Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts

Faculty Film Series- "Loyalty Code"- Kelly Dolak
2021-02-02 19:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual
Loyalty Code is an inquiry into our universal struggles between loyalty and doing what’s right. The feature documentary provides an inside look at the Penn State family and the lengths they go to protect their family, preserve their traditions, and restore the legacy of football coach Joe Paterno. Four Penn State students with clashing perspectives on loyalty and belonging navigate us through the moral codes of loyalty, morality, and self-interest. This film will make you rethink loyalty.
Kelly Dolak is a writer/ director who began her career in NYC working in cable television for MTV, Nickelodeon, AMC and The Discovery Channel. The show she worked on for AMC, “Behind the Screen” won a daytime Emmy award. She also produced segments for Al Jazeera English and her short film work has appeared on PBS. Her first documentary feature, POSTCARDS FROM TORA BORA, about the impact the wars in Afghanistan have on an individual family, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at more than 30 other festivals worldwide. She produced the documentary OUR LIPS ARE SEALED that won the audience award at the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Most recently she won a Zeiss Lens Best Cinematography award for her short film RELENT. LOYALTY CODE, about loyalty and the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal, is her second feature film and is available on Amazon Prime.
* This film is currently available on Amazon Prime. If you have an Amazon Prime account, please feel free to view in advance.

Register Here for the Live Q&A and for Link to Film

Broadway Visiting Artists
2021-02-05 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
A panel of Broadway professionals will discuss developing new works for digital platforms. The panel includes director/choreographer Luis Salgado (Cirque de Soleil, In the Heights) , playwright Eric Ulloa and actress Leah Hoffman.
Registration Below!

Faculty Film Series- "A Condor in the Reeds"-Marta Noemí Bautis
2021-02-09 19:00 - 21:00 | NJ
In this film three generations of Mapuche women in Southern Argentina share the story of their fifty-year struggle resisting the eviction attempts by the Argentinian Army. Through daily life scenes, views of the landscape, testimonies and archival materials, this documentary shows the determination of this community to defend their ancestral lands and reveals a cosmovision where human beings live in harmony with nature and with everything it it. Their story is part of the collective history of the Mapuche people. Inhabitants in a land rich in natural resources, pristine sources of water and great touristic value, the Mapuches have been forced to defend their communities and culture for hundreds of years, since the Spanish Conquest Wars, to the genocidal “Campaign of the Desert” in the XIX century, to the eviction attempts by large international interests in the present times.
Marta Noemí Bautís, director, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her social documentaries tell stories of struggle and hope, and they have been screened at numerous international festivals, among them the New Latin American Cinema Festival, in Havana, Cuba, the Latino Film Festival of Sydney, in Australia, and the Latino Film Festival of San Diego, in California. Ms. Bautís is a faculty member in the School of Contemporary Arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Register Here for the Live Q&A and Link to Film

Made in Jersey: Michelle Myers
2021-02-11 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
Made in Jersey will feature a series of New Jersey based performing artists sharing new works-in-
progress. After each broadcast, audiences will be able to join the artist in a live chat where they can ask
questions.

In her performance memoir “Mudang Magic,” Michelle Myers explores how words can hang onto grief and how memory can create a landscape of both loss and healing. The vulnerability of her storytelling and performance allows Myers to meditate on the entwining of experience as both emotional departure and spiritual return as she shares her reflections on her relationship with her mother and of losing her mother to cancer. Myers’ performance plumbs the depths of memory and delves into the idea that, sometimes, to know who we are, we have to retrace our steps. Utilizing spoken word poetry, storytelling, and song, “Mudang Magic” joins her and her mother’s stories in a way that acknowledges that with loss comes not only deep pain but revelation and renewal.
Click Here On February 11 at 8:00pm for the Performance

Faculty Film Series- "Days of Atonement" Shalom Gorewitz and Darryll Rudy
2021-02-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtual
Warning: This film contains profane language, reference to marijuana (legal for personal use in the state of Vermont), and descriptions of violence.
A docudrama about a convicted murderer, released from prison because he is dying of cancer. During his remaining time his mission is to make amends with some of the people he hurt, including the sister of the man he murdered. She demands $5000 to see him. His former cellmate offers him one more job to raise the money.
This film was recorded with an Apple iPhone in and around St. Johnsbury Vermont. Most of the performers are not professional actors and some of them have criminal records. The film is based on improvised conversations and activities by a one person crew attempting to maintain social distance during the process of making the film. There was only one take of each scene.
Shalom Gorewitz and Darryll Rudy were students at California Institute of the Arts at the same time in 1971-72.
Gorewitz studied media, Rudy was a theater major. Almost 60 years later they met in St. Johnsbury, VT. Both have had good careers as artists and educators. Gorewitz has been a professor at Ramapo College since 1982 and in addition to professional performance, Rudy often worked with prisoners using theater as a healing device. During the pandemic summer of 2020, Rudy and Gorewitz decided to collaborate on this project that documents the last months in the life of a violent offender who has used positive, character building prison resources and unexpected freedom to seek forgiveness from some of the people he hurt during his youth.
Register Here for Live Q&A and for Link to Film

Life After the Po: Alumni Creative Conversations
2021-02-19 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
Co hosts Terra Vandergaw and Jaquair Gillette talk shop with Theater alums Kevin Sebastian, LJ Hickmon, Josh Ritter and Jackie Byrne.
Registration Link Below!
Register Here

Faculty Film Series- "Blue Hole" Neel Scott
2021-02-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtual
“Blue Hole”- Four teenagers on a summer afternoon hike discover a secret hidden away for many years. Along the way, they are forced to examine their own lives, as well as face the realities of death and the impressions that one leaves behind.
Neel Scott is an Associate Professor of Digital Filmmaking at Ramapo College and a director, editor, and sound designer whose films have played at over 50 international film festivals. His credits include Coming Closer (director, Berlin Film Festival), Conversion (editor, Sundance Film Festival), Blue Hole (director, Palm Beach International Film Festival), and Love Hunter (sound designer, Warsaw International Film Festival).
Register Here for Live Q&A and for Link to Films

Thomas Edison Film Festival
2021-03-09 10:00 - 22:00, 2021-03-10 10:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
On Tuesday and Wednesday, March 9 and March 10, 2021 the Berrie Center for the Performing & Visual Arts at Ramapo College is pleased to host a virtual custom-curated program featuring animated selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival 40th anniversary season. Following the two days of viewing, Festival Director Jane Steuerwald will lead a Zoom talk about the films at 6:00 p.m. on March 10 including Professor Ann LePore and filmmaker John C. Kelly. All events are free and open to the public. The Vimeo link to view the films will go live at 10 a.m. on March 9 and remain live through 10 p.m. on March 10.

Films include The Ephemeral Orphanage by Lisa Barcy, Chicago, IL; The Chimney Swift by Frédéric Schuld, Hamburg, Germany; One of Their Own – by Allen Colombo, LA, CA; Metro6 by Geoff Hecht, San Francisco, CA; Metamorphosis by Wang Xi, LA, CA; Lost Lula – by Steven Vander Meer, Arcata, CA; Whirlwind by Adolfo Ruiz, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Green Grass by Michael Greco, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; A Family That Steals Dogs by John C. Kelly, Knoxville, TN; Three by Soyeon Kim, Lake Balboa, CA; and Beyond Noh by Patrick Smith, NY, NY and Kaori Ishida, Osaka, Japan.
Film List and Synopses

Link to Films
Zoom Discussion Link

Stop Kiss
2021-03-19 20:00 - 22:00, 2021-03-20 20:00 - 22:00, 2021-03-21 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
STOP KISS by Diana Son, Directed by Mary Ellen Allison
“A poignant and funny play about the ways, both sudden and gradual, that lives can change irrevocably,” says
Variety. Diana Son’s Stop Kiss is a modern tale of cosmopolitan obscurity and of finding love where you least
expect it. It is an unabashed look at struggles of sexual identity and longings for connection as it shines a light
on themes of assault and homophobia.
Watch it on YouTube at Showtime!

Made in Jersey: Kiran Rajagopalan
2021-03-25 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
Made in Jersey will feature a series of New Jersey based performing artists sharing new works-in-
progress. After each broadcast, audiences will be able to join the artist in a live chat where they can ask
questions.
Click Here to Watch the Performance!
Classically trained Indian dancer and choreographer Kiran Rajagopalan performs the first act of his work Vaiśravana which includes dance, spoken word, and live drumming.

Vaiśravaṇa, commonly known as Kubera, is the Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu deity of wealth in the form of natural resources, currency, and commerce. In some depictions, he is the pot-bellied, self-serving, dark-skinned ruler of the Yakshas – an indigenous tribe of magical healers and shamans coveted for their knowledge of Earth’s secrets but feared by “respectable” society. In others, he is the radiant, noble, golden-skinned guardian of the north and official treasurer to the gods. His shapeshifting in religious art and literature is reflective of South Asian society’s framing of good and evil around wealth, caste, and complexion. His endurance in collective consciousness symbolizes mankind’s relentless pursuit of wealth in an era dominated by consumerism and driven by instant gratification.

This solo work by Kiran Rajagopalan has been commissioned by Prakriti Dance.
Vaiśravaṇa – Vocabulary List
Vaiśravaṇa Bonus Material

Horsedreams
2021-04-16 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
HORSEDREAMS by Dael Orlandersmith
Is an unsparingly honest play that chronicles a family’s disintegration from drug addiction. Presented in first-person narrative, HORSEDREAMS depicts the disparate impact of addiction and the drug trade on the white and black communities. Emotionally impactful while lyrical and poetic, Orlandersmith’s beautiful prose takes us on an unforgettable ride.
Directed by Maria Vail
View the Performance Here on April 16 at 8:00pm

Horsedreams
2021-04-17 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
HORSEDREAMS by Dael Orlandersmith
Is an unsparingly honest play that chronicles a family’s disintegration from drug addiction. Presented in first-person narrative, HORSEDREAMS depicts the disparate impact of addiction and the drug trade on the white and black communities. Emotionally impactful while lyrical and poetic, Orlandersmith’s beautiful prose takes us on an unforgettable ride.
Directed by Maria Vail
View the Performance Here on April 17 at 8:00pm

Horsedreams
2021-04-18 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
HORSEDREAMS by Dael Orlandersmith
Is an unsparingly honest play that chronicles a family’s disintegration from drug addiction. Presented in first-person narrative, HORSEDREAMS depicts the disparate impact of addiction and the drug trade on the white and black communities. Emotionally impactful while lyrical and poetic, Orlandersmith’s beautiful prose takes us on an unforgettable ride.
Directed by Maria Vail
View the Performance Here on April 18 at 8:00pm

Shakespeare Ramapo
2021-04-21 11:30 | Virtual
INTERMEDIATE ACTING: HAMLET EXPLORATION

Welcome to Elsinore! Indecision, intrigue and passion abound as students of Intermediate Acting perform soliloquys, monologues and scene readings from Hamlet.

Click Here to Register!

Shakespeare at Ramapo
2021-04-22 11:30 - 13:30 | Virtual
VOICE AND MOVEMENT: SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
Celebrate Earth Day AND Shakespeare Day by diving into Shakespeare’s poetry! Join students in Voice and Movement as they explore the Sonnets through performance!
Click Here to Register!

Shakespeare at Ramapo
2021-04-22 14:30 - 15:55 | Virtual
ACTING FOR NON-MAJORS: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOP
Brush up your Shakespeare in this fun and interactive workshop with students in Acting for Non Majors! Wake up your imagination and feel more at ease with the Bard! No experience necessary!
Click Here to Register!

Shakespeare at Ramapo
2021-04-23 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
ADVANCED DIRECTING: SHAKESPEARE SCENES

Our Advanced Directing students, working with students from Stage Management, tackle Shakespeare scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kat Ceberio), The Taming of the Shrew (Grace Diaz) and Romeo and Juliet (Kate Gavin). Great art often comes from working within limitations – of space, of resources, of societies and cultures. Come see how Shakespeare lives on through the inspiring limitations of our 21st century mediated presentations.
Click Here to Watch the Performance

Shakespeare at Ramapo
2021-04-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Virtual
ADVANCED DIRECTING: SHAKESPEARE SCENES
Our Advanced Directing students, working with students from Stage Management, tackle Shakespeare scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kat Ceberio), The Taming of the Shrew (Grace Diaz) and Romeo and Juliet (Kate Gavin). Great art often comes from working within limitations – of space, of resources, of societies and cultures. Come see how Shakespeare lives on through the inspiring limitations of our 21st century mediated presentations.
Click Here to Watch the Performance!

Dead Bodies Among Us: Freedom Epistemologies and Contemporary Haitian Art
2021-04-27 13:00 - 14:30 | Virtual
An online talk by Dr. Jerry Philogene
View the Online Lecture Here on April 27th

Made in Jersey: Kyle Marshall
2021-04-29 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
Made in Jersey will feature a series of New Jersey based performing artists sharing new works-in-
progress. After each broadcast, audiences will be able to join the artist in a live chat where they can ask
questions.
Kyle Marshall is a choreographer, performer and teaching artist. He recently received the 2020 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award and a NY “Bessie” Award nomination for the production “Colored”. His dance company, Kyle Marshall Choreography (KMC) sees the dancing body as a container of history, an igniter of social reform and a site of celebration. Since inception in 2014, KMC has performed at venues including: BAM Next Wave Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joe’s Pub at the Public, Actors Fund Arts Center, NJPAC, NYC Summerstage, and Roulette. He has also received commissions from “Dance on the Lawn” Montclair’s Dance Festival and Harlem Stage. Marshall has been in residence at the 92nd st Y, CPR, Jamaica Performing Arts Center and currently is a Resident Performance Artist at MANA Contemporary. As a teacher, Marshall conducts dance masterclasses and creative workshops at schools including; American Dance Festival, Montclair State University, Ailey/Fordham, County Prep High School and Bloomfield College. Kyle is a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. He also danced with doug elkins choreography etc., and Tiffany Mills Company. Kyle graduated from Rutgers University with a BFA in Dance and resides in Jersey City.

Description of Performance:
In this solo dance work-in-progress, choreographer and dancer Kyle Marshall states “as a member of the diaspora, I have often felt distant from my maternal homeland, Jamaica. I and I is an exploration of my Jamaican body. This process has directed me towards my family’s migration story, Caribbean dance, and historical research, and uncovering the global cultural impact of this mighty Caribbean island.”
Born into a family of runners, motion is at the core of Marshall’s being. At times, this process is biographic and heartfelt as he works to undo shame he has felt about his sexuality, dance to music of his childhood, or ask his mother for traditional recipes to try. At other times, Marshall is embodying ideas rooted in collective memory and Jamaican pop culture which step beyond his personal narrative. Marshall shares, “as someone who grew up in a Jamaican-American household, and visited the island throughout my childhood, the distance and comfort I feel about cultural traditions makes me question what an authentic Jamaican experience is. I understand culture to be an embodied experience taught to us by our elders, shaped by our environment, and reinforced by our consumption of media. My bloodline is one of generational migration in search of opportunity and land of our own.” As a member of the diaspora, Marshall is a mix of cultural influences. Shaped by the country in which he resides, linked to his mother’s island and the wild dream of ancestors forced to arrive on the shores of Jamaica from Africa. I and I attempts to bridge these worlds, connecting his body to its origins and beyond.
The title I and I is a Rastafarian term for oneness with God. It is a concept that God is within each of us and therefore we are all connected to each other through this bond. In Jamaican Patois, “I and I” would replace “you and I” or “we”. Like much of the language, “I and I’’ derives from the Twi language of Ghana, translating to “Me ne me.” Bob Marley, a Rastafarian himself, expressed this in another way, “one love, one heart”. That in loving myself as I am, I uplift the spirit within me and am better able to celebrate the spirit within you.
View the Performance

Made in Jersey: Alexa Marino
2021-05-13 20:00 - 21:30 | Virtual
https://youtu.be/BrETacxLk3U
Made in Jersey will feature a series of New Jersey based performing artists sharing new works-in-
progress. After each broadcast, audiences will be able to join the artist in a live chat where they can ask
questions.
“LAID BARE” is a vivid debut album that brings all to attention in a captivating narrative of love and loss, hope and restlessness, beauty and pain. Each song unfolds with more raw intensity than the last, with powerful lyrics and a strong, soulful voice introducing to the world a soul unbound and unyielding. Co-writer Alex Hayes beautifully captures Alexa’s striking imagery with strong and crisp music production.
Available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music,
Soundcloud, and all other major music platforms.
Recommended if you like:
Florence and The Machine, Adele, Grace Potter, MILCK.

Ryan & Ryan- Kickin' the Clouds Away
2021-06-17 10:00 - 2021-06-23 22:00 | Virtual
In celebration of Juneteenth father and son piano duo Ryan & Ryan present Kickin’ the Clouds Away
June 17-23, 2021. Free, but patrons must register to receive the link.
Ryan & Ryan will be performing their Kicking the Clouds Away concert featuring some of the world’s best piano music including jazz, ragtime, classical, and gospel. Joining Ryan & Ryan for a special pre-concert chat will be Berrie Center director Lisa Campbell.
Ryan & Ryan is made possible through a generous grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Register Here for the Performance!

Squonk Opera presents: Hand to Hand
2021-10-05 14:00 - 15:00 | Bandshell, 505 Ramapo Valley Rd., MAHWAH, NJ, 07430, United States
FREE and open to the public, but ticket required!
Hand to Hand is propelled by 2 giant puppet hands, each the size of a house and rigged like a sailing ship, and music that blows the roof off. The Squonkers, dwarfed by the hands, climb a multi-tiered stage. Music rises from a single finger flicking an organ key, as natural an expression of humanity as a wave or a fist. Squonk’s original progressive rock drives a journey that is spectacular, plaintive, and comic. In this melee, the giant thumbs detach to become truly opposable and challenge each other with guitars.

This is a special performance for working artists and student artists, followed by a workshop on the Squonk Collaborative Arts Process. Squonk Artistic Directors will discuss music collaboration, devised theater, and cross-disciplinary thinking, and share their process for making storyboards for creating performance.
This engagement of Squonk Opera is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Squonk Opera was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.
Reserve Your Free Tickets!

Squonk Opera presents: Hand to Hand
2021-10-05 18:30 - 19:30 | Bandshell, 505 Ramapo Valley Rd., MAHWAH, NJ, 07430, United States
FREE and open to the public, but ticket required! Free backstage tours begin at 7:00pm!
Hand to Hand is propelled by 2 giant puppet hands, each the size of a house and rigged like a sailing ship, and music that blows the roof off. The Squonkers, dwarfed by the hands, climb a multi-tiered stage. Music rises from a single finger flicking an organ key, as natural an expression of humanity as a wave or a fist. Squonk’s original progressive rock drives a journey that is spectacular, plaintive, and comic. In this melee, the giant thumbs detach to become truly opposable and challenge each other with guitars.

This engagement of Squonk Opera is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Squonk Opera was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.
Reserve Your Free Tickets!

Squonk Opera presents: Hand to Hand
2021-10-06 12:30 - 13:30 | Bandshell, 505 Ramapo Valley Rd., MAHWAH, NJ, 07430, United States
FREE and open to the public, but ticket required!
Hand to Hand is propelled by 2 giant puppet hands, each the size of a house and rigged like a sailing ship, and music that blows the roof off. The Squonkers, dwarfed by the hands, climb a multi-tiered stage. Music rises from a single finger flicking an organ key, as natural an expression of humanity as a wave or a fist. Squonk’s original progressive rock drives a journey that is spectacular, plaintive, and comic. In this melee, the giant thumbs detach to become truly opposable and challenge each other with guitars.
Join us for this fun concert beginning at 12:30pm, followed by a live Q&A around 1:00 p.m.

This engagement of Squonk Opera is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Squonk Opera was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.
Reserve Your Free Tickets!

Squonk Opera presents: Hand to Hand
2021-10-06 15:30 - 16:00 | Bandshell, 505 Ramapo Valley Rd., MAHWAH, NJ, 07430, United States
FREE and open to the public, but ticket required!
Hand to Hand is propelled by 2 giant puppet hands, each the size of a house and rigged like a sailing ship, and music that blows the roof off. The Squonkers, dwarfed by the hands, climb a multi-tiered stage. Music rises from a single finger flicking an organ key, as natural an expression of humanity as a wave or a fist. Squonk’s original progressive rock drives a journey that is spectacular, plaintive, and comic. In this melee, the giant thumbs detach to become truly opposable and challenge each other with guitars.

This engagement of Squonk Opera is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Squonk Opera was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.
Reserve Your Free Tickets!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
2021-10-22 20:00 - 22:00 | Sharp Theater, Berrie Center for the Arts, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ, 07430, United States
Music and Lyrics by William Finn, Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Directed by Joe Kiely
Music Direction by Diana Jelmini
Six spellers compete in this Tony and Drama Desk Award winning musical. But only one can become the Champion. A charming, funny and touching look at the lives behind each speller, losers and winner.
Tickets are $5.00 for Ramapo Students, $15.00 for General Admission
RCNJ Students Must Come to Box Office with ID to Purchase $5.00 Tickets
Click Here to Purchase Tickets
