People
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Steve Lawson of Williamstown Film Festival
A Life in Theatre and Film
By: - Oct 06th, 2010In 1969, while a sophomore at Williams College Steve Lawson worked that summer for the then young Williamstown Theatre Festival. From a base in Williamstown he divides his time in New York and LA keeping up on theatre and film. He is the Executive Director of the Williamstown Film Festival which will have its 12th season from October 15 through 24. Over two weekends the festival will screen 33 films.
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Ed Bride and Pittsfield CityJazz Festival
Sixth Annual Event Oct. 8 to 21
By: - Sep 30th, 2010The sixth annual Pittsfield CityJazz Festival will run from October 8 to 21. There will be lots of free events as well as ticketed concerts at the Crowne Plaza and Colonial Theatre. There is also a vital educational component with performances and jazz history in local schools. Over ribs and corn bread we talked with organizer Ed Bride about his life long passion for jazz.
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Tony n' Tina's Wedding
Shakespeare & Company Gala Oct. 9
By: - Sep 25th, 2010Coming off the heels of its most successful summer season to date, Shakespeare & Company celebrates its Fall Gala with a very special one-of-a-kind performance of the famed Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding on Saturday, October 9th beginning at 5:00pm. The Fall Gala while honoring Artistic Director Tony Simotes and Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer will also benefit the Company’s thriving Education Program.
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Paris Hilton Banned in Japan
Drugs and the Stars
By: - Sep 23rd, 2010Poor little rich girl Paris Hilton was denied entry into Japan because of her recent drug bust in Vegas. After a tough night in a hotel, perhaps a Hilton and its VIP suite, she boarded her private jet and returned to party another day in the USA. Drugs and the stars. What else is new?
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Leonard Nimoy at Mass MoCA
Lecture October 21
By: - Sep 20th, 2010Photographer Leonard Nimoy, whose exhibition Secret Selves is on display through January 2, 2011, at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) will offer insight into his creative and technical process during a talk at the museum on Thursday, October 21, at 5 PM. Nimoy strives to reveal his subjects' other half in Secret Selves. Shot in nearby Northampton, Massachusetts, in 2007, the series is exhibited for the first time at MASS MoCA.
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Photographer Don Snyder 1934- 2010
Tangled Up in Blue
By: - Sep 13th, 2010For a significant period of his life the visionary photographer, alchemist, and guru, Don Snyder, lived in the Berkshires. Don and his wife Mikki raised a family in a cottage on the property of the photographer, Benno Friedman. During an era of love peace and happiness an extended family frequently gathered at Benno's for seasonal celebrations. Don was a singular presence in this community of artists and free spirits. Don photographed Gerard Malanga and I just moments after we first met. We have collaborated yet again to remember a remarkable artist and friend.
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John Douglas Thompson Reshapes Richard III
A Critical Dialogue Focused on S&Co's Production
By: - Aug 27th, 2010Recently Ben Brantley of the New York Times posted a rave review of John Douglas Thompson as Richard III in a production at Shakespeare & Company. There are now only a few performances left of this summer long event. We engaged with Thompson is an extended dialogue about his radical interpretation of Richard III.
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Sidewalk Sam Projects for North Adams
Matisse Blossoms on Holden Street
By: - Aug 26th, 2010Next summer there are plans for Sidewalk Sam and an army of volunteers to create the world's largest sidewalk painting in the parking lot of Mass MoCA. To give the folks in North Adams a hint of the immensity of that project, and to assist with fund raising, during the Down Town celebration Sam and his wife Tina were on hand to help create an enormous Matisse on Holden Street. Everyone involved had a blast.
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Jeff Buckley's The Last Goodbye
What's Next for Williamstown Hit Musical
By: - Aug 19th, 2010The all too brief two week run of the smash hit The Last Goodbye with the music of the cult rocker Jeff Buckley conflated with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has come to an end on August 20. The world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival was more like an extended workshop. Everyone agrees this show is Broadway bound. We met with the creative team of Michael Kimmel and Lauren Fitzgerald who insist on taking "their baby" through just one measured step at a time.
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Nicholas Martin’s Last Goodbye
Wraps Three Years as Artistic Director in Williamstown
By: - Aug 13th, 2010We caught up with Nicholas Martin for a hug and a kiss as he prepared for the first act of the sold out rock musical The Last Goodbye. Over the last three years we have shared both professional and personal ups and downs. In his three years as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival he has put one of the nation's foremost regional theaters back on track.
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Campbell Scott the Stage Manager of WTF’s Our Town
Actor, Director, Writer Returns to Damages This Season
By: - Aug 06th, 2010This summer Campbell Scott has anchored a star studded cast in Nicholas Martin's production of Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town. This is his fifth season of participating in the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He has just wrapped shooting the upcoming season of the TV drama series Damages. In an in depth interview Scott discussed wanting to do more writing and directing. As well his productive and challenging life in theatre.
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Emmy Nominee Dylan Baker
Thirteen Seasons at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 11th, 2010Dylan Baker has been nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Guest Actor in a Drama. He played a charming villain accused of murdering his wife in The Good Wife. The lawyer Alicia Florrick got him off. In the next episode he was arrested for murdering a mistress during kinky sex. He also appeared this year in several episodes of Ugly Betty and on Broadway in God of Carnage. He took a break from rehearsing Our Town, directed by Nicholas Martin, to discuss a career that includes thirteen seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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Nicholas Martin Having the Time of His Life
Final Season as Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jun 30th, 2010Meeting with Nicholas Martin the artistic director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival I assumed this was the last of our seasonal meetings. This is his third and final year of running WTF. But he surprised me by stating that he will be back next year. To direct a play. In an at times intense and emotional interview we discussed his legacy. As well as insights regarding Stephen Sondheim and his impact on musical theatre in America. Martin is directing Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" this summer. It will feature a cast of many of the WTF "Family."
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Metropolitan Musum of Art Celebrates Ringo
70 Years Young on July 9
By: - Jun 29th, 2010On July 7, Ringo Starr's 70th birthday, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will inaugurate a special display of his gold-plated snare drum that will remain on view to the public through December 2010 in the Museum's second-floor Musical Instruments Galleries. On loan from Ringo Starr, it was originally presented to him by the Ludwig Drum Company during The Beatles' 1964 visit to Chicago when the legendary rock group, in which Mr. Starr was the drummer, was on its first tour of the United States.
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Berkshire International Club
Steamy Summer Picnic
By: - Jun 22nd, 2010It was a gorgeous summer day for the seasonal picnic of the Berkshire International Club. A group of some 70 members gathered around a cool and inviting pool. There was a fabulous spread of food to share including an array of sinful deserts. Many languages were spoken as friends exchanged tales of travel and adventure.
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Dennis Lee Hopper May 17, 1936
Method in His Madness
By: - Jun 07th, 2010In 1980 while he was touring to promote a film he acted in and directed, Out of the Blue, I interviewed Dennis Hopper. He excused himself several times becoming more and more gonzo. It was after one of those line breaks that I shot the iconic image that accompanies this obituary. The exchange was so vivid it seems like yesterday. Hopper was an American original who never lived up to his full potential.
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Richie duPont Award Benefit
Berkshire Theatre Festival Hosts Event May 22
By: - May 12th, 2010The Fifth Annual Richie duPont Award Benefit will take place at 8 pm Saturday, May 22, at Firefly on Church Street in Lenox. What began in 2006 as a memorial to Richie duPont, a promising young actor lost in his prime, will be a celebration of his life at a party to raise funds for awards for budding local thespians to attend Berkshire Theatre Festival’s summer and school vacation acting camps.
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Berkshire Beat: Porches, Alcombright, Galleries
Out and About in North Adams
By: - Apr 30th, 2010In just an eye blink we morphed from the last gasp of winter, two inches of snow on April 27, to a blast of Spring. The social season is heating up. On Wednesday night we attended Nancy Jane Fitzpatrick's Facebook party at Porches. Including a rare glimpse of Porches owner John S. Wadsworth, Jr. Thursday was ultra busy. We started with Mayor Dick Alcombright's spaghetti supper at the V.F.W. We moved on to several openings on Main Street. Ending with Martha Flood's new studio and shop on Eagle Street.
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Pictures from Exhibitions; The Berkshires
Jeff Hudson, Dawn Nelson & Len Poliandro
By: - Apr 18th, 2010It was a busy weekend of vernissages in the Berkshires. On Friday night the Eclipse Mill Gallery presented sculpture by Len Poliandro, and paintings by Dawn Nelson. On Saturday Jeff Hudson opened a show of his landscapes at Hudson's an antiques store and gallery in Williamstown. On Friday, save the date, Greylock Arts in Adams will open a new exhibition.
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Len Poliandro's Glass and Steel Sculptures
Show with Painter Dawn Nelson at Eclipse Mill Gallery
By: - Apr 14th, 2010Two years ago the Williamstown sculptor, Len Poliandro, showed his work for the first time in the annual Berkshire Salon that launches the season for the Eclipse Mill Gallery. On Friday, April 16 he opens a two person show with the painter Dawn Nelson that has been curated by the artist Julie Seitel. He discussed the work and what this exhibition means to him.
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Susan Wissler Discusses The Mount
The Worst Is Over But Challenges Lay Ahead
By: - Apr 04th, 2010After a period of practising corporate law in New York Susan Wissler arrived at The Mount in 2001. When Stephanie Copeland resigned during the fiscal crisis of 2008 Wissler took over as executive director. Since then debt has been reduced from $8 million to $5.1 million with an annual operating budget of $2 million. The new season that starts on May 1 will entail expanded programming and the First Annual Literary Festival.
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Anita Hill to Deliver Commencement Address at MCLA
Painter Stephen Hannock Among Those Honored.
By: - Apr 01st, 2010Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will celebrate its 111th Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 22, 2010, beginning at 11 a.m., in the Amsler Campus Center Gymnasium.Anita F. Hill, Attorney and Brandeis University Professor of Law, Public Policy, and Women's Studies, will deliver the keynote address. Among others honored with by Berkshire based and internationally renowned artist Stephen Hannock.
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Gerard Malanga Interview Part Three
A Touch of the Poets
By: - Mar 30th, 2010Malanga has known, collaborated with and photographed many poets, writers and editors. In this installment he recalls an assignment to interview Charles Olson in Gloucester for the Paris Review. He also discusses being on the road reading his own work and presenting aspects of the Warhol legacy.
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Gerard Malanga at Pierre Menard Gallery
Cambridge Retrospective Evokes Reflection
By: - Mar 30th, 2010The occasion of a retrospective of 100 photographs at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge evoked a far ranging dialogue with the poet/ artist and archivist Gerard Malanga. The images range from intimate friends- poets, artists, musicians- to brief encounters. This is the first of three installments of an in depth interview conducted over several days.
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Gerard Malanga Interview Part Two
Still Shooting Black and White Film
By: - Mar 30th, 2010"Photographing with film is a visual language for me and I'm constantly seeing new ways of playing with the light, whether it's a building facade or the human face. I want to stick with what I know and advance within that range. I find that just seeing the nature of a digital camera you've become tethered to a computer screen. All your stuff is in this one box. I like to hold a contactsheet in my hand and scrutinize it with a lupe. I like the process of doing that. It's more tactile."
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