This Week in New Haven (April 3 – 9)

C ritics—of movies, in movies and of one movie’s soundtrack—are heard this week in New Haven, as are dungeon masters, steamy performers and a World War I expert. 

Monday, April 3
In an age of endless reboots and retreads from mainstream Hollywood, critical criticism—as opposed to the uncritical kind, which seems unbothered by little things like incoherent storytelling—is all the more important. Today at 4 p.m., Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall Street, New Haven) hosts four critical film critics—Bilge Ebiri (The Village Voice), Jean-Michel Frodon (Slate.fr, Le Monde), Wesley Morris (The New York Times, Boston Globe) and Gerald Peary (The Arts Fuse, Boston Phoenix)—for a free two-part panel. Its broad concern is “Film Criticism and the Transition from Print to Digital,” with special and somewhat ominous-sounding foci on “The International Situation” and “The American Situation.”

sponsored by

Capitol America at the New Haven Museum

Tuesday, April 4
Break out your drumsticks or trombone or whatever for the first of Jazz Haven’s new “Jazz Haven Sessions.” Alternating every Tuesday between Three Sheets (372 Elm St, New Haven; 475-202-6909), where it is tonight, and Pacific Standard Tavern (212 Crown St, New Haven), “the format will be a short set by the house band starting at 7:30,” followed by “an open jam session from 8:30 to 10:30.” Free.

Wednesday, April 5
The 2017 Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY), which “showcases incisive, cutting-edge films that highlight the environmental and social issues of our time,” commences today, pairing a feature-length documentary with a short at each of five venue-hopping screenings scheduled through Saturday, April 8. The first event, happening tonight at 6:30 on the lawn of Yale’s Kroon Hall (195 Prospect St, New Haven), couples The Age of Consequences (screen-capped above), which offers urgent national and global security perspectives on climate change, with Lost in Light, whose lush but economical study of “how light pollution affects the view of the night skies” may inspire you to seek out dark places.

Thursday, April 6
The next Thursday session of Elm City Games’s D&D Adventurers’ League, which welcomes “first-time” Dungeons & Dragons players as well as ones who’ve got “30+ years of rolling twenties,” happens from 6 to 10 p.m. Stressing that advance registration and punctuality are “very important,” since “tables almost always fill completely up and you may be turned away if you don’t RSVP” or arrive on time, the location is the second floor of 760 Chapel Street, New Haven (a.k.a. The Grove), and the cost is $5 (or $0 for ECG members).

Friday, April 7
Revivals with flirtatious scores hit New Haven tonight. At 8, with three other performances over the weekend, the Shubert Theater (247 College St, New Haven; 800-745-3000) hosts “heart-pounding music, passionate romance and sensational dancing” via Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage. At 9, 168 York Street Cafe (203-789-1915; $5) hosts a tribute to The Rocky Horror Show, featuring “live singing [and] dancing, sexy boys, sweet transvestites, virgins, jello shots, naughty games and even a 50/50 raffle.”

Saturday, April 8
Coinciding with its new exhibit World War I: Beyond the Front Lines, the Knights of Columbus Museum (1 State St, New Haven; 203-865-0400) hosts Central Connecticut State history professor M. Bolek Biskupski, who offers a primer on the causes and effects of “the modern world’s first international conflict.”

Westville’s schedule today includes two doubled-up artist receptions from 3 to 6 p.m. At Kehler Liddell Gallery (873 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-9555), Liz Antle-O’Donnell’s Walls analogizes gated communities with “what is happening in the country at large,” and photographer Alan Shulik’s Enigmatic Canyons presents “the visionary drama of western landscapes.” At DaSilva Gallery (899 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-387-2539), painter Jay Bright presents “two juxtaposing projects”—one inspired by Andre Durain’s paintings of London, and the other “a meditation on the role of Bright’s father as a leader of a bomb demolition squad turned civil servant for the army.” Free.

Up the street and up a couple hours is a Second Saturday Soundscape at Lotta Studio (911 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-780-8764). Starting at 8 p.m., it’s “an evening of improvised/experimental music” from Zach Rowden, Karim Rome and Andy Pitcher with a set of poetry from N Jewell. $5-10.

Sunday, April 9
Speaking of unpredictable music, Best Video (1842 Whitney Ave, Hamden; 203-287-9286) is showing super-low-budget cult film Deadbeat at Dawn (1988), whose problematic original soundtrack gets a probable upgrade thanks to a live score from composer/producer Matt Grem, a.k.a. Nephew, and guitarist Sean Martin, who’s played with artists like Hatebreed and Kid Cudi. 7 p.m. $7.

Written by Dan Mims. Image depicts a still from The Age of Consequences. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.

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Dan has worked for a couple of major media companies, but he likes Daily Nutmeg best. As DN’s editor, he writes, photographs, edits and otherwise shepherds ideas into fully realized feature stories.

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