What a month to hear black men, and women too, at the top of their game in theater, talk about their journeys to success. As Andre De Shields told the world when he won his first Tony at age 73, "the slowest way is how to get where you want to be." Chuck Smith is a resident director at the Goodman in Chicago. Woodie King Jr. founded the New Federal Theater fifty years ago.

In December of 1984 Alice Sachs Zimet attended an exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. She had come with Sam Wagstaff, the lover of Robert Mapplethorpe. They were there to see a flower photography exhibition from Wagstaff’s vast and groundbreaking collection.That’s where Zimet saw an image by contemporary photographer Andrew Bush titled Columbines. It was love at first sight.

Birmingham Opera streams Karlheinz Stochhausen's Mittwoche, helicopters and call. Graham Vick brings us the humor and mystery of this great work. Housed in an industrial warehouse, the audience sits and lies on the floor to listen and irresistibly engage in the proceedings. They compulsively draw us in, listening to harmonies and melodic lines emerge from a trombonist in a plastic pool, splashing water, and a parliament gathered on tennis umpire chairs to discuss the most important of world subjects, love.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

For the first time in its 139-year history, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will suspend its fall season of performances at Symphony Hall, September 16-November 28. Plans for winter programming will be announced in September,

There are certain time in life you must express yourself-at the moment you feel the passion. This poem about Cafe Boulud was one of those creative moments.

Theatergoers may no longer be able to seek autographs after shows if union's recommendations are followed. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has drafted a 27-page document containing COVID-related safety guidelines for theaters. The union represents more than 150,000 members. They are employed in positions such as theatrical technicians and stagehands.

At age 13, Joshua Turchin has accomplished more than many performers do throughout their career. Joshua Turchin is now the youngest cast member, and only child, ever to perform in Forbidden Broadway’s 38-year history. The teen's award-winning musical, The Perfect Fit, is Broadway-bound

Lawrence Brownlee talked about music and our times with composers Helga Davis and Paola Prestini. The event was hosted by National Sawdust, an institution for our times, which is led by the super-energetic Prestini.

Lighting designer Howell Binkley has died of cancer at age 64. His work on the original Broadway productions of Jersey Boys and Hamilton earned him the Tony Award in 2006 and 2016, respectively. Binkley most recently designed the lighting for the world premiere of Fly at Southern California's La Jolla Playhouse.

Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Elektra opens the 2020 Salzburg Festival. An electrifying interpretation of the wild Richard Strauss opera based on the drama by Hans Hofmannsthal announced that Austria is alive and well.

With the decades long development of the MASS MoCA campus complete but for some loose ends director Joe Thompson is moving on. Since graduating from nearby Williams College, now in his early 60's it's the only job he's ever had. His work and MoCA development over the years has had enormous cultural and economic inpact on Northern Berkshire County.

Live from Hancock Shaker Village: Songs of Comfort will be broadcast live on WAMC and streamed online or on the WAMC app. This Sunday August 30 at 7 pm.

The artist of Armenian heritage, Matin Mugar, reviewed "Without Gorky" in 2012. Cosima Spender filmed the tragic story of her grandfather the surrelist/abstract expressionist artist Arshile Gorky. He came to America as a survivor of the Armenian Genocide in which his mother died from starvation. Growing up in Watertown as a young artist he took the name Gorky and denied his heritage remaining distant with little contact to relatives. His wife Agnes, then in her late 80s, convyed memories of terrible suffering and its impact on their two daughters.; particularly coming to terms with his suicide. Gorky was among the greatest artists of his generation. This superb and compelling documentary is now featured on Netflix.