•The Oscar-winning film, CRASH, will be screened followed by a respectful debate between two faculty members -- one hates the film, the other loves. Referee'd by Film & Video faculty member Ron Falzone and also includes audience participation. Tonight (November 30) at 6 p.m., at Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor.
BRAINSTORMING DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT PORTFOLIOS – Sponsored by the Portfolio Center. Tonight (November 28), from 6 – 8 p.m., at the Portfolio Center, 623 S. Wabash, Room 307. If you watch Project Runway you've heard Heidi say "in fashion, one moment you're in and the next you're out." Despite this fact, having a (good) portfolio always earns style points. Join design and management students, and several industry guests, for a brainstorming session about you, your work and how you're going to show it off.
Be part of a live studio audience to hear percussionist Paul Wertigo, with host Frank Alkyer from Downbeat Magazine. Tonight (November 20) at 6:30 p.m. at Concert Hall, 1014 S. Michigan.
Born in Chicago, Illinois on January 5, 1953, Paul Wertico started playing drums at the age of 12 and became a professional by the age of 15. Self-taught on the drumset, he developed his unique musical concept by listening not only to jazz and rock, but to a variety of musical styles from all over the world. He then applied elements of these styles to his drumming in a melodic, as well as a rhythmic fashion. His playing has been compared to that of "an Impressionist painter", while he has also been described as "an inspired madman" and "a restless innovator". Paul was voted "Fusion Drummer Of The Year" in the 1997 DRUM! Magazine Reader's Poll, and placed in the top five in the"Electric Jazz" category of Modern Drummer Magazine's 1997 & 1998 Reader's Polls.
In 1983, Paul became a member of the Pat Metheny Group. During that time he won seven Grammy Awards with the PMG: three for Best Jazz Fusion Performance: "First Circle" - 1984, "Still Life (Talking)" - 1987, and "Letter From Home" - 1989; three for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance: "The Road To You" - 1993, "We Live Here" - 1995, and "Imaginary Day" - 1998; one for Best Rock Instrumental Performance: "Roots Of Coincidence" - 1998; as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "Follow Me" - 1998. He also played on Pat Metheny's Grammy winning solo project: "Secret Story" - 1992. Paul played on the Group's videos "More Travels" and "We Live Here - Live In Japan 1995", and on Pat Metheny's "Secret Story - LIVE" video. He also played with Pat on the score and soundtrack for the movie "The Falcon and the Snowman", which included the hit song "This Is Not America" featuring David Bowie; and on the score to the movie "Twice In A Lifetime". In February 1986, Paul joined Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, and Ernie Watts in Argentina for a week of critically acclaimed engagements, and the summer of 1988 saw a revival of the 'Special Quartet' with performances in California, Japan, and Hong Kong. During 1993, Paul and his wife, Barbara Unger-Wertico, toured together as members of Pat's 'Secret Story' band, performing in 18 countries around the world. In October 1997, the Pat Metheny Group released their latest recording entitled "Imaginary Day". Paul left the PMG in February of 2001.
A toe-tapping, head-turning spectacle tracing the Evolution of Drag and Burlesque. (Following the Thursday performance: Post-Show Talk Back: with Columbia faculty Peter Carpenter, Amy Hawkins and TLP Artistic Director K. Bradford. 18 and up) Tonight at 8 p.m. (Doors open at 7 p.m.) at the HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo. Tickets are $15 general admission and $12 students/seniors. Buy tickets online at www.hothouse.net. (First 50 Columbia students get in free on Thursday).
Following Friday performance, Meet the Characters: Speak directly with the unheard voices of drag and burlesque as the cast converses with the audience in character for this lively, informal Q&A discussion. 21 & up.
Following the Saturday performance, SpeakEasy After-Party: Dress the part, and the period, or simply mingle with the cast and crew as a toast to this turn of the century aesthetic and to finding your own personal "Lola". 21 & up.
UBU ROI BY ALFRED JARRY today (Wednesday, November 15) at the Getz Theater, 62 E. 11th Street.
The plays of Alfred Jarry are considered by many to be the first dramatic works of the theatre of the absurd. They are credited with a great number of literary innovations and are seen as major influences of the dada and symbolist movements in art. Ubu Roi (translated as King Ubu and King Turd) is Jarry’s most famous work. Ubu Roi eliminates the dramatic action from its Shakespearean antecedents and uses scatological humor and farce to present Jarry’s views on art, literature, politics, the ruling classes, and current events.
Ubu Roi first saw life as schoolboy farce, a parody of Felix Hebert, one of Jarry’s teachers. Co-authored with his friend, Henri Morin, the skit was transformed into a marionette play through several versions. In 1891, Jarry published a story, ‘‘Guignol,’’ reminiscent of the Punch and Judy performances popular throughout Europe, which showcased a vile and murderous Pere Ubu. A two-act version of Ubu Roi with songs for marionettes, Ubu sur la Batte, appeared in print in 1906.
The opening night of December 11, 1896, caused quite a stir according to Roger Shattuck in his work The Banquet Years. Actor Firmin Gernier stepped forward to speak the opening line—‘‘Merdre!’’ (translated as ‘‘Shitter!’’). The audience erupted in pandemonium. It took nearly fifteen minutes to silence the house and continue the play. Several people walked out without hearing any more. Fist fights broke out in the orchestra. Jarry supporters shouted, "You wouldn't understand Shakespeare either!’’ Those who did not appreciate Jarry’s attack on theatrical realism replied with variations of le mot Ubu.
The stage manager startled the audience into silence by turning up the house lights and catching several screaming patrons standing on their seats and shaking their upraised fists. Gernier improvised a dance and the audience settled back down long enough for the action to proceed to the next ‘‘merdre,’’ when the audience exploded once again. The interruptions continued throughout the play until the curtain fell. One audience member, a stunned and saddened William Butler Yeats, remarked ‘‘[W]hat more is possible? After us the Savage God.’’
In his book Jarry: Ubu Roi, Keith Beaumont detailed three accusations that were made against Ubu Roi by spectators and critics in the aftermath of the outrageous performance. The first focused on the play’s ‘‘alleged’’ vulgarity and obscenity. Secondly, perhaps in view of the political atmosphere of the time, critics condemned the play and its performance as the theatrical equivalent of an ‘‘anarchist’’ bomb attack and as an act of political subversion. The third accusation leveled against the play and its performance was that they in no way constituted a ‘‘serious’’ piece of literature or of theater but rather a gigantic hoax.
DEMOCRATIC VISTAS FORUM WITH ARLENE GOLDBARD – Author of New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development. Tonight (November 9), from 6 – 7:30 p.m., at the University Center, 525 S. State Street, Lake Room.
Arlene Goldbard was one of the community arts movement's first national organizers, and among the seminal thinkers who have named, described and theorized the contemporary community arts movement. A definitive expert in the concepts of cultural democracy and art for social change, Goldbard, with her partner, Don Adams, has provided organizational guidance to more than 80 arts and media organizations, foundations, arts councils and other public and private agencies. Adams and Goldbard have been the authors of some of the basic texts in the field they call community cultural development. Some of their essays appeared in High Performance magazine and are archived on the Community Arts Network Web site. Two of their most notable texts, "Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development" and the anthology "Community, Culture and Globalization," were commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation and are available free of charge on the foundation's Web site.
Author Jeffrey Nealon comes to Columbia on Tuesday, November 7, at 12:30 p.m. for a reading and lecture in room 401 of 600 S. Michigan Ave. Nealon is the author of The Theory Toolbox (with Susan Searls-Giroux, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); Rethinking the Frankfurt School, co-editor, (SUNY, 2002); Alterity Politics: Ethics and Performative Subjectivity (Duke University Press, 1998); and Double Reading: Postmodernism After Deconstruction (Cornell University Press, 1993, 1996).
IRAN, UNIQUE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, AND STATUS OF SCIENCE IN THE 3RD MILLENNIUM, a conversation with noted Iranian physicist and political dissident Dr. Hadi Hadizadeh (right), today (November 2) at 4:30 p.m., at the Collins Gallery, 624 S. Michigan, 3rd floor.