Currently Mark St. Germain is finishing a screenplay of his widely produced "Freud's Last Sessions." Recenty, he spent the holidays with his daughter Kate. This is the first of three letters from Taipei that he sent to friends. For those who know Mark and have enjoyed his plays at Barrington Stage and other theatres you will enjoy and recognize his familiar wit and insight.

Cate Blanchett can do anything, but her Chekhov is unique and apt. Following a triumphant run in Uncle Vanya in 2012, Broadway welcomes her as Anna, in what is probably Chekhov's first play.

Through January 29 there is still time to see the stunning and riveting retrospective at New York's Met Breuer. He is among the elite of African American artists of his generation. His work is fresh in its timely subject mater as well as traditional with roots in American genre and social realism.

The enigmatic modernist, Francis Picabia, suggested that artists change styles as frequently as their shirts. He is the subject of an eclectic and intriguing retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

Matt Windman, author of “The Critics Say…57 Theater Reviewers in New York and Beyond Discuss Their Craft and Its Future,” led a panel discussion during the NY ATCA conference on the state of theater criticism in today’s world of social media bloggers and a decreasing number of full-time print theater critics

Wynton Marsalis, WIlliam Bolcom and Aaron Copland welcomed the New Year at the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert. The Bolcom and Marsalis pieces were commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and helped to create a ravishing evening of music.

Lake Baikal is the largest and oldest body of fresh water on earth. Traveling along its southern shore by vintage steam train is a unique journey on a coastal precipice with lush mountains on one side and the lake on the other. Listvyanka, an old port town on the lake, is also close to a network of hiking paths. Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, reflects a rich and varied cultural heritage as home to 120 nationalities, well worth the distance to get there.

Jewish music is often in the minor mode, but the enduring spirit of the people who sing it and live it creates a hopeful and joyous atmosphere.

Current non-equity national tour director Mark Bramble doesn’t disappoint in a mostly commendable production of 42nd Street that played a one-night stand in West Palm Beach on New Year’s Eve. The 16-week touring production will continue at Florida venues until Jan. 6, when it heads north.

“An American in Paris” is a musical composition by George Gershwin, which he referred to as an “extended symphonic tone poem.” The New York Philharmonic commissioned it and the piece soon became one of his most famous compositions. It was inspired by his visit to Paris during the 1920s.

In the beginning, almost a decade and a half ago, target audiences were young people whose lives paralleled those of the characters on stage. Princeton has just graduated from college with an unmarketable BA in English. Kate can't find a job to fulfill her teaching ambitions. Gary Coleman peaked at fifteen and is now a building superintendent. Today these characters can be any one of the 99 % that make up our nation.

In At the Cut author Peter Anastas tells of growing up in Gloucester during the war years into the 1950s. Gloucester was then an ethnically diverse thriving fishing community. Today the fleet is all but gone and this book vividly conveys the richness of what has been lost.

Between 1897 and 1914, Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (Chtchoukkin) 1854 -1936, acquired 275 masterpieces, including 41 Matisses, 50 Picassos, 8 Cézannes, 13 Monets, 16 Gauguins, as well as works by his fellow Russian artists Malevich and Rodchenko. In 1918 the collection was seized by the government under Lenin. Some 127 works are now on view at the Frank Gehry designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Conor McPherson’s The Weir isn’t your typical Christmas play, but I’ll take it any day over any of the traditional treacly tales that grace our stages this time of year. The play, however, has a Holiday theme.

My daily wines cost under $10 a bottle. They are also the wines that are used for parties at our house-both Holiday parties and non-Holiday parties.

While Zimmerman’s show is obviously meant mostly for laughs, there is at least one lesson to learn: In life, perseverance, thick skin and luck can lead to successes that once seemed impossible.

An important opera by a major composer is set well at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Met Orchestra under Susanna Mälkki was magnificent. The orchestral score is one of beauty and terror, evoking the sea and the dangers of love. It is the story that provides an arc, and this production missed it entirely, leaving the experience flat.

During the ATCA NY conference Sandy and Gerry Katz saw a bunch of shows on Broadway. She also has terrific travel tips.

The Tony Award winning show,which enjoyed a Broadway run, Million Dollar Quartet, dramatizes a real-life historic jam session between rock stars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tenn. on Dec. 4, 1956.

Lucas Hnath’s play The Christians at Steppenwolf Theatre challenges the belief systems of its characters on stage as well as those of religious and nonreligious audience members.

Extracted from a recent tour io Chelsea galleries we present a selection of highlights. The artists include Benny Andrews, Alfred Leslie, Mark di Suvero and Carrie Mae Weems.

President Barack Obama officially opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24, 2016, on the Washington Mall. It is actually the 19th Smithsonian Museum. My daughter Olivia and I got up early on a December day, to stand in line for one of the circa 100 free daily tickets. Otherwise, tickets can be reserved online months in advance. The short text and extensive photo essay convey our experiences.

Babe is a tale about an unprejudiced soul and one we should surely take to heart. Children can learn to sing Jingle Bells with LaLaLa. Will one of the youngsters who was lucky enough to see the film with the NY Phil, one day fall in love with the Saint Saens Symphony and say, That’s Babe’s song?

“See Me, Hear Me: Innovations and Challenges in Projection and Sound Design," moderated by Martha Wade Steketee, was the toipic of a penel during the New York conference of American Theatre Critics Association. A video of the panel may be viewed at the ATCA website.,

In 1973 Carl Chiarenza earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was the first to write a dissertation on a living photohrapher, Aaron Siskind. While regarded as one of the foremost scholars in the field he has had more that 80 one-person and participated in some 260 group exhibitions since 1957. This is a review of his 2002 monograph Evocations.