NOTE: Please see the University Events Calendar or individual event listings (at the links below) for updates and cancellations.

An alternate future

Students in the Department of Performing and Media Arts present “The Nether” by Jennifer Haley, March 12-14 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

A sci-fi detective story exploring sexual ethics and consent, the play is set in an alternate future in the aftermath of an ecological disaster – where online realms have replaced the natural world, real personas hide behind avatars and laws and morals have faded away.

“I am fascinated by the prospect of using theater to explore the ways in which rapidly developing communication technology shapes our society and relationships,” said director Bryan Hagelin ’20, an information science and performing and media arts major.

The play contains mature themes and is suitable for ages 14 and up. Showtimes are March 12 at 7:30 p.m., and March 13 at 5 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre (March 14 performances have been canceled). Tickets are $7 each at schwartztickets.com and at the box office.

Lyn Staack of The Advocacy Center wrote a resource guide for the show’s program and will lead a talkback with the audience after the March 13 performance.

 “The Nether” was first staged in Los Angeles in 2013 and on London’s West End in 2014. It won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2012 and seven Los Angeles Ovation Awards. Haley has written for the Netflix shows “Hemlock Grove” and “Mindhunter.” She earned an MFA in playwriting from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel, M.A. ’76, Ph.D. ’16.

Manga exhibit and discussion

Cornell University Library hosts a panel discussion on manga, March 13 at 4:30 p.m. in 106G Olin Library, in conjunction with the exhibition “Story/Lines: Visual Narratives in Japanese Pop Culture,” on display through July 15 in the Kroch Asia Collections.

Andrew Campana, assistant professor of Asian studies; Gregory Londe, assistant professor of English; and Jimmy McKee, public services assistant at Mann Library, will discuss Japanese comics and graphic novels from different viewpoints. A Q&A will follow.

“Story/Lines” follows the history of manga from the origins of the term to early examples of the visual narrative form and the influential cultural phenomenon it has become. The exhibition explores such topics as interactive fan culture and subgenres that challenge the norms of gender and sexuality. Several iconic manga series are highlighted, with striking black-and-white images throughout.

Documenting conflict and struggle

The Mexican government sent an army to Chihuahua on the U.S.-Mexico border in 2008 in an attempt to control drug cartels, but the military action led to the disappearances and murders of journalists, human rights activists and civilians.

In “The Guardian of Memory (Guardian de la memoria),” filmmaker Marcela Arteaga profiles the survivors of this violent conflict and their hopes for political asylum and treatment as unwelcome refugees in 2017.

Cornell Cinema and the Latin American Studies Program (LASP) present a free screening of Arteaga’s 2019 documentary, March 16 at 6 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. The screening was organized by John Kennedy, a doctoral student in Romance studies, as part of his LASP graduate fellowship.

Also showing: “The Silence of Others,” March 17 at 6:45 p.m., as part of the series “Spain: Memory, Landscape & Light.” The new documentary by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar follows the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year Franco dictatorship, their “pact of forgetting” and an international lawsuit they brought for the crimes they suffered. The screening is co-sponsored by the Department of Romance Studies.

Cinema programming: Cornell Cinema will continue its spring programming through March 27. Under new university guidelines, attendance is capped at 100 people at each screening. See the Cornell Cinema website or the University Events Calendar for updates.

Two events will be limited to students enrolled in Sabine Haenni’s American Cinema course: A March 16 screening of “Dial M for Murder” in 3D (also showing March 13, open to all); and the March 23 screening of “Bonnie and Clyde.”

Dramatic writing winners

Student playwrights will present their winning entries in the 2019-20 Heermans-McCalmon Competition for Dramatic Writing at a public performance, March 20 at 4:30 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free.

The first-place winners of best 10-minute stage play, best 10-minute screenplay and best solo performance/spoken word monologue will be presented as works-in-progress.

The short-form competition welcomes original, unproduced scripts which engage some aspect of American life. It is sponsored by the Department of Performing and Media Arts and is open to all Cornell undergraduate students.

The top two entries in each of the three categories are awarded cash prizes – $500 for first place, $250 for second place. Winning writers are encouraged to participate in the preparation and presentation of their work to further its development.