Event: The Harry Ransom Center hosts free public programs throughout the summer.
When: Various evenings throughout June and July.
Where: Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, 21st and Guadalupe streets and Jessen Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin.
Background: The Harry Ransom Center will present public programs related to its exhibitions and the Center’s holdings throughout the summer. These events are free and open to the public.
Rebel Classics Film Series: “The Wild One”
Thursday, June 5, 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center kicks off the Rebel Classics Film Series with László Benedek’s “The Wild One” (1953), starring Marlon Brando, who portrays Johnny Strabler, an outlaw biker gang leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, in this classic youth rebel film.
Violet Crown Radio Players Perform “The Case of the Crooked Candle”
Thursday, June 12, 7 p.m. at Jessen Auditorium
The Harry Ransom Center presents the Violet Crown Radio Players in a performance of Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Case of the Crooked Candle.” This live recreation of a 1950s radio broadcast of an episode of Gardner’s “Perry Mason” is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “On the Road with the Beats.” The Violet Crown Radio Players are an Austin-based performance troupe of actors who recreate the once-common production and experience of live radio and make the audience part of the act. With vintage advertising and news broadcasts, the radio production takes place in a time and place contemporary with the piece produced. This event is an Erle Stanley Gardner Endowed performance. The Ransom Center holds the Gardner collection, which contains hundreds of teleplays, scripts and memorabilia from the television show “Perry Mason.”
“Memory and Reconciliation: Civil War and Trauma in El Salvador”
Thursday, June 19, 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center
In conjunction with the exhibition “Inside El Salvador,” Ricardo Ainslie presents “Memory and Reconciliation: Civil War and Trauma in El Salvador.” Ainslie explores how societies attempt to recover from such catastrophic and traumatizing experiences. Focusing on the impact of this civil war at both an individual and collective level, this talk looks at the problem of memory in a society’s efforts to find reconciliation. Ainslie is a professor in the Department of Education Psychology and affiliate faculty for the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Department of American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
“Film Action 7”
Friday, June 20, 9 p.m. on the Harry Ransom Center plaza
The Harry Ransom Center presents “Film Action 7,” an evening of dynamic multi-layered imagery and sound performed in and on the Ransom Center’s north atrium, featuring collaboration and improvisations by Austin composer Graham Reynolds and live projection performer Luke Savisky. Graham, part of the local music group Golden Arm Trio, has written scores for ballets, symphonies and numerous feature films. Savisky has performed projection art in and on buildings around the world. Savisky’s found-film, site-specific multiple projection pieces transform architectural spaces into works of kinetic art.
Rebel Classics Film Series: “Rebel Without a Cause”
Thursday, June 26, 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center continues its Rebel Classics Film Series with Nicolas Ray’s “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), starring James Dean, whose character Jim Stark moves to a new area and finds comfort with two young rebellious outsiders.
Violet Crown Radio Players Perform an Episode of “Dangerous Assignment”
Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m. at Jessen Auditorium
The Violet Crown Radio Players produce and episode of “Dangerous Assignment” in a live recreation of a 1950s radio broadcast.
The Tosca String Quartet Performs Lee Hyla’s Arrangement of “Howl”
Thursday, July 17, 7 p.m. at Jessen Auditorium
The Austin Chamber Music Center presents the Tosca String Quartet in a tribute to the Beats, featuring Boston composer Lee Hyla’s arrangement of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” This performance is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center’s exhibition “On the Road with the Beats,” which traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and their friends across America and the globe. The exhibition runs through Aug. 3.
Rebel Classics Film Series: “Look Back in Anger”
Thursday, July 24, 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center presents the final film in the Rebel Classics Film Series, Tony Richardson’s “Look Back in Anger” (1958). Richard Burton stars as Jimmy Porter, an angry, unsatisfied man whose wife is pregnant but afraid to tell him as he deals with personal, emotional and business issues. The film is based on John Osborne’s renowned play. Osbourne’s archive is housed at the Ransom Center.
High-resolution press images relating to all events are available.
