From ArtsUW
It’s an exciting week in the arts as various units ramp up their winter events. For drama fans, there’s the Undergraduate Theater Society’s production of “Yellow Face” and the School of Drama’s take on “Twelfth Night.” For music lovers, don’t miss the rich sounds of the Nile Project at Meany Hall or the UW Symphony at Benaroya Hall. If it’s choreography you’re after, the Dance Program kicks off its 50th anniversary celebration with its Dance Faculty Concert. Whatever event you choose this week, you’re guaranteed to be entertained.
“Yellow Face”
Jan. 22-Feb. 1 | Cabaret Theater, Hutchinson Hall
The Undergraduate Theater Society presents Tony-Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang’s fun mockumentary that questions the constitutions of race, identity and nationality.More info.
Dance Faculty Concert
Jan. 23-25 | Meany Theater
Kicking off the Dance Program’s 50th anniversary celebration, this concert includes choreography by dance faculty as well as guest and alum Holley Farmer, a Broadway and Merce Cunningham veteran, and well-known choreographer Molly Scott. This eclectic show offers live and recorded compositions by Stuart Dempster, Jarred Powell and Paul Moore, and includes everything from flying bodies to soup cans that playfully and architecturally define space. More info.
UW Symphony at Benaroya Hall
7:30 p.m., Jan. 23 | Benaroya Hall
The UW Symphony goes downtown for an evening of performance featuring School of Music faculty members, including Ludovic Morlot and David Alexander Rahbee, conductors; Robin McCabe and Craig Sheppard, piano; and Joël-François Durand, whose composition “Le Tombeau de Rameau III” will be presented in its world premiere performance. More info. RSVP for the free pre-show reception here.
Women of the Nile at SAAM
7 p.m., Jan. 28 | Seattle Asian Art Museum, Emma Bailargeon Stimson Auditorium
What would the Nile Basin look like if its women were fully empowered? This discussion with female musicians from the Nile Project Collective explores their challenges and opportunities in the world of traditional music and with regional gender issues. Join the musicians as they play, sing and reflect on their experiences as women of the Nile. More info.
Painting + Drawing Studio Open House
7:30 p.m., Jan. 28 | Sand Point Gallery Studios
Discover new artists and visit their private studios at a School of Art + Art History + Design open house at Sand Point. Painting + Drawing MFA students’ studios will be open to the public, providing a rare behind-the-scenes opportunity to view finished and in-progress work and to talk with the students about their artistic processes. An exhibition of faculty-selected work by Painting + Drawing BA/BFA students will be on view in the adjacent Sand Point Gallery. More info.
“Twelfth Night”
Jan. 28-Feb. 8 | Meany Studio Theater
Beloved for its rebellious portrayal of gender ambiguity, William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” is a comedy about a cross-dressing shipwreck survivor who finds herself at the center of a not-so-ordinary love triangle. Third-year MFA directing candidate Leah Adcock-Starr takes this delightfully comic tale of mistaken identities and weaves it into the jazz-infused world of the Roaring Twenties.More info.
Also on Jan. 30: Join the School of Drama for“Twelfth Night” Night a New Orleans-style evening including food, a live Dixie band and the story of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”
JewDub Talks
7 p.m., Jan. 29 | UW Tower
The third-annual JewDub Talks will present short lectures on big ideas in Jewish history and culture. Organized by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, this one-night “TED Talks”-style event features four speakers discussing issues that are personally and intellectually compelling. This event is free and open to the public. More info and RSVP.
The Nile Project
8 p.m., Jan 30 | Meany Theater
Inspired by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, Egyptian musicologist Mina Girgis and Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero created their own, localized concert experience which uses the power of music to raise awareness of the cultural and environmental challenges along the world’s longest river. The Nile Project bridges the polyrhythmic styles of Lake Victoria and the pointed melodies of the Ethiopian highlands with the rich modal traditions of Egypt, Sudan, and others to create the new sound of a shared Nile identity. More info.