BabsonARTS' Spring 2015 Season to Feature Theater, Film, Dance & More

BabsonARTS today announced their highly anticipated Spring 2015 Season, featuring events and exhibitions across the genres of dance, film, music, theater, and visual arts. Highlights include a visit from stage and screen actor Seth Gilliam (The Walking Dead, The Wire), two works by choreographer Doug Elkins, a screening of the film Underwater Dreams, a multimedia performance of Basetrack Live, and cabaret performance by Broadway favorite Jeremy Jordan (Bonnie & Clyde, Smash). For more information, visit babsonarts.org or call 781-239-5622.

The season kicks off on Thursday, January 29, 5 pm, with the opening of Aram Han's exhibition A Mend: A Collection of Scraps and U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler. Through sewing and embroidering, and more than 50 samplers, Han's exhibition of fiber art addresses the economics of compensation for immigrant and artist labor. The show is on exhibit in the Hollister Hall Gallery thru March 17, 2015. Admission is free.

On Thursday, February 5, 7 pm, actor Seth Gilliam will participate in a two-day event, beginning with a screening and pre-show conversation of his film Starship Troopers, which follows a young soldier's journey with a futuristic military during wartime. Patrons will also have the opportunity to see Seth perform live on Friday, February 6, 8 pm, in a staged reading of the Tony award-winning play, Art by Yasmina Reza. The play follows three longtime friends whose relationship are challenged by their differing views of what constitutes art. Additional cast members include Boston favorites Edward Hoopman and Paul Melendy. Both events are free and will be held at the Carling-Sorenson Theater at Babson College. Registration is required at babsonarts.org or commshakes.org.

BabsonARTS continues its Global Film series with a screening of Watchers of the Sky (2014) on Wednesday, February 11, 7 pm. Watchers of the Sky intertwines four incredible stories and ultimately uncovers the life of Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the word "genocide". Admission is free and registration is required at babsonarts.org.

Launching the Spring 2015 Arts and Business Conversation series is Boston gallery owner Adam Gold on Tuesday, February 17, 5 pm. Adam to discuss how he used his personal history of collecting artwork to open the unique Gold Gallery in Boston's South End. Event will be held in the Upper Lobby at Sorenson Center and a light snack will be served.

Poet Fred D'Aguiar, writer of Mama Dot and Bill of Rights (1998) visits on February 18, 7 pm, part of the Charles D. and Majorie J. Thompson Visiting Poet Series. Well-known in the world of poetry slams, poet Taylor Mali visits on Tuesday, February 24, 7 pm, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, visits on Thursday, February 26, 5 pm, with a book signing to follow.

Doug Elkins, called "one of the most musical, witty, and inventive choreographers of his generation" by the New York Times, will bring two dance pieces, Hapless Bizarre and Mo(or)town Redux to Babson on Saturday, February 28, 8 pm. Hapless Bizarre is a physical comedy piece that unites dancers, actors, and clowns in a raucous physical comedy; and Mo(or)town Redux turns Shakespeare's Othello into a dance set to the music of Motown. Tickets are $25 - $50 and available here OvationTix or at babsonarts.org.

As part of their residency at Babson, the imaginative and talented Worcester Chamber Music Society will perform a concert on Monday, March 2, 7 pm, featuring Latin American works that speak to cultural identity and situations of mass violence and genocide. Free admission. Glavin Chapel at Babson College. Register at babsonarts.org.

Next up for the Arts and Business Conversation Series is Preston Whiteway, the Executive Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Highlighting pivotal works in the history of modern theatre, in Waterford, CT, will engage in conversation about the center's role in shaping the American theatre landscape on Thursday March 5, 12:30 pm. Event to be held in Upper Lobby of the Sorenson Center for the Arts.

On Wednesday, March 25, 5 pm, Raul Gonzalez's portrait exhibition, The El Paso Kid will open. Gonzalez's self-portraits depict his life growing up on La Frontera (The Border), an environment often unrepresented and unseen. The show is on exhibit in the Hollister Hall Gallery through May 5, 2015. Admission is free.

Babson's Filmmaker-in-Residence Mary Mazzio will present her groundbreaking film Underwater Dreams, on Wednesday, March 25, 8 pm. The film follows an underdog story of a small team, made up of children of Mexican immigrants, who work together to build an Underwater Robot, ultimately beating out a team from the engineering powerhouse of MIT. Free admission and register at babsonarts.org.

On Friday, March 27, 12:30 pm, Executive Producer Anne Hamburger will talk about her career, spanning from Disney all the way to her current position as President of En Garde Arts. Later that evening, Anne will present her multimedia event Basetrack Live at 8 pm. Photojournalists began the Basetrack Live project to connect soldiers and their families, and ultimately uncovered many perspectives on the ultimate toll of war on home life and society. Events to be held in the Sorenson Center for the Arts.

The Wind Rises, the final film of Japanese Animation master Hiyao Miyazakii, will be shown Monday, April 6, 7 pm. The story of a man, unable to become a pilot, who instead becomes the world's best airplane designer, creating beautiful machines which are put to deadly use. Carling-Sorenson Theater.

On Tuesday, April 28, 7 pm, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company continues its Shakespeare and Leadership series with King Lear, the story of an aging king who transfers the rule of Britain to his daughters--"family business" on an epic scale. A staged reading of the play by business leaders and actors precedes a panel discussion on themes from the text. Free and general admission. Registration required at commshakes.org.

Barbara Strongin, director of administration of Sotheby's, will finish off the Arts and Business Conversation series on Wednesday, April 15, 12:30 pm. She is a 34-year veteran of the fine art auction industry who served as a senior executive at Christie's flagship NY auction house. Event to be held in Upper Lobby of the Sorenson Center for the Arts.

To finish the Spring 2015 season, Broadway favorite Jeremy Jordan will make his Boston solo concert debut at Babson on Sunday, April 26th, 7 pm. Jeremy performs hit songs from Broadway's Newsies, film The Last 5 Years, and his own personal favorites. This bright artist steps into the solo spotlight for the first time to tell us his own fascinating story.