Calendar editor Jeanette Colby offers a selection of events and activities to do this weekend. Log in and check out the University Events Calendar for more things to do. The calendar features a variety of events at all campuses, including the River Campus, Eastman School, Memorial Art Gallery, and Medical Center
#1: Catch a performance of award-winning play at Todd Theater
The Obie Award-winning drama The Conduct of Life, presented by the International Theatre Program, continues though Saturday, May 4, at Todd Theater. Set in the 1970s, the play explores the political, sexual, and social dynamics of power, corruption, and abuse. Nigel Maister, artistic director of the International Theatre Program, says that work’s playwright Maria Fornés “mostly flew under the radar.” She was a contemporary of celebrated playwrights from Arthur Miller to Edward Albee, but perhaps partly because she was a woman, or a Cuban immigrant, or consistently more experimental in bent—her work was marginalized in a way that theirs was not.” The production includes adult and intense material that is not suitable for children. Shows begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 for Rochester students, $12 for alumni, faculty, staff, and seniors (65+); and $15 for the general public. Tickets may be purchased online at www.rochester.edu/theatre, or by calling (585) 275-4088. Tickets may also be purchased up to an hour before each performance at the box office.
#2: Laugh out loud at evening comedy fundraiser
Friends of Strong Memorial Hospital will host “Whose Friends Are They Anyway: An Improv Comedy Night” on Friday, May 3, to benefit and raise funds for patient and family-centered care initiatives and programs. The event features local improve troupe Nuts and Bolts, along with special guest emcee Nikki Rudd, cohost of News10NBC Today. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online.
#3: Listen to Eastman ensembles at Kodak Hall
The Eastman Rochester Chorus and Eastman School Symphony Orchestra will present a free concert on Friday, May 3, in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Conducted by William Weinert and Rayvon Moore, the performance will feature Bernstein’s Symphony No.1 “Jeremiah” and Liszt’s “Missa Solemnis.” Eastman will be also accepting donations at this concert for the restoration of Le Grand Orgue de Notre Dame—the Great Organ of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and will also be streamed live at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/live/.
#4: Hear music in memory of the Holocaust
The Eastman School of Music will present the annual Holocaust Remembrance Concert “A Time to Remember…” Sunday, May 5. Eastman faculty, students, and alumni will perform the music of composers who died during the Holocaust and music written in memory of the historic tragedy. The concert will feature “Remember Me” by David Maslank, works by Erwin Schulhoff and Lazlo Wiener, Suite for Bassoon and Piano by Alexandre Tansman, and “Windsongs: For Children of Terezin” by Larry Zimmerman. The series was launched in 2014 by Renee Jolles, professor of violin at Eastman. Her father, Jerome Jolles, buried bodies as part of a work detail in Romania during Nazi occupation. He survived, came to the United States, and finished his studies in music and composition at Julliard. A virtuoso accordion player, piano teacher, and composter, Jerome Jolles died in 2014. The free performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall. Following the concert, attendees are invited to attend a reception, provided by Temple Beth El of Rochester, in the Cominsky Promenade at Eastman.
#5: Watch ASL interpreters translate video art installation about Frederick Douglass
The Memorial Art Gallery will offer consecutive ASL interpretations by Rochester entertainment interpreters Hands-in-Entertainment of Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour on Sunday, May 5, from 2 to 5 p.m. The 10-screen installation is part of the museum’s “Reflections on Place” series of media art commissions—on view through May 12—inspired by episodes in the real life of abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglass. Three interpreters will collaborate on this performative interpretation of the video: one to interpret the voices and two to interpret the soundscape of the piece. Admission to the museum is free for University faculty, staff, and students with ID.
