This haunting and provocative play, written by Ariel Dorfman, examines the psychological repercussions of human rights abuses. A moral thriller that Frank Rich of the New York Times aptly called “a mousetrap designed to catch the conscience of an international audience,” the play was written by the author during his country’s transition to democracy. It portrays the story of a former torture victim who suspects the stranger who arrives at her house of being the doctor who tortured her many years before under political dictatorship. In a compelling “trial,” she confronts him with the abuse she suffered, all the while listening to the music of Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in D Minor, which was played repeatedly during her torture. This dramatic tour-de-force celebrates the Department of Performing Arts in a multi-disciplinary collaboration, involving theatre, music, and dance faculty members.

A discussion, moderated by Caleen Sinnette Jennings , will be held following the Friday, August 31, 2007 , performance. Please come to discuss the performance with the actors, director, and additional supporters of the human rights movement .

Written by Ariel Dorfman
Gail Humphries Mardirosian, director

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

Join us for events and activities in the Rotunda sponsored by the Department of Art and the Department of Performing Arts.

Admission is free.

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center , Rotunda

The Department of Performing Arts is proud to showcase the talents of new students. Join us as they display their abilities to the community.

Written and directed by Caleen Sinnette Jennings

Tickets: $5

@ Harold & Sylvia Greenberg Theatre

Current trends blur the lines between jazz and classical music. This evening’s concert explores these two genres at the point of intersection. Join American University Musician-in-Residence Noah Getz for a recital of jazz and classical repertoire that looks at new concepts in each style by featuring classical saxophone with piano accompaniment and jazz quartet performances

Noah Getz, saxophone
Jeffrey Chappell, piano.

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

The Gorenman Beethoven Project
October 6, 8:00 p.m.

Concert pianist and American University Musician-in-Residence Yuliya Gorenman presents the first in a series of eight recitals devoted to performing the complete cycle of sonatas for piano by Ludwig van Beethoven. Selections include Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (1795); Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2 (1795); Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3 (1795); and Sonata No. 4 in E-flat Major, Op. 7 “Grand Sonata” (1796-97).

Yuliya Gorenman, piano

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

Sound Investments: How Music Shapes Our Lives
October 8, 7:00 p.m.

Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, moderates a panel of distinguished non-music professionals for whose lives music has made a critical difference. The discussion will focus on why we need to address the whole person in order to have a healthy and productive society and why the arts, and music in particular, are so critical in that process.

Leonard Slatkin, Distinguished Artist-in-Residence

Admission is free.

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

Broadway actor and memoirist Martin Moran performs a version of his one-man play, The Tricky Part, which won a 2004 Obie Award and served as the basis for his award-winning memoir, The Tricky Part: A Boy’s Story of Sexual Trespass, A Man’s Journey to Forgiveness. Of Moran’s memoir, Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, writes: “A tender, searingly honest, and heartbreaking account of the legacy of sexual violation. Moran bravely unveils the tricky part: The paradoxical worlds of longing and shame, the erotic and the reviled, the profane and the sacred all living in one act, one man, one life. Gorgeously written, the book is a divine literary and spiritual exorcism. I am better for it.

Admission is free.

@ Katzen Arts Center, Studio Theatre

This irreverent and hilarious musical satirizes a world of ecological disaster and corporate greed. A malevolent company capitalizes on a severe drought, and the struggling poor must pay for the privilege to pee. A hero will rise and lead them to freedom!

Mark Hollmann, music and lyrics
Greg Kotis, book and lyrics
Karl Kippola, director
Keith Tittermary, music director

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre

American University Symphony Orchestra - The Dance of Life
October 19, 8:00 p.m. - Open Dress Rehearsal
October 20, 8:00 p.m.
October 21, 3:00 p.m.

The Dance of Life - The American University Symphony Orchestra presents an entire season dedicated to celebrating the anniversaries of a dozen major composers. The season's first concert features Alexander Borodin's Polovetsian Dances and In the Steppes of Central Asia, Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Maurice Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia and Valse triste, and Richard Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Jesus Manuel Berard, conductor and director of orchestral activities

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students; open dress rehearsal is free

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

The Atrium Series: Bringing Music to the People
October 25, 12:00 p.m.

The Department of Performing Arts presents informal recitals for the community to enjoy. Support our students and guest performers as they demonstrate their talents.

Admission is free.

@ Battelle-Tompkins Atrium

American University Gospel Choir
October 27, 5:00 p.m.

The American University Gospel Choir performs a concert of spirituals and traditional and contemporary gospel music. Come and enjoy hand-clapping, toe-tapping, swaying songs to uplift the soul.

Sylstea C. Sledge, director

Admission is free.

@ Kay Spiritual Life Center

AU Symphony Orchestra Concerto and Aria Competition
October 27 - 28, 3:00 p.m.

The American University Symphony Orchestra presents its annual instrumental and vocal student competition. Winners will be featured with the AU Symphony Orchestra on March 1-2, 2008 .

Admission is free.

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

Join us for events and activities in the Rotunda sponsored by the Department of Art and the Department of Performing Arts.

Admission is free.

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center , Rotunda

The American University Chamber Singers present an evening of auditory delight as they perform choral selections from the sixteenth through the twenty-first centuries.

Daniel Abraham, conductor and director of choral activities

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

The Atrium Series: Bringing Music to the People
November 8, 12:00 p.m.

The Department of Performing Arts presents informal recitals for the community to enjoy. Support our students and guest performers as they demonstrate their talents.

Admission is free.

@ Battelle-Tompkins Atrium

Eavesdrop on the creative process in preparation for the spring dance concert, as the audience and artists dialogue with a panel of regionally, nationally, and internationally known choreographers including Vladimir Angelov, Rob Esposito, Maurice Johnson, and Lora Ruttan.

Vladimir Angelov, director

Admission is free.

 

@ Tenley Chapel Dance Studio

The Hundred Dresses
November 15 - 16, first show at 10:30 a.m., second show at 8:00 p.m.
Novmeber 17, first show are 11:00 a.m., second show at 2:00 p.m.

Maddie is a kind girl with Depression Era worries, but like the other children, she joins in making fun of Wanda Petronski, the only Polish girl in school. Everyone knows Wanda’s lying when she says she has 100 dresses, since she wears the same one every day. When Wanda suddenly moves away, the dresses are discovered, and Maddie begins to regret her behavior and the loss of potential friendship.

A children’s show written by Mary Hall Surface
Cara Gabriel, director

Tickets: $5

@ Katzen Arts Center, Studio Theatre

Jazz: It’s Academic - AU Jazz Ensemble Concert
Novmebr 16, 8:00 p.m.

With arrangements by David Baker (one of the founding scholars in jazz education) and others, this concert is a tribute to educators in jazz and jazz repertoire that centers on educational topics.

William Smith, director

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall

The American University Wind Ensemble presents an exciting program featuring works by George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa, and Gustav Holst. Selections from Holst’s ThePlanets as well as Sousa’s Thunderer March are on the program. A Gershwin suite, Symphonic Gershwin, will present the audience with many familiar and beloved melodies.

Michael Rossi, director

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Recital Hall

Join us for events and activities in the Rotunda sponsored by the Department of Art and the Department of Performing Arts.

Admission is free.

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center , Rotunda

The Atrium Series: Bringing Music to the People
November 29, 12:00 p.m.

The Department of Performing Arts presents informal recitals for the community to enjoy. Support our students and guest performers as they demonstrate their talents.

Admission is free.

@ Battelle-Tompkins Atrium

As we continue our exploration of new works for the theatre, Father of the Bride meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in this family comedy about a control freak, a passive aggressive, a hypochondriac, a crystal meth addict, and a paranoid schizophrenic who confront polyamory and family secrets, while preparing for a backyard wedding.

Written by Carl Menninger

Tickets: $5

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, Studio Theatre

The Dance of Life: Variations on Brahms and Haydn: AU Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
November 30, 8:00 p.m. - Open Dress Rehearsal
December 1, 8:00 p.m.
December 2, 3:00 p.m.

The Dance of Life continues, celebrating composers Johannes Brahms and Franz Joseph Haydn. The American University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra perform Brahms' Tragic Overture and Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Haydn's Mass in D Minor “Lord Nelson Mass."

Jesus Manuel Berard and Daniel Abraham, conductors

Tickets: $15 general; $10 AU community members; $5 students; open dress rehearsal is free.

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Recital Hall

American University Gospel Choir
December 1, 2:00 p.m.

The American University Gospel Choir presents a concert of traditional gospel carols in time for the holidays to get us in the spirit of the season.

Sylstea C. Sledge, director

Admission is free.

@ Kay Spiritual Life Center

Winter Dance Informal Showcase
December 8, 7:00 p.m.

Experience samples of the dance program, with student dancers from each of the dance program’s class offerings, including modern, jazz, ballet, and African. Dance instructors will introduce the presentations and discuss the focus of each work.

Vladimir Angelov, director

Admission is free.

@ Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Recital Hall