Center for the Arts

Gallery Exhibitions

Maunderings by Tonya D. Lee

In this exhibition, artist and Monmouth University Art and Design faculty member, Tonya D. Lee presents a collection of multi-discipline work that explores the abstraction of nature and environment through the combination shapes, patterns, moments and pauses that are derived from passive spaces, fleeting thoughts and changing winds. Location and process are in a conversation about ephemeral moments of beauty. Using a multi-disciplinary process of combining painting, drawing, collage, construction, and digital media, the obsessions with materiality explore form and color as an echo of the present overlapping past presents — form and color negotiating to exist as object and subject.

Gallery Exhibitions

Jacob Landau and His Circle

An exhibition of paintings by the late Jacob Landau and works by members
of the artist’s circle who were strongly influenced by his vision
including Myron Wasserman, Jack McGovern and Joanne Leone. The exhibition
was curated by Leone who studied with Landau from 1985-2001. This event is
part of the Jewish Cultural Studies Program.

Gallery Exhibitions

First Senior Show: Fine Art & Animation

Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Fine Art and Animation.

Performing Arts Series

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!”

Department of Music & Theatre Arts Productions

SONGWRITERS BY THE SEA

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 Willie Nile

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Semiramide (Encore)

Angela Meade makes her Met role debut as the title character in Semiramide. Rossini’s opera, which has not been seen at the Met in 25 years, will be conducted by Maurizio Benini and feature Elizabeth DeShong as the Commander of the Assyrian army Arsace, Javier Camarena as an Indian king Idreno, Ildar Abdrazakov as the prince Assur, and Ryan Speedo Green as the high priest Oroe.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Così Fan Tutte

Phelim McDermott returns to the Met staging Mozart’s comedy Così fan tutte, led by David Robertson. Set in the 1950s on Coney Island, the cast features Amanda Majeski as the conflicted Fiordiligi; Serena Malfi as her sister, Dorabella; Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara as their feisty maid, Despina; Ben Bliss and Adam Plachetka as the sisters’ fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Christopher Maltman as the cynical Don Alfonso. Così fan tutte is a co-production with the English National Opera.

Artful Explorations of Activism

Gallery Exhibitions

Artivism

As a universal language, the arts have always been an effective tool for addressing social issues. Artivism or “activist art” is a form of social protest that explores cultural and political concerns. However, it is much more than just an innovative tactic, Artivism involves an entire practice that attempts to inspire positive change in society. This juried exhibition will feature works of art that employ spectacle, symbolism and collective participation to fight for issues of social justice including racial discrimination, gender equality, fair labor practices, human rights and more.

ArtNOW: Performance, Art, and Technology

Artist Talk with Chris Clavio

Chris Clavio is an Electronic Artist and Entrepreneur living and working in Santa Fe, NM. His work explores the sublime and perception using light, sound, and interactive environments. Currently he is the Director of IT and Electrical Infrastructure Systems for the artist collective Meow Wolf. Clavio has shown work across the United States, most recently in Pittsburgh, PA, with Energy Flow, a project in collaboration with Andrea Polli that highlights the Rachel Carson bridge with wind-turbine powered LEDs. His current projects integrate several software platforms and various hardware configurations to create immersive and interactive environments that stimulate the senses in order to evoke the imagination and push the limits of our perceived reality.

Live Theatre Broadcasts in HD

National Theatre: Broadcast in HD

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.

Gallery Exhibitions

Second Senior Show: Graphic Design

Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Graphic Design.

Visiting Writers

Marlon James

Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His recent novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award.

World Cinema Series

Human Capital

Dino Ossola, a small-time real estate agent who dreams of bigger things; Serena Ossola, his teenage daughter who dates a spoiled rich brat; Carla Bruneschi, an actress who has given up her career to marry a wealthy businessman; Massimiliano Giovanni Bernaschi, her husband, a powerful player; Massimiliano Bernaschi, the troubled son of the Bernaschis; Roberta Ossola, a psychologist, Dino’s second wife; Donato Russomano, a brilliant drama teacher who is stuck on Carla; Luca Ambrosini, a teenager frowned upon by others; an anonymous cyclist… They are all shareholders of the human capital.

Grammy Museum Affiliation

Tuesday Night Record Club

TUESDAY NIGHT RECORD CLUB: Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights in Woods Theatre to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss… there will be special guest moderators and panelists at each event! This discussion will feature Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Grammy Museum Affiliation

Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town: An International Symposium

Join us for the inaugural academic conference sponsored by the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. Convened on the beautiful campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, the conference will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 classic album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Pre-conference activities will commence on Thursday, April 12th, and conclude on the afternoon of Sunday, April 15th. The conference will welcome an international roster of participants, as well as a host of keynote speakers and musical acts celebrating the life and times of the Jersey Shore and popular music.

Department of Music & Theatre Arts Productions

MU Players present The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tickets for all performances of the MU Player’s 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee are SOLD OUT! Fourth annual student produced musical. A celebration of student performers and designers all presented on the Woods Theatre stage.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Luisa Miller

Plácido Domingo adds yet another role to his legendary Met career in this rarely performed Verdi gem, a heart-wrenching tragedy of fatherly love. Sonya Yoncheva sings the title role opposite Piotr Beczała in the first Met performances of the opera in more than ten years. Bertrand de Billy conducts.

Maestro de Billy made his Met debut in 1998. He is principal guest conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie and was formerly Music Director at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, as well as principal guest conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He regularly conducts for such companies as the Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Paris Opéra, the Salzburg Festival, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2018 he will also conduct performances of Tosca and Cendrillon at the Met.

Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Luisa Miller features Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, with Plácido Domingo as her father. Piotr Beczała sings Rodolfo, with Olesya Petrova as Federica, Alexander Vinogradov as Count Walter, and Dmitry Belosselskiy as Wurm.

Performances of Luisa Miller are on March 29, Apr 2, 6, 9, 14 (matinee), 18 and 21 (matinee), 2018. The April 14 matinee will be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 73 countries around the world.

For further information, including casting by date, please visit www.metopera.org.

The Bolshoi Ballet

Giselle

When Giselle learns that her beloved Albrecht is promised to another woman, she dies of a broken heart in his arms. While Albrecht grieves, she returns from the dead as a Wili, a vengeful spirit meant to make unfaithful men dance until death…

Prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova personifies this ultimate ballerina role in the classical repertoire, alongside the sensational Sergei Polunin as Albrecht, in this chilling, yet luminous ballet that continues to captivate audiences for over 150 years at the Bolshoi.

Department of Music & Theatre Arts Productions

CLASSICAL FUN

A joyous program of music by some of the greatest composers of all time presented by the Monmouth University Chamber Orchestra. This spring concert also features music for chamber ensembles from within the orchestra-solos, duos, trios and quintets.

Department of Music & Theatre Arts Productions

Spring 2018 Dance Concert – Artists Rising

In collaboration with Student Scholarship Week, artists from the Spring Choreography Class will present their original works that they have spent the semester creating. Performances will also feature the choreographic explorations of the studio dance course and original works by faculty members. Join us to see dance artists rising at Monmouth University.