December 1, Saturday
Festival of Wreaths
10:00 A.M.-6:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts
Over the last sixteen years the Festival of Wreaths event has grown from a silent auction of 20 wreaths in the Middlebury Union High School cafeteria to what is now the unofficial start of the holiday season in Addison County. This year's Festival, a fundraiser for Mary Johnson Children’s Center, will feature over 100 wreaths decorated by local Addison County businesses and individuals with merchandise, gift certificates, and holiday decorations. The talents of merchants and community members will be seen on wreaths for every taste and budget. The Festival provides inspiration for home decorators, holiday shoppers and anyone needing an infusion of Christmas spirit. The Festival will also feature a holiday performance of the Brandon Brass from 4:00-6:00 P.M.
In addition to the wreaths, the Festival will feature a raffle with three great prizes this year! A Vermont Teddy Bear, a set of Danforth candlestick holders, and a basket of Vermont made products. Raffle tickets are available at Mary Johnson Children's Center and at the Festival. All funds raised help fund programs and operating budget at Mary Johnson Children’s Center who provides child care for many Addison County families. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please call the Mary Johnson Childrens' Center at 388-2853.
December 1, Saturday
Paprika
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Japanese animé at its best, Paprika portrays Atsuko, a psychiatrist who uses a state-of-the-art machine to analyze her patient’s dreams. She doubles as Paprika, a detective trying to unravel people’s thoughts. When the dream machine is stolen, Paprika sets out to find it and save the city from psychological mayhem. Another disturbing, hypnotic descent into the psyche from director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress), Paprika is “smart, electrifying, and proudly unhinged.”—Aaron Hillis, Premiere Magazine. In Japanese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Japan, 2006, 90 minutes) Free
December 1, Saturday
Wintersongs — Music of Light and Hope
Middlebury College Choir
Jeff Buettner, director
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
A musical celebration of light in winter that includes the Coronation Anthem “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened” by G.F. Handel, works by Ola Gjeilo, Sergei Rachmanninoff, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Moses Hogan, and American and Celtic folk song. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
December 2, Sunday
Death and the King’s Horseman
2:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Esau Pritchett, François Clemmons, Alexander Draper ’88, and others from the college community will perform a dramatic staged reading of a work by 1986 Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright, poet, and novelist Wole Soyinka. The tragic drama tells the real-life story of Elesin, a Yoruba chief who, upon the death of the king he serves, is himself expected to die. Elesin’s trip to the next world is postponed when an English officer intervenes to save him, setting in motion a clash of values and cultures. Directed by playwright in residence Dana Yeaton and produced in coordination with the Middlebury College Museum of Art’s fall exhibit Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art. Cosponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Office for Institutional Diversity, Ross Commons, and the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Free
December 2, Sunday
Paul Jacobs, organist
3:00 P.M., Mead Memorial Chapel
Before his recital here one year ago, Middlebury concertgoers overheard rumors that Paul Jacobs might very well be the world’s greatest living organist. That recital proved the rumors to be well-founded. Jacobs brings Mead Chapel’s powerful Gress-Miles organ to life again this year, with a program of works by Felix Mendelssohn, Maurice Duruflé, Louis Vierne, and Julius Reubke. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series. Tickets: $15/12/5
For more information, please click here.
December 3, Monday
City Symphonies and Constructivist Courseware: Mining Modernism for Digital Innovation
12:15 P.M., Robert A. Jones ’59 House
Lecture by Marsha Kinder, University Professor, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series; cosponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, International Studies, and the Film and Media Culture Program. Free
December 3, Monday
New Music Festival
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
(Also on Wednesday, December 5)
Two concerts of music composed and performed by students in MUSC0209. Free
December 4, Tuesday
Pilgrim on Earth
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
A vocal recital by Teddy Crecelius '08, sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
December 5, Wednesday
Taking Flight
4:30 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
A “lightly produced” showing of dance experiments by the new batch of choreographers emerging from the Advanced Beginning Dance course. Free
December 5, Wednesday
New Music Festival
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
(Also on Monday, December 3)
Two concerts of music composed and performed by students in MUSC0209. Free
December 6, Thursday
Dance Company of Middlebury: Informal Showing
4:30 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Free
December 6, Thursday
Jazz Showcase Performance
Dick Forman, Director
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Lower Lobby
Jazz singers and instrumentalists will present selections from their term’s work. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free
December 6-8, Thursday-Saturday
Lion in the Streets
9:00 P.M. Thursday, 8:00 P.M. Friday, and 2:00 and 8:00 P.M. on Saturday; Mahaney Center for the Arts, Seeler Studio Theatre
Play by Judith Thompson; senior work of Leah Day '08 (directing) and Aaron Gensler '08 (set design). Disturbing, dreadfully amusing, inspiring, and provocative, this mosaic-like play follows the ghost of a murdered girl as she returns to the community where she once lived, in hopes of discovering her killer. Gazing into the lives of her friends and neighbors, she uncovers the various secrets buried within their lives to find answers to the end of her own. This award-winning play not only examines the daily challenges and moral dilemmas we as humans face in everyday life, but often digs deeper into the subconscious with fascinating revelation. Tickets: $1; on sale November 19.
December 7, Friday
Elizabeth Bowman '09, piano
4:00 P.M., Mead Chapel
Playing a concert of works by Chopin, Copland, and Ravel. Free
December 7, Friday
Chamber Music Concert
4:30 and 8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Featuring students in the Music Department’s Performing Chamber Music class. Free
December 7, Friday
Hadestown
7:30 P.M., McCullough Social Space
A folk opera written by Anais Mitchell '04, Hadestown brings the timeless story of the tragic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice into a contemporary contest that is poetically, musically and visually fresh. Hadestown is set in a post-apocalyptic world that takes its inspiration from Depression-era America: the underworld is not the land of the dead but an exploitative company town. Hadestown fuses old-fashioned symbols of poverty and exploitation with a kind of futurism to prompt reflection on just how much we've evolved (or devolved) as a society since the 1930s. Above all, Hadestown is a love story that explores what's become of the human condition under the most tragic and trying of circumstances.Written by Anais Mitchell '04, directed by Ben T. Matchstick, and orchestrated by Michael Chorney. Tickets: $10 Middlebury College students; $20 general public
December 7–8, Friday–Saturday
Rebecca Marcus ’08: The Falling
5:00 P.M. each evening, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Senior dance major Rebecca Marcus ’08 presents an evening of choreography inspired by poems written during her years at Middlebury. Her unconventional use of the stage space brings the audience into physical and emotional intimacy with the dancers, blurring the boundary between observer and dancer. Sponsored by the Dance Program. Tickets: $5/4/3, on sale November 20.
December 8, Saturday
Babel
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
This celebrated drama explores the global consequences of the accidental shooting of an American woman (Cate Blanchett) in Morocco. As her husband (Brad Pitt) races against time, language, and xenophobia to save her, the film follows the effects of their plight on the couple’s Mexican babysitter as she tries to attend her son’s wedding, and on a Japanese deaf-mute girl desperately seeking affection after her mother’s suicide. Set in four countries and spoken in five languages, Babel cuts through cultural barriers with stunning visual élan. Best Director, Cannes Film Festival. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Mexico, 2006, 143 minutes) Free
December 8, Saturday
Music Department Student Vocal Recital
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Free
December 9, Sunday
Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas
Laurel Jordan, chaplain; Middlebury College Chamber Singers, Jeff Buettner, director; Emory Fanning, organ
4:00 and 7:00 P.M., Mead Memorial Chapel
This traditional program combines choral music, congregational singing, and biblical texts of the season. Free
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