A quality national, non-equity production of Cats is touring the country. The production's most recent stop was the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale. Cats delivers emotionally.

The main subjects of “Endlings” seem like inspiration for the kind of article you would see in “Parade” magazine – “World’s Most Unusual Occupations.”  Three Korean women, aged 78 to 93, are the last of a dying breed in a centuries-old occupation.

Alexis Greene is the author and editor of numerous books about theater, including The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway, written with Julie Taymor, and the biography Lucille Lortel: The Queen of Off Broadway. In addition to writing and editing books about women and theater, Greene’s career spans acting, theater criticism and teaching. She holds a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

In the beginning was the word, said John in the Bible. This was also said about Cyrano de Bergerac. Jamie  Lloyd and James McAvoy follow up with a version of Edmund Rostand’s play which celebrates the word as it is spoken today. No longer does it depend on a continuously mellifluous voice.

Rabatt (discount), the newest production at the Gorki Theater in Berlin is a hilarious farce about a very serious issue – the burials of poor people in the world of the well to do.

Real Eyes Gallery previously exhibited Gil Riley’s show Peak Machine during the summer of 2020. We hope you will join us to celebrate this colorful, optimistic world. Gil Riley’s imagery is based on a psychomagically constructed myth: Liontamer’s Paradise. Her book of the same name was published in 2016 by American Typewriter Press. This show will include pieces painted and printed on wood and fabric, monoprint and limited edition books, and small wooden sculptures.

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) recently announced the winners of new play awards for 2021. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award went to "Poor Clare" by Chiara Atik. The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award went to Makasha Copeland for their play, "Extreme Home Makeover."

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain are proud to announce a seven-week extension of the North American premiere of The Great Animal Orchestra, a collaborative work between pioneer soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists. Due to the overwhelming popularity, the exhibition will remain on view at PEM through July 10, 2022.

Dominique Morisseau has taken a loaded topic, the Big Mamma of black plantation culture, and fixed her in a space during the Civil War mashed up with the present.  Big Mamma is bursting out of her role in the 1860s, getting the notion that with gun in hand and books to be read she can be free.  In the present, she is  a university professor, nurturing a young black student, a white student and a black female assistant anxious for tenure.  Tyler Perry and Martin Lawrence have made fun of Big Mamma. The strength of Tennessee Williams’ white Big Mamma in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, comes from the springboard of this icon of  plantation life.

Leading the pack with the most honors of the season is the Broadway play The Lehman Trilogy with nine nominations, followed by the Off-Broadway musicals Harmony and Kimberly Akimbo which earned eight nods each. The most recognized Broadway musicals of the season are MJ the Musical and Paradise Square, with seven nominations each.

The true story of six-time world champion prizefighter Emile Griffith is told in Boston Lyric Opera’s (BLO) new production of Champion: An Opera in Jazz by Grammy Award-winning composer Terence Blanchard (Fire Shut Up in My Bones), with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cristofer.

“A Sense of Place” is a joint effort of North Adams Contemporary (NAC) and Real Eyes Gallery to benefit Louison House. The non profit will received 50% if sales from the exhibition. . NAC is a collaboration of four artists, Debi Pendell, Diane Sawyer, Sarah Sutro, and Betty Vera.

Odessa Straub begins with sourcing and collecting materials, some of which have been in her possession for years and others acquired from online sites, thrift stores, junk yards and discarded refuse. Her searching and selection process is as intensive—and playful—as her making.

Participating cultural organizations include Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Berkshire International Film Festival, Berkshire Theatre Group, Community Access to the Arts, The Clark, Hancock Shaker Village, Jacob’s Pillow, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, MASS MoCA, The Mount, Norman Rockwell Museum, Shakespeare & Company, The Trustees and Williamstown Theatre Festival. 

The Guild of Berkshire Artists has upcoming events. The History of Illustration with Bob Horvath. Plein Air Workshops with instructor Chris Morel.

American Buffalo, David Mamet’s great play, is running on Broadway now with a stellar cast.  Lawrence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss give us Donny, Teach and Bobby, pacing the thrust stage chock full of junk like pieces of junk themselves. Bobby is a junkie. All three men have a false belief that they can alter the downward trajectory of their lives.

“Recent Paintings – Alvin Ouellet” is on display for all of May at Images Cinema, 50 Spring Street, Williamstown, MA. He is an Adams-based painter, printmaker and digital artist.

There are stars just waiting to explode into supernovas when Bob Fosse’s Dancin' opens in New York during the 2022-2023 season, as director and musical stager Wayne Cilento (who won the Tony Award for his star turn in the original production) brings his revived and re-imagined production back to New York.

The Rose Art Museum announced the acquisition of four significant works that will enter the museum’s permanent collection. Purchased with funds from the museum’s endowment, the most recent acquisitions include Jeffrey Gibson’s BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY (2021), Barkley L. Hendricks’s photograph Self Portrait with Black Hat (1980–2013), Peter Sacks’s mix-media work Without Name (2020), and Marie Watt’s Forerunner (2020)

New York City Opera will present a season of four free, live performances this summer as part of their Park Series in Bryant Park’s Picnic Performances presented by Bank of America. Each performance features City Opera's brightest stars as well as members of the City Opera orchestra and will begin at 7pm on the Bryant Park Stage.

On May 13, Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival and Mostly Modern Projects co-present staged scenes from Victoria Bond's puppet operetta How Gulliver Returned Home in a Manner that was Very Not Direct. The production features puppets created by Doug Fitch, the renowned visual artist, designer and director, and libretto by Stephen Greco, prize-winning screen-writer and novelist, complementing the music by Victoria Bond. Fitch also directs the production.

Water by the Spoonful is a powerfully symbolic play about moving on from emotional pain and addiction. New City Players' strong production ended on Sunday, May 15.

For two weeks in June, the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts will turn into an archeological dig site for students from Binghamton University. Their goal? Uncover the untold stories of Woodstock, and provide insight into the entire experience of the iconic festival.

Since Courbet the notion of realism has taken on many nuances from then to now. The current exhibition of hyper realism, pulchritide and kitsch by Vincent Gairrano at Clark Gallery is a stretch and arguably a bridge too far.

To celebrate the release of their first solo album, Variant 6, a noted a cappella ensemble, performed at National Sawdust on May 20th.  This extraordinary group has been heard often embedded in larger groups-The Crossing, Room Full of Teeth, Ekmeles and Seraphic Fire among them. All the members of the group are part of The Crossing. Now we get to hear these virtuoso artists up close and singular.