Arts & Engagement
Spring 2025 Community & Cultural Events
Categories
Community•Culture•Music•Theater/Dance•Exhibitions
BSU Senior College
Lifelong Learning for Curious Adults
Bridgewater State University’s Senior College offers intellectually stimulating courses for mature learners (50-plus). Six week courses are led by BSU emeritus faculty, full and part-time faculty and other distinguished educators in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.
Details available at bridgew.edu/ccs/seniorcollege
community
JUNE
Bridgewater Community Dance Series
facebook.com/bridgewatercommunitydance
Fridays 7 - 9 pm
Bridgewater Senior Center 10 Wally Krueger Way Bridgewater, MA
$8 per dance, or $72 for the entire series of twelve dances. (A portion of the proceeds are donated to the Bridgewater Council on Aging.)
| January | 3 AND 17 |
| February | 7 AND 21 |
| March | 7 AND 21 |
| April | 4 AND 18 |
| May | 2 AND 16 |
| June | 6 AND 20 |
Enjoying our fourteenth season! Join us for Circle Dances and Mixers, International Folk Dance, and New England Squares and Contras. Beginners and singles welcome, appropriate for ages 10 and up, gender neutral language.
culture
MLK Day of Service Project
9 am - 2:30 pm
The Martin Richard Institute for Social Justice (MRISJ) is excited to host Bridgewater State University's annual MLK Day of Service on Saturday, January 25! All are welcome and students are encouraged to sign up individually or with friends. This year we're excited to offer four service projects, including three off-campus and one on-campus here at BSU.
Please note that only our on-campus option (Project PACK & Be the Match) is able to accept youth volunteers under the age 18. Registration is required: For more information please visit bit.ly/MLKDay2025
The Unseen Truth: A Conversation with Sarah Lewis
Virtual Event
5 pm - 6:30 pm
In today’s media-driven society, we have access to unlimited content at our fingertips, doom-scrolling through social media, watching world-renowned ballet performances from your living rooms or viewing virtual photography exhibitions from across the globe. But who is represented and who is left out? Dr. Sarah Lewis joins us to explore the role of art & culture in racial justice and how visual representations can spark action and set us on the path to a more just future.
For more information please visit bridgew.edu/center/martin-richard-institute-social-justice/get-involved
music
Plymouth Philharmonic
The Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, a professional orchestral ensemble located within the Plymouth Bay Cultural District, presents a wide range of live music and educational programs to people of all ages and backgrounds on the South Shore of Massachusetts.
More details and tickets are available on plymouthphil.org
You’ve Got a Friend: Music of the Brill Building
Plymouth Memorial Hall 83 Court Street Plymouth, MA
Saturday, Feb. 1, 7:30 pm, Sunday, Feb. 2, 3 pm
Ain’t it good to know, you’ve got a friend? A lot of ‘em! And we’re heading to midtown Manhattan— 1619 Broadway, The Brill Building, to be exact. That’s where some of the greatest music from the 1950s and ’60s came from. During its heyday, the eleven-story Brill Building contained 165 independent music companies—song writers, arrangers, musicians, producers, publishers, printers, and promoters—that knew they were much better together.
Cartoon Classics
Plymouth Memorial Hall 83 Court Street Plymouth, MA
3 pm (Instrument Demo, 2 pm)
Thanks to Warner Brothers, some of the merriest melodies and looniest tunes are classical! No kidding. This concert is a guaranteed yabba dabba doo time! The winner of the South Shore Conservatory Youth Concerto Competition will be the featured soloist.
Made in America
Plymouth Memorial Hall 83 Court Street Plymouth, MA
7:30 pm
Join us for a captivating concert of all-American charm and soul-stirring melodies. In 2005, the Phil was the first orchestra in New England to perform Joan Tower’s Made in America. The bold and energetic piece, with America the Beautiful at its core, went on to win a Grammy Award.
Celtic Spirit: Eileen Ivers & Orchestra
Plymouth Memorial Hall 83 Court Street Plymouth, MA
Saturday, May 3, 7:30 pm AND Sunday, May 4, 3 pm
What’s better than an evening with Eileen Ivers? An evening with the fiery fiddler, her red-hot band, and our masterful orchestra! The Grammy-awarded, Emmy-nominated, 9-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion and former Riverdance star returns to Plymouth with a musical vengeance for a Celtic collaboration with our full Phil force! Better together? You bet!
The Brockton Symphony Orchestra (BrSO)
For nearly 100 years, the Brockton Symphony Orchestra has provided live, professional-level symphonic concerts to the greater Brockton community, taught and inspired children, and encouraged participation of local musicians and students.
The schedule is subject to change. Please check the BrSO website at brocktonsymphony.org for updates and ticket information.
Festival of Strings
Christ Congregational Church, 1350 Pleasant Street, Brockton, MA
3 pm
This delightful all-string concert features a variety of musical styles: from Sophie Till performing two Bach violin Concertos to Britten's Lachrymae, played by 2023 BrSO Youth Concerto Competition second-place winner, Esther Man, viola; and Chinese pipa virtuoso Xueqi Sang, playing Yangfan Xu's Ecstatic Burial, the first performance of this new arrangement for string orchestra. The BrSO introduces Hymn and Balkan Dance by Douglas Hedwig, the winner of our Brockton Symphony String Orchestra Composition Competition.
Masterworks 2: American Discoveries
Christ Congregational Church, 1350 Pleasant Street, Brockton, MA
3 pm
Explore orchestral gems and the diverse music of America, from the rural-hoedown (Ruth Crawford Seeger's Rissolty, Rossolty) and touching lullaby (William Grant Still's Mother and Child), to New York swing (Artie Shaw's Clarinet Concerto).
Masterworks 3: Carmen in Concert
Buckley Performing Arts Center, 1 Massasoit Boulevard, Brockton, MA 02302
3 pm
Brockton Symphony partners with Opera del West to present a dazzling concert version of Bizet's opera, Carmen, featuring a top-notch cast of vocal soloists, dancers, chorus, and narrator. Join us for a glorious afternoon at the beautiful Buckley Performing Arts Center at Massasoit Community College in Brockton.
theater/dance
BSU Box Office
Schedule is subject to change. Please visit the BSU Box Office website at www.BSUtix.com for updates and ticket information.
MAR
Mr. Marmalade
Rondileau Student Union Auditorium, 19 Park Avenue, Bridgewater, MA
Feb. 26th & 28th, Mar 1st
This surreal dark comedy is a twisted exploration of childhood innocence colliding with the harsh realities and complexities of adult dysfunction, told through the imaginative brain of a four year old girl named Lucy. Mature themes, not recommended for young audiences.
MAR
The Taming
Rondileau Student Union Auditorium, 19 Park Avenue, Bridgewater, MA
Feb. 27th, Mar. 1st & 2nd
The Taming is a quirky and powerful political comedy with social-media blackmail, a species approaching extinction, and beauty pageants. Join three politically diverse advocates as they go back in history and forward in time to express the many views of the American government through the eyes of women.
Spring Dance
Rondileau Student Union Auditorium, 19 Park Avenue, Bridgewater, MA
April 3rd - 5th
BSU Dance begins a new tradition celebrating life, art, and dance in this concert featuring choreography from faculty, guest artists, and advanced students.
MAY
Carrie Goes to Horror High - a world-premiere musical by Steven Bogart
Rondileau Student Union Auditorium, 19 Park Avenue, Bridgewater, MA
April 25th – 27th, May 1st – 3rd
Carrie Goes to Horror High is a dark comedy rock musical about a struggling novelist who sells her soul to the devil and becomes trapped inside her own story - set in a high school filled with children of famous horror characters. As she navigates this world, she battles her inner demons—both literal and psychological—only to discover that the entire experience may not be what it seems.
Music and Lyrics by Ben Cohen in consultation with Andrea Wiseman. Book by Steven Bogart. (First devised as a stage play with students from Southern New Hampshire University and inspired from a story by Emily Winters.)
exhibitions
The Wallace L. Anderson Gallery
All exhibitions free and open to the public. Learn more at bsuarts.com
MAR
Bodies are Water
January - March, 2025
Maxwell Library, Third Floor, 10 Shaw Road, Bridgewater MA
The coastal waters of New England have long drawn artists to the drama of wave on rock or the soothing imagery of a glasslike ocean and sandy shore. Animated by the founding myths of the American colonies and legends of the heroic maritime culture, the artistic inspiration is steeped into the New England narrative. The many bays that shape its coast, and the marine life that inhabits its waters have drawn artists like Maurice Prendergast, Marsden Hartley and Winslow Homer to these shores and have captivated them by the purity and sublime force of wind, water and rock.
APRIL
Securing Shadows
March 20 - April 24, 2025
Reception, March 20, 4-7 pm
Wallace L. Anderson Gallery, 40 School Street, Bridgewater, MA
Securing Shadows explores the transience of childhood from the artist’s perspective as a mother. These images are photograms, one of the earliest forms of photography. No camera is used. Instead, the artist works with her family as subjects, laying their bodies directly on top of light-sensitive paper to create white silhouettes. These images draw upon personal symbolism and reenact moments from their daily lives, including the imaginative play-worlds of her children.
Amy Lovera is an Associate Professor in the Art & Art History Department, teaching classes in Photography, Animation and Video Art.
MAR
Prints of Concerns
November - March, 2025
Maxwell Library, Second Floor, 10 Shaw Road, Bridgewater MA
This exhibition attempts to address a small portion of concerns that contemporary artists are now focusing their creative attention to. Included within this collection of works are images that highlight the exploitive use of children and women labor in the manufacturing of Oriental rugs, the collapse of the ocean’s ecosystem, and the sexual and cultural conflicts of identity within our society.