PACK OF LIES, the Columbia Theater Departments first production of the 2007/08 season, runs through November 4 at the New Studo Theater, 72 E. 11th Street. Visit the Theater Department's website for details.
You know your next-door neighbors. They've been your best friends. Or do you? And are they? Set in a London suburb and based on the notorious spy scandal of the 1960's, Pack of Lies is set at the height of the cold war. Into the lives of an ordinary family comes an agent of M15, the British secret service. And with that intrusion the fabric of the family unravels. As trust erodes, this play questions the responsibility of both government and citizen to society at large and to each other. With haunting prescience, playwright Hugh Whitemore raises an issue which loudly resonates with us today in 2007, "Who will watch the watchers?" by Hugh Whitemore; Directed by faculty member Caroline Latta
John Spargana comes to Columbia on Thursday, October 25, at 4 p.m. at 623 S. Wabash, room 703 as part of the A+D Lecture Series. Sparagana is best-known for mass-produced magazine pages hand worked into unique objects, their slick fashion images made soft and hazy through wear. The pieces in John Sparagana’s Sleeping Beauty series are rich in reversals and seeming contradictions. Made by crumpling the page with his hands until the paper feels like cloth, the process of their creation is one of destruction. Yet while the extreme fatigue obviously demonstrates break down, the traces of image and withstanding unity of the paper nonetheless evoke persistence, speaking as much to the deeply entrenched impact of advertising as to the physical material of the media that convey its messages
John Spargana comes to Columbia on Thursday, October 25, at 4 p.m. at 623 S. Wabash, room 703 as part of the A+D Lecture Series http://www2.colum.edu/undergraduate/artanddesign/11th/. Sparagana is best-known for JOHN SPARAGANA mass-produced magazine pages hand worked into unique objects, their slick fashion images made soft and hazy through wear. The pieces in John Sparagana’s Sleeping Beauty series are rich in reversals and seeming contradictions. Made by crumpling the page with his hands until the paper feels like cloth, the process of their creation is one of destruction. Yet while the extreme fatigue obviously demonstrates break down, the traces of image and withstanding unity of the paper nonetheless evoke persistence, speaking as much to the deeply entrenched impact of advertising as to the physical material of the media that convey its messages.
THE LAST SEASON BY CHRISTOPHER MOORE (A PLAY ABOUT JACKIE ROBINSON AND BASEBALL) is scheduled for tonight, Thursday, October 18, from 4:20 - 6:20 p.m. in the Library, 624 S. Wabash, 3rd floor. The Last Season uses the backdrop of Jackie Robinson's first season in the majors to explore the impact of integration on the Negro Leagues and the professional black baseball players left behind. Interestingly, The Last Season won Columbia College's Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting in 1987 and was first produced by the Theater Department in February of 1988. Chuck Smith, artist-in-residence and the Theodore Ward Prize facilitator, will lead the salon. Critical Encounters Salon http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters
Scott McCloud visits Columbia as part of Creative Non-Fiction Week on Wednesday, October 17, at 7 p.m. at Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor. Scott McCloud has been writing and drawing comics since 1984. His book Understanding Comics was a New York Times Notable book for 1994 and is available in 16 languages. "Sin City" and "300" creator Frank Miller called him "just about the smartest guy in comics." His new book, Making Comics, explores the art and craft of telling stories visually. http://www.colum.edu/specialevents/cnfw/
Rutu Modan comes to Columbia on Tuesday, October 16, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m., in room 703, 623 S. Wabash as part of the A+D Lecture Series. Rutu Modan (born 1966) is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist. After graduating with distinction from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, she began to edit the Israeli edition of MAD magazine with Yirmi Pinkus. Together they founded the Actus Tragicus Comics group (sometimes credited as Actus Comics, or Actus) in 1995. Modan has received the Young Artist of the Year award in 1997 and the Best Illustrated Children's Book award from the Youth Department of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1998. In 2005 Rutu was chosen as an outstanding artist of the prestigious Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.
Joanna Frueh visits Columbia as part of Creative Non-Fiction week on Monday, October 15, at 7 p.m. in Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor. Joanna is an art critic and art historian, a writer, an actress, a singer, and a multidisciplinary and performance artist. Her most recent books, Swooning Beauty: A Memoir of Pleasure and Clairvoyance and (For Those In The Desert): Performance Pieces 1979-2004 feature the exploration of love, eros, and human relations that are characteristic of her work. http://www.colum.edu/specialevents/cnfw/
A rickshaw cab will chauffeur guests of Talk the Walk ‘07 from Glass Curtain Gallery’s Vodou Riche art exhibit at 11th Street all the way to an exhibition that will have the ladies storming the doors at A+D Gallery’s Girl on Guy Exhibition. In between you can catch the mojo of live Haitian dancers or take a crack at making your own artist print at Anchor Graphics. Talk the Walk ’07 is a featured event for the City of Chicago’s Artists Month. Curators, artists, gallery directors – and a rickshaw or two – will take the public through nine of our eleven gallery spaces.
When: Thursday, October 11, 2007, Tours begin at 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Columbia College Chicago Campus
How much: Free and open to the public.
Rickshaws will be available free of charge to take guests north and south along Wabash Ave. between Congress Ave. and 11th St.
The Importance of Saving and Investing with Mellody Hobson on Tuesday, October 9, from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater, 600 S. Michigan. Mellody Hobson’s childhood wasn’t easy. She was the youngest of six kids, all raised by their single mother. Money was worse than tight. Despite it all, Hobson’s mother encouraged her daughter to dream big. And she did. After graduating from Princeton University, Hobson returned home to work for a black-owned investment firm, Ariel Capital Management. The hard work eventually led to becoming president of the company at the age of 31. Visit the Critical Encounters website for details.
This film screening and panel discussion takes place tonight (Thursday, October 4) at 6:30 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater, 1st floor, 600 S. Michigan. It is part of the Critical Encounters series http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/.
The two films include “Do-Ayay: Our Cause” by the Freedom Campaign; and “Burma: State of Fear” by PBS-FRONTLINE/World. Panelists: Nay Min Tar (Former Burmese Political Prisoner, United Art Students Organization Founder); Nora Rowley, M.D. (Doctors Without Borders—Northwestern Burma); Cary Garber (Assistance Association for Burmese Political Prisoners, Burma); Moderator: André Foisy, M.A. (Adjunct Faculty, Liberal Education, U.S. Campaign for Burma Chicago)
This event will mark the second week of protest in Burma calling for human rights and an end to the ruling military junta. The films and speakers at this event will inform attendants about the current demonstrations in Burma as well as the conditions that led up to these demonstrations.