Things to Do, Nov. 14-21

Anne LaBastille
Provided
The Department of Natural Resources honors "Woodswoman" author, conservationist and alumna Anne LaBastille Nov. 19.

Mahler’s masterwork

The Cornell Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Chris Younghoon Kim, performs Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Free and open to the public.

The concert also features the world premiere of “Soldier Asleep at the Tomb,” with guest soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon. The work was composed at the request of the orchestra by Christopher Stark, D.M.A. ’13, an assistant professor of composition at Washington University in St. Louis.

Meet the playwright

Playwright Deborah Brevoort visits Cornell Nov. 14 in conjunction with a student production of her play “The Women of Lockerbie” at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Directed by Claire Stack ’15, the poetic drama, loosely based on a true story, begins seven years after the crash in Lockerbie, Scotland, of Pan Am Flight 103, an act of terrorism that claimed nearly 300 lives in 1988. Brevoort’s play explores the depth of loss as well as the kindness and sacrifice that emerge as a result, as the mother of one of the victims comes to Lockerbie to search for her son’s remains. She soon encounters a group of tenacious Scottish women determined to save the belongings of the victims from incineration.

Following a meet and greet Nov. 14 at 3:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center lobby, Brevoort will give a lecture on “The Writing of ‘The Women of Lockerbie’” at 4:30 p.m. in the Film Forum. She also will lead a talkback following the play’s 7:30 p.m. Friday performance in the Black Box Theatre.

The play also will be performed Nov. 15 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.

Recycling the past

“Spolia: Histories, Spaces and Processes of Adaptive Reuse,” a symposium Nov. 14-15 in Milstein Hall, will explore an ancient architectural practice and its contemporary analogue in efforts to provide more sustainable and resilient buildings.

Spolia refers to using scavenged materials for new purposes in constructed environments, as many sites and structures of antiquity were repurposed into newer edifices. Practiced for millennia, notably in ancient Egypt and Rome, spolia has relevance to current environmental concerns and interests in adaptive reuse and recycling, life hacking, and the “slow” movement.

An opening reception, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m., features an exhibition by architecture students in collaboration with the Departments of Classics and Fiber Science & Apparel Design. A keynote by landscape architect and urban designer Kate Orff follows at 5:45 p.m. in Milstein Auditorium. Panel discussions, Nov. 15 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., will consider spolia’s potential in contemporary design practice, art history and preservation, materials science, and the formation of culture.

The symposium is presented by the 2014 Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture Series and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

Fantastic films

The third Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival (IIFFF) is bringing 30 new and classic features and documentaries to Cornell Cinema and Cinemapolis from Nov. 12-16, including a retrospective series, “Witchcraft in Popular Imagination,” in collaboration with the “Surrealism and Magic” exhibition at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

A free screening of “Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages” (1922, Sweden), is Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in Sage Chapel, with New York City band Transit performing an original live score and an introduction by film scholar Andrew Utterson. A part-documentary exploration of superstitions and witchcraft through animation and narrative vignettes, “Häxan” is co-presented by the Department of Music and Cornell Cinema.

Also, Cornell Cinema has added a special screening of “Tracks,” Nov. 20 at 7 p.m., followed by a Q-and-A via Skype with director John Curran. Patrons at the screening can receive a free ticket (out of 50 available) to a sneak preview of the fifth season premiere of  “Downton Abbey,” Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., courtesy of WCNY.

Set in the Australian outback and starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver, “Tracks” (2014) is adapted from Robyn Davidson’s 1980 memoir of her 1,700-mile trek in 1977 from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean with four camels and her dog. Curran’s previous films include “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” (2004) and ‘The Painted Veil’ (2006); he also wrote the screenplay for ‘The Killer Inside Me’ (2010).

‘Woodswoman’ tribute
The Department of Natural Resources hosts a tribute to environmentalist, activist and “Woodswoman” author Anne LaBastille ’55, Ph.D. ’69, Nov. 19 from 5-7:30 p.m. in G24 Fernow Hall. Free and open to the public.

LaBastille earned her Cornell undergraduate degree in natural resources and her Ph.D. in wildlife ecology. She wrote more than a dozen books and 150 popular and scientific articles and was an adjunct professor of natural resources at Cornell. Honored by the World Wildlife Fund and the Explorers Club for her pioneering work in wildlife ecology, she lived most of her life in a remote cabin in upstate New York and died in July 2011.

The event will feature the announcement of the Woodswoman Scholarship Fund, an endowment funded by LaBastille’s estate. The scholarship will provide financial assistance to female doctoral students with financial need who are enrolled in the graduate program in the field of conservation of natural resources or an equivalent program.

The tribute includes speakers and presentations on LaBastille’s life and work, displays of photographs and memorabilia, and the donation of two oil paintings from her estate to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Her collected papers in Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections include fan mail, children’s journals and letters, manuscripts, reviews, scrapbooks, original artwork, and photographs.

‘Being There’
Sprocket, the Cognitive Science Film Series at Cornell, will feature director Hal Ashby’s “Being There,” Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in 202 Uris Hall, with pizza and discussion. Free and open to the Cornell community.

Based on the 1970 novella by Jerzy Kosinski, the 1979 film stars Peter Sellers as Chance the gardener, a simple man who experiences the outside world for the first time following his rich employer’s death. Wearing his benefactor’s tailored clothes, he meets rich and powerful people who assume that Chance is a person of breeding named Chauncey Gardiner. As they continue to project their impressions onto him, including the belief that he is a profound thinker, Chance remains himself.

Sprocket also presents Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” co-written by Arthur C. Clarke, Thursday, Dec. 4. The film series is presented in conjunction with the course, Introduction to Cognitive Science.

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz