Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 season at The Center for the Arts, Hylton Performing Arts Center, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Read more for details on upcoming performances, workshops, and shows. Mason faculty, staff, retirees, alumni, and students receive a handful of discounts and offers, both for single tickets as well as subscriptions.
March 15 – 17
Mason Exhibitions Arlington
The Innocents Punch Party with Maria Gaspar
Friday, March 15 at 7 p.m.
Mason Exhibitions Arlington
Join us at Mason Exhibitions Arlington to witness and participate in The Innocents Punch Party with Maria Gaspar. Maria Gaspar is an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses issues of spatial justice in order to amplify, mobilize, or divert structures of power through individual and collective gestures. In collaboration with George Mason University’s data mapping and art history scholars, Gaspar will continue to realize her goals of abolishing carceral spaces by adding prints of current prisons, jails, and immigrant detention facilities in Virginia to the Disappearance Jails project, which will ultimately be obscured through perforations by exhibition visitors. The Innocents is a social justice advocacy performance art piece by musicians and composers Allen Otte and John Lane. Using a variety of found-object and home-made instruments, electronic soundscapes, and spoken texts, the one-hour dramatic soundscape comprised of at least seventeen individual tableaus will explore various aspects of the issues surrounding the American criminal justice system.
Artist-in-Residence
PHILADANCO!
Friday, March 15 at 8 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Merchant Hall
The Philadelphia Dance Company, known as PHILADANCO!, is widely recognized for its artistic integrity, superbly trained dancers, and electrifying performances. Witness one of America’s top dance companies share stories through movement. “If there’s fun to be had, PHILADANCO! will have it. But if there’s deeper purpose, these performers will clarify it, underscore it, and make you pay attention.” (Dance Magazine).
Virginia Opera: Madama Butterfly
Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 17 at 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Virginia Opera’s season concludes with one of opera’s most beloved works, Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, a haunting score filled with unforgettable music of unparalleled beauty that will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater. This ever-popular opera will feature an all-female, Asian creative team, bringing a new lens to this tragic tale. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Eileen Ivers: Raw Roots Tour
Sunday, March 17 at 4 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Merchant Hall
GRAMMY Award-winning Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers continues to push and transcend the boundaries of folk music with performances that are playful, passionate, and a foot-stomping good time. You won’t want to miss “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin” (The New York Times) performing a fresh mix of Celtic classics and music that celebrates the Celtic roots of Americana music.
March 18 – 24
Working in the Arts: Overcoming Fundraising Challenges with Laura Fredricks
Monday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m.
Center for the Arts, Monson Grand Tier III
George Mason University’s Arts Management Program in partnership with Central Advancement and the College of Visual and Performing Arts presents a conversation and Q&A with fundraising expert and author of “The Ask,” Laura Fredericks. This hybrid event will take place on Monday, March 18th from 6:30-8:00pm ET at the Center for the Arts, Grand Monson Tier and via livestream.
Matinee Idylls
Alma Ensemble: Celebration of Dance
Tuesday, March 19 at 1:30 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Gregory Family Theater
Named after the often-overlooked composer Alma Mahler, Alma Ensemble champions women in music through thoughtful female-centric chamber music concerts that are enriched with multimedia, giving insight into the lives of these female composers and musicians. In Celebration of Dance, flutist Sarah Wardle Jones, clarinetist Michelle Smith Johnson, and pianist Erica Sipes perform a program inspired by the art of dance.
Mason Exhibition and Mason School of Music
Visual Voices with Late Comeback Press
Thursday, March 21 at 4:45 p.m.
Virtual event via Zoom
Visual Voices is a lecture series hosted by Mason Exhibitions and the School of Art and Design. RSVP is required to receive the zoom link. Late Comeback Press is a Northern Virginia micropress run by Rachna Soun and Caroline Kim, specializing in avant-garde zines. Communication and existentialism are the center of their art, flourishing in the space before choices are made, when the possibilities can seem paralyzingly endless or distinctively finite.
Film at Mason
Visiting Filmmakers Series: KENYATTA: DO NOT WAIT YOUR TURN with director/editor Timothy Harris
Thursday, March 21 at 5 p.m.
Johnson Center Cinema
Join the Visiting Filmmakers Series for a free screening of the new film “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn”, followed by a live Q&A with the film’s director and editor, Timothy Harris. Executive Produced by Al Roker, “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn” is an inspiring love story about Malcolm Kenyatta, a self-described “poor, gay, black man from North Philly”, on his historic run for the United States Senate. But this race is about more than taking on the political competition. It’s about taking on an entire system.
Mason School of Theater
Antigone, Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine’s
March 21, 22*, 23 at 8 p.m.
March 23, 24** at 2 p.m.
*ASL Interpreted (ASL) and Talkback
**Audio Described
Harris Theatre, Fairfax Campus
The St. Catherine’s drama club is struggling to put up its first school play—Sophocles’ Antigone. As if staging this tragedy in an all-girls’ Catholic school isn’t challenging enough, the cast’s beloved director ends up betraying them in an unforgivable way. And it’s almost opening night! The actors must figure out the right course of action, all while rehearsing the classic play about impossibly difficult choices. What is the right thing to do? And must the show go on?
Mason School of Dance
2024 Mason School of Dance Gala Concert
March 22 and 23 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
The Gala Concert is Mason Dance Company’s crowing season event featuring a program of works by contemporary professional choreographers.
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m.
Center for the Arts
The internationally praised Trinity Irish Dance Company fuses traditional Irish step dance with contemporary movement for a high octane, syncopated experience that is “impossibly complex” (The New York Times). With 16 dancers and a live musical ensemble, Trinity Irish Dance Company performs a captivating program that blends sheer percussive power with aerial grace. Celebrate Irish traditions with Trinity Irish Dance Company’s take on the globally loved traditional Celtic form.
March 25 – 31
Dewberry School of Music
Big Band Showdown Spring 2024
Monday, March 25 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Join the Mason Jazz Ensemble (director Jim Carroll) and special guest bands for an evening that celebrates the hot sounds and swinging beats of the Big Band era!
Mason Exhibitions and Mason School of Art
Visual Voices with Mendi+Keith Obadike
Thursday, March 28 at 4:45 p.m.
Johnson Center Cinema; Optional virtual event via Zoom
Mendi + Keith Obadike are artists, composers, and writers. Their works sit at the intersection of art, music, and language and draw upon histories of experimental media art and performance. Their early collaborative works were pioneering pieces for the Internet.
April 1 – 7
Artists in Conversation: Small Island Big Song
Our Shared Seafaring Heritage, Alive in Rhythm and Song
Co-presented by the City of Fairfax and the Center for the Arts at George Mason University
Saturday, April 2 at 7 p.m.
Off-campus location: Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center,
3740 Blenheim Boulevard, Fairfax, VA 22030
Leading up to Earth Day, join the indigenous artists of Small Island Big Song for a powerful lecture-demonstration and musical performance, shining a light on the devastating effects of climate crisis on our world’s ocean. This complimentary event is also an open-to-the-public presentation of the Friends of the Center for the Arts Artists in Conversation Series, and is offered in conjunction with Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song’s April 20 performance at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University. The Pacific & Indian Oceans share a little-known common heritage. During the first segment of this lecture-demonstration, Small Island Big Song will set the stage with some geographical and historical background about these great oceanic migrations. The second segment will consist of conversation and musical demonstrations by Small Island Big Song artists to showcase some of the cultural similarities their communities share across these vast ocean expanses. Event concludes with a Q&A with the audience.
Empowered Legacy: Preserving Military Stories Workshops
Wednesdays, April 3–17 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Classroom 2, Hylton Performing Arts Center
Discover the transformative journey of creative expression through mixed media art. Embark on a meaningful exploration of crafting personal stories or honoring the legacies of those who are military-connected. Family members may create based on their own experience or that of any military-connected member of their choice. In this three-part workshop, create a mixed media timeline using paints, paper, photographs, and other objects encompassing a conceptual layering of ideas, emotions, and narratives. Tina Claflin, a retired Coast Guard Veteran, owner of Halcyon Reflections LLC, and a story organizer will guide military Veterans, Servicemembers, or their family members in documenting and preserving these stories. This workshop series is open and FREE to military Veterans, Servicemembers, and military family members; children ages 14 and up may participate alongside their parents. Space is limited.
Dewberry School of Music
Jazz Workshop Concert Spring 2024
Wednesday, April 3 at 8 p.m.
Harris Theatre, Fairfax Campus
The Jazz Workshop explores the intersection of improvisation and composition in the tradition of the great dance and studio jazz bands. Enjoy rare and beautiful arrangements by jazz legends from many eras of jazz history. New original compositions by Mason students and faculty will be featured as well.
Mason School of Theater
1,001 Plays
Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m.
Virtual
1,001 Plays is an annual 10-minute play festival presented by Global Partners worldwide-the first international new play exchange of its kind. Students write, perform, direct and dramaturg original works for the stage, exploring multiple perspectives on a single idea. These short student works are performed live online and followed by a talkback, allowing both students and audiences the opportunity to share, reflect and respond. More details can be found at theater.gmu.edu.
Family Series
Mutts Gone Nuts
Saturday, April 6 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Canines and comedy collide in Mutts Gone Nuts in a show that includes some of the most talented dogs in the world doing barrel tricks, dancing, magic, and jump rope routines! The talented lineup even includes a Guinness World Record holder for the highest jump by a dog, a world champion frisbee dog, comedian Jonathan Burns, and more! (Recommended for all ages)
Dewberry School of Music
Chorale Broadway Showcase: Broadway at the Movies
Saturday, April 6 at 8 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Gregory Family Theater
“Broadway at the Movies” combines the best of Broadway musicals with the magic of the movie screen. This annual Showcase event brings together talented University Chorale members who sing and dance to create an entertaining experience for the audience. The concert celebrates the rich history of Broadway and its influence on the world of cinema. It features iconic songs from beloved musicals that have been adapted into movies, as well as original songs created specifically for the big screen. Join us for a sing along finale to conclude the event.
American Festival Pops Orchestra: American Icons
Saturday, April 6 at 8 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Merchant Hall
Presenting the soundtrack of our great nation, the American Festival Pops Orchestra performs a concert of iconic works by some of America’s greatest composers including Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa, and John Williams. The program features Artistic Director and Maestro Peter Wilson, as well as special guests throughout the evening.
Mutts Gone Nuts
Sunday, April 7 at 1 and 4 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Merchant Hall
Canines and comedy collide in Mutts Gone Nuts, a show that includes some of the most talented dogs in the world doing dances, magic, and jump rope routines! The lineup even includes a Guinness World Record holder for the highest jump by a dog, a world champion frisbee dog, comedian Jonathan Burns, and more! (Recommended for all ages)
Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel: Three Great Romantics
Sunday, April 7 at 7 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Experience musical gems from three popular Romantic-era composers—Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms—with storyteller and pianist Jeffrey Siegel’s unique “concerts with commentary” performance. Siegel details the evening when the three musicians met for the first and only time at an 1888 New Year’s Day party. “Jeffrey Siegel has everything: massive technique, musical sensitivity and character, wide tonal resources, immense reserves of power, and the ability to communicate” (Los Angeles Times).