Arts & Culture

Poet Martha Collins will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Collins is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Blue Front (2006). The book-length poem is based on a November 1909 lynching that was witnessed by her father, then a five-year-old boy who sold fruit in front of the Blue Front Restaurant in Cairo, IL.

Paul LairdPaul Laird, Ph.D., director of the Division of Musicology at the University of Kansas, will speak on “What Was — And Is — the Baroque Cello?” at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. Laird is the author of Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico (1997), Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research (2002) and The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History (2004).

Jean-Louis DarvilleThe Actor’s GangImagine a world where people cannot speak freely, where leaders are not held accountable, where constant war rages against an unseen enemy. Welcome to 1984, George Orwell’s prescient portrait of an oppressive, totalitarian society. In February, The Actor’s Gang — the experimental Los Angeles troupe led by artistic director Tim Robbins — will present a new stage adaptation of Orwell’s dystopic classic at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Photo by Kevin LowderCarl Safe (center) helps students cut the ribbon at the Grand Center plaza dedication.Ten architecture majors from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts designed and built a public plaza for visual art in Grand Center that was dedicated Dec. 15. The project, begun last fall, teamed the students with Grand Center Inc., a non-profit organization that develops district arts initiatives and real estate, and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

The Washington University Chamber Orchestra will present a free public concert at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22. The program will include music of George Frideric Handel, Camille Saint-Saens, Samuel Barber and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Ray Bradbury’s vision of the future was a scary one indeed. Of course, that’s the point of being a science-fiction writer, but in his classic Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury wrote about firemen who didn’t necessarily put out fires. Rather, they started them in order to burn books and suppress learning and knowledge. The book is the centerpiece of a National Endowment for the Arts-supported program in February. “The Big Read,” hosted by the University in partnership with several local organizations, will feature lectures, readings, art exhibits, theater productions, book discussion groups and film festivals featuring the themes of Bradbury’s novel.

Lawton will launch one of the first events in conjunction with the program when he speaks for the university’s Assembly Series at 11 a.m. Jan. 24, in Graham Chapel. His talk, titled “Burning to Read,” will address the fundamental importance of reading, having choices and of having books both in printed and digital form. In addition, the event will include several staged readings from Fahrenheit 451 performed by English Department professor Dan Shea and Washington University students. The program is free and open to the public. For more information: visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu, or call 314-935-4620.

Lighting designer Paul A. Zaferiou will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Architecture Lecture Series Jan. 22. Zaferiou, a 1975 alumnus of Washington University, is president and principal of Lam Partners Inc., a lighting consulting firm whose credits include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and The Getty Villa in Malibu, CA, among many others. The lecture series will continue Jan. 29 with Winy Maas, a principal of MVRDV, the Office of Architecture and Urbanism, in Rotterdam.

Ralph Stewart*The Dead Father*Choreographer Paul D. Mosley — artistic director for the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY — will return to St. Louis for the first time in a decade to perform an evening of new and old dance works.