lecture Archives - Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center

Pre-Performance Lecture by Dick Brucher on Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons”

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:00:00 +0000

RESCDHEDULED FOR SNOW

NEW DATE: Sunday, February 9, 2020

12 p.m. reception and lecture (FREE)

1 p.m. show (WITH TICKET)

The McGillicuddy Humanities Center presents 91�� professor Dick Brucher, who will be giving a pre-performance lecture on Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons on Friday, February 7 at 12 p.m. The play, which broadcasts live from The Old Vic in London following the lecture, stars Academy Award-winner Sally Field (Steel Magnolias,��Brothers & Sisters) and Bill Pullman (The Sinner,��Independence Day). Jeremy Herrin directs the cast, which also includes Jenna Coleman (Victoria), and Colin Morgan (Merlin) alongside Bessie Carter, Oliver Johnstone, Kayla Meikle and Sule Rimi.

Brucher on Miller’s play:

Late in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons (1947), factory owner Joe Keller asks what can be more important than family. It was for family, and under pressure from the Army Air Force for production, that Joe says he told his partner to ship faulty airplane parts that killed 21 American pilots during the war. That past decision, revealed in the present, betrays the Kellers’ son Chris, an idealist and veteran, who insists that there is more to life than business profit and family loyalty. Miller domesticates corporate practice to create middle-class tragedy.

All My Sons is what Miller called a birds-coming-home-to-roost play, one in which retrospective action brings the past to bear on the present, and connects personal deeds and public consequences. Miller tried to make the play so untheatrical that audience members would mistake the world presented onstage for their own. Miller set out to capture—and to cause audiences to experience—the wonder in the fact that consequences are as real as the actions that cause them. This idea is as timely in 2020 as it was in 1947.

All My Sons was Miller’s first big hit; and it has remained among his most popular plays, up there with Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955/56). My introduction to the NTLive streaming of the play will discuss its basis in contemporary (1940s) events, the influences of Henrik Ibsen’s plays on Miller’s work, and the experience of modern tragedy. The talk will raise a few problems in interpretation and staging, particularly regarding characters’ motives and interactions.

What is NT Live?

National Theatre Live transmits the best of British theatre live from London to screens around the world. The broadcasts are filmed in front of a live audience, with cameras carefully positioned throughout the theatre to ensure cinema audiences get the best-seat-in-the-house view. Productions are transmitted via satellite to the Collins Center, then projected onto our high-definition screen — one of the largest in the state.

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Pre-Performance Lecture by King Chair Caroline Bicks,”Midsummer Night Queens”

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:00:00 +0000

Pre-performance reception and lecture entitled “Midsummer-Night Queens”, presented by the McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

91�� professor and Stephen E. King Chair Caroline Bicks, a Shakespeare scholar, will conduct the lecture about Shakespeare’s magical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which features an abundance of queens, including an off-stage appearance by Elizabeth I herself. Dr. Bicks will discuss the thematic issues that circulate around these formidable females and that inform the play’s larger explorations of love, gender, and power.

6-6:15pm reception
6:15-6:45pm lecture
7 pm – Live broadcast of the show from the National Theater in London

The lecture and reception will take place in Bodwell Lounge on the 3rd floor of the Collins Center for the Arts.

91�� the play: A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences.

Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy will be captured live from the Bridge Theatre in London. Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Oliver Chris (Green Wing, NT Live: Young Marx), David Moorst (NT Live: Allelujah!) and Hammed Animashaun (The Barber Shop Chronicles) lead the cast as Titania, Oberon, Puck and Bottom.

Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will build on the success of his immersive staging of Julius Caesar (NT Live 2018). The Bridge Theatre will become a forest – a dream world of flying fairies, contagious fogs and moonlight revels, surrounded by a roving audience following the action on foot. More at:

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Pre-Performance Lecture: Jupiter String Quartet

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 23:30:00 +0000

Anatole Wieck, professor of Music, Violin/Viola and Orchestra at 91��, will give a pre-performace lecture before Jupiter String Quartet takes the stage Friday night. The 6:30pm lecture will be held in Miller’s Cafe, inside the Collins Center for the Arts, and will give attendees insight and background knowledge into the quartet’s 7:30pm performance that night in Minsky Hall.

91�� Jupiter String Quartet:
The Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Now enjoying their 17th year together, this tight-knit ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music.

The quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others.

Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two. Since 2012, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program. The quartet has also held numerous masterclasses for young musicians at universities and festivals throughout the U.S.

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