This is the Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) and the Center for the Arts at Monmouth University’s first Pearson’s World Cinema Series (PWCS) movie and discussion event of the fall semester on Thursday, September 25th, at 6:05PM in the Great Hall Auditorium. We will screen the movie Evil Does Not Exist (2023), directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, followed by a post-screening Q&A session hosted by Dean Dave Golland and with Prof. Chris DeRosa as discussant. A post-screening discussions and refreshments will follow.
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Evil Does Not Exist
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Between Two Worlds
The Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) and the Center for the Arts at Monmouth University invite you to the third Pearson’s World Cinema Series (PWCS) movie and discussion event of the fall semester on Thursday, November 13th, at 6:05 PM in Pozycki Hall Auditorium. The event is co-sponsored by the Global Understanding Convention 2025.
We will screen the movie Between Two Worlds (2021) directed by Emmanuel Carrere. The movie will be hosted by Dr. Manuel Chavez with Dr. Marina Vujnovic. Screening will be followed by a discussion and refreshments.
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Life of Pi
★★★★★
‘Puppetry, projection and magic
combine to stunning effect in a
superlative stage adaptation.’
The StagePuppetry, magic, and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel. Filmed in stunning 4k, the story of a 16-year-old boy stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger is brought vividly to life. Hiran Abeysekara (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) plays Pi Patel, joined on stage by Mina Anwar (The Thin Blue Line), Raj Ghatak (The Kite Runner), and Nicholas Khan (NT Live: The Beaux Stratagem).
This epic staging of Yann Martel’s tale of endurance and hope is
adapted by Lolita Chakrabati and directed by Max Webster (Henry V).
The production has been met with strong critical acclaim across
national press, including many five-star reviews. -
Egg Tempera and Silverpoint Class: Using Early Renaissance Techniques Today
Class Schedule: Saturday, October 11 | 2 – 5:00 PMArtist Eileen Kennedy will introduce the early Renaissance techniques of silverpoint and egg tempera, media in most prominent use prior to 1450. After a brief slide lecture about historical and contemporary artists using these materials (i.e. Botticelli and Wyeth), the artist will discuss the materials used to make panels for silverpoint and egg tempera and demonstrate how to make and apply tempera paint. Participants will have the remainder of the workshop to create a still life drawing in silverpoint. Still life objects, paper, and silverpoint styli will be available for use. Kennedy’s own works in silverpoint and egg tempera will be on view in the gallery.This class will be held in Room 135 in the Pollak Gallery.
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Tribute to Queen and The Beatles
Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Long Branch. Get your tickets now to discover the music of Queen and The Beatles at Pollak Theatre under the gentle glow of candlelight.
Fever Up’s concert series was created with the intention of democratizing access to classical music, and the space and performers are illuminated by thousands of candles to create a truly magical experience.
The String Quartet has a tentative program that includes songs such as Here Comes the Sun, Yesterday, I Want to Break Free, Bohemian Rhapsody, and more!
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Into the Wild, Art Exhibit by Eileen Kennedy
Artist Reception: Friday, Sept. 26, 6-8pm
Gallery Exhibit: September 1 – October 25, 2025
Eileen Kennedy’s narrative art explores the relationship between contemporary humans and the natural world. The artist holds a BFA from Pratt Institute. She also studied at the Arts Students League of New York, the Hartford Art School, and numerous workshops.
Kennedy emerged from Pratt in 1977 as an abstract painter; however, within a few years the narrative urge brought her back to figurative work. She enrolled in night classes at the Art Students League to refresh her drawing skills and for the next two decades made life-scale, figurative oil paintings and drawings influenced by the Flemish school, especially Jan van Eyck and Rogier Van der Weyden.
In 2009, she took some time out to explore egg tempera, a medium that had enchanted her since she discovered the work of George Tooker while still in art school. She completed several workshops with contemporary egg tempera master, Koo Schadler. Kennedy found this medium perfectly suited her linear style and love for detail. She soon gave away her oil paints and brushes.
Kennedy has exhibited throughout the mid-Atlantic region and beyond including the Brooklyn Museum, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Monmouth Museum, Widener University Art Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, Painted Bride Art Center, AIR Gallery, Blue Mountain Gallery, Monmouth University, Williams Center for the Arts, Manifest Center for the Arts, Dacia Gallery, Lore Degenstein Gallery and others. Her works have been featured in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Newark Star Ledger, American Art Collector Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur Newsletter, Create Magazine and other publications.
In 1995 and 2022 Kennedy was awarded artist fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In 2022 her work was included in the Lunar Codex Project, which sent images of art from all over the world to the moon in 2024. Her work is included in the collections of the Yuko Nii Foundation, Riverview Medical Center, Pratt Institute and numerous private
collections. The artist lives and works in Toms River, New Jersey. When not making
art, she plays mandolin in the Celtic trio, The Kilkenny Cats. -
Roger McGuinn Music Lecture
Experience the magic of rock history with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and The Byrds co-founder, Roger McGuinn, as he shares rare video, unforgettable stories, and the songs that defined a generation.
By 1964, Roger McGuinn was already an experienced figure in both the New York and Los Angeles music scenes when he co-founded the band that would become the Byrds, alongside Gene Clark and David Crosby. Before forming the Byrds, McGuinn had toured and performed as a guitarist and banjo player with the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and Bobby Darin. He also served as musical director for Judy Collins #3. After the Byrds disbanded in 1973, McGuinn embarked on a solo career, releasing five albums with Columbia Records and continuing to tour.
This workshop entry is free with the purchase of a concert ticket. Please call the Box Office at 732-263-6889 to get your complimentary ticket.
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El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego
On May 30, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2025–26 Live in HD season comes to a close with a live
transmission of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, the story depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love, embracing both the passion and the pain before bidding the land of the living a final farewell. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met-premiere staging of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker) that “bursts with color and fresh individuality” (Los Angeles Times). The vibrant new production, taking enthusiastic inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker. -
Roger McGuinn
The legendary cofounder of The Byrds gives a solo performance of a lifetime. As an indisputable industry icon, he delivers the gift of an evening that is as intimate as it is spellbinding.
By 1964, Roger McGuinn was already an experienced figure in both the New York and Los Angeles music scenes when he co-founded the band that would become the Byrds, alongside Gene Clark and David Crosby. Before forming the Byrds, McGuinn had toured and performed as a guitarist and banjo player with the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and Bobby Darin. He also served as musical director for Judy Collins #3. After the Byrds disbanded in 1973, McGuinn embarked on a solo career, releasing five albums with Columbia Records and continuing to tour.
Roger McGuinn continues to captivate audiences with performances that are as enchanting and powerful as ever. His shows offer a rare opportunity to spend an evening with a true master, blending intimacy with a sense of wonder. Through storytelling and song, he guides listeners on a journey filled with familiar classics and fresh discoveries from the folk tradition he holds dear. A Grammy Award-winning artist, McGuinn tours globally, sharing the music and memories of his enduring and ever-evolving career.
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Tristan und Isolde
Please note that this Metropolitan Opera event will start at 12pm.
After years of anticipation, a truly unmissable event arrives at Pollak Theatre on March 21 as the electrifying Lise Davidsen tackles one of the ultimate roles for dramatic soprano: the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Heroic tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan. The momentous occasion also marks the advent of a new, Met-debut staging by Yuval Sharon—hailed by The New York Times as “the most visionary opera director of his generation” and the first American to direct an opera at the famed Wagner festival in Bayreuth—as well as Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading Tristan und Isolde at the Met. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sings Kurwenal after celebrated Met appearances in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer and Ring cycle. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes an important role debut as King Market.