Minimalist theater director Peter Brook strips this war horse to 80 minutes of essentials. As an intimate psychological intimacy, the plot line is jolting, often lacking the motivations behind characters' actions. But the music is Carmen, and the cast is talented, so forgiveness for numerous transgressions is in order.

When they return to the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina later this month, members of Sarasota’s Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe are looking forward to reconnecting with a group of artists they don’t often get to see or meet.

The Deutsche Oper’s mounting of the David McVicar production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto has stood the test of time. First presented over twenty years ago, it still seems grand and full of life.

Estate Sale, by Keelay Gipson, a 70-minute, one act play having its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company, begins obliquely. Half of the audience enters from the stage door navigating a clutter of estate sale items. They thread through the urban dwelling designed by You-Shin Chen.

A mandate for the 2026 season of Jacob’s Pillow is to highlight the contributions of women. The week celebrating the 250th anniversary of America focused on Jowole Willo Jo Zollar who founded Urban Bush Women in 1984. The company has been a frequent visitor to the Berkshires and developed new work during a residency at MASS MoCA.

Rather than bringing in a touring production as it has in the past, for the first time last year, the Asolo Rep staged its own family-friendly summer show, based on the “Frog and Toad” series of children’s books that relate the daily adventures of two best friends with opposite personalities.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this year’s Boston French Film Festival presents a wide-ranging selection of contemporary cinema from France focused on art, identity, and cultural memory.

College Days. And then a flood of warm nostalgia. It startled Joey, catching him unaware, the unlikely cause tumbling out of a two-day-old edition of The Times which he'd dragged out of the dustbin after breakfast. He had purchased the newspaper on his way back from the aborted lunch with McDougal but had been too incensed to read it. Now it sat on his lap, jolting his memory and attaching his attention to a short, news-in-brief item at the bottom of the page.

If you think that history can be boring, then seeing the excellent Ivoryton Playhouse production of 1776 will change your mind. The Tony-Award winning musical combines music, humor in a quite accurate recounting of why we celebrate July 4th. It’s part of Ivoryton’s season honoring our 250th anniversary.

The current installation of 150 works represents about half of the collection. The works on paper will be available for view and study as well as in displays of limited duration. A gift of this quality and depth is unprecedented. It greatly enhances the Clark as one of the foremost regional American museums.

In the early 2000s, there was a popular television drama, The West Wing, that followed the hyper-fast, high-stakes lives of the political elite inside the White House. Whenever the fictional president finished a grueling debate, resolved a global crisis, or wrapped up a staff meeting, he would look around the room, slap his hands together, and utter a signature two-word phrase: “What’s next?”

New City Players in South Florida will present the southeastern premiere of Rachel Bublitz's dark comedy, Burst, from July 11-26. A pay-what-you-wish preview will take place on Friday, July 10. The 90-minute corporate thriller-comedy centers on a tech startup CEO with big ambitions.

Copland and Twain was a highlight of the Chelsea Music Festival 2026. For the first time, the adventurous group that produces this festival mounted a work in a Broadway venue. To make a 250th anniversary statement for our country, they chose to mix the music of Aaron Copland, often called the Dean of American Music, with the words of Mark Twain, our liveliest chronicler.

On view at the Cape Ann Museum from June 30 through September 27, 2026, the exhibition is guest curated by Eliza Rathbone, Chief Curator Emerita at The Phillips Collection. Following its Gloucester debut, the exhibition will travel to The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, in October 2026—marking the first time an exhibition organized by the Cape Ann Museum will tour to a national museum.

Theresa Bernstein (1890-2002) and Milton Avery (1886-1965) ran in the same modernist circles, summering in the same art colonies and gathering at Bernstein and husband William Meyerowitz’s home in East Gloucester – steps away from Good Harbor Beach. All three modernists walked away from abstraction, capturing an intimacy where realism and abstraction intersect – observed reality.

In a not particularly surprising reveal, The Sarasota Ballet has announced it will begin its 20th season under Director Iain Webb with a six-day, seven-performance run at The Joyce Theater in New York City prior to opening its home season in Sarasota in late October.

I have never been much of a dog person, but I quickly fell for the one played by Kelsey Leigh Stalter in Tate Elizabeth Hanyok’s charming and touching new comedy drama “Dog Mom” running through July 26 in Florida Studio Theatre’s Keating Theatre.

Sweeney is the first co-production of Hartford’s two major theaters: TheaterWorks Hartford and Hartford Stage. The two combined resources for this demanding work. It uses the expansive space at Hartford Stage, while calling on the talents of the Artistic Director and award-winning Director Rob Ruggiero of TheaterWorks to stage the musical. The production team includes veterans of both Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks productions as well as some new people.

It was the truth. Well, close. His mother had said something like that after another dumb incident with his uncle. It had happened one evening when Frederick—having nothing better to do, Joey guessed—nudged his nephew with his foot while they were watching television and mused that if he dropped Joey's baseball and his rubber eraser from the same height, they would both hit the floor at the same time.

Identity and gender confusion rule the day, both in characters and the composer's casting specifications. Festival Opera recognized what a delightful fit for Pride Month this fine Handel work is.

ArtBuzz Theatrics and Florida Theatrical Evbents presents an intimate and immersive co-production of "Cabaret" through this Sunday. Nealy 60 years after its Broadway debut, Cabaret still lands with uncomfortable clarity. The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

This is the second writing in the trilogy, a supporting essay to The Alchemical Ash. The third will come in two weeks.

Berkshire artist, Morgan Bulkeley, died on May 11 after a long illness. He was 81. Bulkeley was known for whimsical narrative work in a variety of media from painting to carved relief and free-standing sculpture. He graduated from Yale where he majored in literature. That led to an auto-didactic approach. Approachable and understated he was admired and appreciated by a circle of friends in Boston and the Berkshires. What follows is a review of his 2018 retrospective at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield. There is going to be a memorial service for him on July 18th.

Emerging from the Motown stable, the Temptations became the most successful R&B singing group of their era, perhaps of all time. But with success came the pain of many personal failures. Ain't Too Proud evidences the joy of their music against the backdrop of the challenges of dealing with professional demands and fragile psyches.

Barrington Stage Company, is the recipient of a $125,000 grant from The Shubert Foundation. Granted in the category of Theatre, the award will support key programming in BSC’s 2026 season. The award represents a $5,000 increase over last year’s grant.