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 Barrington Stage Company (BSC), announces the 2020 Associate Artists – lighting designer David Lander, director/choreographer Jeffrey Page and actress Alysha Umphress.

Not until actress Jessica Sherr penned her one woman show, Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies, has anybody dared to give us a wildly exciting, action-packed recounting of Bette Davis’ life as a young aspiring actress hellbent on becoming a star. 

Now elderly, infirm, and living in Provincetown, Alice Brock, the famed proprietor of Alice’s Restaurant in the Berkshires, has always helped others. Her restaurants were staffed with friends and neighbors. She was always a soft touch for a free meal, job, or handout. Today it’s Alice, afflicted with ailments, who needs a helping hand.

Fred Taylor breathes life into this narrative, literally having a conversation with you, including many hilarious anecdotes, home-spun punch lines but also always making you feel like you were re-living the moment with him. The Taylor bio has been written by jazz historian Richard Vacca.

South Miami-based Area Stage Company is presenting a new, original musical as an online radio series. The Ballad of Janis Matthews & The Dodo Scouts takes place in Colorado during the 1960's. Area Stage will present the musical as a four-part radio series. The musical's live world premiere is scheduled for Summer 2021.

In a year like no other, we're as grateful as ever for you, our art-loving community near and far. Thank you for your continued support, words of encouragement, and mask-covered smiles — we wouldn't be here without you. 

Hancock Shaker Village felt like a home-away-from-home this year. In a year when we are counting our heroes, the Village has had many.

The son of famed artist Allan Houser, Haozous has drawn inspiration from his Apache culture, Indigenous and world art, and from his father’s artworks. “I’ve wanted to make this statement for many years,” said Haozous, artist and Executive Director of the Allan Houser Foundation.

Edward Smaldone is a contemporary composer of classical music. His distinctive textures include unusual combinations of instruments, odd beats, counterpoint and rich harmonics. These elements blend but do not merge. Rough edges combined with smooth melodic lines are ear catching. Lines often stretch wide and giant leaps leave gaping spaces between notes.  

Boston Lyric Opera, ever on the lookout for startling innovations that work, has hired Darrah to produce a stop motion feature-length animated version of Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

Boston Lyric Opera, ever on the lookout for startling innovations that work, has hired Darrah to produce a stop motion feature-length animated version of Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

“The Last Vermeer”, a TriStar Pictures film based on the book “The Man Who Made Vermeers” by Jonathan Lopez, opened in over 800 ‘live’ theatres on November 20, 2020; centers around one such court case and trial reparation event in the Netherlands in 1945. 

Barrington Stage Company will present a free virtual reading of The Supadupa Kid 2: Move, the action/superhero book by Pittsfield-based author Ty Allan Jackson. The reading will feature a cast of local youth and parents from the Berkshires and NY State Capital Region. Julianne Boyd will direct the reading, which will begin streaming free on December 3. 

Count on Bard to bring us unexpected, deserving programs concert after concert.  Henri Tomasi’s Fanfares Liturgigues opened this program.  The fanfares were conceived as part of Tomasi’s opera Don Juan de Manara. They premiered as a stand alone a decade before the opera opened in Munich. What a splendid work.

The Clark Art Institute’s popular First Sundays Free program continues on Sunday, December 6, with a day celebrating music. Admission to the galleries is free all day.

Kev Berry is an award-winning playwright and a superb monologist.  In Harsh Cacophonies I and II,, he is directed by his usual collaborator, Alex Tobey. The monologue was created in three separate pieces, which can be performed as stand alones.  The three are joined for this production and work well together.  Two hours fly by, in part because Berry is in a manic state. His speech and stories are always clear, but often rush.  This locates us in the urgent terrain from which his stories grow.

Get creative in the kitchen. All submissions will be exhibited during Hancock Holidays on Saturday, December 12. Winners receive free membership to the Village and kitchen swag from Shaker Mercantile.

Today, November 17, there was a fire on the campus of Jacob's Pillow in Becket. The Doris Duke Theatre is lost. " We are grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world we have already received. We will rebuild,” says Pamela Tatge, Jacob’s Pillow Artistic & Executive Director.

Gardner Museum expands weekend hours. Vistors must reserve tickets in advance.

Margaret Swan’s Lift, on view at Bostin Sculptors Gallery, December 9th to January 24th, features a new body of work exploring forces of nature in relation to structures that harness their power. The works are inspired by the rigging of sailing vessels,

The Book as Art throughout the Centuries has led to a resurgence of artists creating Book Art in the time of eBooks. As an artistic discipline it has only been 70 years since its acceptance. The 5th European International Book Art Exhibition, 2020, celebrated the art form in the Karolyi Castle of Carei, Romania.

Bard’s The Orchestra Now (TON) gives live performances in the time of Covid. Recently they performed a challenging and revealing program in Annandale, NY. Selections were made with attention to the number of instrumentalists required and ability to social distance on stage.

Israel Horovitz (March 31, 1939 – November 9, 2020) was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio and as artistic director emeritus until his resignation in November 2017 after The New York Times reported allegations of sexual misconduct.

A 24/7 online radio station plays the music of Broadway, Off-Broadway, the London stage, and much more. Connecticut Theater Critics Circle President and American Theatre Critics Association member Stuart Brown founded "Sounds of Broadway" in March 2019. Brown said he believes in engaging with listeners. In addition to operating his radio station, Brown is also a theater critic and a university administrator.

Palm Beach Dramaworks in South Florida will present a virtual holiday season of plays. The South Florida theater company will offer Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful, Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The plays will premiere on Mondays later this month.