In his extraordinary life, 19th-century African American orator, writer, thinker and activist Frederick Douglass set forth ideas on race, gender equality, personal freedom and the transformative power of literacy that resonate powerfully today. In a tour de force solo show coming September to the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, actor/writer Roger Guenveur Smith channels Douglass and mingles his words with original text, slam poetry, music and contemporary performance elements to frame his ideas in the present moment. As the country marks the 200th anniversary of … [Read more...]
Stratford Festival’s Coriolanus at the Hop: A landmark theatrical production, a US premiere and much more
This fall, the Hop launches a partnership with North America’s preeminent Shakespeare company, the Stratford Festival, involving the US premiere of historic and critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, directed by genre-defying theatermaker Robert Lepage. Coriolanus will be presented at Dartmouth on Thursday, November 29, through Sunday, December 2, in The Moore Theater of the Hop, in four public performances and two school matinee shows (which will be seen by hundreds of Upper Valley secondary school students). However, these performances are just the tip of the … [Read more...]
A “Merchant of Venice” for these times comes to the Hop, June 26-28
HANOVER, NH—The Hop will present Compagnia de’ Colombari’s acclaimed, outdoor production of The Merchant of Venice—one of Shakespeare’s most powerful yet most paradoxical plays—on Tuesday through Thursday, June 26 through 28, at 8 pm. In a nod to the stripped-down, open-air productions of Shakespeare’s times, the Dartmouth performances take place under trees and stars in the college’s Bema Outdoor Amphitheater. The production is buoyed by a live musical score composed by Klezmatics founder Frank London, performed by an onstage sextet. The production was created in 2016 to be performed … [Read more...]
‘Keep your values at the heart of your art’: Art Awardees hear from acclaimed alum filmmaker
By Michael Bodel, Hop Director of External Affairs Huge congratulations to the student Arts Awards winners for their work creating and supporting the arts at the Hop, around Dartmouth, and in the world. Students were recognized in theater, music and filmmaking in a May 29 event that included brief performances and screenings of student work. Ricki Stern '87 gave the keynote at the event. Her impactful, far-reaching documentaries cover topics from a Burmese soldier-turned-activist, to the Boston Marathon bombing, to Joan Rivers. True fact! Ricki revealed her obsession with failure … [Read more...]
SHIFT: A summer celebration of the creative, disruptive spirit of the 1960s—and today
Summer 2018 at Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center for the Arts will open with a series called SHIFT, a vibrant and varied array of live arts, June 22-30. SHIFT includes works, both free and ticketed, that freshly consider music, drama and identity, bringing together diverse art forms and harkening back to the creative disruption of the 1960s. The week brings together student, faculty, alumni and visiting artists, diverse art forms, and different parts of the campus—and the events link powerfully to particular Dartmouth courses as well as to current issues of justice, tradition and … [Read more...]
Creativity – and technology – link two Hop Ensembles at opposite ends of the Hop
It began as a conversation over drinks last spring, between Dartmouth Dance Ensemble co-leader Rebecca Stenn and Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra Director Filippo Ciabatti. Wouldn't it be great to collaborate? they opined. OK, so what music would Ciabatti most like to perform? Without missing a beat (he is a conductor, after all), he named Petrushka, Igor Stravinsky's 1911 orchestral work Right away, Stenn and Ciabatti called DDE co-leader John Heginbotham, and three began hatching plans with others in the Hop. One big problem, however: no Hop theater could accommodate both a full … [Read more...]
The two most feared words in English: “audience participation”?
It's not just you: most people fear and loathe the idea of "audience participation." "Why do I fear audience participation so much?" writes Bruce Dessau in the UK e-magazine Beyond the Joke. "Maybe it's genetic. My daughter won't even go to a show which includes, as she calls it 'AP'. ...I guess it's about control. About being in command of what is happening." Even those who are comfortable in front of a large group quake at the thought of suddenly being thrust into the spotlight. As a recent article in The Cut noted, "An audience-participation situation ... eliminates that preparation … [Read more...]
“Courageous, honest, funny” show about Native stereotypes and identity, April 19
HANOVER, NH—A Portland, Ore.-based performance artist mingles drag, Disney and pointed commentary about ethnic stereotypes in his hilarious, irreverent show, Looking for Tiger Lily, at the Warner Bentley Theater of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, on Thursday, April 19, 7 and 9:30 pm. Anthony Hudson reckons with his own mixed Native and European heritage in this solo autobiographical show. Incorporating video, Broadway belting and a bit of Power Point, Hudson performs in part in his queer drag clown persona “Carla Rossi” as he recounts his Native father’s activism as … [Read more...]
“War and Peace,” Gob Squad-style: Tolstoy would approve, says scholar
By John Kopper, Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College What can Tolstoy's War and Peace, set among the aristocracy and armed forces of 19th-century Russia, tell us about today? The Hop asked John Kopper, a Dartmouth professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, to ruminate on that general topic for an essay for the playbill for Gob Squad Collective's War and Peace, April 6 & 7 at the Hop. Kopper has spent his career teaching and writing about not only modern Russian writers but such 19th-century giants as Tolstoy and Gogol. On Wednesdays at 4 pm, you might … [Read more...]
European theater renegades gleefully mash up song, talk, fashion and Tolstoy
Channeling both Tolstoy and the best cocktail conversation ever, European theater renegades Gob Squad present War and Peace, a mashup of song, talk, and fashion that makes for a gleeful, heady experience. The show takes place Friday and Saturday, April 6 and 7, at 8 pm, in The Moore Theater of the Hopkins Center for the Arts. A sell-out hit at New York’s Under the Radar Festival, this UK- and Germany-based collective uses Tolstoy’s epic as a launch pad for a gleeful, audience-interactive experience. Reenacting the high-society party that opens War and Peace, the cast selects audience … [Read more...]
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