Boston College students, faculty, and alumni have been putting into action that often-heard desire “to give something back to the community” for more than a decade through their annual spring celebration of the arts and salute to the artists in their ranks. The 12th annual Boston College Arts Festival, fully open to the public, starts today and runs through Saturday, featuring 75 (mostly free) attractions in the performing, visual, and literary arts in the O’Neill Plaza area.
More than 16,100 people attended the 11th anniversary festival in 2009, participating in art demonstrations, enjoying music, dance, and theater performances, browsing through art exhibitions, listening to literary readings, and appreciating films. Even greater numbers are expected for this year’s cultural extravaganza, which showcases the talents of about 1,000 BC artists.
The kick-off presentation (today at noon) is sponsored by the Irish Studies Music Program. Under the direction of Seamus Connolly, it includes Irish dance and instrumentation along with the study of the historical and cultural context behind them.
During the daily Dance Showcase, one of BC’s most popular events, 17 dance ensembles and intercultural groups (including companies as diverse as Fuego del Corazon and F.I.S.T.S [Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step]) will present ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, swing, step, and hip-hop along with Irish, Latin, African, Japanese, Philippine, and other traditional dances. Schedules vary by day.
The resurging interest in vocal groups thanks to TV shows like “Glee” and NBC’s “The Sing-Off,” is catered to by daily opportunities to groove to the stylings of BC’s various a capella groups.
Performances of the sardonic Weill/Brecht musical “The Three Penny Opera” at the Robsham Theater and “No Country for Dead Men,” a hilarious interactive murder mystery, are two of the few events that charge admission, but drama fans can see short works by BC playwrights at no cost.
Even parents who are not particularly attuned to the arts perk up at the news that Saturday’s activities include an all- afternoon answer to the eternal question “What’ll we do with the kids?”
Things get off to a rousing start today with a performance by the BC Marching Band, which will lead youngsters on a parade around campus. From 12 until 4 p.m., there will be many messy, hands-on arts and crafts activities (cookie decorating, face painting, sidewalk chalk, coloring contest, and more!), instrument petting zoo, story hour, hip-hop workshop, and a children’s theater adaptation of the 1985 film “The Princess Bride.”
Each year the festival honors an alumnus with a distinguished arts career and this year BC chose a Jesuit, Father Bill Cain, to receive the annual Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement. While on campus Father Cain will participate in a career-related program, Inside the BC Studio, for students exploring a career in playwriting and screenwriting, and will receive his award at the annual Taste of the Festival on Saturday.
A playwright and screenwriter, Father Cain has written numerous plays and television series, including his most recent work, Equivocation, playing now off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club. He is the founder of the Boston Shakespeare Company where he was Artistic Director for seven seasons and he has received both a George Foster Peabody Award and a WGA Award for the series Nothing Sacred, which he co-created and wrote for ABC.
All events will take place rain or shine. Most events on O’Neill Plaza are covered by tents. Other indoor rain locations will be posted on this site in the event of inclement weather. The O’Neill Plaza performance tent is heated. Hour by hour details at bc.edu/offices/artscouncil/festival/schedulecurrent.html.
