‘Vagina Monologues’

The Cornell Women's Resource Center presents its 2017 edition of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Doors open at 7 p.m.

The production features a large, diverse cast of women and gender-nonconforming Cornellians, performing a collection of stories taken from interviews with women around the world.

Tickets are $10 in advance, available at BaileyTickets.com or from cast members; and $15 at the door. Group rates (for 10 or more) are available by emailing George Holets at gch44@cornell.edu.

Past productions at Cornell have raised more than $11,000 for charitable organizations in a single performance. Ninety percent of the proceeds this year will go to the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County to support its work to end sexual violence; the remaining 10 percent will go to the V-Day Organization to support global efforts to end violence against women and girls. 

Genomics and humanity

An explosion of biotechnological discoveries since scientists first decoded the human genome 17 years ago may fundamentally change how we think about biology, humanity and life itself.

Oncologist and leading genomics researcher Cheng-Ho Jimmy Lin will discuss the scientific, ethical and policy implications of our nascent forays into genome editing and synthetic biology in “Brave New Atlantis: Rediscovering Humanity in the Post-Genomic Era,” March 1 at 8 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall. The annual Alan T. & Linda M. Beimfohr Lecture is free and open to the public, and sponsored by Chesterton House, a center for Christian studies at Cornell.

Lin is the chief scientific officer for oncology at Natera, a genetic testing company. Previously, he led the clinical genomics program at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes for Health and did pioneering research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Washington University in St. Louis. He has published in top academic journals such as Science, Nature and Cell, and been featured in national and international media.

Take the cannoli

Cornell Cinema screens “The Godfather” (1972) and “The Godfather, Part II (1974),” from Francis Ford Coppola’s epic crime family saga, as a double feature Feb. 26 in Willard Straight Theatre. The first film begins at 1 p.m., “Part II” at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.50 at each screening. “Part II” also is showing Feb. 24 at 8:45 p.m.

On Feb. 28, in connection with his History of Consumption course, Louis Hyman introduces two film classics depicting “New Women and Female Ambition”: “It” (1927, starring Clara Bow) at 7 p.m.; and a Library of Congress-preserved “Gold Diggers of 1933” (starring Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler, with choreography by Busby Berkeley) at 8:30 p.m. Hyman is associate professor of labor relations, law and history in the ILR School and director of the Institute for Workplace Studies.

Two parties: Dress up for Cornell Cinema’s annual Elegant Winter Party fundraiser, Feb. 25 at 7:15 p.m., featuring Ernst Lubitsch’s 1926 comedy, “So This is Paris;” and a free, live Oscar viewing party, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m., with the Academy Awards ceremony on the big screen in the Willard Straight Hall Bear’s Den.

Depression-era tragedy

Two children in rural Kentucky play chicken with an oncoming train on a railway bridge. When one of them turns up dead, the other is a suspect. Was it murder, or is there another explanation?

Andrew Gillis/Cascadilla Photography

A rehearsal scene from “The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek,” March 3-11 at the Schwartz Center.

Partly based on real events and with a cast of undergraduate student actors, “The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek” will be staged March 3-11 in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts’ Flexible Theatre. Performances are March 3-4 and 10-11 at 7:30 p.m. and March 11 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at www.schwartztickets.com and at the box office, open Tuesday-Saturday, 2:30-8 p.m.

Playwright Naomi Wallace, a MacArthur fellow who grew up in Kentucky, recalls historical and personal events “as a metaphor to reflect on class, gender and the violence of poverty during the Great Depression,” says director Nick Fesette, a doctoral student in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.

The massive railroad bridge over the real Pope Lick Creek running through Louisville has been the scene of tragic deaths similar to the incident in Wallace’s play.

The playwright presents events in a cinematic, nonlinear manner that builds tension among the audience, Fesette says: “Wallace’s plays aren’t widely produced in the States, but she’s regarded as one of America’s best contemporary playwrights, particularly in Europe. Her work is strange, lyrical and political at the same time.” 

Choral empowerment

The Cornell University Chorus will host its first Collegiate Treble Choir Conference, with concerts, workshops, rehearsals, lectures and receptions March 3-5. Women’s choirs from Cornell, Harvard University (Radcliffe College Chorale), Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, the College of William and Mary and New York University will participate.

With the theme “Empowerment Through Music,” organizers hope to inspire an ongoing dialogue on how choral programs empower female singers in college and beyond, by celebrating the history of treble choral performance and discussing the role of women’s choirs on a contemporary college campus. Workshops will focus on leadership, music and skill development.

Actress Maggie Wheeler, who conducts a choir in Los Angeles and leads vocal workshops, will deliver the keynote, “'Sing Your Way Home,” March 3 at 4:30 p.m. in Alice Statler Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. Wheeler’s numerous film and television credits include her recurring role as Janice on all 10 seasons of “Friends.”

“We were drawn to Maggie Wheeler because she sang in her early years and then went into acting, but always kept a close connection to her music and ultimately made her way back to it,” said Cornell Chorus president Marissa Grill ’17.

Concerts will be held March 3 in Sage Chapel and March 4 in Bailey Hall, both at 8 p.m., with a closing collaborative performance by all participants March 4 and post-concert receptions each night. Tickets are $5.