Pitt-Bradford to Kick Off Spring Spectrum Series with Playwright

Playwright Sam Kelley, author of the nationally acclaimed play “Pill Hill,” will kick off the spring term Spectrum Series at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Spectrum events are free unless otherwise noted.

Kelley will read from “Pill Hill” and two new works at noon Jan. 12 in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby of Blaisdell Hall.

“Pill Hill” is a play about African-American steel workers in Chicago, where it has been staged three times, most recently last summer. The visit by Kelley, a distinguished service professor in the departments of Africana Studies and Communication Studies at the State University of New York Cortland, is the first of 10 days of events to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

The King celebration will culminate in “Ain’t Got Long to Stay Here,” a one-man play written and performed by Barry Scott based on the life of Dr. King at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 22 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall.

During the 90-minute presentation, Scott recreates numerous figures from the Civil Rights era, presenting differing opinions and personalities to capture what King faced.

Scott has performed “Ain’t Got Long to Stay Here” at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Beacon Theater in New York, the Fox Theater in Atlanta and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. A question-and-answer session will follow.

Tickets are $10 for the public; all students are free.

More events for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Pitt-Bradford will be announced.

Also in January, the unveiling of Pitt-Bradford’s award-winning student literary magazine, Baily’s Beads, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 in the Mukaiyama University Room in the Frame-Westerberg Commons. The annual literary magazine celebration will also feature readings by contributors.

The 2010 magazine is edited by Mandy Colosimo, a writing major from Bradford. The 2007 and 2005 issues of the magazine were each named one of the top 12 student literary magazines in the country by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

An invitational art exhibit, “The Content of Becoming: Mixed Media Exhibition by Shaqe Kalaj” will open in the KOA Art Gallery in Blaisdell Hall and run through Feb. 26. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and during evening arts events.

A free gallery talk and opening reception will be held beginning at noon Jan. 22 in the Webb/Bradford Forest Rehearsal Hall in Blaisdell.

The final Marilyn Horne Residency and Recital at Pitt-Bradford will feature contralto Meredith Arwady at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Bromeley Family Theater. Tickets for the public are $10; students are free.

The national residency series will be moving to new performing space at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

“Although giving young artists the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall should be very exciting for them, we will still miss hosting the residencies and having the opportunity to meet some exceptionally gifted artists,” said Randy L. Mayes, director of arts programming.

Arwady, a native of Michigan, has performed for five summers at the Chautauqua Institution, performing Madame Flora in “The Medium,” Zita in “Gianni Schicchi,” Mrs. Peachum in “Threepenny Opera,” Mother in “L’Enfant et les sortileges” and Madame de Quimper Karadec in La Vie Parisienne.

In February, novelist Sherrie Flick will visit Feb. 23 to read from her works at 7:30 p.m. in the Bromeley Family Theater. A reception will follow. She is the author of the award-winning flash fiction chapbook “I Call This Flirting.”

Her first novel, “Reconsidering Happiness,” was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2009.

At noon, Feb. 25, Ed Epstein will play jazz piano as part of the Noon Tunes series in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby.

Poet Kate Northrup will read from her work at noon March 2 in the University Room, followed by a reception.

Northrup is an assistant professor of English/creative writing at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Northwest Review, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, Rattle and Louisiana Literature.

The Southern Tier Symphony will perform at 3 p.m. March 7 in the Bromeley Family Theater. Tickets are $20 for the public at the door; students are free.

“Music Tells a Story” will be the theme for the pops concert for this regional symphony. Pieces include “The Thrill of the Orchestra” by Russell Peck, “Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham” by Robert Kapilow and “Peter and the Wolf” by Surge Prokofiev.

The Pitt-Bradford Annual Student Art Exhibition will be on display March 19 to April 9 in the KOA Art Gallery with an opening reception at noon March 19 in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby.

The Spring College-Community Choir Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. March 24 in Bromeley Family Theater.

The spring Division of Communication and the Arts theater production will be the “Macbeth Project,” adapted from William Shakespeare.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. April 8, 9 and 10 and 2 p.m. April 11 in the Studio Theatre in Blaisdell Hall. Tickets are $6 for the public; $2 for all students.

Shakespeare’s shortest, most intense tragedy gets stripped down even further, then thoroughly imagined and reinvented for the world we find ourselves in now.

The Southern Tier Symphony will perform again at 3 p.m. May 9 in the Bromeley Family Theater. Tickets are $20 for the public; all students are free.

Works with the theme “Fire and Water” will include “The Russian Sailor’s Dance” from “The Red Poppy” by Reinhold Gliere and works by Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Handel.

“Spectrum offers plenty of activities for both campus and community this spring, and I look forward to each event,” Mayes said. “I do not know of any other university close to our size that offers such a series and hope many people take advantage of it.”

For disability-related needs, contact the Office of Disability Resources and Services at 814-362-7609 or arj4@pitt.edu.

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