Classics and rarities: Schwartz Center sets new season

The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' 20th anniversary season in 2008-09 will celebrate accomplished Cornellians while taking on the wit of Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare alongside new plays and rarely performed works.

"This is a celebration of the core mission that we have to use the power of theater, film and dance to create real and significant contributions to the educational, spiritual and aesthetic life of the campus and community," said David Feldshuh, artistic director of the Schwartz Center.

The season, announced at a reception Jan. 23 at the center, will engage returning Cornell directors, designers, dancers, playwrights and "successful members of the film community to teach and speak and communicate with our students," Feldshuh said.

The lineup:

  • How we interact with each other defines the inclusiveness of our environment, even in something as simple as helping someone new to campus find the right building.
  • If we provide other staff and faculty with excellent customer service, they can go back to their jobs with better focus and in a better frame of mind, and provide better customer service to the students and faculty with whom they are engaged.
  • If our job resolves just one concern that a faculty member or researcher might have, that helps free up his or her mental space to concentrate on the research and teaching at hand.
  • If we find ways to get involved with students -- by taking a class, going to a lecture, volunteering for Commencement or some other event -- we positively impact the environment of that event.

Other events in the works for the 20th anniversary season include a Theatre Studies Symposium – a weekend of presentations, panels and noted Cornell alumni in theater studies – and the Heermans-McCalmon Play Reading, with six alumni playwrights as special guests for two days of workshops, readings and performance.

Season subscriptions are available at the Schwartz Center box office or by calling (607) 254-ARTS.

 

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