Phaedra is a character who has fascinated through time. Now the fascinating actress Isabel Huppert plays her. Racine best captured Phaedra's sense that neither lucidity nor sincerity is helpful in resolving emotional problems. Consciousness of failure is a noble human trait. Phaedra knows but her knowledge is useless.

As a part of a week-long residence at Gloucester Writers Center there was a well attended reading. Introduced by multi-media artist, Jay Jaroslav, Charles Giuliano launched his third book of poetry Ultra Cosmic Gonzology. The reading was recorded by Center dirtector and filmmaker Henry Ferrini. We have a link to the reading which is archived by the Center.

The Spanish grow tons of Garnacha grapes. The wines from the grapes are perfect, day to day wines, all at affordable prices. Some are as low as $8 a bottle on the shelf. Why not seek a bottle out from your local distributor?

The captivating play Fortune's Ire by Ramon Guillermo is on stage in North Miami’s intimate Storycrafter Studio space, through September 25. It is a finely acted and directed production. It begins with an interesting but seemingly harmless premise: A woman who claims to be suffering from amnesia steps into a psychologist’s office to receive help in figuring out her identity.

The first day of the Fresh Grass Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, was very lively with the appearance of several major blue grass bands. Day two is a full day of music, a day that will bring together many of the great performers from the industry.

The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance unveiled its twelfth season of diverse and challenging theatre and dance programming for the Williams College community and beyond.

The three day Fresh Grass Festival kicks off tonight at MASS MoCA with an outstanding line-up.

The Birds comes to the stage via a Daphne Du Maurier story on which Alfred Hitchcock's classic film of the same title was based. Now it provides the basis for playwright Conor McPherson's innovative play at 59E59th Street Theatres. McPherson has moved his story into a setting that is more reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road than Du Maurier and Hitchcock.

In Sam Shepard's True West the duality of emotion lies in wait in every aspect of our tense two hours with brothers Lee (Joseph Wiens) and Austin (Kevin Viol). They compete and collaborate, love and hate, drink and work, reminisce and prevaricate.

The Wines from Southwest France are expressive and some are experimental. Located adjacent to Bordeaux, these wine are affordable, humble and convivial.

Working in sessions of four hours, word by word, days turned into months as Susan Erony transcribed the 635 page text of The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson. The resultant work has been exhibited in Gloucester but deserves to be more widely known. She is preparing for an exhibition at Gloucster's Trident Gallery. She took a break to discuss the role of text in her practice as a visual artist.

Stratford’s lovely production is enormously imaginative. The stage-creature that is Aslan, the holy lion, is inhabited by three men and made up of five separate segments which move fascinatingly together.

Michael Capusso has breathed new life into the New York City Opera and honors its mission and traditions as well. The fall season opened with a double bill: Aleko by Serge Rachmaninoff and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

Cerise Lim Jacobs had a dream: to create three operas incorporating myths from the ancient world, using the Ouroboros, the snake that consumes its own tail in order to be reborn, as a recurring motif. The three works were produced together and they turned out to be engaging, even moving, with music that didn't pander to the audience while also not leaving it out. We'd love to hear it, at least "Madame White Snake" again.

Gary Griffin has established himself internationally as an exciting director and re-thinker of staging musicals and has created a streamlined but very elegant production with Stratford’s great ensemble. This is really a wonderful revival.

Pigs Do Fly Productions is a small theater company that has, until this point, produced short plays featuring characters over age 50. “Invasion of Privacy” is its “first foray” into a full-length play, founder and artistic director Ellen Wacher announced before Saturday evening’s performance.

After an early triumphant conducting performance, the press crowded into the green room to speak to the young Maestro. They then turned to his father Sam and asked," Why did you block your son’s early career in music,?" To which Sam replied "How did I know he was Leonard Bernstein?"

Dali is an autonomous Bai prefecture on the shores of Lake Erhai, which sits in a high-altitude valley of 6500 feet. Mild climate, beautiful mountain scenery, and unique minority populations make the region an attractive destination. Lijian, nestled in the high mountain plains at 7500 feet, is home to Naxi people, who have a unique culture and religion based on nature worship. Their living quarters is a well-preserved Old Town well worth a visit.

Once a year, the Fresh Grass Festival takes over the grounds of the Mass MoCA art museum in North Adams, Massachusetts. This year's festival features the best bluegrass musicians from all over the world. Fresh Grass takes place from Friday, September 16th through Sunday, September 18th.

In the ever eroding realm of print journalism yet again the deep cuts are to the arts. Berkshire theatre companies, Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow, and museums have long relied on reviews by the New York Times and Boston Globe. As of now the Times is eliminating "regional" coverage which includes the Berkshires. In the western part of the state the arts in the Berkshires are likely to get far less attention from the Boston Globe. With its emphasis on "national" coverage the Williamstown Theatre Festival this season moved opening night from Thursday to Saturday in a perceived snub to "local" reviews including timely blogs. Other than the Eagle they also diminished access for interviews and elminated press conferences. Those polices may come back to haunt arts organizations next summer.

Director Marshall nicely controls the on stage silliness that frothy, light Shakespearean rom-coms deliver to audiences while at the same time providing the actors the opportunity to enjoy themselves. When they have a good time we have a good time.

After graduation from the BU School of Journalism David Bieber found that the only way to research and promote rock music was to collect the material. Soon his apartment was cluttered with thousands of albums and related detritus. It is the foremost archive of a formative era when Boston emerged as a major matrix for contemporary music. Now highlights of the Bieber Collection have been installed at Boston's The Verb Hotel.

The Shakers took full advantage of nature's bounty. Fresh vegetables, homegrown herbs and raised livestock were a daily feature on the Shaker menu. After experiencing one of these special 'Harvest Suppers', a realization occurred to me that there are two more meals being offered this October and that one should consider taking advantage of this opportunity.

David Lang was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to compose an opera. The remarkable chamber opera 'the loser' is the result. Lang has lifted the author Thomas Bernhard's words, translated by Jack Dawson, intact. He can do this because the author composes with words very much as a musician composes with notes. The subject of the piece is Glenn Gould, whose uncanny ability to separate voices is the same as Bernhard's narrative schizophrenia.

Gregorian, Matthew Greene’s latest play, produced by Working Artists Theatre Project at the Walkerspace Theater, digs deep into the painful history of the Armenian people, examining the century long effects of the 1915 genocide on four generations of the Gregorian family, in which the Ottoman Empire slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians.