The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (CTD) is presenting an exciting mix of theatre and dance, virtual and in-person. CTD presents student and world-class artists celebrating diverse and challenging theatre, music, and dance programming for the Williams College community and beyond. As a community service, all our virtual programming is free and open to all.

“Heroes of the Fourth Turning” is well produced; highly provocative; dense with scholarly detail; and even has a few unexpected turnings of its own.  But be prepared for something that may be outside your normal comfort zone.  

Anna Deavere Smith was a pioneer in what is often referred to as verbatim drama; the use of transcripts from interviews to create a work that explores an incident of social importance. She has used this form frequently, most recently with Notes from the Field about the school-to-prison pipeline.

Dewey Hall is to hold a sourdough bread baking competition on Friday, March 4th. Attendees will be invited to sample the contestants' breads, wine from DéPart, beer from Big Elm Brewery, and cheese from Rubiner’s Cheesemongers, and have the opportunity to win loaves of freshly baked sourdough bread via a raffle.

By leaving much to the playgoer’s imagination, playwright Jaclyn Backhaus came up with a solution in her play “Men on Boats.”  She figured - what if we present the action without boats and without a river and with only rudimentary set and props?  And just for fun, how about as a final conceit that we eliminate the men?  So, there you have it – a cast of all females and non-binaries with bare-bones staging, and the curtain can be raised.

Lynn Nottage’s brilliant play Intimate Apparel has been incubating as an opera since 2007 when Ricky Ian Gordon was commissioned to write the music by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. Nottage speaks of development meetings with Peter Gelb of the Met and Andre Bishop of LCT, each tugging for their own interests. 

Prices for FreshGrass | North Adams increase in two weeks from $129 up to $149—on February 24 at 11:59pm—so snag your tickets now before you miss the chance to save $20 on each!

The Duration, by Bruce Graham, will experience its world premiere production at Palm Beach Dramaworks in South Florida. The production will run from Feb. 16-March 6. The Duration will mark the second play that Palm Beach Dramaworks mounts.

Alessio Bax and Andrea Ottensamer, two consummate artists, performed together and individually in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.  They both seek to help us hear the origins of music as a communicative and an expressive medium.  Yet there is nothing ponderous about their approaches. 

On March 6, the Black Legacy Project will make its world premiere at  the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. The evening includes a preview screening of the documentary short about the Project produced by OUTPOST, a concert, and a community conversation. Wanda Houston, Billy Keane, Gina Coleman, Matt Cusson, Rufus Jones, Annie Guthrie, Diego Mongue, and Eric Reinhardt are just some of the performers.

Heartbeat Opera is a New York based company committed to making opera for the Now. Years before George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, they adapted Fidelio, Beethoven’s sole opera, to prison life today. 

The Williams College Museum of Art presents Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints, on view from February 18 through June 11, 2022. It is the most comprehensive presentation of the artist’s printmaking to date, including single prints and series, for a total of over 200 individual prints.

The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Ariadne Auf Naxos screens at the Clark Art Institute on Saturday, March 12, at 12:55 pm in the latest installment of The Met: Live in HD.

A new public television series premiering March 2022 presents the opportunity for people to take care of their bodies, while taking care of their gardens. ‘GardenFit’ is the first television show to help gardeners lead a healthier lifestyle through mindful movements they can use in the garden—and beyond. An episode was shot in the Berkshires.

Shakespeare invites the elevation of Shylock to centrality in Merchant of Venice. Many characters in his play have equal time. Now Theater for a New Audience (TFANA) makes the case for the play as Shylock’s. John Douglas Thompson assumes the role as the ultimate outsider. He is an irresistible actor who quickly overcomes resistance any prior knowledge of the play calls forth

ORBS by Jane Hudson, a series of 12 paintings on canvas hang on the rough brick walls of Tunnel City Coffee on the Mass MoCA campus. They bring a dynamic energy to the space. The paintings depict orbs of various hues surrounded by bursts of color as radiant beams.

Writing about an exhibition or installation in poetic form is a first for me ~ come see!

When There Are Nine, a world premiere play about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is an entertaining production that tells the public story of the late Supreme Court associate justice. Playwright Sally Deering positions her work as a dream play, taking place in Ginsburg’s mind, where she recalls important moments in her life and how she addressed challenges.

While Today Is My Birthday is funny and can be touching, at times you wish author Susan Soon He Stanton had focused the work more. Many of the characters are interesting.  Emily’s NYC friend, Halina could be a fascinating character but just when we begin to get involved in why she is doing what she is doing, the voice mail or call ends and we are on to something else.

In its first major exhibition on contemporary Asian art, A Spirit of Gift, A Place of Sharing is a campus-wide exhibition opening May 30 at Hancock Shaker Village. The exhibition features three artists—Yusuke Asai of Japan, Kimsooja of Korea, and Pinaree Sanpitak of Thailand – who explore links between 19th century Shaker art and contemporary Asian art.

Seven new solo exhibits will open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Saturday, March 12. The artists featured are M. Carmen Lane, Roberto Visani, Yvette Molina, Mildred Beltré Martinez, Sachiko Akiyama, Louisa Chase, and Anne Spalter.

Everything is upside down in this production. A faint semblance to Shakespeare's King Lear remains as in a fever dream, or better yet as a trip beyond borders of human sanity.

During the dead of winter, the arts in Pittsfield come to life with a festival. This is the 11th year of the annual 10x10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage Company. The works were selected from some 200 plus submissions many of which trumped Trump.

A co-production of Sister Act is a divine treat in South Florida. MNM Theatre Company, along with North End Theater Company, and the City of Lauderhill are the presenters. "Sister Act," the stage musical, is faithful to the film while offering something fresh and new. The co-production runs through March 6.

Neil and Jesse are two gay men who meet in NYC in 2012. This Bitter Earth shows us the story of their relationship through 2015.