Silver Center for the Arts

ETC Presents: Annie

January 22 @ 7:00 pm
Hanaway Theatre

Join us for the heartwarming tale of a very exceptional eleven-year-old, who escapes  

the “hard-knock life” of Miss Hannigan’s orphanage, to spend a fairy tale Christmas with billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Set in the depths of the Great Depression, Annie turns her life around, as well as the lives of those around her, through her poise, personality, and positive attitude, reminding us all that “the sun will come out tomorrow.” Directed by Trish Lindberg, with musical direction by William Ogmundson and choreography by Darren Biggart, and featuring the talents of the University and the local community. 

This production by PSU’s award-winning Educational Theater Collaborative, now in its twenty-sixth season, will set us all on a positive path for 2020! 

Tickets range from $25-$39

Book by Thomas Meehan  |  Music by Charles Strouse  |  Lyrics by Martin Charnin 

Annie is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. (MTIShows.com) 

PSU Chamber Singers Post Tour Concert – Madrid, Spain!

February 4 @ 2:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Join the PSU Chamber Singers as they report on their recent performance and study tour in Madrid, Spain. The students will speak, sing, and share pictures and video of their experiences in schools, churches, and community centers.

Free and open to all!  Tickets not required!

Faculty Recital: Adam Mayon, Piano

February 16 @ 1:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

PSU’s new professor of piano and collaborative piano Adam Mayon is joined by his wife Zi in an exciting program of varied works composed specifically for 2 pianists at 2 pianos.

Free and open to all!  Tickets not required!

An Enemy of the People

February 26 @ 7:00 pm
Hanaway Theatre

The battleground is set in Henrik Ibsen’s modern classic An Enemy of the People. This late-nineteenth century drama, which is peppered with comic exaggeration, features a clash between science and politics, public health and environmental issues and town economics, and facts and alternative facts. As the play opens, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the medical officer for the Municipal Baths, has discovered that the town’s natural spas, which are a major attraction, are infected with bacteria and dangerous to the wellbeing of any potential user. He intends to announce his findings in the town newspaper. Peter Stockmann, the town mayor and Thomas’ supervisor, as well as his brother, does not want the public alarmed by this information. In this manner, the battle between brother and brother is set. Tensions rise throughout the play and eventually grow into a full riot as Dr. Stockmann is declared to be “an enemy of the people.” Has science, the public welfare, and truth been abandoned or will Dr. Stockmann ultimately win his fight? An Enemy of the People is directed by Timothy L’Ecuyer.

Tickets range from $10-$18

Sidore Lecture: Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz

March 3 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Title: Arrested Mobility: Migration and Militarization in a Post-Truth United States In this lecture, Dr. Gomberg-Muñoz considers evidence for contemporary migration patterns in the United States, including who is migrating now and why; the role of U.S. foreign and economic policies in compelling migration; and the desires and behaviors of migrants after their U.S. arrival. She uses this examination to address deeper and more complex questions about the U.S. immigration system and the ideologies that undergird it: does border security make people safer? Do nation-states have a mandate to control the movement of people over national boundaries? Are immigration categories such as “citizen” and “alien” more valid or sound than racial classifications, and how do we know? In the end, her goal is to invite audience members to consider how normative assumptions about immigration and immigrant policing naturalize statist political organization and uphold long-standing inequalities. Bio: Dr. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. Her ethnographic work with undocumented people and their family members examines how members of mixed-status families navigate law and society in the United States and Mexico. Her most recent NSF-funded project is a collaboration with deportee rights activists in Mexico City and anti-deportation organizers in Chicago. She is the author of two books, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network (2011) and Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed Status Families (2016), as well as numerous scholarly articles and other writings

Free and open to all but TICKETS are REQUIRED!

All New England Jazz Festival

March 5 @ 7:00 pm
Hanaway Theatre

Plymouth State University hosts the All New England Jazz Festival

Tickets range from $6-$10

Union Leader State of NH Spelling Bee

March 7 @ 9:00 am
Hanaway Theatre

The New Hampshire Union Leader is pleased to present the preliminary competition for the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Saturday, March 7, 2020.

200 of the state’s top spellers will compete for a chance to represent New Hampshire at the national competition in Washington, DC.

This event is free and open to all.  No Ticket Required!

Eagle Pond Authors’ Series: Jeff Oaks

March 17 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Jeff Oaks is the author of Little What (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2019). The recipient of three Pennsylvania Council of the Arts fellowships, he has published poems most recently in Field, Georgia Review, Missouri Review, Superstition Review, and Tupelo Quarterly. His work appears in the anthologies My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them and Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction. He teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh. Generous support from the Follett Higher Education Group at the PSU Bookstore helps keep this series free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the reading. 

Free and open to all but TICKETS are REQUIRED!

Symphonic Band Concert

March 18 @ 7:00 pm
Hanaway Theatre

Join the Plymouth State University Symphonic Band for a night of music!

Tickets range from $6-$15

Sidore Lecture: Michael Klare

March 24 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Title: War at Warp Speed: Emerging Technologies, Great-Power Tensions, and the Risks of Nuclear Escalation The emergence of new technologies – A.I., cyber, robotics, and so on – will dramatically alter the future conduct of warfare, speeding up the pace of combat and increasing the risks of rapid escalation from minor incident to full-blown combat. At the same time, growing tensions between China, Russia, and the United States are increasing the potential for crises and conflicts to erupt. This talk will examine both the risks of escalation and what can be done to reduce the potential for World War III. Bio: Michael Klare is the Professor of Peace & World Security Studies Emeritus at Hampshire College and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C. From 1985 to 2018, he was the Five College Professor of Peace & World Security Studies, a joint appointment at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Klare is the author or editor of 15 books, including, most recently, The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources (Metropolitan Books, 2012) and All Hell Breaking Loose: Climate Change, Global Chaos, and American National Security (Metropolitan Books, 2019). He has also contributed to numerous journals, including Foreign Affairs, The Nation, Newsweek, Scientific American, and Technology Review.

Free and open to all but TICKETS are REQUIRED!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

March 26 @ 7:00 pm
Studio Theatre

This exceptionally funny, fast-paced musical, which won the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, provides audiences with embarrassing gaffes, hilarious mishaps, and escalating laughs. In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee a half-dozen tweens compete for the ultimate title of “Putnam County Spelling Bee Champion.” As each competitor journeys towards victory or defeat, they openly share their life experiences, hopes, dreams, ambitions, and insecurities. As we get to know each speller, the musical twists and turns from being hysterically funny to beautifully touching. With a brilliantly crafted book by Rachel Sheinkin and an engaging and dynamic score by William Finn, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is the perfect show for audiences of all ages. By the way, audience members have a shot at the title too! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is directed by Fran Page with choreography by Lisa Travis.

Showtimes are as follows:

Thursday March 26th thru Saturday March 28th @ 7pm 

Matinee showing Saturday March 28th @ 1pm

Thursday April 1st thru Saturday April 3rd @ 7pm 

Tickets range from $10-$18 

Please keep in mind there is NO late seating in the Studio Theatre!

Eagle Pond Authors’ Series: Susan Lilley

April 1 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Susan Lilley is a Florida native and Orlando’s inaugural Poet Laureate. She is the author of Venus in Retrograde (Burrow Press, 2019) and the chapbooks Night Windows and Satellite Beach. Her poetry and non-fiction have also appeared in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Poet Lore, The Southern Review, Drunken Boat, Saw Palm, Hippocampus, The Florida Review, Sweet, and other journals. She has taught at University of Central Florida and Rollins College, and currently teaches literature and creative writing at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park. Generous support from the Follett Higher Education Group at the PSU Bookstore helps keep this series free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the reading.

Free and open to all but TICKETS are REQUIRED!

Sidore Lecture: Johnathan Gruber

April 7 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Title: Health Care and Economic Growth Policies for the next Administration Dr. Gruber’s talk will focus on current health care reform debates and Where the United States should head next, as well as focusing on the broader program for the U.S. growth laid out in his most recent book, Jump-Starting America. Bio: Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at the M.I.T., where he has taught since 1992. He is also the Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the former President of the American Society of Health Economists. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Econometric Society. He has published more than 175 research articles, has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text, Health Care Reform, a graphic novel, and Jump-Starting America. In 2006 he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. From 2003-2006 he was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. During 2009-2010 he served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In 2011 he was named “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by Slate Magazine. In both 2006 and 2012 he was rated as one of the top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine.​

Free and open to all but TICKETS are REQUIRED!

Dance Project

April 9 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Dance Project is the culmination of an academic year of investigation using cross-disciplinary collaborations in movement. The original choreographies are made by students, faculty and invited guests. Multi-genre and highly theatrical, the performance stretches the boundaries of traditional dance performance.

Photo Credit to Paige Schoppman

Tickets range from $10-$15

PSU Choirs Spring Concert

April 18 @ 7:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

PSU alum Brad Dumont (’13) conducts the University Chorale and Chamber Singers in a program of works by young American composers.

Tickets range from $12-$20

Piano Division Recital

April 19 @ 4:00 pm
Smith Recital Hall

Piano Majors and Minors will perform solo repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary Style Periods.

Free and open to all!  Tickets not required!