The spring 2024 semester at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC) features contemporary dance, as well as jazz, opera, and various film showcases.
Tickets are available online through the Mason Gross website, in person during MGPAC daytime ticket office hours, and at the performance at the NBPAC box office at 11 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, NJ.
RUTGERS FILM BFA JUNIOR SHOWCASE
Tuesday, January 23, 2024, 6 p.m.
Documentary, fiction, and experimental work by up-and-coming student filmmakers.
Approx. Run Time: 120 minutes
Free (Tickets Required)
RUTGERS JAZZ LAB BIG BAND: DUKE ELLINGTON’S BLACK, BROWN, AND BEIGE
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 7:30 p.m.
A performance of one of Ellington’s seminal works and his first major attempt at a long-form composition, which represents several major innovations in the world of jazz.
Approx. Run Time: 90 minutes
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY JAZZ ENSEMBLE: TRIBUTE TO JACO PASTORIUS
Friday, March 1, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Featuring arrangements by the late jazz bassist and composer, including “Continuum” and “Liberty City.” With guest Alex Foster on sax, part of the Saturday Night Live house band for nearly three decades. Also featuring jazz faculty Kenny Davis on bass, and Robby Ameen on drums.
Approx. Run Time: 90 minutes
FILM SCREENING AND Q&A WITH CATHY YAN
Tuesday, March 5, 2024 7 p.m.
Film screening followed by a Q&A with writer/director Cathy Yan, writer/director of Birds of Prey and Dead Pigs, hosted by Professor Shawn Snyder.
In the comedy-drama Dead Pigs (2018), a bumbling pig farmer, a feisty salon owner, a sensitive busboy, an ambitious expat architect, and a disenchanted rich girl converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs float down the river towards a rapidly modernizing Shanghai, China. Dead Pigs marked Yan’s directorial debut and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where it won a Special Jury Award for ensemble acting and garnered numerous awards throughout its festival run.
Yan is the director of Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020), starring Margot Robbie, which was critically acclaimed and won Yan praise as a “creative force to be reckoned with” for her first major studio feature. Yan made her television directing debut in season three of HBO’s series Succession, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for directing in a drama series.
Presented as part of the Spring 2024 Visiting Filmmaker Series Screening.
Approx. Run Time: 2 hours
Free (Tickets Required)
MASON GROSS DANCE PRESENTS: DANCE FACULTY CONCERT
Friday, March 22, 2024 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 23, 2024 7 p.m.
Choreographic works by Dance Department lecturers and faculty members.
Approx. Run Time: 90–120 minutes
VISITING FILMMAKER SERIES SCREENING
Thursday, April 4, 2024 7 p.m.
Film screening followed by a Q&A with the director. Check back for details as they are announced. Past visiting filmmakers include Oscar-winners Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar (American Factory) and Josh and Benny Safdie (Good Time).
Approx. Run Time: 2 hours
Free (Tickets Required)
OPERA THEATER RUTGERS AND RUTGERS THEATER DEPARTMENT PRESENT: CANDIDE
Thursday, April 4, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 5, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 6, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 7, 2024 2 p.m.
Rutgers Theater Company and the Music Department present this comedic operetta based on Voltaire’s satire of innocence, optimism, and the unexpected lessons of life, with music by Leonard Bernstein.
Approx. Run Time: 150 minutes
RUTGERS JAZZ LAB BIG BAND: THE MUSIC OF ANTHONY BRANKER
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Featuring Mason Gross jazz faculty members Abraham Burton, tenor saxophone, and Dr. Alex Norris, trumpet, as guest soloists.
Approx. Run Time: 90 minutes
RUTGERS JAZZ ENSEMBLE: TRIBUTE TO COUNT BASIE
Friday, April 19, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Featuring arrangements by the band leader, pianist, and composer including “Moten Swing” and “The Kid From Red Bank.”
Approx. Run Time: 90 minutes
BFA FRESHMAN/TRANSFER FILMMAKING SHOWCASE
Sunday, April 28, 2024 7:00 p.m.
Documentary, fiction, and experimental work by up-and-coming student filmmakers.
Free (tickets required)
Approx. Run Time: 3 hours
BFA SENIOR THESIS FILMMAKING SHOWCASE
Monday, April 29, 2024 4:00 p.m.
A screening of documentary, fiction, and experimental work by up-and-coming student filmmakers.
Showing 1: 4–6 p.m.
Intermission: 6–7 p.m.
Showing 2: 7–9 p.m.
One ticket for the BFA Senior Thesis Filmmaking Showcase is valid for both the 4–6 p.m. showing as well as the 7–9 p.m. showing. For this event only, web sales will be available until 8 p.m.
Approx. Run Time: 5 hours
NEW LENS FILM FESTIVAL
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 7 p.m.
This annual competition features student films from narrative, experimental, and documentary genres, all of which are eligible for prizes awarded by the faculty jury.
Approx. Run Time: 120 minutes
Free (Tickets Required)