From films old and new screening in Palo Alto, to on-campus theater productions, Arts & Life presents its weekly curated collection of the best things to see and do both on and off campus this week.
Film
Although Flicks will not be screening anything on campus this weekend, there are plenty of opportunities to catch some great films in the surrounding Bay Area. The Aquarius is still showing “Big Eyes” and “Foxcatcher,” and CineArts Palo Alto Square is continuing to screen “Theory of Everything” and “Birdman.” If you’re willing to go further afield, you can catch Paul Thomas Anderson’s impossible-to-follow but hilarious “Inherent Vice” or Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated “American Sniper,” which had an astonishing, record-breaking opening weekend box office haul.
If you’re looking for something from the vault, The Stanford Theatre’s Hitchcock Festival is in full swing; the gorgeous venue will be showing both “Dial M for Murder” and “Young and Innocent” this weekend. Or venture into San Francisco to catch the “Noir City” program at the Castro Theatre, which features a number of noir classics from W.S. Van Dyke’s “The Thin Man” to Fritz Lang’s “Clash by Night.”
Theater
This week, see Stanford TAPS and Stanford Repertory Theater present a staged reading of “Words to End All Wars,” a piece compiled and directed by Professor Rush Rehm. The piece, which will be performed at 8 p.m. on January 23 and 24 at Pigott Theater, is a reflection on the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. According to Rehm, “ ‘Words to End All Wars’ brings together reactions from poets and playwrights who grappled with the horror, bravery, sacrifice and idiocy of the ‘war to end all wars.’”
The cast includes graduates, undergraduates, and faculty. Find more information here and stay up to date on Stanford Repertory Theater’s productions here. The house opens at 7:30 p.m. both nights and seating is available on a “first come, first served” basis.
Music
The music scene on campus is beginning to pick up again, as the Music Department presents a solo concert by Charles Ferguson, a classical guitarist on faculty at Stanford, on January 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Along with works by Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ferguson will also be performing his own original compositions. Students gain free admission with their SUID. On Jan. 21 at 12:15 p.m., check out your fellow students perform in a free recital featuring flute students of Melody Holmes-Vedder in Campbell Recital Hall.
Off campus events include a San Francisco symphony concert on January 23 at 8 p.m. with Yefim Bronfman, a pianist described by the New York Times as “a virtuoso with chops that defy comparison.” The Budapest Festival Orchestra, ranked by Gramophone as one of the top 10 orchestras in the world, will be visiting Davies Symphony Hall on Jan. 25 and 26 for two performances, one featuring renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the other featuring an all-Brahms program.
Patti Smith will be bringing punk rock to the Bay Area with three shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco over the next week (Jan. 21, 23 and 24). If you’re looking for a hip hop fix, Wale will be performing at The Fillmore on Sunday Jan. 25. Finesse, Stanford alum Alberto Guzmán ’14’s solo hip hop venture, will be opening up for blues rock band Fantastic Negrito at PianoFight in San Francisco on Friday night (Jan. 23).
Visual Arts
Don’t miss your last chance to see the two exhibits at the Cantor Arts Center that close at the end of the month: “Within and Without: Transformations in Chinese Landscapes” and “Well Pressed: Highlights from the Marmor Collection.” While you’re at Cantor, be sure to catch the newly opened exhibit of Robert Rauschenberg’s collages of Apollo-age photos, as well as the temporary exhibit of the SFMOMA’s Pop Art from the Anderson Collection, which is here this year only.
Literature and poetry
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück will read some of her work in a lecture sponsored by the Creative Writing Project on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. in the Cemex Auditorium.