Up All Night With Sleepless Night

In case you missed my feature on Sleepless Night I thought I'd reprint it in the blog. Don't sleep tonight because there will be 12 hours of entertainment from sunset to dawn. I will be introducing the lovely and talented Nicole Henry at the ExoStage at SoundScape at the New World Center at 6 p.m. At 9 p.m., also at the New World Center, I'll be introducing a terrfic jazz group, The Will Calhoun Trio. At 10 p.m. I move to the Euclid Oval Stage at 647 Lincoln Road to introduce the Canadian jazz-rock fusion band The Shuffle Demons. All the groups are courtesy of KCC Productions. There's a night filled with entertainment planned all over Miami Beach. Hope to see you out.

Cubby

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter? If you haven’t had reason to stay up all night in a while then mark your calendar for November 5 as Sleepless Night returns to Miami Beach. Sleepless Night, the year’s largest cultural arts event, presents over 150 unique arts experiences at more than 80 venues. From sundown to sunrise on November 5, the same night that we “fall back” an hour for Daylight Savings Time, Miami Beach will be the site of 12 hours of top quality cultural offerings – all free. Miami Beach joins Paris, Rome, Madrid, Montreal and 11 other major international cities with Sleepless Night events. This incredible night features a variety of events including full-length plays, operas, concerts, dance performances, stand-up comedy and street performances.

The caliber of performances this year is mind boggling as there will be 11 premieres, including three world premieres including the U.S. premieres of Sarruga’s Fishes and Livio Tragtenberg’s Cabinet Of Dr. Strange; the East Coast premieres of Project Bandaloop’s Bound (Less) and the Carpetbag Brigade’s Callings, and the South Florida premieres of Tim Miller’s Lay Of The Land, the MarchFourth Marching Band, The Dream Engine’s Heliosphere, Big Rory and Ochie, and Sans Façon’s Limelight: Saturday Night. The three world premieres that have been created just for Sleepless Night include Camposition’s Please Don’t Hate Me, Gabo and Buzzeye’s latest piece of Deconstructing Cinema (both performed at SoundScape) and Frozen Music’s new sound installation (at the corner of 17 Street and Meridian Avenue).

The multitude of performers is an amazing roster of names too numerous to mention however some of the performers that audiences can look forward to on November 5 include Nicole Henry, Miami Symphony Orchestra Big Band, Will Calhoun, The Shuffle Demons, Batuke Samba Funk, The Felipe Lamoglia Sextet, Livio Tragtenberg, Project Bandaloop, The Carpetbag Brigade, Tim Miller, Camposition, Christopher Flach, Dana Leong Trio, Dance Now! Ensemble, Florida Grand Opera, Frozen Music, Girl Choir Of South Florida, Juliana Barrios, Marchfourth Marching Band, Miami Light Project, Miami City Ballet, Momentum Dance Company, New World Symphony, Seraphic Fire, Tiempo Libre, and Vocaldente.

Locations for these performances are as varied as the performances themselves with venues all over Miami Beach opening their doors for this event. For instance if you’re a fan of dance you can enjoy Flamenco with Ana Mirada at the Miami Beach Regional Library (7 p.m.), performances by the Miami City Ballet Dancers at the Miami City Ballet (7 & 8:30 p.m.), The Carpetbag Brigade “Callings (7 & 10 p.m.) and Teatro Prometo “Jaque Mate” ((8:30 p.m.) at Collins Park Lawn, Project Bandaloop’s “Boundless” at ExoStage at SoundScape, and Dance Now! Miami (7:15 p.m.) at Classical South Florida Main Stage.

Fans of theater will also be treated to a variety of offerings from local theatre groups as well as visiting performers. Miami Lyric Opera presents “Marina” at the North Shore Bandshell (7 p.m.), Murder on Gin Lane (7 p.m.) and Ground Up and Rising’s presentation of “This is Our Youth” (9 p.m.) will be performed at the Byron Carlyle Theatre. The Colony Theater on Lincoln Road offers a whole evening of entertainment including Teatro en Miami’s “El Enano en la Botella” (9 p.m.), Time Miller’s “Lay of the Land” (10 p.m.) and Four One-Act Plays (for mature audiences only) at midnight.

Jazz aficionados will have to run around to enjoy the many jazz performances including the Miami Symphony Orchestra Big Band at the Normandy Fountain Stage (6 p.m.), the German Academic All Stars Jazz Quartet at 1111 Stage (9 p.m.), Suffle Demons at Euclid Oval Stage (10 p.m.), Nicole Henry (6 p.m.) and Will Calhoun (9 p.m.) at the ExoStage at Soundscape and Filipe Lamoglia (2:30 – 4 a.m.) at the Classical South Florida Main Stage (Ocean Drive between 8^th & 9^th Streets).

Do the math, 13 hours, 150 performing arts events, and 80 venues. Unless you have magical powers or can stop time, you won’t be able to experience everything. If you’re clever and plan wisely (check the website for details) and use the many shuttle buses available, you’ll have an incredible evening. If you’re too tired to make it home, there are many hotels like the Catalina, the sponsoring hotel, offering events and special rates. There will also be information booths at nine different locations (visit www.sleeplessnight.org for the list) handing out schedules, suggestions, and directions. Once again, Sleepless Night is a 13-hour event not to be missed. November 5 from sunset to sunrise.