Community Calendar

It might feel like the end of the world, but at least we can laugh and cry about it together. Don’t miss a rare opportunity to see Samuel Beckett’s classic Endgame featuring Tom King as Hamm and Jay Zehr as Clov. These long-standing contributors to the Harrisonburg theatre scene bring the depth of their life experience to a rich and layered work of literature.

Endgame imagines what may be the last living beings on earth, sheltering together at the end of everything, bound to one another and coping through routine and storytelling. The characters are also performers playing out their tensions before a live audience — an acknowledgment that theatre itself is a kind of shelter, a communion between stage and audience facing discomfort together. Beckett, one of the 20th century's defining playwrights, was capturing a specific postwar despair that still resonates today. The play may seem bleak at times, but it holds unexpected humor and a tender reckoning with what makes life meaningful when meaning itself feels precarious.

All are invited to the Carrier Library Art Galleries Opening Reception, presented by JMU Libraries and the JMU School of Art, Design and Art History (SADAH) on Thursday, October 22, from 3 to 5 p.m.

The featured exhibitions showcase art and design by JMU students: “A Third Space: Making Space” by SADAH Architecture students and “Exquisite Corpse” by SADAH Studio Art students.

Enjoy light refreshments and explore new work across two galleries: the Updike Gallery on the second floor and the Ground Floor Gallery.

Opening remarks will take place at 3 p.m. at the Updike Gallery.

Explore the battlefield after hours at our only nighttime event! Step back in time with our annual lantern tour program, “Spirits of New Market,” as we recognize the spirit of those whose lives were impacted by the Battle of New Market. You’ll follow your guide on a lantern-lit tour of the Battlefield encountering living historians portraying soldiers, townsfolk, and Bushong family. While interacting with the characters, you’ll be able to lend aid to the wounded, ask questions and experience the Battlefield in a whole new way.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m. This is not a haunted tour, and is intended for guests of all ages. Please leave your furry friends at home, service animals welcome.

Event Rates: $10 per adult (ages 13 and older) $6 per youth (ages 6-12) Children 5 and under are free, $5 for New Market residents (ages 6+) with proof of residency.

Each walking tour lasts approximately 45 minutes and covers approximately ½ mile over grass and gravel.

The Commercial Rock Ensemble (Matthew Niess, director) presents a high-energy concert celebrating the full spectrum of rock and commercial music. From classic rock, pop, funk, soul, R&B, blues, alternative, progressive rock and contemporary hits, this performance showcases the power and versatility of today’s commercial music styles. Featuring dynamic vocals, driving rhythm section, electric guitars, horns and powerful ensemble playing, this concert brings together iconic songs and fresh arrangements for an exciting night of live music.

Imagine 30+ musicians filling the Concert Hall with a wall of brass that is precise, powerful and deeply alive. From the Welsh Valleys town of Ton Pentre, the Cory Band is the most decorated brass band on the planet and delivers the kind of night you won't forget.

Don’t miss Shenandoah Conservatory’s production of American Psycho! Based on the electrifying novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the musical follows Patrick Bateman, a young and handsome Wall Street banker whose life revolves around designer labels, exclusive restaurants and relentless ambition. Beneath his polished exterior, however, lurks a far darker reality — and the carefully constructed mask he presents to the world is beginning to crack. Check website for times and details.

The Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU present Paul Giess and Untethered, Friday October 30th at 7:30 pm at Visible Records.

Untethered, a collective formed by trumpeter Paul Giess in the summer of 2024, plays what the drummer Grant Calvin Weston dubs spontaneous creative composition. Their album “Grasping for the Moon” received critical acclaim and was featured as album of the day on Bandcamp last year, which wrote "the music is in constant flux, opening up and tightening, cooling down and catching fire, riding stasis and exploding with hyperactive motion."

Through inventive and unpredictable improvisation, the group displays musical personalities that have range and depth, holding a deep pocketed funk next to chamber music style sound design. Intricate, profound and otherworldly, the ensemble’s inventive nature allows each performance to be a one-of-a-kind experience to resonate with their audiences. For this performance, Paul will be joined by drummer G. Calvin Weston and bassist Timothy Ragsdale.

Join the Dance Ensemble for an unforgettable program of movement, artistry and innovation. Showcasing a dynamic range of styles from contemporary to street, this captivating performance highlights the versatility, athleticism and expressive power of Shenandoah’s talented dancers. The program features original works by faculty choreographers Angela Dice Nguyen, Ben Howard and Katherine Zukeri, alongside a special guest work by Ali Koinoglou that sparks the imagination. Check website for times and details.

Explore the world we can't normally see! Microscopes will be set up for you to look at tiny life in pond water, vascular systems of plants, hairs on the legs of a bug and whatever other tiny things we can find. Appropriate for fifth grade through adult.'

Our younger friends can explore with our more sturdy stereoscopes, bug viewers and hand lenses.

(Minors under 18 must have an adult attend with them.)