Wellesley is fortunate to have a lively arts scene, with various opportunities to engage with or make art at any given time. Check out a concert, theater performance, or film this month. Here are just a few events happening soon.
Acatober
EVENT: Wellesley High School Choral Department concert, “Acatober”
DATES: Oct. 25 & 26, 7pm-9pm
LOCATION: Wellesley High School, 50 Rice St., Katherine L. Babson Jr., Auditorium
TICKETS here
Did you know…Dr. Kevin McDonald, Wellesley High’s Director of Choral Programs, has reached the semifinals for Grammy Music Educator of the Year for the third straight year. Of the 25 semifinalists, Dr. McDonald is the only one from Massachusetts. This year, 2,400 educators were nominated for the award from 49 states. Finalists will be announced in December. Good luck, Dr. Mac!
Wellesley Theatre Project
PERFORMANCE: The One Act Play that Goes Wrong
DATES: Oct. 24, 25, 26, 27 (times vary)
LOCATION: WTP Studio Theater, 219 Washington St. Wellesley, MA
TICKETS: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/wtptickets/4269
Everything that can go wrong…does! The actors and crew battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Over the course of the play, expect a plethora of disasters from missed lines to falling props.
Wellesley library exhibit
Wellesley Society of Artists member Joan Onofrey’s collages are on exhibit at the Wellesley Free Library in the James E. Mahoney Foyer through Oct. 31. Joan’s award-winning collages should not be missed!
Davis Museum at Wellesley College
SPECIAL EXHIBIT: Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, a survey of the impact of the renowned Scottish naturalist painter. Bring your own perspectives on nature as the study of plants across the disciplines at Wellesley College is celebrated.
DATE: through Dec. 15
LOCATION: Wellesley College campus, Davis Museum Lobby and Galleries
Film screening
TITLE: UnCharitable
DATE: Nov. 19
TIME: 5:30pm-8:30pm
LOCATION: MassBay, 50 Oakland St., Wellesley
TICKETS here.
DESCRIPTION: Join the MetroWest Nonprofit Network (MWNN) on November 19th for a screening and discussion of the highly-acclaimed film: UnCharitable.
The film, based on Dan Pallota’s influential book and powerful Ted Talk, challenges our conventional wisdom on giving and invites us to envision a new future for philanthropy. There are lessons to be learned & discussed for nonprofits of all sizes, community advocates, funders, and businesses alike. How can we better support the causes that are important to our communities and to us as individuals?
Wellesley Society of Artists members Nan Rumpf and Carol Bershad have created the Art Sparks card deck to inspire watercolor artists to explore different ideas and techniques, and to create more accomplished paintings. It’s not too early to think about stocking stuffers for your artistic friends and family.
Wellesley Repertory Theatre announces three grantees for 2024-25 inaugural Grant Cycle
Wellesley Repertory Theatre is thrilled to announce the first recipients of the Wellesley Repertory Theatre Grant. The WRT grant provides project-based support to Wellesley College graduates for the development and/or production of unpublished/unproduced work in the field through unrestricted funding that supports artistic process. Projects are expected to be completed during the 2024-25 academic year. The three recipients will convene at Wellesley College in Fall 2025 to share their vision and experience with students, faculty, staff, and Wellesley community members at the Wellesley Repertory Theatre Festival.
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More about the Wellesley Repertory Theatre Grant winners…
Maia Macdonald (Class of ‘06)
Maia Macdonald is an interdisciplinary artist and producer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is grounded in a transcendent faith in the power of sound to transport, heal, and transform us. Since graduating from Wellesley in 2006, Maia has been immersed in the creative arts world; developing her recording ethos, touring as a multi-instrumentalist, interviewing other artists, producing & mixing music and podcasts, and designing sound.
The WRT Grant will fund the development of an immersive stage show built around a deep new body of musical work, traversing ancestral timelines, fragments of memory, and the reconciliation of multiple truths. The project seeks to engage audiences through movement practices, dynamic sound and lighting design, and innovative approaches to music making. Intended as an adaptable, living work, this piece will draw on multiple disciplines as it dares us to answer the call.
Sabina Sethi Unni (Class of ‘19)
The grant will fund Flood Sensor Aunty, about a flood sensor working at her aunt’s chai shop who really wants to be a movie star. Halfway between really funny public theater and community disaster prevention, this devised show is about how the best way to protect yourself from flooding, climate change, and despair is through knowing your neighbors. As part of NYC Emergency Management’s National Disaster Prevention Month, four free performances have taken place in chai shops and brown public spaces across Queens and Nassau County, and audiences left with bellies full of (oat milk) chai, headlamps, flood alarms, zines with resources about flood protection, and laughs. The WRT Grant will go toward further development of the piece.
Annie Jin Wang (Class of ’14, she/hers)
Annie Jin Wang is a first-generation Chinese-American dramaturg for new plays, musicals, and opera. From new play development to revitalizing classic texts for today’s audiences, Annie’s body of work primarily investigates constructs of race, gender, and citizenship through a compassionate and critical lens. At Wellesley, she majored in Art History and Cinema & Media Studies, and was a member of the Shakespeare Society and Upstage Productions.
The grant will fund Anna May Wong: The Actress Who Died A Thousand Deaths, which takes place in a surrealist dreamscape within Asian American screen icon Anna May Wong’s mind and memories, exploring the racial, gender, class, and cultural tensions an ambitious Chinatown girl faced as she became a Hollywood actress. Intercut with real and imagined conversations between Wong and important people throughout her life including her father, Warner Oland, and Marlene Dietrich, this experimental play utilizes an ensemble of five performers, ‘live cinema performance’, and archival footage to recreate and reframe iconic scenes from Wong’s films, subverting the type-cast, orientalist tropes she constantly portrayed. Annie’s WRT Grant-funded project will be drafting a new revision of this script and presenting it in a public multimedia workshop.
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