The basics for writing are cheaper. I could hold them all and my five-box life in my arms at the same time. But then it would all simply be an exercise in self-entertainment or personal therapy. Somewhere along the line writing requires others. Readers for a start. Even if they are imagined. Then publishers would be a nice touch. Again, even if that is self-publishing.

With The Victim playwright, Lawrence Goodman, has bitten off a lot to chew in a dense one act play that feels more like three. It presents monologues by three remarkable actresses: Stephanie Clayman (Daphne), Yvette King (Maria), and Annette Miller (Ruth). He takes on DEI, The Holocaust, and The Covid Pandemic.

15 organizations and concerned citizens in the Berkshires hosted: Relay for Democracy; No Kings North Adams, Great Barrington, West Stockbridge  and Pittsfield; and Projecting Democracy, from 8 in the morning until 11 pm at night. A very busy and important day!

Jacob’s Pillow will welcome the LA-based contemporary dance company BODYTRAFFIC for their Ted Shawn Theatre debut, Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 6. This engagement will occur in the second week of the historic summer festival’s nine-week season. Renowned for their “invention, attitude, and urban edge” (The Boston Globe), BODYTRAFFIC will offer dynamic performances exploring the power of memory and the unexpected reminders all around us that provoke deep feelings of nostalgia.   

The Board of Directors of Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is pleased to announce Greg Reiner as the company’s new Managing Director. Reiner, who most recently served as Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), joins BSC as of August 4, 2025.

Colleague and friend Edward Fast Eddy Rubin was astounding and incorrigible. He was a regular contributor to Berkshire Fine Arts. Though he enjoyed getting comped he was slow to submit reviews often just when shows were about to or already had closed. He was the leader of our pack with unflinching panache and humor. The moniker came early on when he worked for a PR firm. He was dispatched with orders "Eddy, quick go here or there and do this or that." His promptness in executing these commands identified him as Fast Eddy. This obit is written by New Orleans based critic and ATCA member Alan Smason.

Orgon is taken in by the false piety of rapscallion Tartuffe. He wants his daughter to marry Tartuffe but arranges to make the fraudster his sole heir before the wedding occurs. Needless to say, this causes consternation and crisis to his blood family.

Drawn from classic Greek tragedy, the King of Crete begs an indulgence from Neptune to save him from raging waters. The price is that Idomeneo is to sacrifice the first person he sees on shore. That turns out to be his son. Idomeneo deals with internal conflict throughout.

Provincetown's Berta Walker Gallery is presenting four, one person shows by Carmen Cicero, Lucy Clark, Danielle Mailer, and Deb Mell. They open on June 27 and run through July 20.

he Clark Art Institute marks the 100-year anniversary of Berenice Abbott’s first photographs with an exhibition examining the relationship between her portraits of people and her “portraits” of places. Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991) was one of the most important American photographers of the twentieth century, known for her pioneering documentary style, unpretentious compositions, and technical innovations.

I recall you always taking photos of yourself in these photo booths, often with staff and friends from the restaurant. Or with whoever happened to be with you at the time. Whenever we were on the metro together, changing metro lines or exiting, you would see a booth and suddenly track straight toward it. A compulsion. In hindsight, it was a bit strange, given we had access to your darkroom.

With his first feature length film "The Painted Life of Gregory Gillespie" Evan Goodchild has created a complex portrait of a brilliant but troubled artist who ended his life at age 64. In a New York Times obituary Roberta Smith wrote that "Mr. Gillespie had his first solo show in 1966 at the Forum Gallery and was included in several Whitney Biennials in the 1960's and 70's, but he remained an art world outsider, respected by many but enthusiastically embraced by few."

Esata is an ace computer coder, and Conway has a high-tech innovation that lacks code. They join forces and aspire to develop the product at an incubator in San Francisco. The narrative follows this and several other subplots in an uplifting homage to the Bay Area, and especially, a love letter to Oakland.

This world premiere provides for a delightfully funny evening in the theater. You can always count on Jacques Lamarre to push the envelope with his humor. He is at his best with this show..

Is this the future? Elderly people “cared for” by artificial intelligence humanoids?

Given the President’s assault on the arts and higher education the one act, two hander “N/A a New Play” by Mario Correa may be taken as a bold act of defiance by Barrington Stage Company. It is likely to move the Berkshires based company up a few notches on the White House enemies list.

We met as undergraduates at Brandeis and remained connected all these years. He was my go to analyst for science and politics. Part of that was attending weekly demonstrations. He and Ann lived frugally on food that they grew. There was ongoing war with "the critters." That melancholy was heard in his singular blues.

Widely regarded as one of Broadway’s most celebrated songwriting duos, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning creators of Ragtime, as well as the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated team behind the animated feature Anastasia.

For its debut production, Latine Theater Lab in Ft. Lauderdale is leaning into the horror of Maria Irene Fornes's captivating drama, "Mud." In Mud, the groundbreaking Fornes deals with grim themes that seem especially urgent today.

Don't let the pristine set fool you in Island City Stage's piercing production of "The Dying Gaul" by Craig Lucas. People may be most familiar with Lucas from his Romantic fantasy "Prelude to a Kiss."

The brief (80-minute) play opens with George, the wonderful Reed Birney, sitting in a darkened field, sobbing. As the lights come up, we hear sounds, and soon his wife, Em, appears carrying a lawn chair and a basket of provisions – blankets, hot chocolate and more..  She has come to join him, something she hasn’t done in a long time. George loves astronomy.

I first encountered “Fourth Uncle on the Mountain” during a deeply formative period of my life – while living as a Daoist monk at a small temple nestled on a mountaintop in Hubei Province, China. My temple sister, Cheng Feng, and I loved this book and spent much time discussing it. She is Vietnamese and French, and felt a strong connection to Dr. Van Nguyen’s story.

In opera's most beloved work, Rodolfo and Mimi encounter love and tragedy, while Rodolfo and his three comrades share the Bohemian life of starving artists. Replete with memorable music, gentle comedy, and the inevitable death of the lead soprano, La Boheme, continues to deservedly fill opera houses almost in a class of its own.

During a gallery visit in the 1970s Greg scratches a cardboard piece by Rauschenberg. That evokes a discussion of the Dada, nihilist heritage of contemporary art.

The first-class carriage in the westbound train from Istanbul is filled with diverse travelers. One of them is drugged and stabbed to death. Hercule Poirot is on the scene and systematically solves the mystery.