November-December Highlights

McKinley Carter and Deanna Dunagan in Court Theatre’s production of James Joyce’s The Dead

Court Theatre
James Joyce’s The Dead
5535 S. Ellis Ave. (773) 753-4472. http://www.courttheatre.org. $26-30 for preview performances; $35-50 for regular performances.
Friday, Nov. 28 through Sunday, Dec. 28
Based on a short story from James Joyce’s Dubliners, this lauded new musical returns to Court Theatre after a widely acclaimed performance last year. James Joyce’s The Dead unfolds on a snowy Christmas Eve in Dublin as friends and family gather to eat and drink at the Morkan family’s annual holiday party. During the festivities a familiar Irish folk song re-ignites a long-buried passion in one of the party’s guests, Gretta Conroy. Gabriel Conroy, Gretta’s husband and the play’s narrator, must deal with his wife’s memory of a long-lost love and unfulfilled possibilities. Filled with Irish folk melodies and dancing, James Joyce’s The Dead will be a highlight the holiday season.

Sharon Quattrin Theresa Brancaccio Jeffrey Ray

Department of Music
University Symphony Orchestra
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. 702-9075. $8 general, $5 students and children.
8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6
Barbara Schubert conducts the orchestra and soloists in a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel. With mezzo-soprano Theresa Brancaccio as Hansel, soprano Sharon Quattrin as Gretel, mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott as the mother and the witch, baritone Jeffrey Ray as the father, and soprano Tina Beverly as the Dew Fairy, the performance of this Romantic opera will re-enact the magic of this classic fairy tale. Joining the ensemble is the University Lab Schools Children’s Choir.

Director Errol Morris filming Mr. Death in the crematorium of the concentration camp in Aushwitz, Poland

The Committee on Cinema & Media Studies and the Film Studies Center
Nuveen Visiting Filmmaker: Errol Morris
4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3
Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. 702-8596.
http://www.college.uchicago.edu/FSC/. Free.
Errol Morris, director of the acclaimed new documentary The Fog of War and such lauded documentaries as The Thin Blue Line, Mr. Death and Gates of Heaven, will visit campus as the University’s Nuveen Visiting Filmmaker. He will give a public lecture at 4 p.m. in the Max Palevsky Cinema. His lecture will be the first in this year’s Nuveen Visiting Filmmaker Series at the University, which brings distinguished filmmakers to campus. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, reflects on the last century through the eyes of former Secretary of Defense McNamara, combining archival footage, recreations, declassified White House recordings and an original score by Phillip Glass (A.B.,’56). To honor Morris, Doc Films will have a special screening at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, in Max Palevsky Cinema. Passes are required and will be distributed at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, in the Max Palevsky Cinema lobby.

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Advent Vespers
5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. 702-7059. Free-will donation.
5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7
In this service and performance celebrating the arrival of the Advent season, Randi Von Ellefson will conduct the Rockefeller Chapel Choir and the Motet Choir in a program featuring traditional Western holiday music and Christmas carols from around the world. Thomas Weisflog, the chapel’s organist, will accompany the choirs.