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Black Power in Print: Dana Chandler in Boston
MFA Celebrates 55th anniversary of Black Panther Party's Founding
By: - Oct 25th, 2021On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Black Panther Party's founding, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), has launched "Black Power in Print," an online project in tandem with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Comprising recently digitized materials and new interviews between artists and scholars, the archive highlights the Black Power movement’s legacy in visual culture and its resonance today.
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Mezze Fall Menu
Ramen to Go
By: - Oct 26th, 2021As the leaves began falling to the ground, Chef was inspired to create ramen: only available for takeout! Why do ramen? It's sustainable, comforting, and delicious.
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Magic and Stillness
Autumn in the Berkshires
By: - Oct 27th, 2021My life is mostly solitary. This is by choice. When I returned from my first year in China to visit my daughters, I found living in society once again to be noisy. The temple where I lived is isolated in the Wudang mountains 30 kilometers from the nearest city, Shiyan. The temple complex sits atop the mountain, and life is very quiet, simple, and hard.
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Berkshire Jazz, Dawning and Jeff Holmes
Saint James Place, Great Barrington, Saturday, Nov. 27
By: - Oct 28th, 2021Known for her impassioned ballads and exciting up-tunes, vocalist Dawning Holmes was first heard in the Berkshires during the 2017 tribute to Buddy Rich. She returned the following year to perform with her husband Jeff Holmes' big band at the Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend in Lee.
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The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh
At Long Wharf Theater
By: - Oct 30th, 2021The play by Lloyd Suh is based on Afong May, who came to the US in 1834 to “perform” for curious Americans telling them about Chinese life. May was purported to be the first Chinese Woman to set foot on American soil.
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Shakeup at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Mandy Greenfield Out and Jenny Gersten Back In
By: - Nov 01st, 2021After seven seasons of woke programming Mandy Greenfield has resigned as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival. There was a tech crew walkout last summer over brutal conditions during hazardous and stressful outdoor productions. During a production of Row in a reflecting pool at Clark Art Institute there were days of delays due to rain and thunder storms . Problems were widely reported in the media. Former artistic director, Jenny Gersten, has rejoined WTF as interim artistic director.
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Eurydice by the Artistic Home
Adaptation of Greek Classic by Sarah Ruhl
By: - Nov 03rd, 2021Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl is the new production now being staged by the Artistic Home at the Den Theatre. It’s the ancient story of the wife who dies and the husband who tries to bring her back to the world of the living, but Ruhl tells this version from the viewpoint of Eurydice. She has written a funny, contemporized version of this love story, set somewhere nearby and perhaps in some current time.
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Julianne Boyd Steps Down at Barrington Stage
Co Founded Theatre Company in 1995
By: - Nov 04th, 2021In 1995 Julianne Boyd co-founded Barrington Stage company producing sparsely attended but critically well received shows in a high school auditorium in Sheffield. In 2005 the company purchased and renovated a formed vaudeville house in Pittsfield. Coping with Covid-19 Boyd mounted a successful 2021 season. With the company is good shape, citing age, she is passing the reins to new leadership. In December she turns 77. She will stay on through the search and transition for a new artistic director.
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Letter About Charles Giuliano’s Seventh Book
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1870-2020: An Oral History
By: - Nov 05th, 2021The poet and Columbia University professor, Bill Wadsworth is a neighbor and friend. He has been on the road for the past month. I sent an e mail inquiring when next we might enjoy another witty and insightful literary luncheon. His response comprised a critique of my current MFA book. This ‘review’ is posted with his permission.
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War Words
What Does 'Thank You for Your Service' Really Mean
By: - Nov 06th, 2021The Atlantic Council has partnered with professional theater companies, veterans service organizations, and corporate sponsors to bring staged readings of War Words. This Pulitzer Prize-nominated play depicts stories of men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The production is traveling to different cities.
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Iphigenia at MASS MoCA
An Opera by Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding
By: - Nov 07th, 2021Iphigenia, an opera is a cross generational collaboration between 88-year-old jazz legend, Wayne Shorter and the much younger and widely acclaimed performer/ composer esperanza spalding. It was an eight year project that was particularly intensive this past year. After a residence it was presented as "an open rehearsal and work in progress" at MASS MoCA over two nights. It's debut will occur in Boston at ArtsEmerson on November 12 and 13. It will travel from there.
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Warrior Class
Highly-Charged Political Drama at Boca Stage
By: - Nov 09th, 2021The past stalks a candidate for Congress in the gripping political drama, "Warrior Class." The riveting production runs through Nov. 21 at Boca Stage in Boca Raton, Fla. Boca Stage, a professional theater company, is the new name for the former Primal Forces.
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Vermont Blown Away
Demonstration at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center November 21
By: - Nov 09th, 2021“Vermont Blown Away” will take the form of a friendly competition among teams of glass artists. Items from BMAC’s Study Collection of Ancient Objects will be selected to inspire three-person teams to create new glass sculptures. Teams will have 15 minutes to design a piece and one hour to complete it. These glass pieces will be auctioned off at a later date to raise money for the Vermont Glass Guild’s education fund.
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A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim
Produced by 42nd Street Moon at Gateway Theatre
By: - Nov 09th, 2021Although Sondheim’s music and themes often have sharp edges, “A Little Night Music,” which is based on Ingmar Bergman’s film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” is written predominately in waltz time and is highly melodic.
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Falsettoland by William Finn and James Lapine
At Music Theatre of Connecticut
By: - Nov 10th, 2021It is fitting to see this piece in Connecticut; after all in 1991 it was Mark Lamos, the artistic director at Hartford Stage who worked with composer/lyricist William Finn and co-book writer James Lapine to combine Finn’s two short musicals –In Trousers and March of the Falsettos into one more cohesive piece.
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Will Eno Takes on Peer Gynt
GNIT a Delight at Theatre for a New Audience
By: - Nov 12th, 2021Theatre for a New Audience is presenting GNIT, an update of Hendrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. The new version by Will Eno is daring in its exposition of many characters reaction to the her and their plight.
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Hamlet and Me
The Danish prince and I Go Way Back
By: - Nov 14th, 2021I saw college productions—and I read Hamlet in a memorable Shakespeare course at one of my alma maters, Harvard on the Rocks—the two-year University of Illinois in Chicago at Navy Pier. (Later it became a four-year university and moved to its current campus.) The first Hamlet production that I remember vividly was during the 1963 opening season of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
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Composer Marcus Shelby's Harriet's Spirit
Produced by Opera Parallèle and Bayview Opera House
By: - Nov 15th, 2021Commissioned by Opera Parallèle as part of their Hands-On-Opera program, a series of operas for youth, “Harriet’s Spirit,” is performed appropriately at the Bayview Opera House, which operates as the hub of the San Francisco African American Arts and Culture District. The production energizes and provides a beacon of hope for the communities that its story represents.
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Giuliano at Williams Faculty Club on November 19
To Discuss Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1870 to 2020: An Oral History
By: - Nov 15th, 2021Remarkably, Museum of Fine Arts Boston , 1870 to 2020, by Charles Giuliano is only the second comprehensive history of the MFA. Much has transpired since the centennial publication some fifty years ago. Over those decades the author interviewed directors, curators, trustees and administrators. The museum's great collections as well as issues of elitist exclusion, racism and anti Semitism are conveyed in their own words. The Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements have impacted all of America's cultural institutions. Giuliano will discuss the book at the Williams Faculty Club on Friday, November 19 at 7 PM.
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Dido and Aeneas Composed by Henry Purcell
Produced by Opera San José
By: - Nov 15th, 2021Rarely has an esteemed opera endured the ignominy of its birth as “Dido and Aeneas.” Although its composer, Henry Purcell, would reign as the preeminent producer of serious British music from his death in 1695 until the 20th century, his only pure opera borrowed slavishly from a crypto-opera, John Blow’s “Venus and Adonis,” that has not even remained in the canon.
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Bob Dylan Archive
Opens in Tulsa on May 10, 2022,
By: - Nov 16th, 2021In revealing the existence of the Bob Dylan Archive to the public in 2016, Ben Sisario wrote in The New York Times, "It is clear that the archives are deeper and more vast than even most Dylan experts could imagine, promising untold insight into the songwriter's work." The three-story façade of the Bob Dylan Center will face downtown Tulsa's hugely popular public gathering space, Guthrie Green, and will depict a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated to the center by renowned photographer Jerry Schatzberg.
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sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn)
Produced by Oakland Theater Project
By: - Nov 17th, 2021Playwright Lisa Ramirez draws on Jean d’Arc’s motive force as the basis for examining the will of young women to effect change in today’s frightening world. Her vehicle is a riveting, uber-energetic, often chaotic and confrontational clash of five young people one fateful night. “sAiNt jOaN” grabs the attention by the throat and throttles it for 60 exciting and exhausting minutes.
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The Band's Visit at the Bushnell
Tony Winner in 2018
By: - Nov 19th, 2021The Band’s Visit is almost a chamber musical; limited cast, no big dance numbers, no flashy sets or projections. It tells a simple story, but one that slowly creeps up on you and, if you let it, packs an emotional wallop. It’s based on a 2007 Israeli film that won critical acclaim and success.
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Middletown: The Ride of Your Life!
A Co-production of Actors' Playhouse, Miracle Theatre and GFour Productions.
By: - Nov 22nd, 2021Middletown: The Ride of Your Life! is a touching and humorous tale of friendship, life's joys, and difficulties. Actors' Playhouse and GFour Productions is presenting the comedy-drama through Dec. 12. The play reminds us how we missed in-person human interaction and connection during the pandemic.
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Cullud Wattah at the Public Theater
Powerful Public Issue Dramatized
By: - Nov 21st, 2021The Public Theater Presents Cullud Wattah, a timely social protest drama written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Candis C. Jones Adam Rigg (scenic design) creates a set full of profound contradictions. They weave through the drama on every level. A cozy furnished home of a working class African-American family is surrounded by a macabre curtain of plastic bottles of dirty water.
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