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  • Webster’s Bitch by Jacqueline Bircher

    At Playhouse on Park

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 10th, 2023

    The world premiere play by Jacqueline Bircher attempts to deal with arbitrariness as well as the continual change in language and meaning, the politicization of language, and what is called “cancel culture.” It is a lot to ask one play to handle.

  • Die Frau ohne Schatten

    Richard Strauss's Lush Music, Captivating Fairy Tale Story, and Pop Art Scenery.

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 12th, 2023

    The Empress faces Sophie’s choice.  Either decision - to accept or reject the shadow - could leave blood on her hands.  High drama occurs with real or perceived betrayals and threats of killing, but since nobody dies, some would characterize “Die Frau” as a comedy!

  • Rhiannon Giddens Curates Ojai. Part I

    Spiritual and Historic Journey

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 13th, 2023

    Rhiannon Giddens curated the Ojai Music Festival this year.   She often sings “I shall not be moved.”  And yet, in the strong force you feel in her wake, you know and feel she is moving and you are moved.  Giddens is fond of the double and triple entendre.  For four days we are sailing with her and we are also in her wake.

  • El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego

    Two Modern Artists Fictionalized in an Opera with an Orpheus-like Story.

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 15th, 2023

    Composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s special compassion for Frida Kahlo may derive from their shared experience. Cuban-born, Pulitzer Prize winning (“Anna in the Tropics”) playwright Nilo Cruz provides the literate libretto.  Wishing to integrate aspects of Mexican culture into the story in a magical realism fashion, he builds the narrative around the culturally significant Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Aztec mythology.

  • Edvard Munch Trembling Earth

    Clark Art Institute Exclusive American Venue

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 15th, 2023

    Trembling Earth features seventy-five objects, ranging from brilliantly hued landscapes and three stunning self-portraits, to an extensive selection of his innovative prints and drawings. The exhibition includes more than thirty works from MUNCH’s world-renowned collection, major pieces from other museums in the USA and Europe, and nearly forty paintings, prints, and drawings from private collections, many of which are rarely exhibited. The Clark is the only American venue for this stunning exhibition.

  • Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress

    Closing the Hartford Stage Season

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 16th, 2023

    Trouble in Mind, at Hartford Stage, was written in the mid-50s. It was the first full-length play by Alice Childress whose career encompassed acting and writing both plays and novels. The play deals with topics that are major points of discussion today both in our society and the theatrical world: representation, authenticity, sexism, and workplace bullying

  • Love All at the La Jolla Playhouse

    Billie Jean King Wins This Match

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Jun 15th, 2023

    Love All, a new play by Anna Deavere Smith and directed by Marc Bruni, is running at the La Jolla Playhouse through July 2.  'Love all' is the score of a tennis match before it starts.  It is a word used often during the course of a game. It means zero.  And that is what athletes were making when Billie Jean Moffit (later King) started playing tennis. She also loved men and women.

  • Susan Rennie Subverts the Male Gaze

    Artist's Work on View in Venice, California

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 16th, 2023

    Long before the Brooklyn Museum discovered the notorious Hannah Gadsby of "Nanette" and engaged her services as a curator of Pablo Picasso, Susan Rennie was gripped by the idea that art most often was created by the male gaze. 

  • Gabrielle Barzaghi at Gloucester's Matthew Swift Gallery

    Horse Opera Presents Large Pastel Drawings

    By: Matthew Swift - Jun 17th, 2023

    Gabrielle Barzaghi is one of the leading contemporary artists residing on Cape Ann. Horse Opera is Barzaghi's fourth solo exhibition at the Matthew Swift Gallery, and presents a significant new body of her work comprising more than a dozen drawings.

  • Experiments in Opera Presents Anthony Braxton

    Feisty Opera Company Improvises at The Brick

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 18th, 2023

    In 1999, Anthony Braxton caught the performance of an Improv group at Wesleyan College where he has taught for twenty-three years. Among its members was Lin Manuel Miranda. He picked a trooper and asked him to do an improvisation with him. The duo, collaborating on compositions 279 to 283, was the inspiration for this funny, hip and moving improv designed by Experiments in Opera (EiO).

  • Cabaret Soars at Barrington Stage Company

    Awesome Debut for Artistic Director Alan Paul

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 20th, 2023

    With his first production, Cabaret, Alan Paul, the artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, has set a new benchmark for musical theatre in the Berkshires. Given the unchecked rise of fascism in America the musical which focuses on the beginnings of Nazi Germany could not be more powerful and relevant. This is a scorching production which will blow you away. Barrington's version of the iconic musical clicks on all cylinders,

  • Fifth annual Berkshire Jazz Showcase

    Free Event on Pittsfield’s First Street Common

    By: Ed Bride - Jun 23rd, 2023

    We announce the lineup for our popular Berkshire Jazz Showcase, a free event on Pittsfield’s First Street Common Saturday, July 8, 1-5pm.  

  • Ojai Festival on Historic Journey

    Rhiannon Giddens Programs All Music

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Jun 22nd, 2023

    At the 2023 Ojai music festival, Rhiannon Giddens, musical director, and a supremely talented group of musicians, presented a program that challenged the audience to take a musical journey with them around the world.  

  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

    Adams Theatre Benefit's Razom for Ukraine

    By: Adams - Jun 26th, 2023

    Locally rooted musical collective Floating Tower, working with Berkshire artist Joe Wheaton, will fill The Adams Theater July 1-2 with a unique, poignant musical tribute to the people of Ukraine. 

  • Rhiannon Giddens Adds New Dimensions to Ojai

    A New Silkroad Winds Across a Boundary-less World

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 27th, 2023

    Rhiannon Giddens is leading new music which is both classical and popular. Her commitment to telling stories that have been buried and to showing us the world as it really is in music heralds anew age.

  • Dance in Albany 2023-2024

    The Egg and the University at Albany

    By: Egg - Jun 29th, 2023

    For the eighth year, the performing arts centers at The Egg and the University at Albany have announced that they will present Dance in Albany, a joint dance series featuring eight offerings for the 2023-24 season.  Six of the performances will take place at The Egg at the Empire State Plaza with the remaining two at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus.  

  • To Kill a Mockingbird

    At Bushnell

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 30th, 2023

    No matter whether you read it in school or more recently or even never read the novel, you owe it to yourself to see the absolutely fabulous new stage adaptation now at the Bushnell through Sunday, July 2.

  • On Stage This Summer

    From Connecticut to the Berkshires

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jul 05th, 2023

    Straw hat is old hat. Summer once meant shows performed in actual barns by talented and young kids. Or tours led by well-known movie and TV stars whose popularity had diminished. Not anymore.

  • Dutch National Ballet

    World Class Company at Jacob's Pillow

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 18th, 2023

    The Dutch National Ballet’s first visit to Jacob’s Pillow offered a deep immersion in classical ballet, past and present. On every level it belongs to the top tier of dance in the Berkshires.

  • The Coronation of Poppea

    West Edge Opera Right Sizes a Classic

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 24th, 2023

    The narrative is historical only in the broadest sense.  While the plot points actually occurred from AD 58 to AD 65, not only are they condensed into one day, but their order is shifted!  Further, the librettist fancifully changes the character of characters, making some good who were actually bad and vice versa.  Who would have thought of the barbaric and narcissistic Nero as also having room for love and magnanimity?  So, for those who lambaste Hollywood for being fast and loose with the facts, let it be known that it had models to draw on

  • Is it Thursday Yet at La Jolla Playhouse

    Jenn Freeman and Sonya Tayeh Join Forces in Dance and Drama

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Aug 01st, 2023

    "Is it Thursday Yet", playing at the La Jolla Playhouse, tells the story of dancer Jenn Freeman, who was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when she was 33 years old.  Using actual recordings of her therapy sessions and home videos Jenn’s father recorded as she grew up, the play is essentially a documentary of Jenn Freeman’s life from infancy to young adulthood. Neither Jenn nor her family knew she had ASD.  

  • Sorrow, Fear and Stillness

    By: Cheng Tong - Aug 01st, 2023

    Each of us, each of us all, have lost someone or something.  Each of us has faced fear – fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of death.  In the moments of experiencing those fears,  and of the sorrow that can accompany them, they were real.  In some instances, they were debilitating.

  • Blues for an Alabama Sky By Pearl Cleage

    At Barrington Stage Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 06th, 2023

    In his first season as artistic director Alan Paul has selected the 1995 play by Pearl Cleage. Set during the Harlem Renaissance its a good but not great play given a flawed production directed by Candis C. Jones for Barrington Stage Company.

  • Letting Go: Stillness

    By: Cheng Tong - Aug 07th, 2023

    The Law Of The Heart, an ancient scroll, speaks of the Three Treasures:  The Way, The Teacher, and The Scripture. Each plays an important role along the spiritual path we walk.

  • Barrington Stage All Stars

    Julianne Boyd Directs Brian Friel’s Faith Healer

    By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 08th, 2023

    Julianne Boyd, the founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, retired last year. Unburdened by administrative responsibilities, she has been lured back to direct a dark, moody masterpiece, Faith Healer by Brian Friel (1929-2015) the greatest Irish playwright of his Generation. For this triumphant return she cherry picked a dream team trio of Christopher Innvar (Frank), the faith healer, Gretchen Eglof his long abused wife Grace, and Mark Dold as the whimsical roadie Teddy.

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