Pulling an all-nighter

Students will write, cast, choreograph, rehearse and perform original theater and dance over the course of 24 hours this weekend at the Schwartz Center.

Now in its 10th year, Festival24 is a biannual, student-produced event in the Department of Performing and Media Arts in which participants craft pieces related to a one-word theme.

Friday evening, students will gather and stay up all night to write, design and rehearse four short plays and a dance that they will perform the following evening. The performance, Saturday, Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Flex Theatre, is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7 p.m.; a full house is expected and early arrival is recommended.

The event is produced by Milo Reynolds-Dominguez ’20.

Irish band

Traonach, a traditional ceilidh band that grew out of Ithaca’s lively Irish music scene, kicks off the 52nd season of “Bound for Glory” concerts in Anabel Taylor Hall’s Durland Alternatives Library, Aug. 26 at 8 p.m. Admission is free and open to all ages. Refreshments are available.

The program, hosted since 1967 by Phil Shapiro, M.A. ’69, features three sets of music and is broadcast live on WVBR-FM 93.5 and streams online at wvbr.com. Upcoming performers include Tracy Grammer on Sept. 2, Hugh O’Doherty on Sept. 9, John Roberts on Sept. 16, Bobby Henrie and Aaron Lipp on Sept. 23, and Larry Kaplan on Sept. 30.

Revolution in the air

Cornell Cinema commemorates the 50th anniversary of the turmoil of 1968 this semester with a 12-film series, “The 1968 Era Revisited.”

Historian and filmmaker Paul Cronin, a New York University professor and author of “A Time To Stir: Columbia ’68,” joins for a discussion via Skype at screenings of the first two films in the series, “Medium Cool” on Aug. 28 and “Columbia Revolt” on Aug. 29. Upcoming titles include “Monterey Pop,” Sept. 5; “The Black Power Mixtape,” Sept. 12; “Zabriskie Point” and “Full Metal Jacket.”

The series revisits protests in France, women’s liberation, the Vietnam War, the counterculture, 1960s music and the influence of television, along with events that either preceded this watershed year in history or developed in its aftermath.

Cosponsored by the Department of History and the Society for the Humanities, the series coincides with the history course, “U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s,” taught by Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, and follows Cornell Adult University’s summer offering “1968.”

PMA auditions

Auditions for the Department of Performing and Media Arts’ fall productions will be held Aug. 28 beginning at 7 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Auditions are open to all Cornell students, faculty and staff. LGBTQIA+ and people of color are encouraged to audition. Shows include staged readings of “The Christians” Sept. 15-16 and “Informed Consent” Sept. 20 and 22; the 10-Minute Play Festival Sept. 27-29, “Constellations” Nov. 1-3 and “The Awakening of Spring” Nov. 9-17.

If interested, sign up on the online callboard and prepare a one-minute monologue. Callbacks will be held Aug. 29-31. Contact Howie Klein or Cindy Greco for more information.

International Fair

Cornell’s annual International Fair, Aug. 29, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Uris Hall outdoor terrace, presents undergraduate and graduate students with hundreds of options for adding global learning to their Cornell experience, on campus and abroad.

Students can find information from exhibits and faculty and staff about study abroad, exchanges, language study, international majors and minors, fellowships, internships, courses with international travel opportunities, service learning and more.

The fair is presented by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Office of Global Learning, and the Language Resource Center.

Green farms and tree rings

The Science on Tap! series will feature “The Science of Plants & Sustainability: Lasting Food Supplies and Telling Environmental Time!” Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at Casita del Polaris, Ithaca.

The year-round series of talks on a variety of research topics is presented by Graduate Women in Science at Cornell. Events are open to the public and the graduate community in particular. Events in the summer series have featured two early-career scientists relating their studies to real-world issues.

On Aug. 29, doctoral student in horticulture Juana Munoz will discuss “Invisible Forces for Farming,” on how soil microbes interact to promote plant growth for more sustainable agriculture. Brita Lorentzen, a postdoctoral researcher in classics, will present “Trees as Time Capsules” – “using tree rings to learn about the past to help prepare for future climate and environmental changes and restore damaged ecosystems.”

Immersed in history

“The Missing Chapter,” a new play by Katie Marks and Aoise Stratford, opens the Cherry Arts Company’s season Aug. 31.

Inspired by Ithaca’s silent film industry, the walking play is an immersive theatrical and local history experience that runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 9.

Audience members listen with headphones during an approximately one-hour walk in and around Stewart Park, beginning at the picnic pavilion every 15 minutes and ending near the park’s carousel. For tickets and information, visit TheCherry.org.

Stratford, visiting assistant professor of performing and media arts at Cornell, co-wrote The Cherry’s 2016 walking play, “Storm Country.”

Produced in partnership with the Wharton Studio Museum and Friends of Stewart Park, “The Missing Chapter” features Wharton Studio heroine Beatrice Fairfax, a newspaper advice columnist and amateur sleuth.

Upcoming in The Cherry’s 2018-19 season: Sept. 20-30, the English-language premiere of the comedy thriller “George Kaplan” by Frédéric Sonntag. Holiday favorite “The Snow Queen,” an original musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, returns Dec. 13-22.

Michelle Wolf to perform

Comedian Michelle Wolf is coming to Bailey Hall, Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m., presented by the Cornell University Program Board.

Tickets for students – $12 balcony, $15 orchestra – go on sale online Friday, Aug. 24 at noon. Tickets for the general public are $17 and $20, on sale Aug. 25 at noon. All tickets are available from Cornell Concerts.

Wolf is a New York-based writer and performer, whose Netflix show “The Break with Michelle Wolf” premiered this year following her newsmaking performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April.

Her first standup special, “Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady,” debuted on HBO in December 2017. Her live show “Michelle Wolf: So Brave” garnered critical acclaim in a sold-out run at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has been an on-air performer and writer for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and created and starred in two web series for Comedy Central, “Now Hiring” and “Used People.”