At the Renovated Hop, November Runs on Dartmouth's Calendar

The Hop's November page lists a Monteverdi concert, a new Chekhov adaptation, a jazz orchestra and a free community sing. Nearly all of it falls in the first half of the month, and Dartmouth's fall term calendar lines up with that split. Fall classes end Tuesday, November 17. Every resident-ensemble date on the Hopkins Center's November calendar falls on or before that day. After it, the building runs on a different clock, one that suits people who live in Hanover year-round.

This is the first full fall season inside the renovated building. The public reopening celebration ran October 16 through 19, 2025. By January, the Valley News was describing a building that had sprung back to life. Some of its rooms are new enough that a regular Hop-goer may not have sat in them yet. The term calendar decides which of those rooms you are most likely to end up in, and on which night.

The Date That Splits the Month

Dartmouth's registrar sets the term's closing sequence as follows. Classes end November 17, a pre-exam break follows on November 18 and 19, and final exams start November 20 and wrap up November 25. The Hop's student ensembles perform before that sequence begins. The Glee Club opened the month on November 1, followed by the Gospel Choir on November 5, the Coast Jazz Orchestra on November 7 and the Dartmouth Dance Showcase on November 10. The Handel Society's Community Sing on November 17 lands on the last day of classes. The Department of Theater's production of The Cherry Orchard closes November 14.

The touring evenings land in the same weeks. Here is what remains on the calendar from publication day onward, split at November 17:

Above the line, most events start at 7 or 7:30 p.m., many on weeknights. Below it, every event starts between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a Saturday. The ticket prices shown are the starting prices the Hop lists for each event.

Before November 17, the New Rooms Carry the Evenings

The first half of the month is the best time to see the renovation itself, because that is when the smaller new rooms host live work. Snøhetta designed the project, which added the 15,000-square-foot Daryl and Steven Roth Wing. The named spaces include the Daryl Roth Studio Theater, the Jack '53 and Mac '11 Morris Recital Hall, the Mindy Kaling Theater Lab, the Roth Forum and a dedicated dance studio. Snøhetta's own project page describes the work as adding practice and performance space and improving accessibility while preserving original features of the historic building.

The Cherry Orchard is the main chance this fall to see a full production in the Daryl Roth Studio Theater. It runs over two weekends in a new adaptation by Benedict Andrews. Evening shows start at 7:30 p.m., and the Saturdays add 3 p.m. matinees on November 7 and 14. Those two matinees are the only daytime way into a live student production before the term ends.

Spaulding Auditorium has also been rebuilt from the inside. The Valley News reported updated acoustics and seating and a capacity of 792. In the first half of November, Spaulding hosts three very different evenings:

• Coast Jazz Orchestra, November 7. Guest director Zack O'Farrill, the Coast artist-in-residence for 2026–27, leads music by Ellington, Basie, Gillespie, Monk, Mingus and Coltrane, plus his own arrangement of Jobim's "One Note Samba."
• Les Arts Florissants, November 9. The program is The Magic of Monteverdi. A pre-show talk the same day features directors William Christie and Paul Agnew, moderated by Filippo Ciabatti.
• Briston Maroney, November 12. A stripped-down set on his Normal Heights tour, with Noah Pope.

Top of the Hop was remodeled as part of the same project and now has a bar. In November it hosts the two least formal events on the calendar. At 11 a.m. on November 7, the HopStop Instrument Petting Zoo, run in partnership with Vermont Folk Life, lets kids try instruments and then hear them played. At 7:30 p.m. on November 17, the Handel Society Community Sing is free and unticketed, a shared evening of choral music. Because it falls on the last day of classes, it is the Hop's final student ensemble date of the fall.

Films run alongside all of this in Loew Auditorium in the Black Family Visual Arts Center, at a starting price of $9. The documentary Mary Oliver: Saved By the Beauty of the World screens November 12. Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Digger, with Tom Cruise as an aging oil tycoon, screens the next night. During construction, Loew was one of the stand-in venues that held Hop film screenings while the main building was closed, as the Valley News reported at the time.

After Classes End, Spaulding Shifts to Saturday Afternoons

Spaulding's daytime screenings begin two days before classes end. On Sunday, November 15, a special encore of the Met Opera in HD Carmen plays Spaulding at 1 p.m., using Richard Eyre's 2010 production with Elīna Garanča. From there, Spaulding's dates are mostly screens and early start times. Broadway in HD's Giant, with Tony Award-winner John Lithgow as Roald Dahl, plays Saturday, November 21, at 2 p.m. That's the day after final exams begin.

Once exams wrap up November 25, the Hop's December page currently lists three events, all on Saturdays.

1. December 5, 11 a.m. The free HopStop Cookie Contest in the Courtyard Cafe. The listing asks families to register, though its description calls registration encouraged rather than required.
2. December 5, noon. Met Opera in HD's Samson et Dalila in Spaulding, with tickets starting at $22.
3. December 12, 1 p.m. A family-abridged The Magic Flute in Spaulding, with tickets starting at $22.

The Met Opera in HD pages note that Dartmouth students can attend free by contacting the Box Office. By December most students have left for the break, so the people filling those Saturday seats will mostly be from around the Upper Valley.

The Cafe and the Museum Fill Out a Saturday

The building around these Saturday events has changed too. The Courtyard Cafe, where the Cookie Contest takes place, reopened on September 13 after its third round of renovations since spring 2025, The Dartmouth reported. This summer's work was mostly behind the counter. It added new kitchen equipment, reconfigured stations and created a new area for Fresh Zone vending. Dartmouth Dining director Jon Plodzik told the paper that the seating area had been replaced to feel "much more contemporary," with furniture from SCI Furniture. Dartmouth Campus Services says the cafe operates during the fall, winter and spring terms. The cafe's posted hours are worth checking before a December visit, after the fall term has ended.

The Hood Museum of Art, at 6 East Wheelock Street, has free admission and entrances from both Wheelock and Lebanon Streets. A noon opera or a 1 p.m. Magic Flute leaves the rest of the afternoon free for the galleries. The Hood's visitor page points drivers to metered street parking and the paid garage at 7 Lebanon Street. The Hop's own directions page lists the same garage.

Full listings, start times and ticket links for each event are on the Hop's November calendar and December calendar.

If you live within walking distance of the Hop and are wondering what your home might be worth this winter, Jaime Durell is happy to walk you through it over coffee in town. Request a Free Home Valuation whenever it suits your schedule.