Community Calendar

by Anton Chekhov | adaptation by Stephen Nunns and Atlas Kazan
music and lyrics by Stephen Nunns and Luci Thomas | directed by Stephen Nunns

Towson University takes Anton Chekhov's classic play about love and denial and approaches it in new, unexpected ways. In each of the four acts, the play is adapted in a different manner--from classic realism, to saturnine experimentation, to exuberant musical theatre. This is a new perspective—or four new perspectives—on Chekhov and his work.

Proceeds benefit the TU Foundation.
Run time to be announced.
October 13, 14 and 16 free TU student rush tickets.
TU students can claim free performance tickets by presenting their OneCards at the box office starting one hour before the performance on October 13, 14 and 16. If student rush tickets sell out, students can purchase tickets at a discounted rate.

THE SHARK IS BROKEN

BY IAN SHAW and JOSEPH NIXON
DIRECTED BY Gené Fouché

SEPTEMBER 12 – OCTOBER 5

Preview September 11
ASL Interpreted performance September 19

It’s 1974 and the hit movie JAWS is being filmed. Well, it would be, if the prop shark wasn’t a mechanical mess. In this laugh-out-loud comedy, testy, feuding costars Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider take center stage as booze flows, egos clash, and tempers flare. The actors pray for an end to the shoot, not knowing it will change their lives forever.

In this captivating adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion by Sarah Rose Kearns, audiences are transported to a world of social intrigue, family drama, and enduring love. Anne Elliot's touching journey of resilience and second chances unfolds against the elegant and beloved backdrop of Regency-era England, laced with Austen's signature wit.

Persuasion will open September 26 with previews on September 24 and 25. The production will close on October 19. Thursday shows are only 10/9 and 10/16.
Visit www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com for more information or call the box office at 410-244-8570.

A baroque masterpiece written in the 1670s, St John the Baptist vividly retells the harrowing story of Salome. Despite its historic significance and radiant score—featured in Maria Callas’ debut concert performance in 1945—this opera has never been staged. Now, in collaboration with New York’s Catapult Opera, it makes its long-awaited theatrical debut. Performed in English by local singers and envisioned by Baltimore-based designers, this co-production breathes new life into a lost gem of operatic history.

PERFORMANCES
October 10 at 8 PM
October 11 at 8 PM
October 12 at 2:30 PM

Back for its second year, Abbott and the Big Ten Conference are hosting the We Give Blood Drive competition to entice students, alumni, fans, and community members to rally around their Big Ten school to donate blood, save lives, and address the country's ongoing critical blood shortage.

From August 27 to December 5, anyone eligible to donate blood can do so anywhere, anytime in the U.S. to count for their school. The school with the most donations at the end of the competition will receive $1 million to advance student or community health.

New this year, everyone who donates or attempts to donate blood throughout the competition will receive an exclusive, limited-edition, Homefield-designed T-shirt specific to their school. To receive the shirt:

1. Show up to donate
2. Submit your donation (or attempt to donate) at BigTen.Org/Abbott or by texting DONATE to 222688 (ABBOTT).
3. Click the link sent to your email
4. Use your redemption code
5. Your shirt will be shipped to the address of your choice. 

Last year, the University of Nebraska won, and is using the funds to advance student health on campus. The University of Maryland is competing this year and will host several blood drives on campus and in the surrounding area throughout the competition. To find a blood drive near you, please visit: https://bigten.org/abbott/maryland

This focus exhibition of 10 works explores the relationship between burning fossil fuels—namely, coal—and the emergence of European modernism. Drawing on research conducted by climate scientists and art historians, the exhibition presents a range of paintings and works on paper by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler, and others to explore the ways that their artistic practices and style emerged, in part, in response to widespread pollution in London and Paris.
Presented as part of the Turn Again to the Earth environmental initiative.

In this focus exhibition of approximately 20 photographs, prints, drawings, and textiles, the natural environment is a source of creative inspiration worth celebrating and protecting.

Works by artists such as Winslow Homer, Richard Misrach, Charles Sheeler, and Kiki Smith, among many others, depict the elements of air, water, earth, and fire and address broader themes of ecological awareness and preservation. These themes range from how artists have used visual language to convey the act of locating oneself in nature; works that depict natural forms through the physical integration of environmental components; and artists’ commentary on sites of environmental disaster, the sociopolitical ramifications of human impact, and the potential of symbiotic healing for this planet and its occupants.

More than 50 works on paper investigate how artists working in Europe and French-occupied northern Africa watched and participated as nature became a resource for people to hoard or share.

Drawn from the BMA’s George A. Lucas Collection, this exhibition of 19th-century art foregrounds the many ways that human relationships, including imperialism and capitalism, affect the environment. Deconstructing Nature is organized thematically, focusing on five environments and the ways artists explored them in their work: The Desert, The Forest, The Field, The City, and The Studio.

Born and raised in Baltimore, George A. Lucas (1824–1909) spent most of his adult life immersed in the Parisian art world and amassed a personal collection of nearly 20,000 works of art. In 1996, the BMA, with funds from the State of Maryland and the generosity of numerous individuals in the community, purchased the George A. Lucas Collection, which had been on extended loan to the Museum for more than 60 years.

For thousands of years, East Asia’s cultures have viewed human life as part of a much larger system that encompasses the natural world. Drawn from the BMA’s collection, this exhibition boasts more than 40 objects—from magnificent ink drawings to beautifully crafted stoneware and poignant contemporary photographs and prints. They bring into the galleries the mountains and seas, wild and supernatural animals, and plant life that are extensive across East Asian imagery and often carry symbolic meaning.

Works on view include robust 13th-century ceramic vessels, delicate porcelain, carved jade, intricately sewn textiles, and large-scale photography; collectively, these artworks represent the impulse to fully understand the natural world as foundational to our existence, as shaped by human life, and as an enduring metaphor of survival.

The Elk Creeks Preservation Society invites you to its Apple Butter Festival, which will be held from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 11. You will see old-fashioned apple butter making, and enjoy traditional Scottish food, working artisans, craft sales, bagpipes, local honey, cider, and hayrides. The proceeds from this non-profit event help fund restoration of colonial buildings on the property and the preservation of the history of the Scottish settlers in the region. Come out to enjoy a day in the country and take a few jars of apple butter home!