The Hopkins Center for the Arts begins a packed year on Thursday with its “Exploring the Arts at Dartmouth” marketplace, a teaser of the student ensembles, award-winning theater performances, dance troupes, world-renowned vocalists and films it will host this year.
For the second consecutive year, the Hop will give freshmen free access to any fall student ensemble performance. The Hop has also set aside 400 free tickets for freshmen to attend W. Kamau Bell’s comedy show, “The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour,” on Sept. 16.
On Sept. 17, Tony Award winner Denis O’Hare will star in “An Iliad,” the first installment of “World War I Reconsidered,” a yearlong program featuring art that explores the effects of war.
“I am gratified in that I am doing something that is necessary,” O’Hare said of his performance. “I am showing that war is bad, but also that none of us are outside of the responsibility of what happens. If we have an attitude about it, we have to do something about it.”
The new year will also bring a host of jazz artists to campus. On Sept. 27, the Clayton Brothers Quintet will perform in Spaulding Auditorium, followed by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Oct. 13.
The Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble, a 20-piece ensemble that is comprised almost entirely of non-music majors, will benefit from some of the visiting jazz artists through weeklong residencies at the College.
In the fall, revered jazz trombonist Craig Harris will perform with the ensemble. An intense 20 hours of rehearsal will culminate in the musical centennial celebration of bandleader Sun Ra’s music.
“[Sun Ra’s] performance [at the College in 1990] had a big impact on me and even changed the life of some of the students,” ensemble director Don Glasgo said.
Hopkins Center film manager Sydney Stowe said she was excited to plan this fall’s lineup of films, including Telluride at Dartmouth, a product of a 29-year relationship between the world-renowned film festival and the College. Each year, the Hop shows six films from the festival.
“These movies are a chance for first-year students to get their first taste of film,” Stowe said.
Adding to the programming is a group of films organized by the Dartmouth Film Society. Directed by Johanna Evans ’10, DFS proposes a series of films united by a theme and shows them on Sundays throughout the term. This fall, the theme is “longshot” films.
“We try to create the best combination of new, art-house and foreign-language films,” Stowe said. “We look for a balance, so that each weekend has a good mix.”
During orientation week, Native American artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs will install an exhibit in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery. According to Kelliher-Combs’s website, her art presents a “chronicle of the ongoing struggle for self-definition and identity in the Alaskan context.”
“The studio art department wants to present the best of artistic practice,” studio art professor and director of the studio art exhibition program Jerry Auten said.
The Strauss Gallery will feature an exhibit of drawing and sculpture pieces by Allan Houser, whose sculptures are installed near the Hood Museum of Art.
