MUSIC: 

Sing-along ‘West Side Story’:

Kicking off the first night of the festival is a sing along of the score of West Side Story and a viewing of the film. The event honors the Festival’s namesake—Leonard Bernstein wrote the score for this canonized musical along with his other larger body of compositions. Bernstein was a visiting professor at the University from 1952 to 1956 and was the founder of the eponymous Festival of the Creative Arts.

Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Stein. This event is free and open to the public.


BEAMS: The 2015 Electroacoustic Music Half-Marathon:

This half marathon is no race—this event will feature electroacoustic music written by composers from around the world, performed by campus musicians involved with the Brandeis Electroacoustic Music Studio. The studio, founded in 1961, was the recipient of the 2011 BEAMS Marathon IBM Innovation Award for Performance at the Boston Cyber Arts Festival. Unlike many other studios in the country, BEAMS, according to its website, emphasizes using the studio as a tool to create music. “This emphasis on music, rather than developing new technology has been an integral part of the Composition Department’s formula for success,” the website reads.

Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Slosberg Music Center. This event is free and open to the public.


THEATER: 

‘A Night on the Clowns’: 

Brandeis graduate Kenny Raskin ’74 will be returning for the festival, performing in the clown show that he both conceived of and directed. Raskin, who majored in American Studies at Brandeis, has become a theatrical veteran—having performed in a number of critically acclaimed shows including Cirque du Soleil as well as the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. He also works as a comedy coach. A Night on the Clowns will feature physical comedy performed by Randy Judkins, Amy Gordon, Kevin Brooking and Waldo and Woodhead. Raskin will also be holding a “Clown/Physical Comedy” workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday for 40 participants. 

Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m. on the Mainstage of Spingold Theater Center. Tickets are free and available at the Brandeis Ticket Office. To register for the workshop, email kenny@kennyraskin.com. 


‘Lollipops for Breakfast’ 

For the festival last year, Bonnie Duncan brought her one-woman puppet show Squirrel Stole My Underpants to the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium for Brandeis guests and students from the Lemberg Children’s Center. This year, she will bring Lollipops for Breakfast to campus. The one-woman show features main character Sylvie and her pet bird as they attempt to make a lollipop from scratch—presumably for breakfast. A dance party will follow the puppet show. 

Sunday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater. This event is free and open to the public. 


VISUAL ART: 

“Unnoticed” 

In a thought-provoking installation, Brandeis graduate Paul Belenky ’14 will feature two of what he termed, in an email to the Justice, “large grotesque stuffed canvas monsters.” Each will be sitting at a table painted with the Tinder logosin Fellows Garden. Belenky’s  inspiration comes from “a personal struggle to find a good romantic match, and bad results from online dating,” he wrote. He hopes the installation will inspire students to stop and notice the people who they walk by every day—people who might just be, as he says, “the perfect match.” Belenky is currently pursuing a career in the visual arts and may pursue a graduate degree in painting next year.  

On view in Fellows Garden throughout the Festival.


“Art Within The Soul of Science” 

Doctoral graduate student Vivekanand Vimal (Ph.D. ’16) has conceived of an installation that features the work of Brandeis’ Neuroscience labs. The installation will consist of eight images of scientific data mounted on  foam board, including a 3-D printed image created by the Brandeis Maker Lab. “When I discovered that the theme of the Festival of Arts is Light, my heart fluttered and I knew that I had to apply for the grant,” Vaimal wrote in an email to the Justice. “Microscopy is one of the bedrock tools of science and it works by bending light to magnify the world of the infinitesimal.” 

On view in the Slosberg Music Center throughout the Festival. 

PERFORMANCE ART

“The Burning Boards” 

On Friday night, novices and experts will come together to play chess games with a twist. For this event, members of the Brandeis community will play 16 simultaneous games of chess under Chris Burden’s permanent installation “The Light of Reason.” Artist Glen Kaino’s goal in this performance piece is for the players to play against one another strategically while also racing against the opponent of time. Players will mostly be students and the Chess Club has a lot of players registered, including president of the club, Misha Vilenchuk ’16, who has also been heavily involved in the planning process, according to Acting Director of the Office of the Arts Ingrid Schorr. 

Friday at 7:30 p.m. outside the Rose Art Museum. Participants have already been chosen but onlookers are welcome.

Big Nazo

Do you remember those gigantic, slightly terrifying characters that were parading around the Shapiro Campus Center for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts in 2012? Well, those guys will be back this year. According to the Festival schedule, characters will include “a rowdy rodeo horse, a three-eyed robot percussionist, a charismatic lab rat and his giant man-eating Chia Pet.” The company that performs as these creatures is an international performance group called Big Nazo, and they have performed in countries ranging from Italy to Indonesia. The performance on Sunday will be what the company terms a “Creature Stroll.” We will have to show up on Sunday to find out what that means.

Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. on the Great Lawn.