Games people play

Unwind from exams and holiday shopping, meet the game designers and engineers of tomorrow, and take time to play at the annual Game Design Showcase, open to the public Dec. 10, 2-5 p.m. in the ACCEL Labs in Carpenter Hall.

Workstations will be open to play computer games created by students in beginning and advanced game-design courses. A game for the iPad promises to focus on the "emotional experience" rather than on winning and losing.

This year's students also have created games for the iPhone and multiplayer games to be played on Facebook. Compete with a friend to collect "berries" on your phone -- and steal them from each other across the room. Create a fictitious corporation on your Facebook page and engage in an industrial-espionage duel with competitors.

Gangster tale

Cornell Cinema presents "Brighton Rock," based on the novel by Graham Greene about a gangster who marries the only witness to a murder he committed, Dec. 8-10 in Willard Straight Theatre. Directed by Rowan Jaffe and starring Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough and Helen Mirren, the film is an update of the 1960s noir classic with Richard Attenborough. Mirren also stars in the espionage thriller "The Debt," screening Dec. 8 in Willard Straight Theatre and Dec. 9-10 in Uris Auditorium.

Cornell Cinema will be closed for winter break beginning Dec. 12, reopening Sunday, Jan. 22. Before the break, screenings include a program of student films, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m.; and the comedy "Friends with Benefits," directed by Will Gluck '93, Dec. 9-10 in Uris Auditorium, as part of the Alums Make Movies series.

Concerto competition

The Department of Music will present the eighth annual Cornell Concerto Competition, open to all Cornell undergraduates and graduate students, Dec. 11 in Barnes Hall Auditorium.

Participants will perform in preliminary first round competition from 1 to 5 p.m. The final round is 8-10 p.m. The competition is free and open to the public. The winner will perform in concert with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, March 10, 2012. Information: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/orchestra/calendar-competition.html.

Museum break

Due to winter holidays, four exhibitions originally scheduled to end Dec. 31 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will be on display through Friday, Dec. 23. The museum will be closed during the December break, from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2.

The exhibitions are: "Bursts of Light and Rifts of Darkness: American Expressionism from the Meinig Collection," "Essence of Indian Textiles," "Precious Paper: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection" and "A Private Eye, Revisited: A Selection from the Brandt Collection." The museum is free and open to the public.

Farm futures

New York agricultural leaders will address the short- and long-term outlook for agriculture and agricultural products at the 2012 Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference, Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Statler Hotel Ballroom. Sponsored by the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

Breakout sessions will concentrate on dairy, grains and feed, and horticultural products. Attendees of the annual conference include industry leaders, agribusiness professionals, policymakers, educators and farm managers. All registrants will receive a copy of the New York Economic Outlook Handbook, published in conjunction with the conference. The registration fee is $80, $30 for the Cornell community and Cornell Cooperative Extension employees. Information, registration: http://dyson.cornell.edu/outreach/ag_outlook_conference.php#conference.

Pomp and circumstance

The December Recognition Event for January Graduates will be held Saturday, Dec. 17, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Barton Hall.

Undergraduate and graduate students will process in regalia across the stage, receive a certificate from their dean and shake hands with President David Skorton. A reception for January graduates, family members and guests will be held immediately following the ceremony.

Time to celebrate

Staff, faculty, retirees and their families are invited to the Winter Employee Celebration, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The celebration features a community dinner of chicken parmesan and baked ziti 4:30 to 7 p.m. in Bartels Hall; children's activities and two athletic events. The Big Red women's ice hockey team takes on Princeton University at 4 p.m., and the men's basketball team plays the University of Pennsylvania at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $5 each (all-inclusive) and are on sale from Dec. 12 to Jan. 9 at the Athletic Department ticket office in Bartels Hall or by calling 607-255-4247. The ticket office is closed during winter break, Dec. 24-Jan. 2. Information: http://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/celebrating/employee_celebration.html.

Bedford Falls on the air

Professor David Feldshuh is directing "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" Dec. 9-16 at Hangar Theatre in Ithaca.

Staged as a 1940s radio broadcast, the play by Joe Landry is based on the 1946 Frank Capra holiday classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Feldshuh originally directed the play in 2009 at Cornell's Schwartz Center. He teaches public speaking, directing and acting in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance.

Evening performances are Dec. 9-11 and Dec. 13-16 at 7 p.m., with matinees Dec. 10-11 at 3 p.m. Tickets range from $18 to $26 and are available at the Ticket Center of Ithaca at 607-273-4497, online at http://www.hangartheatre.org and at the door. There is a Pay What You Can performance Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.

College century

A student-curated exhibition in Mann Library's lobby celebrates a century of accomplishment in the College of Human Ecology.

"The Chronicles of Human Ecology: Academics, Research, Outreach" chronicles the paths that Human Ecology faculty and students have forged over the years, telling the college's story through archival photographs, quotes and text in display cases in the lobby walls. The exhibition highlights the people and principles that have established the college as a world leader in research, teaching and science-based extension, from its earliest beginnings to the present day.

The exhibition's curator, design and environmental analysis student Gilad Meron '12, said that his work is meant to honor the college's past, its transformation in the late 1960s, and its faculty members' outreach and translational research.

The exhibition runs through Feb. 28. Free and open to the public. Information: http://mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits.