BabsonARTS: Spring 2015

BABSONARTS

SPRING / 2015 www.babsonarts.org

Support for BabsonARTS programs has been made possible through the generosity of Richard W. Sorenson M’68, P’97 ’00 and Sandra L. Sorenson P’97 ’00.

www.babsonarts.org

Welcome to BabsonARTS !

Winter and spring are lively times for the arts at Babson, and we hope you are as excited as we are about the range of events and special guests that we have planned. The BabsonARTS staff, with the help and support of our friends on the Babson faculty, has brought together events and exhibitions spanning many genres—dance, film, music, theater, visual arts—plus a line-up of engaging and thought-provoking writers, poets, and artist-entrepreneurs.

Some of the events don’t fit neatly into genre categories. We’re bringing actor Seth Gilliam to campus for a two-day visit that will include both a screening and a talk about his film Starship Troopers and a live performance of the Yasmina Reza play Art. Basetrack Live, coming in March, is a multimedia combination of interviews, live performance, and videos dealing with the experiences of the military in Afghanistan and that of their families at home—and the executive producer of the project also will be on hand for an Arts & Business Conversation.

The Babson community is a uniquely creative and innovative one, so the arts are a natural component of and complement to the atmosphere of inquiry and learning on campus. As always, we want to be sure that BabsonARTS is not just entertainment, but also can inform and amplify conversations about global issues, social and environmental concerns, the creative process, and the lives we all lead.

We know that the Babson community, and our neighbors from outside the campus, will welcome the opportunity to interact with artists and artistentrepreneurs, and to be engaged and inspired by the works we are presenting.

Welcome!

All the best,

Steven Maler, Director Beth Wynstra, Faculty Director Adam Sanders, Associate Director Danielle Krcmar, Artist in Residence Richard W. Sorenson Center for the Arts

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Seth Gilliam

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BabsonARTS welcomes Seth Gilliam, known for his television roles in The Walking Dead and The Wire, as well as for films such as Starship Troopers and Courage Under Fire. The Babson community will have an opportunity to meet Gilliam and to see him perform both in person and on film.

» Starship Troopers / Film screening and Q&A THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 7 P.M.

Carling-Sorenson Theater

Seth Gilliam

Set in the distant future, Starship Troopers (1997) follows a young soldier’s exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit, against the backdrop of an interstellar war.

The film, directed by Paul Verhoeven and featuring Seth Gilliam in the role of Sugar Watkins, was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects. The film screening will be preceded by a conversation with Steven Maler and Seth Gilliam.

Support provided by the Malcolm K. Stearns ’81 Memorial Film Society Fund.

» Art / A play by Yasmina Reza Staged reading featuring Seth Gilliam Directed by Steven Maler Presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 8 P.M.

Carling-Sorenson Theater Post-show reception in the Black Box Three longtime friends find their friendship challenged when one of them indulges a penchant for modern art by spending a fortune on a large, all-white painting. The purchase prompts the friends to explore— and disagree about—what constitutes “art.” The comedy originated in London’s West End and won the Tony Award® when it opened on Broadway in 1998.

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www.babsonarts.org

doug elkins choreography, etc. » Hapless Bizarre and Mo(or)town/Redux SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 8 P.M.

Carling-Sorenson Theater $ Doug Elkins is known for his exuberant, humorous, and Doug Elkins innovative choreography, and he brings his versatile company to Babson for an evening that’s a dance lover’s dream.

In Hapless Bizarre, a company of dancers, actors, and clowns comes together to explore the sharp intersections between physical comedy, choreography, flirtation, and romance. Mo(or)town/Redux transforms Shakespeare’s Othello into a dance with four characters set to music from Motown.

“One of the most musical, witty and inventive choreographers of his generation.”

– The New York Times 3

Underwater Dreams / B Y M ARY M AZZIO » Film screening and post-show conversation WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 8 P.M.

Carling-Sorenson Theater Underwater Dreams, written and directed by Mary Mazzio and narrated by Michael Peña, is an epic story of how the children of undocumented Mexican immigrants learned to build an underwater robot from Home Depot parts and defeated engineering powerhouse MIT. Two energetic high school science teachers, on a Mary Mazzio whim, decided to enter their school, where most of the students live in poverty, into a sophisticated underwater robotics competition sponsored by NASA and the Office of Naval Research. Only four students signed up for the competition, but once they came together, with enthusiasm and verve and little money, they built a robot from parts they acquired at Home Depot and headed for Massachusetts in a beat-up van.

“The most important and moving film I have seen in years.”

– Jonathan Alter, NBC News

Mary Mazzio is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who currently serves as Filmmaker in Residence at Babson.

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www.babsonarts.org

Basetrack Live » A multimedia event FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 8 P.M.

Carling-Sorenson Theater $ In 2010, a group of photojournalists in Afghanistan started a revolutionary online project called Basetrack. Connecting battalion members with their families and others around the globe, the Web platform became an indispensable tool of citizen journalism, documenting a range of perspectives on the emotional tolls of war.

Inspired by this groundbreaking project, Basetrack Live—developed by Edward Bilous and directed by Seth Bockley—makes its way to the stage, using videos and interviews to tell the story of one group of Marines and their families before, during, and after “The their deployment in Afghanistan.

experience of these American service members is given riveting life Accompanied by Michelle DiBucci’s electro-acoustic score, actors and an in this production, a powerfully moving on-stage band give voice to the Marines work of documentary theater.” and their families, offering a powerful

look at our nation’s longest war.

Sponsored by the Arts and Humanities and History and Society divisions.

– The New York Times

» Stories We Carry / by Scott Thompson Stories We Carry is an event that brings together veterans and civilians to share their stories. This event will be offered as a companion to Basetrack Live; check the website for details.

Anne Hamburger, executive producer of Basetrack Live, will be the featured speaker at the Arts & Business Conversation on Friday, March 27. See page 10 for details.

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Theater » Provincetown Four / Presented by The Empty Space Theater (TEST) MONDAY, MARCH 9, THROUGH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 8 P.M.

Roger’s Pub $ TEST presents an evening of theater featuring four plays that originated at one of America’s most influential and groundbreaking theater companies: the Provincetown Players. Founded in 1915, the Provincetown Players helped launch the careers of Pulitzer Prize- and Nobel Prize-winning dramatists Eugene O’Neill, Susan Glaspell, Djuna Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Wallace Stevens. Plays will be directed by Professor Jon Adler, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Kai Haskins ’18; and Beth Wynstra and Adam Sanders of the Richard W. Sorenson Center for the Arts.

» Shakespeare and Leadership: King Lear / Presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 7 P.M. Carling-Sorenson Theater

King Lear, which tells the tragic story of an aging king and the transfer of the rule of England to his three daughters, elevates the concept of “family business” to epic proportions.

CSC’s Shakespeare and Leadership series features a staged reading of a Shakespeare play performed by business leaders from the corporate world alongside local professional actors. The reading is followed by a panel discussion featuring the participants addressing leadership questions and themes raised in the text.

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www.babsonarts.org

Visual Arts » A Mend: A Collection of Scraps and U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler / Embroidery and fiber art by Aram Han EXHIBITION ON VIEW: JANUARY 29–MARCH 17 ARTIST TALK AND RECEPTION: THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 5 P.M.

Hollister Gallery Aram Han uses craft processes of sewing and embroidery to address the economics of compensation for immigrant and artist labor. She will exhibit 50 samplers from her U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler project and A Mend: A Collection of Scraps from Local Seamstresses and Tailors, a sculpture created by collecting and sewing together the denim remnants from immigrant Chicago workers.

» The El Paso Kid / Self-portraits by Raul Gonzalez EXHIBITION ON VIEW: MARCH 25–MAY 5 ARTIST TALK AND RECEPTION: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 5 P.M.

Hollister Gallery Raul Gonzalez grew up going back and forth between El Paso, Texas—his birthplace—and Ciudad Juarez, across the border in Mexico.

He reflects on his life on La Frontera (“The Border”), an environment that is most often unrepresented and unseen, through self-portraits that integrate imagery from the old-time West, cartoons, cultural stereotypes, and art history.

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Film

» Global Film Series: Watchers of the Sky (2014) Directed by Edet Belzberg WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 7 P.M. Carling-Sorenson Theater

Edet Belzberg

Watchers of the Sky interweaves four stories of remarkable courage, compassion, and determination while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin—the man who created the word “genocide” and believed the law could protect the world from mass atrocities.

Inspired by United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, Watchers of the Sky takes viewers on a provocative journey from Nuremberg to The Hague, from Bosnia to Darfur, from criminality to justice, and from apathy to action.

» Global Film Series: The Wind Rises (2013) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki MONDAY, APRIL 6, 7 P.M. Carling-Sorenson Theater

In Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world’s most innovative and accomplished airplane designers, creating beautiful machines that are put to deadly use.

Film critic David Ehrlich called the film “Perhaps the greatest animated film ever made . . . a devastatingly honest lament for the corruption of beauty.”

Hayao Miyazaki

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www.babsonarts.org

Literary Arts » Fred D’Aguiar Presented by the Charles D. and Marjorie J. Thompson Visiting Poet Series WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 7 P.M. Carling-Sorenson Theater Poet, novelist, and playwright Fred D’Aguiar was born in London in 1960 to Guyanese parents, and now serves as Gloria D. Smith Professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Tech. D’Aguiar’s first collection of poetry, Mama Dot, was published to wide acclaim Fred D’Aguiar in 1985 and established his reputation as one of the finest British poets of his generation. Among his other works is Bill of Rights (1998), a long narrative poem about the 1979 Jonestown massacre.

» Taylor Mali

“Quietly crafted, calm, full of luminous detail and texture, these poems, drawing on material that has always sustained his writing, offer a gentle, almost utopian, sturdiness.”

– Charles Bainbridge

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 7 P.M.

Sorenson Center Taylor Mali is one of the best-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and is one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of “poet.” Articulate, accessible, passionate, and downright funny, Mali studied drama in Oxford with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and puts those skills of presentation to work in all his performances.

Sponsored by the Arts and Humanities and History and Society divisions.

Taylor Mali

» Khalil Gibran Muhammad “Resegregation in Post–Civil Rights America” Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Day Keynote Address THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 5 P.M. RECEPTION AND BOOK SIGNING TO FOLLOW

Carling-Sorenson Theater

Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research division of the New York Public Library and one of the world’s leading research facilities dedicated to the history of the African diaspora. He is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, which won the 2011 John Hope Franklin Best Book award in American Studies, and is a contributing author of a 2014 National Research Council study, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences.

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Conversations

Arts & Business Conversations feature prominent arts leaders discussing the challenges of leadership in the arts and entertainment world. Conversations take place in the upper lobby of the Carling-Sorenson Theater, and lunch is provided. Sponsored by North Hill.

» Adam Gold TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 5 P.M.

Adam Gold M’11 is an entrepreneur and the founder of Gold Gallery in Boston’s South End. Drawing from his personal history of collecting art from galleries around the world, he created a space that offers visitors the chance to explore different genres of artwork from various points in each artist’s career. The atmosphere welcomes curiosity, encourages inquiry, and generates interest in the art market in Boston and beyond.

» Preston Whiteway THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 12:30 P.M.

Preston Whiteway is executive director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, an awardwinning regional theater company located in Waterford, Connecticut. The Center is both a producing theater and a renowned training institute, and has played an enormous role in shaping the American theater landscape—its artists, the canon of work, and innovating new forms.

» Anne Hamburger FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 12:30 P.M.

Anne Hamburger, executive producer of the multimedia show Basetrack Live (page 5), is a cultural entrepreneur and the president of En Garde Arts, a company that creates and produces site-specific theater and multimedia experiences. Earlier in her career, she was executive vice president of Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, where she spearheaded the creative development of all the major stage shows, parades, and daytime and nighttime spectacles for all Disney theme parks worldwide.

» Barbara Strongin WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 12:30 P.M.

Barbara Strongin currently serves as director of administration at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, where she teaches the Auction Business course. She is a 34-year veteran of the fine art auction industry. Prior to her current position at Sotheby’s, she served as a senior executive at Christie’s flagship New York auction house.

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www.babsonarts.org

Music » Worcester Chamber Music Society MONDAY, MARCH 2, 7:30 PM

Glavin Chapel

Hailed as a group with imagination, style, and chops, the Worcester Chamber Music Society has rapidly established itself as a cultural presence since its initial concert in 2006. Six of its accomplished musicians will be in residence at Babson in early March. The concert of works from Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil speaks to situations of genocide and mass violence in Latin America, and its compositions are expressions of cultural identity that shine a spotlight on the resilience and joy of the human spirit.

Sponsored by the Office of Faith and Service in honor of Multifaith Awareness Week, and by the Arts and Humanities Division.

» Jeremy Jordan: Breaking Character SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 7 PM

Carling-Sorenson Theater $

Jeremy Jordan

Jeremy Jordan, star of Broadway, film, and television, makes his Boston solo concert debut.

Recounting iconic and deciding moments from his budding career, Jeremy performs songs from Broadway’s Newsies, NBC’s Smash, and his upcoming film, The Last 5 Years, along with many of his own personal favorites. This bright young artist steps into the solo spotlight for the very first time to tell us a bit of his own fascinating story.

“Jordan’s fans have come to expect nothing less than vocal perfection—a gift he delivers with ease in his solo cabaret debut.”

– TheaterMania

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By and For the Babson Community STUDENT PERFORMANCES Talented and creative, Babson students have many opportunities to participate in the visual and performing arts! These are just a few of the student-led groups on campus:

AMAN: South Asian Student Association

Babson Dance Ensemble

Babson Music Collective

Babson Players and F.W. Olin Players

BAPSA: Babson Asian Pacific Student Association

For information on how to get involved in these activities and for a schedule of performances, visit www.babsonarts.org.

WORKSHOPS AND MASTER CLASSES Babson students have a unique opportunity to work with professional visual and performing artists to explore and enhance their visual literacy, performing skills, and creative expression.

Visual arts workshops help build visual literacy and design skills; offerings include workshops in figure drawing, printmaking, ceramics, and more.

Performance skills workshops use techniques of theater, movement, voice, and improvisation to build skills and confidence in speaking before an audience.

For a complete list of spring 2015 workshops and master classes, visit www.babsonarts.org.

Workshops and master classes are open to Babson students, faculty, and staff only.

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www.babsonarts.org

BabsonARTS www.babsonarts.org 781-239-5660 Sorenson Center for the Arts Babson College 231 Forest Street Babson Park, MA 02457 ll

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Events marked with a $ require an admission charge. Other events are free of charge, but reservations are recommended. To purchase or reserve seats, visit www.babsonarts.org.

Note that all dates, programs, artists, and m ap hi venues are subject to change. Please visit ll dr iv ve e dri www.babsonarts.org for theillmost current h p information on these and other arts events.

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For more information or to reserve tickets to BabsonARTS events, visit www.babsonarts.org or call 781-239-5660. Workshops and master classes are free and open to Babson students, ANDELL staff, and faculty only. All other events Mand FAMILY HALL exhibitions are open to the public.

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The Babson community also is welcome to attend arts and cultural offerings at Wellesley College. For a listing of exhibitions and events, or to be added to the mailing list for upcoming programs, visit NG LOT AN PARKI M LE O C www.wellesley.edu/events/artevents.

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BabsonARTS events are presented on the picturesque campus of Babson College, an independent educational institution that is a leader in entrepreneurship, globalism, and innovative leadership.

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The Babson campus is handicap accessible.

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BABSONARTS

SORENSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS BABSON COLLEGE 231 FOREST STREET BABSON PARK, MA 02457

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