An exhibit on musical theater, “Broadway and America: Reflections of a Cultural History,” at Scripps’ Denison Library, is on view now through February 28, 2009. Scripps students in Core 3: “Democracy, Populism, and American Musical Theatre,” a course from the College’s Core Curriculum in Interdisciplinary Studies, are the curators. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
“Broadway and America” is co-curated by Charles W. Kamm, assistant professor of music history at Scripps and director of choirs in the Joint Music Program. In Kamm’s Core 3 class, students use popular 20th century American musicals and operas as primary texts and examine works through the lens of both history and sociology. They also address issues of gender, race, class, religion, politics, orientalism, and colonialism. The final project involves curating an exhibit based on materials from the course.
A variety of playbills, posters, LP jackets, recordings, and other memorabilia from America’s vibrant history of musical theater on Broadway will be on display at Denison.
For more information, call the Humanities Institute at (909) 621-8326 or Denison Library at (909) 607-9351.