Arts Offerings Begin with ‘A Little Night Music’

From a musical theater performance to an exhibit opening, a number of arts events are coming to campus this week.

Opening at 8 p.m. Thursday, A Little Night Music follows the romantic lives of several couples, emphasizing themes of youth, age and the search for happiness on one long, light-filled night.

Set in 1900 Sweden, the musical follows the tangled web of affairs centered around actress Desirée Armfeldt and the men who love her: a lawyer by the name of Fredrik Egerman and the Count Carl-Magnus Malcom.

The show is directed by Kathryn Evans, head of vocal and choral music at UT Dallas.

“I chose A Little Night Music specifically for this venue, knowing the work had an elegance and small scope that would be enhanced by the intimacy of the hall. The music is beautiful and beguiling; the characters are entrancing; and the story speaks to the desire for happiness and the extraordinary lengths that we go to in order to achieve it,” Evans said.

Starring in the show is a large cast of UT Dallas students, including Lyndsey Ibarra, who plays the lead role of Desirée, a character that has been played on Broadway by both Bernadette Peters and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Ibarra, who is a part of the McDermott Scholars Program at UT Dallas, is a sophomore studying finance and organizational behavior. She is joined by two of her fellow McDermott Scholars on stage: Freshman Matara Hitchcock plays Mrs. Segstrom in the performance, and freshman Ali Peterkort plays Ann Egerman.

“Whether they are musicians, singers, creative writers or visual artists, our scholars grasp the fundamental importance of creativity, expression and exploration through the arts,” said Molly Seeligson, the McDermott Scholars Program director. “Often it is this knack for exploration and invention that also leads our students to new inquiries in a range of fields — from molecular biology to software engineering.”

A Little Night Music runs Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall, and the Sunday show time is 2 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' Opens Thursday

Also opening this week is the play Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Based on the 1782 novel of the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, the play focuses on the treacherous schemes of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, rivals who use sex as a weapon of humiliation and degradation, all the while enjoying their cruel games. This play was adapted into the Academy Award-winning motion picture Dangerous Liaisons.

Performances are to be held in the University Theatre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings of this week and next. Thursday nights are free for everyone. General admission tickets on Friday and Saturday are $15; students with a valid Comet Card can enter free at any performance. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online.

 

Visual Art Studio Presents Two Exhibits

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Visual Art Studio, UT Dallas will host an opening reception for a photography exhibit by senior honors thesis student Marco Molina. The show, “Hashtag #TexasIsTexas,” includes more than 120 images of some of the most iconic places in Texas.  

Molina’s love of Texas and its landscapes and cultures started at a young age. His exhibit is a collaboration with other photographers through the social networking app Instagram. Using hashtags to search and find places that other photographers have identified, or tagged, as “Texas,” Molina travels to those locations to re-create the original image. Molina, who was raised in Azle, Texas, has driven more than 5,000 miles and 80 hours to capture such notable places as Cadillac Ranch, the State Capitol in Austin, the Alamo and the Fort Worth Stockyards.

“This project combines my passion of photography with my love of Texas,” Molina said. “I believe that if you love Texas, you will love this show. I was fortunate to go on the ultimate Texas road trip and see so many of the things that made me fall in love with Texas and see so many of the places that I have always wanted to explore.”

Also showing concurrently in the Visual Arts Building with Molina’s exhibit is “True Self: Contextual Identities,” a project by UT Dallas student Phiona Pham that rethinks the concept of “self.”

“I’m investigating the idea of identity from both a macro and micro level,” Pham said. “Due to the rapid development of technology, which profoundly affects the perception of a whole new generation, the concept of the self has consequently changed. By examining how people present themselves under different social contexts versus how others interpret these behaviors, I present the audience with a chance to observe where these two views may clash.”

The reception and show are free and open to the public.