Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray
Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray
*(Formerly A Good Man!/A Good Man? )
"I live with the uneasy feeling that society has shaped me as a result of something that was stolen from us when Abraham Lincoln was killed. The cynicism and alienation that I feel in my head and heart arose because of this strange turn of destiny."--Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones, center, views Abraham Lincoln's hat in the vault archives of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield on Oct. 15, 2007, with Welz Kauffman, president and chief executive of Ravinia Festival, left, and sculptor Bjorn Amelan, the creative director for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (AP Photo/Ravinia Festival, Russell Jenkins)
Bill T. Jones peers at Abraham Lincoln's death bed at the Chicago History Museum in Chicago on Oct. 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Ravinia Festival, Russell Jenkins)Click here for the AP article
Continuing this tradition of challenging, thought provoking work, Mr. Jones is creating a new evening-length work about Abraham Lincoln Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray Commissioned by the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray will find Mr. Jones "leading with his own heart," seeking a way to articulate if not reconcile the view of Lincoln he had as a young boy growing up during the civil rights struggle and as a mid-life liberal artist who "has very few heroes." The most ambitious project in the Company's 25 year history, Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray will investigate the myriad meanings of Lincoln, rejecting accepted truth in favor of challenging (and celebrating) the lasting contributions of this great man. This dance theatre work will investigate a handful of key moments from his remarkable life, allowing song and memory to transport the audience to an emotional and intellectual space beyond the boundaries of space and time. By envisioning the America that might have been had Lincoln completed the Reconstruction, Mr. Jones will expose the great distance between what is and what could have been.
New Website to Document the Creative Process
We've launched the Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray website to share the creative process of this new work. Visit and subscribe to the dairy to watch behind the scenes video of the rehearsals, read about the ideas that drive the work and watch their evolution or demise, find out about the music, set design, costumes, lighting and video. Join us as we work towards the premiere.
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The Ravinia Festival is the Lead Commissioner of Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray.
Additional commissioning support from Indiana University Auditorium
Major Support from:
The Company's commissioning program, "Partners in Creation," which include the following donors: the Argosy Foundation, Abigail Congdon and Joe Azrack, Anne Delaney, Eleanor Friedman, Barbara and Eric Dobkin, Sandra Zoe & Gerald Eskin, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, and Carol H. Tolan.
The MAP Fund supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation
