Live Music, Screening

Presented by Duke Arts Presents

TREES

Directed & Performed by Sam Green

January 29 - January 30
Tickets

Documentary filmmaker Sam Green returns to Duke with TREES, his most ambitious live cinema project to date. In this original format previously seen at Duke Arts in the sold-out production of 32 Sounds, film, music, and storytelling unfold together on stage. 

In Green’s performances, the filmmaker narrates the documentary live while musicians perform an original score in real time. This new project brings together Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw and acclaimed writer and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit to explore humanity’s relationship with trees across time and cultures. 

Featuring voices including Judi Dench and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, the work offers a poetic meditation on the silent witnesses to human history. 

Please note: Sam Green will appear as a narrator; additional live performers will be announced soon. 

Artist Website | Facebook | Instagram

Your Season. Your Way.

Pick-4 Packages are available now! Choose 4 or more performances, get 20% off, and enjoy priority seating.

For online orders, seats are automatically chosen based on best availability. To choose specific seats or price levels, please call the Box Office at 919-684-4444.

Event Details

  • Fri, Jan 29, 2027 at 7:30pm
  • Sat, Jan 30, 2027 at 7:30pm

Reynolds Industries Theater
125 Science Drive
Durham, NC 27708

Visit our Reynolds Industries Theater FAQ page for more information.

Venue Details

Approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes, with no intermission

Limited late seating available


Ticket & Discount Information

Tickets available starting at $45. Student tickets always $10.


About the Artists

Director

Sam Green (director, writer, editor) is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. Green’s most recent live documentaries include A Thousand Thoughts (with the Kronos Quartet) (2018), The Measure of All Things (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010). With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Green’s 2004 feature-length film, The Weather Underground, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award, was included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world.

Producer, Composer, Violinist, and Vocalist

Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She works often in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Caroline is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This year’s projects include the score to “Fleishman is in Trouble” (FX/Hulu), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), the score to Josephine Decker’s “The Sky Is Everywhere” (A24/Apple), music for the National Theatre’s production of “The Crucible” (dir. Lyndsey Turner), Justin Peck’s “Partita” with NY City Ballet, a new stage work “LIFE” (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust), the premiere of “Microfictions Vol. 3” for NY Philharmonic and Roomful of Teeth, a live orchestral score for Wu Tsang’s silent film “Moby Dick” co-composed with Andrew Yee, two albums on Nonesuch (“Evergreen” and “The Blue Hour”), the score for Helen Simoneau’s dance work “Delicate Power”, tours of Graveyards & Gardens (co-created immersive theatrical work with Vanessa Goodman), and tours with So Percussion featuring songs from “Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part” (Nonesuch), amid occasional chamber music appearances as violist (Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, La Jolla Music Society). Caroline has written over 100 works in the last decade, for Anne Sofie von Otter, Davóne Tines, Yo Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Phil, Philharmonia Baroque, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Aizuri Quartet, The Crossing, Dover Quartet, Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Miro Quartet, I Giardini, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Ariadne Greif, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Britt Festival, and the Vail Dance Festival. She has contributed production to albums by Rosalía, Woodkid, and Nas. Her work as vocalist or composer has appeared in several films, tv series, and podcasts including The Humans, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, Beyonce’s Homecoming, Tár, Dolly Parton’s America, and More Perfect. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary.

Author

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 25 books, including Orwell’s Roses, Hope in the Dark, Men Explain Things to Me, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A longtime climate and human rights activist, she serves on the boards of Oil Change International and Third Act.

​Her newsletter of essays and analyses can be found at meditationsinanemergency.com.

Producer

Tony nominated producer specializing in new work development and production worldwide. He was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination and won best picture at the Cinema Eye Awards for Sam Green’s 32 Sounds in 2024, and recently premiered the Tony nominated Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens & Justin Peck on Broadway following runs at Fisher Center @ Bard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Park Avenue Armory. Current and past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Yaron Lifschitz, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, and John Cameron Mitchell. Recent premieres include 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A Thousand Ways, CHRISTEENE’s The Lion, The Witch and The Cobra, nora chipaumire’s Nehanda, Bryce Dessner’s Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), John Cameron Mitchell’s The Origin of Love, Sam Green & Kronos Quartet’s A Thousand Thoughts, Big Dance Theater / Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Man In a Case, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s Not By Bread Alone. Ongoing collaborations include Narcissister, Milo Rau, Bryce Dessner, Sophia Brous, Timothy White Eagle, Big Dance Theater, and Compagnia T.P.O. He is producer of the Under the Radar Festival and planning the festival’s 22nd Edition for January 2027, and recently opened Jesse Malin’s Silver Manhattan off-Broadway. Upcoming premieres include Bryce Dessner & Kaneza Schaal’s Night Sky With Exit Wounds from the book by Ocean Vuong. He is a founding member of CIPA (The Creative & Independent Producer Alliance). More information at arktype.org

Producer

Josh Penn is a producer with the Department of Motion Pictures. He produced Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, the Cannes Caméra d’Or, and was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture). In addition, Penn was nominated for Outstanding Producer at the 2013 Producer’s Guild Awards. He has produced Monsters And Men (Sundance Special Jury Prize), Philly D.A. (Winner of the 2021 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series), the live documentary A Thousand Thoughts, Wendy, Users (Sundance Film Festival’s 2021 Best Directors Award), and Farewell Amor among others. He was an Executive Producer on Patti Cake$, Western (Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize), The Great Invisible (South by Southwest’s Grand Jury Prize), and Bloody Nose Empty Pockets. Penn and the Department of Motion Pictures had three films premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2020, and three more in the Sundance Film Festival 2021. In 2018, Penn became a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. Outside of his work in film, Penn was previously the Michigan New Media Director for President Obama’s 2008 campaign and a Senior Digital Program Manager for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Credits

Directed & Performed by Sam Green
Written by Sam Green & Rebecca Solnit
Composed by Caroline Shaw
Produced by ArKtype & Josh Penn
Cinematography by Yoni Brook
Edited by Gabriel Rhodes

Commissioned by The Boston Symphony Orchestra; New World Symphony; Oregon Symphony Orchestra; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Wiener Festwochen; Barbican Centre; Holland Festival; Stanford Live @ Stanford University; Duke Arts @ Duke University, Durham, NC; The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi; Green Music Center of Sonoma State University; and Arizona Arts Live at University of Arizona.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ticket & Discount Information

Pick-4 Packages Available Now! Save 20% when you book four or more shows.
Single Tickets Available Tuesday, June 23 at 11 AM.

Please note: For online Pick-4 orders, seats are automatically chosen based on best availability. To choose specific seats or price levels, please call the Box Office at 919-684-4444.

Tier 1: $55
Tier 2: $45
Students*: $10 (Log in through Shibboleth to access Duke-exclusive discounts)
Duke Employees: 25% Off (Log in through Shibboleth to access Duke-exclusive discounts)

*All high school and college students are eligible for student tickets with valid ID shown at event.

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