Sunday, March 5- Ever since the final debate of the 2016 presidential race, feminists across America have been proudly proclaiming themselves Nasty Women. So it seems like an auspicious time to reexamine the legacy of one of the most notorious nasty women of the silent screen era: actress Louise Brooks, whose short black bobbed hair inspired a generation of flappers and whose outré lifestyle and controversial characterizations generated both outrage and admiration among moviegoers.

The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT), resident company at Vassar College, will celebrate its 35th annual gala weekend with two performances at Poughkeepsie’s Bardavon 1869 Opera House at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 5.

There’s much to be appreciated about this movie: its spare-but-lovely score, its sensual, metaphoric use of water and moonlight, the fine acting even by the youngest of its cast.

Corwin traveled the world creating broadcasts for the United Nations, until McCarthyism drove him out of the radio medium and into writing for the screen and stage.

Shaffer got it right: The mediocre human is audiences’ way into understanding this story. That’s why the obsessively envious Salieri, and not his titular bête noire with the hideously annoying laugh and the peerless compositional brilliance, is the protagonist of Amadeus.

Set in the 1960s, it follows the adolescence of a girl called Li’l Bit in flashback as her alternatingly supportive and abusive Uncle Peck exacts a high emotional price for driving lessons on the rural roads of Maryland.

“Jailed nine times before her 15th birthday, Lynda Blackmon’s stirring tale lets audiences of all ages experience the courage it took to help change American history.”

Since 2003, Vassar College has held an annual festival dedicated to exploring and celebrating the arts of the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s called Modfest, and it brings together students, faculty members and outside artists (such as Pulitzer Prizewinning composers Yehudi Wyner, Steve Reich and David del Tredici) for a week-and-a-half of residencies, performances and exhibitions, all free and open to the general public.