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  • Wailin’ Jennys

    The Wailin Jennys are Nicky Mehta, Ruth Moody and Heather Masse three distinct voices that together make an achingly perfect vocal sound.

    Starting as a happy accident of solo singer/songwriters getting together for a one-time-only performance at a tiny guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Wailin’ Jennys have grown over the years into one of today’s most beloved international folk acts. Founding members Moody and Mehta along with New York-based Masse continue to create some of the most exciting music on the folk-roots scene, stepping up their musical game with each critically lauded recording and thrilling audiences with their renowned live performances.

    In 2004, The Wailin’ Jennys released their first full-length album 40 Days to great critical acclaim, netting a 2005 Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. Bolstered by their frequent appearances on Garrison Keillor’s public radio show A Prairie Home Companion, The Jennys exploded onto the roots music scene, performing at packed venues across the Canada, the U.S. and throughout the world. 

    The Jennys’ sophomore album, 2006’s Firecracker, served as a powerful follow-up to their career-making debut. Artistically, the record found The Jennys stepping out of the folk realm and into the world of alt-country, pop and rock. Garnering much attention, it was nominated for a Juno Award and won a 2007 Folk Alliance Award for Contemporary Release of the Year. Firecracker had legs, spending over 56 weeks on the Billboard charts.

     The trio’s 2009 release, Live at Mauch Chunk Opera House, also spent over a year on the Billboard bluegrass charts. That landmark live album bottled the lightning of The Jennys’ live performances with show-stopping harmonies, impressive instrumental prowess, breathtaking songs and, of course, witty stage banter. 

    For their latest album, 2011’s Juno-winning Bright Morning Stars, The Wailin’ Jennys joined the ranks of Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris and recorded with award-winning producer Mark Howard. Co-produced by frequent Jennys collaborator and Juno Award-nominated David Travers-Smith, the album combines fresh and innovative sounds with the band’s signature harmonies — a perfect mix of Americana, pop and traditional folk that is destined to be a modern classic.

    Although known primarily as an acoustic outfit, The Wailin’ Jennys have a diverse musical background that has shaped their musical sensibilities. Soprano Ruth Moody (vocals, guitar, accordion, banjo, bodhrán) is a classically trained vocalist and pianist with a burgeoning solo career. She made a splash in 2010 with the Juno-nominated The Garden which was followed up with 2013’s gorgeous These Wilder Things. She’s  an accomplished, versatile singer of traditional and Celtic music and as the former lead singer of Juno-nominated roots band Scruj MacDuhk. Mezzo Nicky Mehta (vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums, ukulele), a classically trained dancer raised on ’70s a.m. radio and heavily influenced by alternative pop, was nominated for a Canadian Indie Music Award for her  striking debut solo album, 2002’s Weather Vane. In July 2009 she became the proud mother to twin boys, Beck and Finn. Alto Heather Masse (vocals, upright bass) is a Jazz Voice graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, who has performed in Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing, Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings and is a regular guest on A Prairie Home Companion. She has also toured with her own band, supporting her 2009 Red House release Bird Song. Her latest, 2013’s Lock My Heart, is an inspired album of jazz standards and originals with legendary pianist Dick Hyman.

    With their varying backgrounds, each of the Jennys is unique in their individual expression. Together they forge a unified folk-pop sound — all delivered with the irresistible vocal power of three.

     ”…perhaps more beautiful than ever. The Wailin’ Jennys are the darlings of the North American roots music arena.” Greg Quill, The Toronto Star

    “Like three little birds singing softly
    and sweetly in the early morn, the harmony of the Wailin’ Jennys
    pleasantly rises from the speakers and greets the listener with a
    refreshing start to the day.” David McPherson, Exclaim!  

    Website: http://www.thewailinjennys.com/ 

  • Rockin’ Road to Dublin

    Rockin’ Road to Dublin returns to Pollak Theatre in 2018 by popular demand! Created by the 2009 World Champion of Irish Dance Scott Doherty (Riverdance & Lord of the Dance) and worldwide touring Irish musician Chris Smith, Rockin’ Road is the new generation of Irish music and dance. RRTD is a breathtaking display of classic Irish tunes accented by rock ‘n’ roll riffs, electrifying dancers and a dynamic light show. Enjoy the thrilling sights and sounds as daring performers execute rapid-fire leaps, twirls and footwork, and nimble fiddlers square off with driving electric guitar chords and pulse-pounding drum beats. Fans say, “Rockin’ Road to Dublin not only combines Riverdance and Lord of the Dance perfectly, but actually surpasses them!”

    “The artists were unbelievable. The dancers took my breath away. I didn’t want it to end!” ~Patron

  • Catapult

    Catapult is, technically, a shadow dance company.  What it really is:  a theatrical art form that is an amazingly imaginative combination of dance, story-telling, and sculpture.   Founded in 2009, by Adam Battlestein (choreographer, Creative Director and Master Teaching Artist for Pilobolus Dance Theatre for 19 years), Catapult catapulted to fame on Season 8 of America’s Got Talent, earning their way to the finals of the NBC-TV hit show.

    Catapult is all about the human body and its ability to transform.  The talented Catapult dancers work behind a screen to create seemingly impossible dancing shadow silhouettes of shapes from the world around us. You won’t believe your eyes as you watch these incredible dancers become a mountain, a full size elephant, a helicopter, a house with a window and people inside the window.  You will never figure out how they do it, and you won’t know what they will make next – you will be surprised and delighted again and again. Audiences of all ages love what appear to be effortless transformations and applaud over and over as more and more unbelievable images appear.

    Catapult’s “Magic Shadows” show is packed with hundreds of shape transformations, and it is full of humor, emotion, and engaging stories.  There are 8 fully realized stories told through music and shadows and 6 short shadow dance videos which play between the live dances – brief moments of poetry or humor which perfectly cleanse the palate and prepare the audience for their next shadow journey.  Audiences leave this show dazed and happy, and they will never look at their own shadow the same way again!

     

  • Julius Caesar

    Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London.

    Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital.

    Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake. 

    Run Time: 180 minutes 

  • Mariza

    Grammy Award winning singer Mariza returns to captivate audiences with her personal take on traditional fado. In less than 12 years, Mariza has risen from a well-hidden local phenomenon, known only to a small circle of admirers in Lisbon, to one of the most widely acclaimed stars of the World Music circuit.

    Since then Mariza has continued to wow audiences with her powerful talent as a live performer, recording the album Concerto Em Lisboa to a hometown audience of several thousand right next to that most visual icon of fado — the sea. She has also traveled the world, selling out concert halls, from Carnegie Hall and Disney Concert Hall to London’s Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and winning awards, including a BBC World Music Award and 2008 Latin Grammy nomination.

     

  • CSNsongs – Celebrating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

    Returning to Monmouth by popular renowned for an encore engagement, CSN Songs is an ensemble of accomplished musicians who pay homage to the folk/rock legends that revolutionized music in the 1960’s and 70’s. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s compositions are perfectly and respectfully reproduced as they were originally written and recorded. Relive these historical musical moments with CSN Songs impeccable recreations of Suite Judy Blue Eyes, Ohio, Love the One Your With, Just a Song Before I Go, Southern Man and many other CSN&Y treasures.     


    “If you closed your eyes you would think it was the real CSN!”

  • Eleanor Hooker & Clodagh Beresford Dunne

    Two Irish poets, Eleanor Hooker and Clodagh Beresford Dunne will read from their works. Eleanor Hooker is a poet and writer. In 2013, her debut collection of poetry, The Shadow Owner’s Companion was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award for Best First Irish Collection. In 2016, she published her second collection of poems A Tug of Blue and she was included as one of Poetry Ireland Review’s ‘Rising Generation’ of Irish poets. In February 2016, her flash fiction The Lesson was awarded 1st Prize in the Bare Fiction Flash Fiction competition in the UK. Her poetry has been published in literary journals internationally including: POETRY (Chicago), PN Review, Poetry Ireland Review, AGENDA Poetry, The Stinging Fly, The SHOp, The Moth, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, Crannóg, POEM: International English Language Quarterly and Cyphers.

    Clodagh Beresford Dunne was the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Emerging-Writer Award Bursary, 2016. Her poems have appeared in Irish and international print and online journals, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, Southword, The Moth, The Pickled Body, Spontaneity and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. She is the recipient of a number of literature awards from Irish Artlinks, Waterford City and County Arts Office. Born and raised in a regional newspaper family, her writing was first committed to print at age 8. Described by Irish poet Thomas McCarthy as “a writer of great seriousness and purpose,” Beresford Dunne’s poetry has been hailed as “announcing a new vision to us, a new vortex of energy that localises human experience and domesticates genius.”

  • CAROLYN DORFMAN DANCE: The Legacy Project: A Dance Of Hope

    The Legacy Project: A Dance of Hope

    Acclaimed choreographer and storyteller Carolyn Dorfman has created an exultant “dance-theatre” trilogy that connects us through our common human experience. Told through the lens of a child of Holocaust survivors, dances illustrate the devastation, yet inspires hope as immigrants’ journey to a new land that promises new beginnings! Our deepest desires for peace, freedom and family are illuminated in this triumphant work that will make you cry, laugh, think and celebrate the capacity of the human spirit to rise above all circumstance.

    Described by critics as “ingenious” (The Star-Ledger) and “emotionally resonant” (The New York Times), the dances in the Legacy Project bring together Dorfman’s family stories, Jewish history, and a universal struggle for identity. Through this combination, Dorfman inspires in her audience feelings of familiarity and unity, creating dances that serve as metaphors for the greater truths of the human experience, “In her works, visual images become still photographs that capture and freeze certain universal truths…both reflect[ing] and engender[ing] a profound humanity. Because her dances are about people and life experience, often moving from the autobiographical to the universal, they hold immediate appeal” (The New York Times).

    About Carolyn Dorfman Dance
    Carolyn Dorfman Dance connects life and dance in bold, athletic and dramatic works by Carolyn Dorfman and nationally renowned choreographers. The company’s ten multi-ethnic and stunning dancers tap their unique talents to present high-energy and technically demanding dance that unleashes the powerful storytelling and imagery of its visionary creator. This distinctive combination takes audiences on intellectual and emotional journeys that ultimately illuminate and celebrate the human experience. This is contemporary dance that moves you to think, feel, laugh, cry and engage. The highly acclaimed ensemble is known for emotional resonance and artistic excellence both in performance and in its interactions with audiences, students and the community. Sharing art and process is the hallmark of this company.  Celebrating 35 years, Carolyn Dorfman Dance continues to impact audiences at major theaters, dance festivals, universities, schools, museums and galleries regionally, nationally and internationally.

  • Danú

    Hailing from Waterford, Dublin, Donegal and Cork, Danú is one of the leading traditional Irish ensembles of today. Their standing room only concerts throughout Ireland are true events featuring high-energy performances and a glorious mix of ancient Irish music and new repertoire. For over two decades, Danú’s virtuosi players on flute, tin whistle, fiddle, button accordion, bouzouki, and vocals (Irish and English), have performed around the globe and recorded seven critically acclaimed albums. Their live DVD, One Night Stand, was filmed at Vicar St. Dublin. 

    Winners of numerous awards from the BBC and Irish Music Magazine, Danú has toured throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America with stops at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Symphony Space in New York City, and major concert engagements in the United Kingdom, India, Israel, and across Europe. Danú takes its audiences on a musical journey to their native Ireland, offering a moving and memorable concert experience. Danú’s popular recordings are available on the Shanachie label and live performances are often broadcast on NPR, the CBC, and the BBC

     “…impressive, immersive and uniquely and unmistakably Irish”~ Strings Magazine

    “…a powerhouse band…”~ The Irish Times

    “A spirit-raising concoction” ~ The Irish Times

    “…a vibrant mix of virtuosity, energy, and empathy”~ The Washington Post

    “… (Danú) stirs the blood and lifts the heart.”~Irish Music Magazine

    “…fierce fiddle reels to pensive ballads.”~ The New York Times

    “Compellingly original”~ The Los Angeles Times

    More info: www.danu.net

     

  • Spring-a-Ding-DING!

    Brianna, a charming and curious girl, hops into an
    ‘adventure-through-the-seasons’ in Spring-A-Ding-DING! A colorful cast
    of characters create the vivid enchantment of springtime. Jump-roping
    frogs, twirling flowers, dancing birds, glittering rain showers and even
    a contortionist earthworm bring the budding season to life! Portrayed
    through dazzling circus, dance, and can’t-believe-your-eyes specialty
    acts, audiences of all ages will delight as the glory of the new season
    unfolds. Imagine Brianna’s surprise as she meets comical creatures and
    even befriends a skunk! Our young heroine has lessons to learn and teach
    the woodland creatures as she eagerly searches for the butterfly that
    will usher in the next season, summer. This delightful new show thrills
    young and old while warming hearts in the way only Cirque-tacular can!

    Based
    in New York City, with artists nationwide, Cirque-tacular Entertainment
    is considered one of the premiere acrobatic production companies in the
    United States

    The Children’s Theatre Series is sponsored by the Monmouth University Alumni Association.