"Existential Dred," a new multidisciplinary work that is part poetry slam and part jazz performance, will kick off the Yale Repertory Theatre Special Events Series' 1996-97 season. The piece will be presented for one performance only at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, in the University Theatre, 222 York St.
Jazz musician Don Byron will return to the Yale Rep, where last year he performed the score to the film "Scar of Shame" before a sold-out house. Joining Mr. Byron and his quartet will be poets Sadiq Bey and Julie Patton.
For more than a decade, Mr. Byron has been a regular participant in the New York jazz scene, playing and recording with such musicians as Hamiet Bluiett, Craig Harris, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Living Color, Bill Frisell and Reggie Workman. The son of two musicians and a regular concert-goer at an early age, Mr. Byron studied classical music before later turning to salsa music and then jazz. He was trained at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and played with Gunther Schuller's New England Ragtime Ensemble.
Based in Detroit, Mr. Bey is both a poet and musician, having performed in many bands, including The Overflow. He was featured on Mr. Byron's album "Tuskegee Experiments."
Ms. Patton is a New York-based poet, performer and visual artist, as well as a faculty member at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. While in New Haven, she will spend a day teaching poetry to students at Hillhouse High School.
Tickets for "Existential Dred" are $20 for the general public; $17 for members of the Yale Repertory Theatre and Yale Cabaret, with I.D.; and $12 for students with I.D. For more information, or to charge tickets by phone, call the Yale Rep box office at 432-1234.