Arts & Culture

Three aspiring playwrights will present staged readings of their works Oct. 1 and 2 as part of the 2010 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, sponsored by the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences. Named in honor of alumnus A.E. Hotchner, the festival consists of an intensive two-week workshop that culminates in the staged readings. This year’s workshop is led by dramaturg Allison Horsley, assistant professor of dramatic literature at the University of Denver

A multidisciplinary team led by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh has won an international competition to reshape the area surrounding Eero Saarinen’s iconic Gateway Arch. Also on the team is artist Ann Hamilton, who is serving this fall as the inaugural Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Visiting Artist in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.  

Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is among the best-loved works in the classical repertoire and a foundation of the Baroque concerto. In 2002, celebrated violinist Robert McDuffie approached Philip Glass, arguably the most acclaimed composer working today, about writing a companion piece. The result is Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 2, The American Four Seasons, which McDuffie debuted last year. Now McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, one of the world’s finest period instrument ensembles, will perform both works back-to-back as part of the Edison Ovations Series at Washington University. 

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has announced the recipients of its 2010 Faculty Creative Activity Research Grants. Five art and architecture faculty members from the Sam Fox School will each receive between $1,000 and $8,000 to support projects ranging from reportage and publication to architectural case studies and GPS mapping of the Mekong River. 

Viola da gambist Elizabeth Macdonald, director of strings in Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, and harpsichordist Charles Metz, PhD, will launch WUSTL’s fall Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.The concert, titled “The Golden Age of the Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord,” will highlight music for these two instruments, which reached their “golden age” during the first half of the 18th century.  

Tony Award-nominated actor Stephen McKinley Henderson will discuss his life and work as part of an informal, Inside the Actors Studio-style dialogue at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in Edison Theatre. Titled “An Evening with Stephen McKinley Henderson,” the event is presented in conjunction with the symposium “Uncovering/Discovering The Other,” which runs through Friday.  

The Edison will launch its 2010-11 Ovations Series with Of Bodies of Elements, a new evening-length concert by Dancing Earth, the premier indigenous contemporary dance ensemble working today. Led by choreographer Rulan Tangen, this acclaimed troupe is poised at the intersection of ritual, culture and ecology, employing Native American traditions and perspectives to explore contemporary — particularly environmental — issues and concerns.  

The haunting modern fairy tales of Kate Bernheimer both echo and update stories and motifs drawn from traditional German, Russian and Yiddish folklore. On Sept. 16 and 23, Bernheimer, the Visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, will present two events as part of the Writing Program Reading Series. 

The St. Louis Nu-Jazz 5tet will launch Washington University’s fall Jazz at Holmes series with a free concert at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9. The popular series features professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad performing in Holmes Lounge — a casual, coffeehouse-style setting — most Thursday evenings throughout the academic year.  

Architect Julie Eizenberg and visual artist Ann Hamilton will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series with a pair of talks Sept. 13 and 15.