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The 35th annual issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine is ready to go to press. The pandemic, however, has created uncertainty about the coming season. There may not be enough crucial advertising revenue to publish the issue. This is an appeal for support.

Responding to the pandemic the MFA has issued this letter to its patrons.

This was to be the breakout season for Berkshire artist Ricky Darell Barton. This week was to be the launch of a solo exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Three other solo and group shows by Barton are scheduled to follow throuth the summer. Social distancing, which is likely to extend for the coming months, changes everything. For now a single painting by Barton is displayed in the window of the gallery with more work available for on line viewing on the Real Eyes website.

An Intimacy Director/Choreographer is responsible for creating and setting moments of intimacy onstage in a convincing, safe manner. The relatively new theatrical field of Intimacy Direction/Choreography is growing. Some see the field as vital in a post-pandemic world. South Florida theater companies are among those nationwide employing Intimacy Directors/Choreographers.

Shakespeare saw the theatres closed two times in as many years due to the plague, and he subsequently must have viewed the world through the lens of what the epidemic wrought.

The latest La Jolla Playhouse production “Fly” is a new, visually stunning musical reimagining of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy”, the popular and enduring children’s fantasy story about adventures in a dream filled place called ‘Neverland’ where children never grow up into adulthood where each has the ability to fly (with caveats, however, that must be observed).

Most of us are now hunkered down and isolated, inundated by 24/7 news coverage of depressing medical and economic conditions, compounded by failed White House leadership. To lighten our burden, just a bit, here is a list, with thumbnail reviews, of nine excellent documentary films about architecture and design.

Full of color and a driving beat, this special Philippine dance group presents Pananadem. The term means “remembering” in the language of the Meranao people (Philippines). It is a way of looking back across time, to gain inspiration and perspective from one’s ancestors.

This week Jacob's Pillow cancelled its coming season. Can Tanglewood be far behind? Today Williamstown Theatre Festival pulled back from selling tickets with a note for further review of seasonal plans. Berkshire Theatre Group announces the launch of its season on August 1. We have yet to hear updates from Shakespeare & Company, Barrngton Stage Company or other regional theatres. As non essential business Berkshire museums are closed with no time line for resumed programming.

The richness of music programming at the Mannes School, now a division of The New School for Social Research, is clear day to day. Women Between Arts (WBA) is New York’s leading interdisciplinary women and non-binary artists series, created and curated by multi- and interdisciplinary artist Luisa Muhr. Programming revolves around the question: "How do we make new art?"

We begin as the guests at a black debutante ball in New Orleans. White staircase, be-gowned young women, stiffly poised young-men stand on the threshold of their presentation to society. Step by step we see the painstaking bows and courtesies of a society steeped in the mores of color and class that are expressions of the history of that city.

For the first time in its 88-year history, the Jacob’s Pillow Board of Trustees and Executive Leadership have made the decision to cancel the 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, previously scheduled for June 24-August 30 along with its annual gala scheduled for June 20.

During a time of confinement we reach out to family and friends by phone and e mail. From France my artist friend, Rafael Mahdavi, wrote a wonderful detailed note. He also sent a remarkable new work that inspired this piece. Art represents hope and salvation through the darkest moments of human condition.

Stravinsky composed La History del Soldado, a multi media piece, in 1914. Using speech, mime and dance accompanied by a seven piece band, we hear ragtime, tango, and other modern musical idioms combined in a series of highly infectious instrumental movements. Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra performed the piece, with an updated libretto they commissioned. It is delightful to hear, even long distance.

A native of Toronto, Matthew Teitelbaum, departed Boston in 1993 to take a curatorial position at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In this interview he was acting director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. Then 37, it provides insights of his curatorial vision and process. He went on to be director of the AGO. In 2015 he returned to Boston as director of the Museum of Fine Arts.

In a time of pandemic the early bird scores the toilet paper. When the quality of life is measured in sheets.

The Tony Awards show will go on, albeit at a later date, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The CBS broadcast was slated for June 7 this year. Officials have not announced a replacement date.

Prolific playwright Terrence McNally loses his battle with coronavirus. McNally was an American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. The prolific writer also won five Tony Awards.

Many organizations are offering wonderful streaming. Reports suggest that music with videos is doing better than sound only. Atlanta Opera, led by Tomer Zvulun, may be providing the most useful help.

Gallery NAGA, with a lease from Church of the Covenant, was organized as a cooperative in 1977. In 1982 Arthur Dion was hired as director and soon became sole owner. With a commitment to painting and studio furniture it prevails on what was formerly Boston's gallery row. Now director emeritus Dion stepped away from daily management. As part of compiling an oral history of contemporary art in Boston, Dion shared insights of his remarkable career.

I was joking with one of my daughters this morning about masks. She works in law enforcement, and was sharing a few stories about people who have called 911 about running low on toilet paper, and people who have come to her station to complain about a spouse who won't take this "virus thing" seriously. She wears a department-issued N95 mask, but she asked me if I knew where she could get a mask to protect her from stupid

Artists without faces. Or what do you hang your hat on? Jean Gabin, Cecily Brown, Dana Schutz and John Currin.

The Gambler, country music star Kenny Rogers, has passed at 81. In September, 2012 he made a rare Berkshire appearance at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. This is how we covered him at the time.

The libretto by Donald Sturrock is based on a book by Roald Dahl. Three farmers, Bunce, Boggis and Bean want revenge on Mr. Fox for taking their chickens, their geese and their cider. They are frustrated by Mr. Fox’s clever tactics. Gil Rose brings the music and story to life in this masterful recording which won the 2020 Grammy for Best Opera Recording.

The theater is pitch black. A mysterious figure wrapped in a robe writes on a screen in black ink which drips on the illuminated board. “I which have bled for so long are beginning to heal. Black tears no longer course down his cheeks, inspiring the horrific feeling in others that these are their own bloodied tears." These are Oedipus' words as interpreted by Henry Bauchau, author of "Oedipus on the Road," which inspired "Anywhere." This is an unusual portrait of Oedipus' harrowing final journey.