FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY’S QUICK CENTER ON FIRE WITH GREAT EVENTS

SPIKE LEE SPEAKING AT QUICK CENTER ON SEPTEMBER 19

The learning atmosphere at Fairfield University is an exploding gift to the community and you need to acknowledge the incredible opportunities and advantages it happily offers so you can participate totally and invest yourself all season. Peter Van Heerden, the Executive Director of the Regina A.Quick Center for the Arts, declares the Quick Center is the best kept secret in the Fairfield community” and he is determined to change that. He has spent considerable time “taking a look at the past thirty years of programming and pulling together a season by picking the highest caliber of the best artists in an exciting, sexy, meaty, fun and diverse array.” The cultural experience will welcome patrons back to a fantastic and wonderful offering that includes Open Vision speakers, opera, theater, Broadway stars, powerful interesting topical talks, a circus with a continental flavor, dance from Africa, Europe and locally, all events that “were years in the making"

 

These events in conversations, music, dance, and theater are yours for the taking, all at the Regina Quick Center unless noted to be elsewhere. 

 

Want to avail yourself of London’s theater scene without crossing the pond, plan to attend a National Theatre Live performance like the powerful family drama The Lehman Trilogy, in three parts, by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Sam Mendes. This critically acclaimed play tells the story of a family and a company that changed the world and airs Tuesday, September 10 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

 

Fascinated by Hollywood and who isn’t, come hear writer, director, actor and producer Spike Lee star in Open Visions Forum. His talk “Creating Social Change Through Film: Do the Right Thing” will reveal his passion for the world of film and how he uses his influence to define the black people and give them an identity. A private dinner will be held at 6 p.m. before his talk at 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 19.

 

Two Artists in Residence will be able to show off their unique talents as they work on campus to produce creative endeavors in their respective fields. On Monday, September 23 at noon, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., you are invited to pay what you can to hear Arien Wilkerson, the director of Tnmot Aztro Performance Art and Dance Installation delve into how marginalized communities deal with queerness and become part of the dialogue. Nora Chipaumire will expose African stereotypes and blacks as performers in her project on Thursday, November 21 at 6 p.m. In “The Queen vs. Nehanda,” we experience an opera where the Zimbabwean spirit leader confronts Queen Victoria.

 

A series of four open classrooms will tempt you to open your mind to new ideas. The fall semester includes Erik Novoa and “Opera and Us for Beginners: Exploring Live from the Met” Thursdays at 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. from September 26 to October 31, Alan Neigher, J. D. discussing “The Supreme Court: Its Greatest Cases” at the Pequot Library Tuesdays 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. from October 8 to November 5, ”Fact in the Age of Fake News: American Democracy’s Stress Test: with Matthew Tullis, PhD at the Pequot Library on Wednesdays, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p,m. and “Love, Lust and Luxury; The Art of 15^thCentury Florence” with Fiona Garland Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

 

The Metropolitan Opera series features such HD Live offerings as Puccini’s Turandot on Saturday, October 12, with a live performance at 1 p.m. and an encore show at 6 p.m. Massenet’s Manon will be shown Saturday, October 26 live at 1 p.m. and an encore at 6:30 p.m. with Madama Butterfly by Puccini on Sunday, November 10 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., both encores, with a pre-talk at 12:15. Glass’s Akhnaten will complete the Met season on Sunday, December 8 with encores at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 

The U. S. premiere of Quebec’s Cirque Alfonse TABARNAK will light up the stage with a rock-musical celebration that is sure to amaze. This family fun event will take place in a blaze of creativity on Sunday, September 29 at 3 p.m.

 

Plan to hear the youngest U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, an international voice for American diplomacy, one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, the organizer of PeacePlayers International basketball tournament of Israeli and Palestinian youth, a leader of #FreeThe20 campaign to unlock the voices of women who are repressed and silenced when Samantha Power takes part in the Open Vision Forum. She will speak on Wednesday, October 2 at 8 p.m. on “Victories and Threats to the Pax Americana: A Global View.”

 

For an intense musical change of pace come under the spell of Tony Award nominee Ann Hampton Callaway as she takes a stroll through 30’s and 40’s songs that unite jazz and the world of film. As she performs on Saturday, October 5 at 8 p.m., you will learn how so many songs about dreams provided hope and inspiration.

 

Delight in more music when The Young Artists Series is held on Sunday, October 6 at 2 p.m., free, with tickets required. Gifted pianists will perform in collaboration with the New York International Piano Competition and the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation presenting the finest young artists in the country.

 

Desire a more intimate and personal cup of coffee, then the Open Visions Forum Espresso series might be the perfect cup of tea. I.D. Aruede will discuss “inside the Whitney Museum: Managing a Flagship Cultural Institution” on Thursday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wien Experimental Theatre while on Wednesday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m. Jesse Jarnow will talk on “The Weavers and the Birth of Radical American Music, from the Red Care to MAGA.” Pop culture and contemporary culture will mix, with harmony or discord.

 

A panel of distinguished speakers E.J. Dionne, Heather McGhee and Miles Rapoport will continue the Open Visions Forum with “American Democracy a Year from 2020: Reeling or Resilient?” on Thursday, October 17 at 8 p.m. They will provide a much needed Wellness Check Up.

 

Editor, writer, photographer and producer Cheryl Wiesenfeld will curate “Women on Fire Stories from the Frontlines” on Monday, November 4 at 7 p.m. Through word and dance, this 80-minute performance will engage and provoke conversation about women with a message. 

 

The conversation continues with Jon Meacham, termed by the New York Times as “one of the most influential editors in the news magazine business” on Wednesday, November 6 at 8 p.m. The Open Vision Forum will deal with “The Liberal Arts in a Global Culture Gaining the Competitive Edge.”

 

An intensely personal journey from darkness to light will be performed by Tony Award-winning actress Joanna Gleason on Friday, November 8 at 7 p.m. followed by a private dinner reception at 8:30 p.m. This will be the Connecticut premiere of her new show “Out of the Eclipse” complete with her musical arranger and director Jeffrey Klitz, a band and the Moontones.

 

For a fierce fighter for rights, both male and female, come on Wednesday, November 13 at 8 p.m. to hear Carrie Goldberg, an attorney who defends victims of sexual misconduct. Her Open Visions Forum talk is entitled “Demanding Justice for Victims: From Cyber Crimes to Federal Courts.”

 

Come if you dare to the solo performance of Frederick Gravel, a maverick who challenges the authority of the world, in the U. S. premiere of “Fear and Greed” at the intimate Wien Experimental Theatre on November 14, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. Plan to have your mind expanded as this choreographer, dancer and musician, with Philippe Brault as musical director and Etienne Lepage as dramaturge, reveal an “outlandish vision of the world.”

 

What better way to celebrate the joyous spirit of the holiday than with Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy for “A Celtic Family Christmas.” Join with their family and a host of fiddle virtuosos for a unique and intimate, happy, musical time. It’s sure to be a tradition you will long treasure and want to continue every year.

 

Complete 2019 on a serious note when master photojournalist Lynsey Addario comes courtesy of the Open Vision Forum to tackle her life’s work on the front lines in “Eyewitness Through My Camera Lens: Worlds in Conflict.” On Monday, December 9, at 8 p.m. you will be brought front and center into the chaos and conflictby this courageous woman who grew up in Connecticut and has won an Emmy, the MacArthur Fellowship and The Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.

 

Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts offers a plethora of opportunities that will enrich your life and challenge your perspectives in the most engaging manner. Sign up at quickcenter.comor call 203-254-4010 so you can confirm it’s a date.