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Stephen-Sondheim-HI-RES-Photo-by-Jerry-JacksonWelcome back to The Ink’s Weekend Arts Roundup! For ‘15ers (and newbies to The Ink), the Arts Roundup is an insiders’ guide to all arts events that happen in Princeton (both on and off campus) each weekend.  We’ll give you locations, times, helpful links, ticket prices, event descriptions and hype…everything you need to get out there and take advantage of all the great arts opportunities that Princeton has to offer!

Since the semester’s still in its early stages, we’ve got a number of off-campus options to tempt you with this week.  Stay tuned for later weeks when a cappella, theater, dance, music groups, and more will take the campus by storm!

  • If you think that string music’s just for old-timey Princetonians in smoking jackets, Alasdair Frasier will give you a run for your money: he’s a virtuosic fiddler who takes Scottish traditional and folk music to a wholly new level of musicality.  He’s also super-legit, as his multiple NPR visits highlight. Thursday at 8pm in Taplin Hall; admission is free with TigerTickets ($15 for general admission).  You can call or order them online at 609-258-9220 or www.princeton.edu/utickets.
  • Alasdair Fraser, fiddle & Natalie Haas, cello, will perform in Taplin Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 22.

    Alasdair Fraser, fiddle & Natalie Haas, cello, will perform in Taplin Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 22.

  • Experience the Bard’s best in one fell swoop, complete with snarktastic commentary and a Titus-Andronicus-themed cooking show, at the Princeton Shakespeare Company’s one-night-only production of Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), which they perform to packed audiences each May at Reunions. Saturday at 8p and midnight, Whitman Theater; tickets are free at the door, but bound to sell out!
  • Princeton’s improbably playing host to one of the season’s hottest theater tickets: John Doyle’s Ten Cents a Dance, a dark song cycle with a wholly new take on the classic music of Rogers and Hart. Doyle, director of the critically-acclaimed recent Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company, is one of his generation’s great visionaries; the production, co-produced with Williamstown Theatre Festival, is not to be missed.  Tues-Thurs at 7:30pm, Saturday at 8p; Berlind Theater, McCarter Theatre Center.  Tickets free with a TigerTicket (preloaded on your Prox).
  • Though it’s technically already sold out (the first-come first-serve free tickets were all gone as of Tuesday night), former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich’s public interview with composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim here at McCarter Theater is bound to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for arts lovers.  Monday, September 26, at 8pm in Matthews Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center; they’ll be giving will call tickets at the door, so it’s definitely worth stopping by!
The Fitzrandolph Gates await, 2014ers! (Source: princetonphotographs.com).

The Fitzrandolph Gates await, 2014ers! (Source: princetonphotographs.com).

As New Jersey gets attacked by the mother lode of all rain storms this week (oh hey, Tropical Depression Danielle!), the start of hurricane season prompts every good Princetonian to start his or her annual late-summer countdown till move-in.  (19 days, folks!) At this point, of course, all of our friends at normal schools have already moved in and are partying up a storm–erm, are studying hard, as usual. But hey, we’re too cool to start classes in August.  And so we wait.

And wait.

And wait.

For all you 2014ers out there, have no fear! With any luck, this interim period will be your most hellish Princeton experience by far.  In the meantime, here’s a lovely article courtesy of today’s New York Times about how schools are dealing with  over-protective parents as freshman flock to campus.

At Princeton, parents are politely encouraged to vamoose by students-only events after 5:30pm on move-in day.  Dean Dunne, our Associate Dean of Undergraduates, weighs in: “It’s easy for students to point to [the students-only events] and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I think you’re supposed to be gone now.’  It’s obviously a hard conversation for students to have with parents.”

Here’s hoping your parents know how to let go come September 4th for all you OA and CA folks!  If need be, gently remind them that Parents’ Day is a scant month away…at which point, their pocketbooks and the prospect of dinner off-campus will earn them quite the hearty welcome.