NOVEMBER 2-3, THURSDAY-FRIDAY
Residency with Christal Brown
See times below; Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Christal Brown (Artistic Director, choreographer, educator, performer, writer, and activist), is a native of Kinston, North Carolina and received her BFA in dance and minor in Business from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Upon graduation, Brown went on to tour nationally with Chuck Davis' African-American Dance Ensemble and internationally with Andrea Woods/Souloworks. Following those experiences, Brown performed with and managed the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD. After relocating to New York, Brown apprenticed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company before fi nding a home with Urban Bush Women; where she is now in her fourth season. She is Founder and Artistic Director of INSPIRIT (formerly Women @ Work) a performance ensemble and educational conglomerate dedicated to bringing female choreographers together to collaborate and show new work, expanding the views of women of all ages, and providing a constant source of inspiration to its audiences and members. Combining her athleticism, creativity, love for people, and knack for teaching, Brown continues to teach throughout the US and to create create works that border on the cutting edge of dance.
THURSDAY:
9:30 A.M. Master Class Technique
3:00 P.M. Informal Showing and Discussion
FRIDAY:
2:30 P.M. Master Class Technique
NOVEMBER 2-4, THURSDAY-SATURDAY
I Gotta Change My Whole Friggin' Life
8:00 P.M. each evening, plus 10:00 P.M. on Friday only; Hepburn Zoo
Characters confront the comical realities of their dead-end lives in the annual First-Year Students' theatre production, directed this year by Richard Romagnoli. Tickets $1; on sale October 19.
NOVEMBER 4, SATURDAY
Alumni Symposium: Careers in the Visual Arts
9:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m., Center for the Arts, Room 232
Cosponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Reservations required. For further information, and to register and order lunch, please call 802-443-2034.
NOVEMBER 4, SATURDAY
Good Morning, Night
3:00 and 8:00 p.m., Dana Auditorium
This political thriller dramatizes the infamous kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, Italy’s former prime minister and head of the Christian Democrat party, by Red Brigade terrorists in March 1978. Veteran Italian director Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket, My Mother’s Smile) blends documentary footage and staged events to explore the mind of a terrorist. FIPRESCI Prize, European Film Awards. In Italian with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Italy, 2003, 106 minutes) Free
NOVEMBER 4, SATURDAY
Open Hip-Hop Class with Sarah Cover and Elements Dance Company
4:15 P.M., Center for the Arts, Room 109
As a professional dancer and choreographer, Ms. Sarah Cover has worked in Japan, California, New York and Vermont with artists DMX, Swizz Beats, Memphis Bleak, and members of the WuTang clan. After to returning to Vermont, she founded Urban Dance Complex in Burlington while producing sold-out shows and workshops in the Vermont area, featuring artists such as Sean Paul's dancers/choreographers Tavia and Tamara, former Justin Timberlake dancer Jayson Wright, and Millenium Dance Complex teacher Tracy Carter. Sarah returns annually to L.A. to continue her education in the ever-changing hip hop dance scene. Sponsored by Riddim World Dance Troupe. Free
NOVEMBER 4, SATURDAY
Beth Thompson Kaiser, soprano
Cynthia Huard, piano
8:00 P.M., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
A beautiful program of songs and arias by American composers Beach, Copland, Ives, Floyd, Menotti, and Vermont’s own Gwyneth Walker, as well as spirituals and Broadway gems from Gershwin to Sondheim. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
NOVEMBER 8, WEDNESDAY
Film Showing and Celebration of the Life and Talent of Tom Howes
8:00 P.M., McCardell Bicentennial Hall 216
Middlebury College guitar teacher Tom Howes was a member of Renaissance Community in western Massachusetts during the 1970s. The recently released film about this commune, Free Spirits – The Birth, Life, and Loss of a New Age Dream, features music written by Howes. All are welcome to this evening that will include a showing of the 90-minute film, tributes to Tom Howes, and refreshments. Free
NOVEMBER 9, THURSDAY
Everything Glowed
Film by Daniel Houghton '06
4:30 P.M., Watson Lecture Hall, Library Room 201
Daniel Houghton's video "Everything Glowed" won the 2006 Committee on Art in Public Places award for outstanding visual art, given to a graduating senior at Commencement each year. Houghton's video is an exploration of some of the things one might have to photograph if one had failed to take at least one snapshot of someone very important before that person left. It is an exercise in futility because the person gone is gone forever, and the opportunity to say goodbye has already passed. What remains is the filmmaker, with his camera, struggling to find beauty in a landscape lacking someone special. Free
NOVEMBER 10, FRIDAY
Middlebury College Orchestra
Troy Peters, conductor
8:00 P.M., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
The Middlebury College Orchestra celebrates Mozart's 250th birthday with a concert featuring the lively Overture to The Magic Flute and a selection of Mozart arias featuring soprano (and Middlebury applied faculty member) Beth Thompson Kaiser. The program will also include selections from Bizet's beloved incidental music for L'Arlésienne ("The Girl from Arles"). Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
NOVEMBER 11, SATURDAY
Mad Hot Ballroom
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Eleven-year-old New York City public school children learn ballroom dancing and reveal themselves and their world along the way. “This winning documentary about fifth-graders who learn ballroom dancing is one of those movies that make the world a brighter place.”—New York Daily News. Nominated for Best Documentary by National Board of Review and Chicago Film Critics. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (U.S., 2005, 105 minutes) Free
NOVEMBER 11, SATURDAY
Native American Cultural Performance
3:00 P.M., Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Dancers from Algonquin tribes hold a cultural workshop and perform social dances as part of Voices of Indigenous People's (VIP) celebration of Native American Heritage month. The demonstration includes traditional Eastern Women’s Blanket Dancers, Eastern War Dancers, a contemporary Teen Boy’s Fancy Dancer, storytelling, and Native American poetry. The audience is welcome to participate in social dances, including a welcoming Round Dance, a Rabbit Dance (Couple’s Dance), and a Stomp Dance. Sponsored by Voices of Indigenous Peoples and the Office of Institutional Diversity. Free
NOVEMBER 13, MONDAY
An Evening of Russian Trios
Natasha Koval, Paden, piano
Lazar Gosman, violin
Savely Schuster, cello
8:00 P.M., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Middlebury faculty pianist Natasha Koval-Paden joins Russian émigré musicians Lazar Gosman and Savely Schuster in an all-Russian program Selections by Michael Glinka, Anton Arensky, and Dmitri Shostakovich represent three important steps in Russian music. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
NOVEMBER 14, TUESDAY (THROUGH NOVEMBER 28)
Pinhole Camera Photography
Johnson Memorial Building, Pit Space
John Huddleston’s black-and-white photography class, ART 0327, presents an exhibition of pinhole photography. The students’ images are contact prints made from large-format negatives exposed in cameras of their own design and construction. Sponsored by the Program in Studio Art. Free
NOVEMBER 14, TUESDAY
Behind-the-Scenes Lunch and Discussion:
Cinders
12:30 p.m., Wright Memorial Theatre
Director Alexander Draper ’88 introduces the play and leads a discussion about the upcoming production. Lunch is provided. Free
NOVEMBER 15, WEDNESDAY
A Celtic Mass for Peace
7:00 P.M., Mead Memorial Chapel
"We live in the midst of a new awareness of the oneness of the earth. We live also in the midst of terrible brokennesses between nations and religious traditions. The Celtic Mass for Peace is an expression of the deep longing for peace that is stirring in the human soul today."--J. Philip Newell. The poetry of this Mass was written by J. Philip Newell, author in spirituality living in Scotland, and the music was composed by native Vermont musician, Sam Guarnaccia. They preside over and direct this live performance of their work. Sponsored by the the Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the Department of Music. Free
NOVEMBER 16, THURSDAY
Slide Lecture:
Bull Lyres, Arched Harps, and Silver Pipes: Music of the Sumerians and Their Neighbors, circa 2500 B.C.E.
4:30 p.m., Center for the Arts, Room 221
Bo Lawergren is professor emeritus of physics at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on ancient music and has published extensively on archaeological finds of ancient musical instruments in Asia. Cosponsored by the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Department of History of Art and Architecture, and the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. Free
NOVEMBER 16–18, THURSDAY–SATURDAY
Cinders
by Janusz Glowacki
8:00 p.m. each evening, Wright Memorial Theatre
A movie director arrives in a girls’ reform school near Warsaw to film a documentary about the inmates as they perform a dramatization of Cinderella. When the girl playing Cinderella refuses to participate, both the director and the school authorities collaborate in her punishment. “One can only admire the author’s will to make elegant Kafkaesque comedy out of his nation’s nightmare of repression.”—New York Times. This play is directed by Alexander Draper ’88, and sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance. Tickets: $5/4/3; on sale November 2. http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
NOVEMBER 17, FRIDAY
Pei Yao Wang, piano, and Friends
8:00 p.m., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Taiwanese prodigy Pei Yao Wang began playing the piano at age five, and became the Curtis Institute’s youngest student. She later studied with Claude Frank and, for a time, was the only piano pupil of Performing Arts Series artist Richard Goode. Now, she has brought together a number of young string musicians, including violinist and Vermont Youth Orchestra alumnus Soovin Kim, who played a Brainerd recital a few years ago, and cellist Sophie Shao, who played here previously with the chamber ensemble Concertante. For this concert, they perform music by three composers whose anniversaries we celebrate this year: Mozart, Robert Schumann, and Shostakovich. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series. Reserved Seating: $15/12/5. http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Pre-performance dinner: Rehearsals Cafe, 6:30 p.m. Reservations required.
For more on this event, please click here.
NOVEMBER 18, SATURDAY
Sophie Scholl—The Final Days
3:00 and 8:00 p.m., Dana Auditorium
Armed with long-buried historical records of the young activist’s incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl’s life: a heart-stopping journey from arrest to interrogation, trial, and sentence. “This gripping, true story conveys what it must have been like to be a young, smart, idealistic dissenter in Nazi Germany, where no dissent was tolerated.”—New York Times. Best Picture and Best Actress, German Film Awards; Best Actress, European Film Awards; Academy Award nomination; Best Foreign Language Film. In German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. This screening is made possible by the Holocaust Remembrance Film Fund, established by Thomas Teicholz ’77. (Germany, 2005, 117 minutes) Free
NOVEMBER 18, SATURDAY
Middlebury College Chamber Singers
Jeff Rehbach, conductor
8:00 p.m., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
The Chamber Singers lift their voices in song, presenting an array of choral works from medieval to modern times. Free
NOVEMBER 29, WEDNESDAY
Ezra Axelrod '08, baritone
Greg Vitercik, piano
8:00 P.M., Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
The concert program includes several selections from the operatic repertoire, including the first scene from Mozart’s Così fan tutte featuring guest performances by baritone Bill Army '07 and tenor Teddy Crecelius '08. In addition to this selection from Mozart, Axelrod will perform several Verdi arias. The evening will also explore contemporary repertoire, in particular a work from Songs of Interior Oregon by Oregon’s 2005 composer of the year, John McKinnon. The highlight of the program will be the premier of two original compositions by Axelrod, the first being “Al amado ausente”, which will be performed by soprano Carol Christensen. The second work to be premiered is Axelrod’s original song-cycle Strangers, a three-song set for baritone, cello and piano whose texts draw from the composer’s experiences while traveling in the Czech Republic, Costa Rica and Colombia. Axelrod will be joined for the performance of Strangers by cellist Adam Morgan '08 and pianist Andrew Throdahl '09. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
NOVEMBER 30, THURSDAY (THROUGH DECEMBER 7)
Print Exhibition
Johnson Memorial Building, Atrium Space
Intaglio etchings by students in Hedya Klein’s printmaking course, ART 0315, explore technical and conceptual aspects of contemporary printmaking using imagery from personal, ideological, literary, and political sources. Sponsored by the Program in Studio Art. Free
NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 2, THURSDAY-SATURDAY
The Baltimore Waltz
times tba, Hepburn Zoo
This play by Paula Vogel is the senior Work of Caitlin Dennis (directing) and Julia Proctor (acting). Anna is diagnosed with a mysterious terminal disease: Acquired Toilet Disorder, the fourth leading cause of death in single elementary school teachers. She and her brother, Carl, pack their bags for a filmic journey through Europe in search of a cure. Through Anna's sexcapades and Carl's encounters with the Third Man, they encounter lust, love, friendship and death in a fantastical world. The text was originally dedicated to the playwright's brother, who died of AIDS in 1988. This event is part of World AIDS Day on December 1st. Tickets: $1; on sale Monday, November 13.