An absurdist comedy troupe who happen to be the first troupe of people with Asperger’s Syndrome. They were featured in the Duplass Brothers Productions documentary “Asperger’s Are Us” now on Netflix. They have performed over 100 original absurdist sketch shows in nine countries since 2010.
On her sixteenth birthday, Princess Aurora falls under the curse of the Evil Fairy Carabosse and into a deep slumber lasting one hundred years. Only the kiss of a prince can break the spell. A resplendent fairytale ballet, The Sleeping Beauty features scores of magical characters including fairies, the Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, and a beautiful young Princess Aurora performed by Olga Smirnova, a “truly extraordinary talent” (The Telegraph). This is classical ballet at its finest.
Take an immersive journey through the life, works and struggles of the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio. Roberto Longhi, a Caravaggio expert, explores in the artist’s masterpieces the echo of personal experiences and the expression of the human state, both physical and emotional. These evocative moments — thanks to the use of light and cinematic techniques — allow viewers to go deep inside the mind and soul of Caravaggio, empathizing with his impulses and fears.
Frank Warren is the most trusted stranger in America. He is the creator of The PostSecret Project – a collection of 1,000,000+ artful secrets that have been mailed to his home on postcards, anonymously. The PostSecret website has become a phenomenon in itself, earning over 700 million views, and making it the world’s largest advertisement-free blog. For this event, Frank will join us for a lively lecture based on the topic of #MeToo. Hear the inspiring stories behind the secrets. Listen to some of Frank’s favorite secrets…and share your own.
What does it mean to be “part” of the queer community in 2019? Who tells you your story? Your history? Your future? This solo performance is a 70-minute multimedia, performative examination of shifting perceptions of queer male mentorship, LGBT aging anxieties, and the lingering cultural threat assigned to queer sexuality. The piece is an avalanche of pop culture, flamboyance and monstrosity—an intertextual interrogation of queer generational tensions- reclaiming a story of the monsters who refuse to die (for long), refuse to hide the histories their bodies carry, and who keep surviving through wit, camp, irreverence, and an ongoing commitment to the queer community.
A high school teacher’s experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
Director: Dennis Gansel
(2008)
Unrated
107 minutes
The Black Maria Film Festival was founded in 1981 as a tribute to Thomas Edison’s development of the motion picture at his laboratory, dubbed the “Black Maria” film studio, the first in the world, in West Orange, NJ. Now in its 38th year, the festival attracts and showcases the work of independent filmmakers internationally. The festival is a project of the Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium, an independent non-profit organization in residence at New Jersey City University’s Department of Media Arts. Unlike other major film festivals, the Black Maria Festival is not presented in only one location. Instead, the winning films are presented at universities, museums, libraries and cultural centers across the country all year.
James Dalton gathers together a cast of wonderful singer songwriters and musicians, focusing heavily on local and independent, to take the “in the round” model up a notch. Audiences will not only get an intimate portrait of the artists and stories behind the songs themselves, but they will experience onstage collaboration and interplay as the whole cast supports, accompanies and jams with each other. Artists will include: James Dalton, Steven Delopoulos, Michael Ronstadt, Steve Reilly, April Centrone, Andy Keenan, Tara Dente, Karlee Bloom and more to be announced soon!!
The second installment of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Die Walküre, stars heroic soprano Christine Goerke as the warrior goddess Brünnhilde, whose encounter with the mortal twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, sung by Stuart Skelton and Eva-Maria Westbroek, leads her on a journey from Valhalla to earthbound humanity. Philippe Jordan conducts.
Distinguished NJ Songwriters Joe Rapolla and Joe D’Urso are back this year hosting the celebrated Songwriters by the Sea series at the Lauren K. Woods Theatre. What once started in a small coffee shop as an area for local songwriters has now grown into a series that features some of the top songwriters in the country. This year, the show features special guest artists Jeffrey Gaines and ERYN with an intro set by Mark Geary. The show will also feature Monmouth University student openers: Max Adolf and Kelli Misenheimer.
