The week of August 2nd to 6thh is one of the most exciting weeks at Tanglewood,located in Lenox, Massachusetts. If you are a fan of conductor Andris Nelsons and Yo-Yo Ma, this is your week of enjoyment.

The winner of the European Museum of the Year Award in 2008, the KUMU soars as the youthful face of independent Estonia. The museum's state-of-the-art galleries display selections from its 58,000-piece collection of Estonian art from the 18th century to the 1990s, including works from the Soviet era. The KUMU is a compelling destination in Tallinn, Estonia's charming capital.

Catherine Hinman, the Museum’s Director of Public Affairs and Publications, said “A highlight of a visit [to the Morse Museum] is always the Byzantine-Romanesque chapel interior Tiffany designed for exhibition at the 1893 world’s fair in Chicago, which literally brought fair-goers to their knees in 1893 and continues to mesmerize our visitors today.”

Taibi Magar, in her directorial debut at Shakespeare & Company, takes audiences on a wild ride through the city of Ephesus, where two sets of identical twins who were separated at birth, collide. What ensues is hilarious, due to the acting skills of the cast and Magar's vision of bringing a modern day spin to Shakespeare's shortest comedy. The result is 90 minutes of rollicking fun.

The renowned playwright John Guare was in Pittsfield recently for the first days of rehearsal of his play His Girl Friday. It is being directed by Julianne Boyd for Barrington Stage Company. He and others in the production met with the media for a lively give and take.

Blantyre means elgance, old world charm and to most of us, perceived, high prices. Think again. Lunch with wine and sunset views with a glass or bottle of Port and a cheese plate won't set you back as much as you would expect.

Ed Mumm the owner of Dig This said, “Originally I thought only men would be into this. As soon as we opened our doors for business, it became very obvious that I was wrong. Half of our clients are woman who apparently have also craved the opportunity to play in bulldozers and excavators. I think it is very empowering for them and is fantastic therapy to take control of a 20 ton piece of machinery and tear up some earth and what ever else is in their way.”

No food is consumed by audience members in Feast, although by the end of the production, I was thinking fondly of a plate of lamb biryani with pappadums or perhaps some chicken mole.

The play tells the story of the demonstration by mostly black textile mill workers in Greensboro to protest the Ku Klux Klan. The march was publicized as taking place on November 3, 1979, and the marchers had obtained a police permit. It resulted in five deaths.

The Trustees of Naumkeag host the yearly Garden Party for an enthusiastic crowd of local and out-of-town well wishers. Bellinis , hors d'oeuvres and sweets entertained the crowds appetite on this glorious, sunny afternoon in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

"The long forgotten and warm word 'locomotive' awoke in my mind - breathing vapor clouds, hoarse, smelling of coal smoke, even in wet weather." The passionate romance of two engines began here and takes an improbable journey as Ermon reminds his wife Ramona that you never say no when someone is in trouble. This is grown up puppetry from a great Georgian artist.

Blantyre in our backyard, is only minutes from Tanglewood and the arts of the Berkshires. Rooms are beautiful and wine and gourmet food is affordable.

The North Coast Repertory Theatre production of “Side By Side By Sondheim”, does Mr. Sondheim proud! That enormous canon is selectively and lovingly brought to life by four gifted and talented singer/actors in a 90 minute free flowing tribute to his genius under the inspired direction of North Coast artistic director David Ellenstein.

Todd Almond’s new rock musical “Girlfriend” with music and lyrics by Matthew Sweet is a vanguard production that addresses the issues of understanding, acceptance, as well as the hopes and dreams of two gay teenage boys who discover one another in rural Nebraska in the summer of 1993.

Paul Natkin told an attentive audience about shooting Bruce Springsteen in Minneapolis on his Born in the USA tour for a Newsweek cover. That shoot was described in a story about Natkin in the Chicago Sun-Times. "That's when my family believed I was a real photographer," he said. That publicity also led to five years as the staff photographer for the Oprah Winfrey Show.

As I inscribed in my book for him Arnie Reisman was my first and best editor starting with the Brandeis Justice and then Boston After Dark. I have enjoyed reading his first book of verse Clara Bow Died for Our Sins.

When the director, Yukio Ninagawa, was a small boy he was struck by the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. In Murikama's book, Ninagawa found the perfect use for dioramas in theatre. Ninagama writes that this tale has intimate detail in scenes as well as dynamic narrative scale. On stage, the 'dioramas' move fluidly between scenes, which are enacted in one frame, but surrounded often by others.

Founded by Peter the Great as the Venice of the North, St. Petersburg lives up to that image with inspired art and architecture. Opulent palaces, grand cathedrals, and ornate buildings line its canals connected with beautiful bridges. The fantastic art and cultural programs that fill the monumental buildings make the visit all the more compelling.

Hubbard Hall Opera Theater offers up something for everyone with their summer season.

From 1987 to 2006 the French playwright, Yasmina Reza, has written seven plays of which two, Art (1994) and God of Carnage (2006) have been hits. From 1995 Shakespeare & Company is presenting the rarely produced two-hander of strangers on a train, an author and a woman who has read him in depth, The Unexpected Man.

The stage at City Center was beautifully packed with an array of instruments designed by Harry Partch, a modern American composer of original theatrical events. Classifying him as a composer of concert music is, as Partch said, as foolish as saying he is a kangaroo. The brilliant director Heiner Goebbels expands the Partch experience with set objects and lighting. Here is the future of American musical production conceived over a half century ago.

For the fourth production of the season at Williamstown Theatre Festival yet again it is a world premiere with the casting of stars like Blair Underwood and De'adre Aziza. Unlike the prior three productions last night there was a genuine and encouraging standing O from the enthusiastic audience. There are compelling components in an uneven play by Dominque Morisseau. She aspires to do for her native Detroit what August Wilson achieves in his Century Cycle for Pittsburgh,

Guess who's coming to dinner? Turns out Pere and Mere Ubu and their coterie of political acquaintances. Cheek by Jowl embeds the Jarry play at a dinner party. We can not decipher the dinner table conversation, but surely it is the same subject as the century-old play that is fresh and even futuristic. Here we see war, and regicide. Czars are toppled and Ukraine and Lithuania are in the news. Gold is hidden away in beneficial accounts. Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose.

My grandfather James Flynn was noted as a man of few words. This is a verbatim transcription of a rare note that he wrote to my father on the occasion of my birth. On many levels it is a remarkable document.

By the time he took part in The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, Wyatt Earp was already famous; after that October afternoon in 1881, he was a legend.