So, what makes “Annie” so popular? Where to start? Set during the Great Depression and opening in an orphanage with conditions straight out of a Charles Dickens novel doesn’t seem a likely starting point.

"Time Alone" is a moving and intense play about two prisoners. Boca Stage is presenting a riveting production of Alessandro Camon's play. The production runs through Jan. 22.

The Rose Art Museum names Arghavan Khosravi (b. 1984) the 2023 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence. Since 2002, the Perlmutter Residency has been part of the Rose Art Museum’s longstanding tradition of promoting emerging artists of extraordinary talent whose work addresses contemporary issues of vital urgency.

MASS MoCA has promoted veteran curator Denise Markonish to become its new Chief Curator, the first in MASS MoCA’s nearly 25-year history. Markonish joined MASS MoCA in 2007.

Julianne Boyd says, “I am thrilled to be directing Faith Healer, Brian Friel’s hauntingly beautiful play that has been on my short list for years – and I am excited to be reunited with three tremendously talented actors and BSC Associate Artists, Christopher Innvar, Mark Dold and Gretchen Egolf.”

David Lang is not surprisingly a highly educated, impish composer. We can’t take him at face value. Or perhaps we can. Discussing his new opera, presented as part of the Prototype Festival, he said that although he had first been intrigued by Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short stories at age 16, he knows nothing about Japanee culture. Yet he is Japanese.

This spring, theater companies around Wisconsin are launching World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals that has been years in the making.  We have 52 participating theaters along with festival partner Ten Chimneys. Quite the undertaking as we look to put new plays back at the center of our work post-pandemic.  

Berkshire fans will recall seeing Crosby Stills and Nash at Tanglewood, September 2, 2010. Crosby known for a crash and burn lifestyle, as well as an angelic voice that made gorgeous harmonies, has died at 81. I first heard him with the Byrds at Soundblast '66 at Yankee Stadium.

Look for this production to come to Broadway and finally redeem the show. Merrily We Roll Along isn’t a great musical, but in reality, it is more interesting than many of the long-running “hits.”

The Clark Art Institute continues its art in public spaces program in 2023 with a year-long installation presenting the work of contemporary artist Elizabeth Atterbury (b. 1982, West Palm Beach, Florida; lives and works in Portland, Maine). Elizabeth Atterbury: Oracle Bones is a free exhibition on view in the Clark Center’s lower level and in the reading room of  the Manton Research Center through January 21, 2024.

Opera’s legendary femme fatale returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago with Bizet’s Carmen — March 11 – April 7, 2023 — starring J’Nai Bridges, a leading interpreter of the famous title role and a singer with deep Chicago roots.

The realist painter Alfred Leslie had a major impact on the Boston Art World. In 1976 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. He also commuted to teach at the Boston University School of Fine Arts.

Anyone who says they never got caught telling a fib is probably telling a fib.  But what is worse is covering the tracks of the first lie with another, and then another, until the wheels finally come off.  Often, the result is loss of respect from others, compounded by loss of self-respect.  If there is a road back, it is an arduous one.

Theatre Lab in Boca Raton is producing a fine world premiere of "Last Night in Inwood" byu Alix Sobler. The production runs through Feb. 12. Theatre Lab, Florida Atlantic University's resident professional theater company, is dedicated solely to new work.

The playwright Christine Quintana makes an interesting point about communication in the program of Hartford Stage’s production of Espejos:Clean. She says, “Every interaction we have with one another is an act of translation.”

In one smashing performance, Opera Philadelphia presented two Credos, statements of belief by composers who lived and worked at about the same time, in strikingly different circumstances. Carl Orff survived the Nazi regime in Germany by not protesting. Margaret Bonds grew up in a thriving Chicago art community.

What a performance of La Cage Aux Folles at the Komische Oper, Berlin!! This musical with music by Jerry Herman and a book by Harvey Fierstein has seen many international interpretations since it opened in 1983 at the Palace Theatre in New York.

HallSpace presents paintings by Adriana G. Prat, an academically-trained scientist with a Ph.D. in Biophysics. Adriana’s curiosity for the natural world stemmed in her country of birth, Argentina. In Topographical Visions, Prat shares her awareness of the environmental crisis.

"The Science of Leaving Omaha" is a layered play about the power of words and the desire to matter and be acknowledged. The play's world premiere production is running through Feb. 19 at Palm Beach Dramaworks in South Florida. Carter W. Lewis, a playwright who has won several national playwrighting awards, penned the play.

Future Lab(s) is an artist run, community based gallery that welcomes the public to the historic, cultural district in North Adams, MA. We are a visual arts gallery and installation space dedicated to providing support and exhibition space to (primarily) northern Berkshires artists at every stage of their artistic development. 

Running June 28 through August 27, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2023 will feature nine weeks of performances in the Ted Shawn Theatre and on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, as well as special events, parties, and pop up performances in Berkshire County. This season will offer the largest breadth of international performers since 2019, as well as multiple performances with live music, and dance styles ranging from hip hop and street dance to ballet and contemporary.

There is a lot of great music on tap for the next three weeks. It's time to shake of cabin fever and get out and about. Laissez les bons temps roule as they say in Creole.

It is time yet again for the much anticipated 12th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival which is part of the 2023 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival that runs through March 5.  For the 2023 version, under new artistic director, Alan Paul, 10X10 New Play Festival cast features 10X10 veterans Matt Neely, BSC Associate Artist Peggy Pharr Wilson and Robert Zukerman.  Making their BSC 10X10 debuts are Skyler Gallun, Sky Marie and Camille Upshaw.  

Oscar night will prove to be absolutely Mirvalous. The Champagne poured at the 95th Oscars®, taking place on Sunday, March 12th will be fabulous FLEUR de MIRAVAL.

In 2015 I wrote a book of poetry, Shards of a Life, which was launched with a reading and dialogue with director, Susan Wissler, at Edith Wharton's The Mount. It was an auspicious beginning. Each winter other books of poetry and oral history followed. There was a disruption in 2021 entailing recovery from spinal surgery. The eighth book, Annisquam: Pip and Me Coming of Age, is on track for a Spring/ Summer release.