Arts & Culture

Cinderella wishes for festivals. Jack wishes for food. The baker and his wife wish for a child. The storybook world is filled with longing and magic and the happiest of ever afters. For a while, at least. But what happens once the wishes have all come true?

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians blended jazz with experimental music while staging concerts in unusual venues. In “Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM,” Paul Steinbeck, associate professor of music in Arts & Sciences, uncovers the group’s surprising rise to become international touring artists.

Zachary Stern’s frenetic comedy “Democratic Airlines” and Melia Van Hecke’s contemporary folktale “The Fern” will receive world premiere staged readings as part of the 2022 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. The festival is named for alumnus A.E. Hotchner, who famously bested Tennessee Williams in a campus playwriting competition.

The Black Rep will launch its 46th season with “The African Company Presents Richard III.” The story, based on true events, chronicles the popular success of William Brown’s African Grove Theatre, established in New York in 1821, and the malicious campaign to shut it down.

What started as a chance to try something new with her mom led Tiffany Yao, BFA ’19, into another competition that was far less conventional. Here, in her own words, is how she became a beauty queen.

The Great Artists Series at Washington University in St. Louis presents affordably priced concerts by some of today’s finest classical musicians. The 2023 series will feature Grammy Award-winning mezz-soprano J’Nai Bridges, star of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Akhnaten,” as well as the England’s legendary Academy of St Martin in the Fields with cellist Johannes Moser, pianist Emanuel Ax, and violinist Augustin Hadelich.

Acclaimed South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho will perform works by Ravel and Chopin May 1 as part of the Department of Music’s annual Great Artists Series.

Acclaimed soprano Angel Blue, fresh from starring roles in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” and “Porgy and Bess,” will present an intimate recital April 24 as part of the Great Artists Series at Washington University in St. Louis.

As longtime president of Mount Holyoke College, Mary Woolley helped to transform university education for women in the United States. In a new production of “Bull in a China Shop,” the Performing Arts Department will explore Woolley’s groundbreaking career and her decades-long relationship with Jeannette Marks, chair of Mount Holyoke’s English department.