Lawrence Brownlee is an ambassador of song. He is not only a great bel canto tenor, but also leader in discussions on our racial divide. Identifying as a descendant of Africans and a person of dark skin tone, he has mentored young singers and helped direct the conversation on race in the arts and in the world about us. Yet he does not like the designation of Ella Fitzgerald as part of Black Heritage, her position on a postage stamp. Rather he sees her as a great American singer. Blacks are part of a larger community, not self-segregated.

The Irish Repertory Theatre has come up with the perfect play to stream. The Weir is a quintet, Four men living in a remote Irish country town are joined by a pretty woman from Dublin. Stories are told by four characters and the camera focuses on them during the telling. The scene broadens to include reactions. Sometimes Director Ciarán O’Reilly has an actor face the camera, deeply involving us in the drama.

Among the elite and most innovative jazz vocalists of her generation, Annie Ross who died this week at 89, was born in a suitcase and traveled for the rest of her life. She is best know for recordings with the legendary Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Fred Plotkin notes: “I am not a singer or musician, yet my working life has a lot of similarities in that most of my income is derived from appearing in front of audiences in places of public assembly. People buy tickets to what I do so, of course, that means that all of my contracts, all of my speaking engagements, have been canceled until November.”

This week we lost a neighbor and friend the artist/ activist Phil Sellers. He grew up in Ohio where he and his wife Gail Kolis Sellers launched a pottery business. They moved to North Adams to be with her family. Together they ran River Hill Pottery in the Eclipse Mill. The Sellers were involved in many arts and politcal activities. That entailed organizing artists to help oust long term mayor John Barrett,III. They became close friends with mayor Dick Alcombright who helped with their many public art projects.

Often it is suggested that Salieri was alone in his appreciation of Mozart. He saw immediately his extraordinary gifts. Enjoy Leonard Bernstein’s father’s response to a question about why he did not support his son’s musical aspirations. “I didn’t know Leonard Bernstein was Leonard Bernstein.” Viennese society did not know that Mozart was Mozart. No one did, xcept Antonio Salieri, writers’ observe, beginning with Puskin.

We have decided to put together a virtual group show that will run through August 29th. We wanted to show you what our artists are making right now and keep beautiful things in front of you until we (hopefully) come back for in-person exhibitions in the fall.

The National Black Theatre (NBT) is one of the oldest Black theater companies in the country. It recently received its first Obie Award.The Obies recognize excellence Off-Broadway and Off, Off-Broadway. NBT's Obie comes after it received an Antonyo Award.

Chef Daniel Boulud, a two star Michelin Chef at 'Daniel' in Manhattan has brought his crew to run his one star Michelin restauarant, 'Cafe Boulud' at the Gilded Age Mansion, Blantyre (Lenox, Massachusetts). The French inspired restaurant will remain open, Wednesday to Sunday, through mid-October.

National Theatre at Home streams Deep Blue Sea by Terrence Rattigan and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. Remarkable productions keep theaters live when their homes are shuttered.

The American Theatre Critics Association has announced the finalists for the Primus Prize. Critics will announce the winner next month. There were 21 submissions. The three finalists explore the aftermath of violence.

Just how successful was the popular TV series phenomena known as “Downton Abbey”? Mind boggling and totally entertaining and one of the most endearing and engagingly written Masterpiece Theatre/ BBC co-productions in the history of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It ran for six seasons with audiences clamoring for Julian Fellowes to write another season. He authored all 70 episodes of the series.

For a fesive summer feast, that's fun for the whole faimily, try a Wiener Crown Roast. It has the eye appeal of a pricey crown roast but at just a fraction of the cost. With the proper boxed wine or cheap beer this is a meal fit for a king.

Pinocchio and The Rake’s Progress, video recordings of performances at Aix, are now being offered. They continue on YouTube after the Digital Festival 2020 ends. The importance of Aix as a creator of new work and new productions is clear in these two works.

In photography and painting perspective has often been the main visual tool that connects the human presence to the here and now which becomes place. The image created by the handheld camera establishes ipso facto a tight bond via the picture plane on the back of the camera to the environment. If it is parallel to the subject matter or at an angle to it, the way the eye is moved by the image can be quite different.

Everyone has a story to tell. Not all of us have wine stories. This is one about my Dad and why I went into the wine business.

A group of Toledo teen thespians are using social distancing not just for safety but for character exploration in their production of The Crucible. The young men and women are performing in person, not on Zoom. The Toledo Repertoire Theatre is live streaming the production this weekend.

How one man lovingly – and obsessively - constructed his very own movie palace in the basement of his suburban home.

Observing social distancing the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Mass is Regrouping. A selection of gallery artists is on view. To visit the gallery please call ahead for an appointment.

“City of Angels”, the Showtime TV movie series, is a powerfully relevant TV series and a sharp reminder not only of why the painful American Civil War of 1861 was fought, only later to introduce new Jim Crow laws in the South. The tensions between LA’s Chicano community and the corrupt white power structure within the city government of 80 years ago centers around the more militant factions of young Mexican-Americans known as ‘Pachucos.

Broadway star Nick Cordero dies from complications of COVID-19. Cordero, 41, portrayed tough guy characters in musicals. Cordero's wife, Amanda Kloots, chronicled Cordero's condition on Instagram. Kloots and others used the hashtag #WakeUpNick to hope that Cordero would awaken from a long coma while in intensive care.

Aix en Provence is offering a digital festival to those of us who can't enter France. Their selection of recitals, conversations and opera performances is intriguing and invites.

Anyone who has attended one of my lectures has heard me talk about our connection to everything and everyone everywhere. In order for us to be in this moment together – – my writing, your reading – – everything that has happened since the beginning of time everywhere had to happen precisely as it did. Otherwise, we would not be together today.

My colleague Phillip S. Kampe spent opening day at Tanglewood. It. was not what he expected. He enjoyed bottled water only. Yet the scenery and the quiet was transforming. You can fill in the real thing with rich program streaming from the Boston Symphony.

In collaboration with Actor's Equity, Barrington Stage Company and Berkshire Theatre Group have finalized a path forward. Barrington Stage Company is producing Harry Clarke, a one-man show that will employ two Equity members, a performer and a stage manager. It begins performances in August. Berkshire Theatre Group is mounting the musical Godspell, an outdoor production with a cast of about ten and two stage managers.