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Events

Transition: Vietnam – Photography by Mark Ludak and Andrew Cohen

Pollak Gallery

Vietnam is a country in transition. Intrigued by the rapid transformation of Vietnam, one of the fastest growing economies of the world Monmouth University professors, Mark Ludak and Andrew Cohen have returned multiple times to photograph this region. A dynamic, youthful country, especially seen in mega-cities like Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon), it is a country where the traditional and contemporary are reconstituted into distinctively Vietnamese manifestations.

NATURE AND NURTURE – Mother/Daughter Artists: The Paintings of Cheryl Griesbach and Claudia Griesbach-Martucci

Rotary Ice House Gallery

In 2000, Cheryl Griesbach began creating a body of paintings based on her interests in European 18th and 19th century still-life, botanical and landscape art. Her method includes the
manipulation of segments of Northern European paintings and incorporating that imagery in building a new landscape, like a stage. Following
in her parent’s footsteps Claudia Griesbach also attended the School of Visual Arts and with her background in illustration and oil painting, a
skill she learned from her mother, each of her paintings tells a story. In her most recent work she explores the notion “that behind every exquisite thing that exists there is something tragic,” a quote from Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray.

Sheba Sharrow

Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall

As one of its series of events around the theme of “Activism,” Monmouth University hosts an exhibition of paintings by the 20th-century artist who chronicled outrage and compassion for the struggles against injustice. Figurative painter Sheba Sharrow bore witness to human suffering, struggle and liberation. She was a child of the Great Depression and World War II, a participant in the social justice movements of the 1960s and ’70s, saw the bloody roads walked for civil rights and the damages wrought by wars.

Norma

Pollak Theatre

The season opens with a new production of Bellini’s bel canto tragedy Norma, starring Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role, which she has sung to acclaim at the Met in 2013, as well as at the Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Lyric Opera of Chicago—making her one of the world’s leading interpreters of the iconic title character. Joyce DiDonato co-stars as Norma’s colleague and rival, Adalgisa, opposite Joseph Calleja as Pollione and Matthew Rose as Oroveso. Carlo Rizzi conducts and Sir David McVicar directs the new production.

$23

Artist Talk with Weili Shi

The Great Hall Auditorium

Weili Shi is an artist who designs through the media of digital technologies. He creates unconventional experiences with the aim of provoking people’s consciousness. In his most recent work, Shan Shui in the World, he transformed the information of the buildings in Manhattan, NY, into traditional Chinese shan shui (landscape) paintings by a custom algorithm. This project revisits the ideas implicit in Chinese literati paintings of shan shui: the relationship between urban life and people’s yearning for nature, and between social responsibility and spiritual purity. With generative technology, Shan Shui in the World has the ability to represent any place in the world—including the city where the audience is—in the form of a shan shui painting. Weili Shi is currently a developer at Bluecadet and teaches at Parsons School of Design.

Reduced Shakespeare Company’s All the Great Books (abridged)

Pollak Theatre

Little Dickens. Short Longfellow. Reduced Proust… All the Great Books. As anyone named Cliff will tell you, Less is More. The Literary Canon explodes as the bad boys of abridgement again unleash comic outrage on an unsuspecting public. America’s best loved comedy troupe takes you on a 98 minute roller- coaster ride through its compact compendium of 89 of the world’s great books in All The Great Books (abridged). It’s 1.1 books per minute (on average). Confused by Confucius? Thrown by Thoreau? Wish Swift was faster? Aiming for an ace of Tennyson? Then hop aboard and buckle up as the three cultural guerrillas of the Reduced Shakespeare Company zip through everything you should have read in school but probably didn’t. It’s a blast of bibliography. You’ve seen their PBS special. You’ve heard them on National Public Radio. They are officially London’s longest-running comedy troupe, and have broken box-office records at the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. What are you waiting for? Tempus fugit! Reductio ad absurdum.

$35; $45

Die Zauberflöte

Pollak Theatre

Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine conducts Tony Award winner Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s masterpiece, Die Zauberflöte. Golda Schultz makes her Met debut as Pamina with Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, Charles Castronovo as the fairy tale prince Tamino, Markus Werba as the bird-catching Papageno, Christian Van Horn as Sprecher, and René Pape as Sarastro. The holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, an abridged staging sung in English for families, was the first Live in HD performance to be transmitted. This is the first time the full-length German opera will be seen in the series.

$23

Colin Hay

Pollak Theatre

As the singer, guitarist, and main songwriter of Australia’s Men At Work, Colin Hay was responsible for penning several of the quirkiest pop hits of the early ’80s including “Overkill”, “(The Land) Down Under”, “It’s A Mistake” and “Who Can IT Be Now”. Although forever associated with “the land down under”, Hay hailed from Scotland but relocated to Australia in 1967. In 2017 Hay recorded and released his 13th solo album, Fierce Mercy, an epic, cinematic step forward from the singer-songwriter who has become increasingly known for his wonderfully witty and intimate performances as well as his ever-present great voice and incisive song writing . The range of artists who have chosen to cite him as a muse is vast and varied and include the likes of Metallica and The Lumineers, reflecting his continuing relevance and broad appeal.

$38; $43; $50; $58 (Gold Circle)

The Three Pigettes and The Big Bad Lady Wolf/Las Tres Cerditas y La Loba Feroz

Pollak Theatre

Presented by Teatro SEA, the premiere Bilingual Arts-in-Education Organization and Latino Children’s Theatre in the United States, Mama Piggy narrates this bilingual adaptation that features a vegetarian wolf and the three cutest little pigs on this side of town. Action, adventure and not to mention Salsa, as well as other Latin music keep audiences clapping en route to a happy ending.
Recommended for Pre-K to 5th Grade.

$12 (children); $15 (adult)

National Theatre Live: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Pollak Theatre

Sonia Friedman Productions present Imelda Staunton (Gypsy, Vera Drake, the Harry Potter films), Conleth Hill (Game Of Thrones, The Producers), Luke Treadaway (A Street Cat Named Bob, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Hollow Crown) and Imogen Poots (A Long Way Down, Jane Eyre) in James Macdonald’s critically acclaimed, 5 star production of Edward Albee’s landmark play, broadcast live to cinemas from the Harold Pinter Theatre, London.

In the early hours of the morning on the campus of an American college, Martha, much to her husband George’s displeasure, has invited the new professor and his wife to their home for some after-party drinks. As the alcohol flows and dawn approaches, the young couple are drawn into George and Martha’s toxic games until the evening reaches its climax in a moment of devastating truth-telling.

$23