Dock Street Theatre, the fabled hub of Spoleto Festival USA, is shut down for renovations. But Memorial Day is around the corner, and the show must go on!

The Dock may be out of commission, but Spoleto is boldly bringing the most notorious ship in the history of American jurisprudence to the port city of Charleston. While the landmark on Church Street gets its long-overdue overhaul, another venue has been upfitted and readied for service - Memminger Auditorium on Beaufrain Street.

That's where Anthony Davis's opera, "Amistad," will open on May 22, with six additional performances scheduled through June 7. Extended by an additional day for the special reopening of Meminger, Spoleto Festival USA runs for 18 days this year, concluding on June 8 at Middleton Place with a thrilling Concert Finale under the stars.

In between the "Amistad" opening and the lakeside finale, more than 130 additional performances will set their anchors at eight different Charleston venues at Spoleto. Founded in 1977 by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti, the world-class Spoleto Festival USA has spawned an even larger regional satellite, Piccolo Spoleto, boasting an additional 700 events.

La Amistad was a Spanish schooner illegally transporting kidnapped Africans in 1839 to Cuba. Fifty-three captives took over the ship and demanded passage back to Spain, sparing only the two slave "owners," whom they needed to sail the ship.

These wily Spaniards, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, steered east by day and north by night. So they were eventually picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard off Long Island after first being sighted by two sea captains. All of these worthy seamen laid claim to the Amistad and its cargo - including the kidnapped Africans - setting off an epic legal battle that was settled in the Supreme Court with a 7-1 decision mandating the Africans' freedom.

Davis's score will be laden with a classical opera foundation, but the composer's palette also includes jazz, R&B, gospel, and African music. Performers from five continents will grace the festival this year, typical for the greatest arts festival on earth in its 32nd edition.

Here are some of the bigger names, listed by their ports of call:

Europe

Headlining the dance roster at cavernous Gailliard Auditorium will be Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve (May 31-June 1) from Switzerland. The Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company has a new translation/ adaptation of Sophocles' "Antigone" by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, retitled "The Burial at Thebes" (May 29-June 2) and performed outdoors at The Cistern. Another Brit outfit, London-based cabaret company 1927, presents "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (May 22-27), described as mixing fairytale with silent movie homage.

Asia

The big splashy theater event of Spoleto 2008 was first produced in Paris, but with concept and direction by Chen Shi-Zheng, "Monkey: Journey to the West" (May 22-June 8) is infused with the essence of China. Along with the fabled Monkey King, the opera performers, acrobats, and martial artists all hail from the East - decked out in hundreds of costumes and some colossal animated backdrops. Born in India and raised in France, Shantala Shivalingappa (May 23-25) will bring her unique style to new works based on Kuchipudi, an ancient South Indian dance form.

Africa

Compagnie Heddy Maalem assembles a troupe of dancers from Mali, Benin, Nigeria, and Senegal for an hour of exciting primitive dance - Maalem's fresh interpretation of Stravinsky's ground-breaking "Le Sacre du Printemps" (June 7-8). "The Rite of Spring" is presented in season at Gailliard Auditorium. Mother Africa insinuates itself elsewhere in the festival with the appearance of the Imani Winds ensemble. The quintet will be guest soloists at Gailliard playing David Newman's "Concerto for Winds" (May 28) with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. They lay over for a more intimate afternoon concert of works by Wayne Shorter, Justinian Tamusuza, and Kenji Bunch as part of the Music in Time series (May 29).

South America

One word says it all: samba! Every year, Michael Grofsorean brings fresh imports to the jazz lineup who are fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, or Antion Carlos Jobim. Another Brazilian bumper crop arrives for 2008, beginning with the American debut of Sao Paolo pianist Heloisa Fernandes (May 26-28). A sampling of her virtuosity at the Spoleto website tells me she's the real deal. Classical flutist Paula Robison (June 6), a chamber music mainstay at Spoleto since its early days, shares the stage with two esteemed Brazilians, guitarist Romero Lubambo amd percussionist Cyro Baptista.

North America

Give it up for the home continent! Most of the chamber musicians and the precocious Spoleto Festival USA orchestra hail from The States. Among the cutting-edge artists and companies represented elsewhere, we can place Boston Ballet (May 24-25) at the top of our dance card. Among the theater artists, a shout-out goes to a New York performance artist in his eponymous "The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac" (May 30-31) - but not before 10pm! Armed with turntables, live feed, and his own poetry, Marc Bamuthi Joseph brings it with "the break/s" (May 29-31).

On the musical frontier, Laurie Anderson returns to Spoleto with "Homeland" (June 4-6), a musical portrait of contemporary America that will certainly spark controversy. Among the jazz artists, contralto Paula West (May 23-24) is certainly a diva in the making, backed by the George Mesterhazy Quartet. And let's give another shout to Cyrus Chestnut, leading the Jazz Goes to Church (May 29) invasion of Gailliard. The swinging pianist brings his trio plus trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, vocalist Carla Cook, and monster saxophonist James Carter to the meetin'.

If you missed the Carolina Chocolate Drops (June 4-5) at Northwest School of the Arts last month - and on NPR's "Prairie Home Companion" before that - you can do penance at Simons Center on the College of Charleston campus. A true jug band with a junkyard full of instruments, jamming on infectious bootleg music.

Full details about Spoleto Festival USA can be found online at spoletousa.org. Piccolo Spoleto is found at piccolospoleto.com, and if you're interested in a full schedule of College of Charleston events commemorating the abolition bicentennial, click on www.cofc.edu/atlanticworld/.

• Perry Tannenbaum of Tega Cay is the senior performing arts critic for Creative Loafing.