October/November 2008

Films ° Performances ° Lectures
and other events in October and November 2008

Through October 26

The Dreams of Antigone, directed by Brian McEleney, retells one of the world’s oldest plays about courage and faith and the difference an individual can make. Call for times. Trinity Repertory Company, Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI. (401) 351-4243, www.trinityrep.com

October 17–November 15

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet presents his new comedy November in its New England premiere. When the incumbent Commander-in-Chief learns that he lacks the funds to properly campaign for re-election, he is forced to consider unlikely and hilarious sources of income. Call for times. The Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA. (617) 585-5678, www.lyricstage.com

Dan Hoyle. Contributed Photo. Fairfield University, Wien Experimental Theatre at the Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield, CT.

November 21 & 22

Tings Dey Happen, a ninety-minute monologue written and performed
by Dan Hoyle is centered around the geography of the Niger Delta. 
Hoyle spent a year in Nigeria as a Fulbright scholar and the performance
is at once a travelogue, a cultural survey, and an introduction into the
subject of the politics of oil. 8 p.m. Fairfield University,
Wien Experimental Theatre at the Quick Center for the Arts,
1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT. (203) 254-4000, www.fairfield.edu 

Music

October 17, 19, & 21

Carla Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz is widely recognized as the first important
German Romantic opera. In three acts, its plot is taken from German folk legend and
much of its music is from German folk tunes. Opera Boston, Cutler Majestic Theatre,
219 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. Call for times. (617) 451-9944, www.operaboston.org
 
October 25

The Boston Early Music Festival presents legendary viola da gamba master Jordi Savall leading the instrumental ensemble Hesperion XXI in a program of Music from the Time of Cervantes. 8 p.m. Harvard University, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. Box Office: (617) 496-2222, www.bemf.org

November 1

Exploring a wide range of world music from ancient African rhythms to contemporary Afro-pop, Caribbean, Brazilian and Indian music and world jazz, the World Music Percussion Ensemble presents a concert in the three-part series, Drums, Chants, and the Spoken Word. 8 p.m. Dartmouth College, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Spaulding Auditorium, Hanover, NH. (603) 646-3991, www.hop.dartmouth.edu

October 5

Participating artists give a gallery talk in connection with the current exhibition Material Meditation featuring  sculpture, drawing, and photography combined into a collaborative installation. 2 p.m. New Art Center, 61 Washington Park,  Newtonville, MA. (617) 964-3424, www.newartcenter.org

October 22

Poet, performance artist, and filmmaker Ellen Zweig gives a talk on her current exhibition HEAP, a series of videos portraying China through Western eyes.  6 p.m. Wellesley College, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA. (781) 283-1000, www.wellesley.edu

November 5

Artist Georgia Litwack gives a talk about her current exhibition Captured Moments of Being Female. 11:30 a.m. Pine Manor College, Hess Gallery, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hilll, MA. (617) 731-7000, www.pmc.edu

November 15

Join artist Martha Lewis as she discusses her work in the current exhibition Drawn to Detail featuring twenty-six American artists whose work explores extreme attention to detail, obsessive mark-making, repetition, patterning, and all-over intricate design. 3 p.m. DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA. (781) 259-8355, www.decordova.org

Dance

Armitage Gone! Dance, featuring Frances Chiaverini and Matthew Branham. Photo: Julieta Cervantes. Dartmouth College, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Moore Theater, Hanover, NH.

October 3 & 4

With her company Armitage Gone! Dance, American choreographer
Karole Armitage presents Time is the Echo of an Axe set to music
by Béla Bartók and Ligeti Essays, a suite of movements with music
by György Ligeti.  8 p.m. Dartmouth College, Hopkins Center for the Arts, 
Moore Theater, Hanover, NH. (603) 646-3991, www.hop.dartmouth.edu

October 24–26

Celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary with a new piece in its
Another Evening series, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
performs Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition.  Using the
documented words of Abraham Lincoln, his contemporary’s writings
and speeches, and other texts, the performance includes video by
Janet Wong and an original score blending classical and folk music
in a contemporary mix. Oct. 24 & 25, 8 p.m.; Oct. 26, 3 p.m.
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 100 Northern Avenue,
Boston, MA. (617) 478-3100, www.icaboston.org

November 21 & 22

As part of the Breaking Ground Dance series choreographer and dancer Tere O’Connor presents Rammed Earth, a radical re-interpretation of the formal elements of concert dance. 8 p.m.  Wesleyan University, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, 283 Washington Terrace, Middletown, CT. (860) 685-2806, www.wesleyan.edu

October 1, 8, & November 19

In connection with the exhibition Black Womanhood:  Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, a companion film series presents Kounandi (2004) by Apolline Traore; Si-Gueriki/The Queen Mother (2002), by Idrissou Mora Kpai; and Udju Azul Di Yonta/The Blue Eyes of Yonta (1991), by Flora Gomes. Call for times. Wellesley College, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Collins Cinema, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA. (781) 283-1000, www.wellesley.edu

October 29

The Westport Youth Film Festival presents the WYFF ’08 Audience Award Winning documentary Autism in Our World by filmmaker Alexa DiCambio. Ms. DiCambio spent a month filming Cole Horne, a ten year old boy with autism, and his family. A panel discussion follows the film screening. 7 p.m. Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT. (203) 222-7070, www.westportartscenter.org

November 5–16

In venues throughout greater Boston, the annual Boston Jewish Film Festival celebrates its twentieth year with a variety of films from features to documentaries to short subjects.  Films include panel discussions, as well as visits by directors and actors. Call for screening times and information. The Boston Jewish Film Festival, 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, MA. (617) 244-9899, www.bjff.org

October 16

In conjunction with the exhibition Beyond the Familiar: Photography and Constructions of Community, which features selections from artist Tina Barney’s project The Europeans, Ms. Barney  gives a talk entitled “People, Places, and Things.”  7 p.m. Williams College, Williams College Museum of Art, Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, 15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Williamstown, MA. (413) 597-2429, www.williams.edu

October 23

Mixed-media artist Fiona Tan speaks on her work as a visual artist employing photography, film, video projection, and installation. 6 p.m. Harvard University, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. (617) 495-3251, www.ves.fas.harvard.edu

November 6

As part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, multimedia artist Sam Van Aken, a 2008 Maine Arts Commission Artist Fellow, gives a lecture on his work. 12 noon. Maine College of Art, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME. (207) 775-3052, www.meca.edu

November 13

Video artist Paul Chan lectures on his current work Three Easy Pieces, an installation employing two digital projections and a single-channel video piece that examines historical concepts of utopia and the psychological outcomes of the “war on terror.” 6 p.m. Harvard University, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. (617) 495-3251, www.ves.fas.harvard.edu