choreographer Lucinda Childs. Recipient of the NEA/NEFA American Masterpiece Award, the 1979 classic was remounted by the Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College produced by Pomegranate Arts. The music for DANCE was composed by Philip Glass and, for this remounting, a new recording was made by the Philip Glass Ensemble. The decor for the work is a black and white film by Sol LeWitt, the only film ever created by this important American artist. Featuring selected passages of the choreography, in performance, the film is projected on a transparent scrim downstage of the dancers and is perfectly synchronized with the live dancers on stage.
CREATIVE TEAM
Lucinda Childs
Philip Glass
Sol LeWitt
Beverly Emmons
Einstein on the Beach
Widely credited as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, this rarely performed work launched its creators Robert Wilson and Philip Glass to international fame in 1976. Nearly four decades after it was first performed and twenty years since its last production, Pomegranate Arts reconstructed this revolutionary performance work for a major international tour. Our 2012 remount of this legendary work toured to thirteen cities on four continents earning the 2013 Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production.
CREATIVE TEAM
Lucinda Childs
Philip Glass
Robert Wilson
Improbable
Improbable brings together the diverse and acclaimed talents of some of Britain’s most highly imaginative theatre practitioners, including founders and artistic directors Phelim McDermott, Lee Simpson and Julian Crouch. Improbable’s work has been seen in the UK, the United States, Egypt, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Canada, Lebanon, Ireland and Holland. 70 HILL LANE has won several major awards including an OBIE for Outstanding Achievement in Off Broadway Theatre, the 1997 Time Out Award for Best Off West End Production, Best Performance at The Cairo International Theatre for Experimental Theatre and The Manchester Evening News Award for Best Fringe Production.
PROJECTS
Shockheaded Peter
The Hanging Man
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned — and daring — creative pioneers. She is best known for her multimedia presentations and innovative use of technology. As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist she has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater and experimental music. Enjoying a close relationship with Laurie since our founding, Pomegranate represented Laurie’s live touring projects from 2001-2022.
PROJECTS
All the Things I Lost in the Flood
Burning Leaves
Delusion
Dirtday!
Happiness
Homeland
Landfall
Songs and Stories
The Art of Falling
The End of the Moon
The Language of the Future
The Yellow Pony
Transitory Life
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer and choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into intricate choreography. Through her use of patterns, repetition, dialect, and technology, she has created a unique style of choreography that embraces experimentation and transdisciplinarity.
PROJECTS
Available Light
DANCE
Lucinda Childs: A Portrait (1963-2016)
Philip Glass
Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music — simultaneously. Pomegranate’s long association with Philip Glass has been one of our closest partnerships having produced and toured over one thousand Philip Glass performances in fifty countries.
PROJECTS
Book of Longing (w/ Leonard Cohen)
Celebrating the Piano Etudes
DANCE
Dancing with Glass
Dracula (w/ Kronos Quartet)
Einstein on the Beach
Evenings of Chamber Music
Iconic Works for the PGE
La Belle et La Bête
Music in Twelve Parts
Music with Changing Parts
Orion
Philip Glass Piano Etudes
Philip Glass & Friends
Philip Glass: Duet w/ Tim Fain
Philip Glass Shorts
Philip Glass: Solo Piano
Philip on Film
The Poet Speaks (w/ Patti Smith)
The Qatsi Trilogy (w/ Godfrey Reggio)
The Screens
Sankai Juku / Ushio Amagatsu
Sankai Juku is a Butoh dance company founded by Ushio Amagatsu in 1975. The company has premiered a new piece approximately once every two years at Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, a center for contemporary dance. Sankai Juku is one of the few dance companies that Théâtre de la Ville, Paris has commissioned continuously for 35 years.
Pomegranate Arts serves as the tour manager for their rare US appearances.
Shockheaded Peter
Long before The Simpsons and South Park, Tim Burton and Edward Gorey, there was Heinrich Hoffman, a doctor in a German lunatic asylum who, in 1844, wrote a children’s book of original tales warning of absurd punishments for naughty acts. The book, entitled, The Struwwelpeter, is a classic collection of delightful horrors for all ages. Produced by Cultural Industry and created by Improbable Founders Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch with The Tiger Lillies, the stage production of Shockheaded Peter won rave reviews around the world as one of the most original collaborations of its kind. The passion to bring Shockheaded Peter to North America inspired Pomegranate’s founding and was our inaugural project.
ARTISTS
Improbable
The Tiger Lillies
Julian Crouch
Taylor Mac
Beloved for his iconic beauty, disarming vulnerability, and soaring spirit, Taylor Mac has spent the last twenty years creating internationally award-winning performance events that at once provoke and embrace diverse audiences. Mac is the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award; is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and a Tony nominee for Best Play; and is the recipient of the Kennedy Prize (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert Award, a Drama League Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Booth, two Helpmann Awards, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obie’s, two Bessies, and an Ethyl Eichelberger.
PROJECTS
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
Bark of Millions
Holiday Sauce
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music – HBO Original Doc