American Idiot coming to BU

American Idiot, The National Broadway Tour will come to Bloomsburg University on Friday, March 7, at 8 p.m. Mitrani Hall, Haas Center for the Arts. Tickets are $45 for adults, $22 child/BU student. The show is part of Bloomsburg's Celebrity Artist Series.

Green Day’s multi-platinum album “American Idiot,” exploded on the punk rock music scene in 2004 selling over 12 million copies to become one of the best-selling albums of all time and winning the Grammy for Rock Album of the Year.

In 2010 one of Broadway’s most accomplished creative teams, led by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), two-time Tony Award-winning composer and orchestrator Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Steven Hoggett (Black Watch), brought the rock opera to the Broadway stage in this tale of three lifelong friends: one who will fight for his dreams, one who will fight for his country and one who will stay behind frozen in the safety of suburbia. The show has been described as “FLAT OUT ELECTRIFYING” by the Boston Globe and “UNBRIDLED ROCK ENERGY” by the San Francisco Chronicle. American Idiot Contains Adult Content and Strong Language Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong never thought he would end up producing a Broadway musical. It is a long way from mosh pits and singing to thousands of punk rock fans in stadiums around the world. So when Tony Award winning director, Michael Mayer, suggested turning Green Day’s multi-platinum selling album, “American Idiot,” into a staged musical, something magical was bound to happen.

 American Idiot Contains Adult Content and Strong Language

See a making of American Idiot movie

In support of the March 7 presentation of American Idiot as part of the next Celebrity Artist Series, a documentary — the making of Broadway’s American Idiot — will be shown at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28, at 7 pm,  in the newly renovated Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium. The film, which is open free to the public, chronicles the momentous collaboration between rock and roll icons, Green Day and the “Great White Way” to turn the mega hit, Platinum selling album, American Idiot into a staged Broadway musical. 

Matthew Leece to give guitar recital Tuesday

BU music major Matthew Leece will give a guitar recital Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 pm at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 123 Market Street, Bloomsburg.

Leece will perform all of J.S. Bach's Lute Suite BWV 998, a small suite by modern Australian composer Phillip Houghton, a depiction of Poe's Fall of the house of Usher by Russian composer Nikita Koshkin, and several other pieces.

Miscellanea: See the movie, meet the writer ...

Being Flynn, a film based on writer Nick Flynn's memoir, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City,” will be shown Monday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 pm in BU’s McCormick Center, room 2303. The event is free and open to public. Flynn will visit campus on Wednesday, March 5, as part of the Big Dog Reading Series. The film stars Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano and Julianne Moore. The screening is open to the public free of charge, sponsored by BU’s English department.

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Sue O’Donnell, associate professor of digital art at BU, will explore the tangible nature of memory in her lecture, “Collective Memory,” on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the Warren Student Services Center, room 004. The lecture is based on O’Donnell’s book, “Collective Memory: Recollections from 203 West Main Street Bloomsburg, PA: a Workbook,” published in 2012. The book centers on the Moose Exchange, a well-known community center in downtown Bloomsburg that received heavy damage from a fire on Jan. 30. When O’Donnell rented studio space in the Moose Exchange, she heard people reminiscing over their times in the building for proms, weddings and holiday parties. O’Donnell collaborated with various community members to get those memories published.

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The Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary Inequality for All Thursday, Feb. 20, from 5 to 6:30 pm in the McCormick Center for the Humanities, room 1303. A panel of university faculty will discuss the problems of economic inequality at 4 p.m. in McCormick Center, room 1316. The event is free and open to the public.

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Student artwork will be exhibited in BU's Haas Gallery from Feb. 22 to March 6. On Feb. 27, a reception for the Student Art Show will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gallery. The exhibit and reception are open to the public free of charge. The Haas Gallery of Art is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon until 2 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is closed Sundays and university holidays.

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The Bloomsburg University Players will present The 24 Hour Plays on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 pm in the Alvina Krause Theater, 226 Center St., Bloomsburg. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for seniors and students from other schools. Advance tickets are available at the Haas Box Office at 570-389-4340.

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BU's Celebrity Artist Series will present Christopher O’Riley, who will perform his solo show, Out of My Hands, Saturday, Feb. 22, at 8 pm in Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium, Carver Hall. O'Riley is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top and is known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative artists such as Radiohead and Nick Drake. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for children and BU students. For tickets or more information, visit www.bloomu.edu/cas or call the box office at 570-389-4409.

BU art history students to present research

BU's Department of Art and Art History will hold the 17th Annual Student Symposium in Art History on Friday, Feb. 7, from 9:30 am to noon in the Kehr Union, Hideaway.

Eight Art History majors and minors will present their research papers. There will be refreshments followed by the ICS lecture by Dr. Alla Myzelev titled "Creating Digital Materiality," at 1 pm.

Student presentations include:

• Valerie V. Haas, "How Politics and Motherhood Influenced Dorothea Lange’s Art Work" 
• Michael D. Zielinskie, "Georgia O’Keeffe: Painting an Ancient Landscape" 
• Jacqueline Whitman, "Womanhouse: Opening the Closed Doors" 
• Alyssa Kopf, "Who Can Behead Whom?" 
• Alicia M. Pucci, "The Influence & Portrayal of Catalonian & Parisian Culture in Joan Miró’s work"
• Timothy Wright, "The Will of Victory" 
• Angela Bainbridge, "Suprematism and views of Kazimir Malevich" 
• Jesse L. Hockman, "Bridging the Gap: Comics as Art"

Poetry will go on

The River Poets will hold their February reading tonight (Feb. 6) at 7:30 pm at the Bloomsburg Public Library. Featured readers will be Richard Brook and Tara Holden. Sue Brook will MC. The theme of the night is "Confession-Less Heart."

BU Players plan '30 plays in 60 minutes' festival

The Bloomsburg University Players will perform plays from “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” in their February Festival: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes. The show runs from Thursday to Saturday, Feb. 13 to Feb. 15, and continues on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 19 and. 20.

All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Alvina Krause Theater, 226 Center St., in downtown Bloomsburg. Tickets are free to BU students, $6 for adults and $4 for seniors and students from other schools.

“Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” was originally produced by the Chicago-based experimental theater troupe, the Neo-Futurists, whose production has been running for more than 20 years. Neo-Futurism is inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century, which is based on the concepts of honesty, speed and brevity.

During the production, the audience calls out the number of the performance they would like to see next, creating an unpredictable and exciting atmosphere. The BU Players’ production is directed by professional guest artist Kevin R. Free, a long-time New York Neo-Futurist.

Advance tickets are available at the Haas Box Office, at 570-389-4340. For more information about the BU Players, visit buplayers.org. For information on the Neo-Futurists, visit www.neofuturists.org.