Front Page

Leapin Lizards! Berkshire Theatre Group has mounted Seascape Edward Albee's absurdist answer to Beckett's masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. Albee, one of America's leading playwrights won a Pulitizer for it (one of three) but it was a flop with critics and audiences. The Broadway run ended after just 65 performances. Hit or miss you can draw your own conclusions based on the production directed by Eric Hill.

Groundbreaking choreographer Shamel Pitts doesn’t dance around big issues—instead, he dances into them.

Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) in Southeast Florida will open its 2022-23 season with "4000 Miles." The comedy-drama by Amy Herzog was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. PBD's production will run from Oct. 14-30, with preview performances on Oct. 12 and 13.

Although Donizetti concocted this superficially light-hearted confection, “Elixir” is a serious delight from curtain to curtain, both as an entertainment and as a great work of composition.  As we have come to expect, Livermore Valley Opera once again punches above its weight with a totally appealing production that hits all the right notes, literally and figuratively.

Cate Blanchett is an orchestra conductor Lydia Tár in Todd Field’s new  film Tár, which premiered at the New York Film Festival. Anyone who has been exposed to Blanchett's performance will be eager to see her latest, mind-blowing work. This is also an opportunity for the unexposed to be introduced. Blanchett is an actress who will always take a dare and push herself beyond perceived limits.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is pleased to announce visual artist Janet Echelman as a 2022-23 Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT. The appointment, hosted by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) will begin this fall.

By the 1930s, Herman Melville's novel became an example of Great American Writing and was studied in many University English Programs.  The interest in Herman Melville continues such that since his death on this day (September 29) in 1891, more than 60,000,000 copies of MOBY-DICK have been published around the world!

The genesis of “Indecent” begins in Warsaw in 1906.  Young author Sholem Asch has written a Yiddish play called “God of Vengeance,” which acts as a play-within-a-play in “Indecent,”  as scenes from the former appear throughout the latter.  Portrayed passionately and with grand gestures by Billy Cohen, Asch entreats other writers to participate in a table reading.  After the reading, I. L. Peretz, Warsaw’s most distinguished Yiddish author, tells Asch to burn the play.  Despite contentiousness and only a modicum of support, a Yiddish language company produces the play.  

All signs point to a full house for Grace Kelly’s evening of big band music. The young lion of jazz headlines with the University of Connecticut Jazz Ensemble on Sunday evening, Oct. 9.

An amazing theatrical performance took place at the stage of the Volksbuehne, Berlin.  The Austrian performance artist Florentina Holzinger made her newest work „Ophelia's Got Talent“ into a show that stretched the technical abilities of the theatre to the fullest. 

In 2017, Madison Ferris was the first disabled actor on Broadway as Laura in Glass Menagerie. This astonishing performer stars in All of Me by Laura Winters. By Laura Winters. It is having a World Premiere of the Burman New Play Award Winner at Barrington Stage Company.

Opera Philadelphia and the Obvious Agency present a choreographed Raven, based on Toshio Hosokawa's Monologue. The audience is transported by the fantastic music and dance.

Boston-based contemporary dance artist Rachel Linsky debuts “Hidden,” the latest in her ongoing choreographic series ZACHOR that seeks to preserve stories of WWII Holocaust survivors through dance. “Hidden” is inspired by the story of Holocaust survivor Aaron Elster who at 10 years old was hidden from the Nazis in a Polish family’s attic for two years.

For its fall production Shakespeare & Company is presenting the revised, heart-warming, one act play Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues by Charles Smith. We left with many pull-out talking points about vaudeville, ragtime, aging, racism, welfare and most importantly the never ending human comedy.

The Huntington announces the casting and creative team for the highly anticipated revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, directed by Lili-Anne Brown. Wilson’s masterpiece serves as the inaugural production of the newly renovated Huntington Theatre and runs from October 14 – November 13, 2022, with digital access to the filmed performance available until November 27, 2022.  

But, oh, that music.  Those haunting melodies and the euphonic lilt of the language produce a signature Russian experience.  It should be no surprise that this is currently the world’s most produced Slavic opera, given its many attractions.  Happily, it remains in the repertory of San Francisco Opera, which offers a striking and highly enjoyable rendition.  

On Monday, October 10, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), offers free admission and activities all day as part of an annual Indigenous People’s Day celebration. Visitors are invited to enjoy music and dance, drop in on a variety of engaging family art-making activities, and explore galleries showcasing 20th-century Native art from the Southwest as well as Indigenous artworks from across the U.S. and Canada

Sounds of Hazel, choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher’s is a new ballet inspired by the life of virtuoso classical and jazz pianist, singer, and civil rights activist Hazel Scott.

The Boston- and U.K.-based Enigma Chamber Opera continues its exploration of chamber works by Benjamin Britten with two performances of the English composer’s biblically inspired 1968 opera “The Prodigal Son.” The work is the third of Britten's three Parables for Church Performance; Enigma mounted the first, “Curlew River,” to critical acclaim last fall. This new production is directed by Artistic Director Kirsten Z. Cairns, who finds in the universal story of parent/child reconciliation and forgiveness a balm for an often bitterly divided society.

Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it. Freeman and Lewy have installed their distinctive augmented reality works at the Installation Space gallery, as well as at access points in downtown North Adams public spaces.

Opera Philadelphia brings Gioachino Rossini's Otello to the stage. Beethoven told Rossini that he should stay away from serious drama. It was not in his nature. That is not the only reason Rossini’s serious opera Otello has been largely ignored. When Verdi and Bioto wrote their Otello, it replaced Rossini’s in the repertoire. Now we can hear the glorious bel canto tenor Lawrence Brownlee and also Daniela Mack dazzle and emote as Rodrigo and Desdemona.

Have you forgotten this show? It is based on the classic 1950 film noir of the same name which tells the story of an aging silent screen actress deluded that she will make a comeback and the struggling screenwriter she hires to help her with a script. Add in music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and you had a smash hit in both London and New York.

Andris Nelsons, marking his ninth season as BSO Music Director, leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the opening concert of the 2022–23 season on September 22 at Symphony Hall. Pianist Awadagin Pratt appears for the first time with the BSO, performing a work written for him by American composer Jessie Montgomery (Rounds, for piano and string orchestra) and J.S. Bach's Concerto in A, BWV 1055.

Rachel Portesi: Standing Still, a solo exhibition of works by artist Rachel Portesi, featuring a selection of collodion tintypes made with large-format vintage cameras that explore the evolving lifelong complexities of female identity. The works in Standing Still are part of the artist's ongoing series of “hair portraits.”

"A Garden as a Work of Art ~ Or Gardening as an Artistic Activity" -- This garden poses a statement as well as a question. So, please follow the work described in this collaborative project and decide for yourself.