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  • Major Installation by Jeffrey Gibson at Mass MoCA

    A Prime Example of DEI Programming That Trump Hopes to Eliminate

    By: Charles Giuliano - May 22nd, 2025

    "Power Full Because We Are Different" is a monumental installation by Native American artist Jeffrey Gibson. The inspiration and intent of the project is to articulate and express the concept of the “two-spirit,” a third gender that is both—and neither—male and female and is embraced by many Indigenous cultures. Significantly the far right regime of President Donald Trump has rescinded a $50,000 NEA grant for this ambitious and expansive project.

  • The Cake

    Values Clash in City Lights' Masterful Take on Fine Dramedy

    By: Victor Cordell - May 19th, 2025

    Jen returns to North Carolina to plan her wedding with Macy. What Jen doesn't expect is that bakery-owning, cake-maker Della, who had been Jen's proxy mother, would not want to make her wedding cake because her religion doesn't support same sex marriage. Many social issues are uncovered along the way.

  • Heartbeat Opera Shapeshifts Faust

    Gounod's Opera Updated

    By: Susan Hall - May 20th, 2025

    Heartbeat Opera is a crown jewel in New York’s opera diadem. Their productions make opera accessible and compelling to contemporary audiences by breathing new life into beloved classics. Faust, their current production running through May 25, is no exception—it’s a bold, inventive take that succeeds on many fronts.

  • Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World

    Fall at Peabody Essex Museum

    By: PEM - May 19th, 2025

    This fall, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) presents an exhibition that explores the fashion, art and creative philosophy of Singaporean designer and visual artist Andrew Gn. Making its North American debut, Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World illuminates the contemporary designer’s life and legacy, showcasing nearly 100 stunning works, including clothing, accessories, original illustrations and digital media.

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

    Seeing the World Through the Eyes of an Autistic

    By: Victor Cordell - May 17th, 2025

    Autistic fifteen-year-old Christopher tries to solve the mystery of the killing of a dog. Along the way, we learn about his character, his abilities, and of his relationship with his parents. A splendid production by San Francisco Playhouse brings out the strength of story.

  • From The Dishwasher Dialogues

    Parisians Sans Haute Couture

    By: Greg Light and Rafael Mahdavi - May 18th, 2025

    Down and out in Paris in the 1970s Greg LIght and Rafael Mahdavi scraped by as kitchen help at the popular and colorful Chez Haynes. Their self published book about their adventures of surviving down and out in Paris, Dishwasher Dialogues, has become a hit. That inspired them to post a weekly blog. We are launching them as our Parisian correspondents. This blast concerns how the homeless survive harsh winters.

  • Made in the Mill

    Eclipse Mill Gallery

    By: Eclipse - May 16th, 2025

    Resident Artists and Authors from the Eclipse Mill show their work during Berkshire Art Week.

  • Finding Clarity in The Now

    Taiji, Meditation, and the Art of Presence

    By: Cheng Tong - May 14th, 2025

    Practices like Taiji and meditation serve as invaluable anchors, gently guiding us back to this present awareness, offering a path to clarity, peace, and authentic living. The goal is to cultivate a state of present moment awareness where we engage fully with what is, unfiltered by the layers of judgment, expectation, and predisposition that so often cloud our perception.

  • Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends

    Now on Broadway

    By: Karen Isaacs - May 10th, 2025

    Do we need another Sondheim tribute/revue?

  • Irishtown at the Irish Rep

    Ever Wondered What Makes an Irish Play

    By: Susan Hall - May 08th, 2025

    Irishtown is currently playing at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York through May 25th. Nicola Murphy Dubey directs.

  • Jacob’s Pillow Live

    Free Streaming All Summer

    By: Pillow - May 08th, 2025

    This year’s livestreamed performances will feature the highly anticipated return of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Season Opening Gala, and the Doris Duke Theatre’s inaugural program — along with a wide spectrum of dance genres including ballet, West African dance, contemporary, tap, and Afro-Latin jazz and soul. Performances will be broadcast live from the historic Ted Shawn Theatre, the newly reimagined Doris Duke Theatre, and the iconic Henry J. Leir Stage.

  • Count Basie Band in Pittsfield

    Headlined Pittsfield CityJazz Festival

    By: Charles Giuliano - May 04th, 2025

    The annual Pittsfield Jazz Festival ended last night with the legendary Count Basie Band. Now some 90-years-old it has been led by Scotty Barnhart since 2013.

  • Trump Defunds MASS MoCA

    Cancels Grant for Jeffrey Gibson Exhibition

    By: Kristy Edmunds - May 06th, 2025

    On Friday night, the National Endowment for the Arts sent MASS MoCA an email notification of the termination of our awarded grant for the support of Jeffrey Gibson’s commission POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT.

  • The Engish Concert at Carnegie Hall

    A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever

    By: Susan Hall - May 07th, 2025

    The English Concert performed a semi-staged, off-book production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Carnegie Hall. This annual visit by one of the world’s premier Baroque ensembles is eagerly awaited — and this year did not disappoint.

  • Less Than Smashing

    A Musical from TV to Broadway

    By: Karen Isaacs - May 04th, 2025

    If you are expecting a faithful translation of the 2012-13 TV series, you may be disappointed. Changes have occurred in transferring Smash to the Broadway stage. Characters have new names, some characters have been added to the cast, and the backstory of some of the characters has changed dramatically.

  • Clark Art Institute Summer 2025

    A Room of Her Own: Women Artists in Britain, 1875–1945

    By: Clark - May 03rd, 2025

    Celebrating twenty-five women artists working in Britain between 1875 and 1945, the Clark Art Institute presents A Room of Her Own: Women Artists in Britain, 1875–1945 featuring 87 paintings, drawings, prints, stained glass, embroidery, and other decorative arts.

  • Handel in Hudson

    R.B. Schlather Captures Handel's Spirit with a Fresh View

    By: Susan Hall - May 02nd, 2025

    Hudson Hall in Hudson, New York, presents Handel’s Giulio Cesare as part of its ambitious celebration of the composer’s forty operas—each of which will eventually be staged here. It’s an exciting prospect.

  • Painting Churches by Tina Howe

    Pigs Do Fly Productions in South Florida

    By: Aaron Krause - May 02nd, 2025

    Pigs Do Fly Productions' mounting of "Painting Churches" is a winner. Art, memory, and aging collide in the poetic play.

  • Beetlejuice the Musical

    Strong Equity National Touring Production Stops in Miami

    By: Aaron Krause - May 02nd, 2025

    It's showtime, as the "ghost with the most" visits Miami to haunt audiences as Beetlejuice. It delivers a winning combination of whimsy, weirdness, and spookiness. An equity national touring production's stops in Miami.

  • Flemish Masters at Peabody Essex Museum

    Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools: Three Hundred Years of Flemish Masterworks

    By: Charles Giuliano - May 01st, 2025

    The exhibition, co-organized by the Denver Art Museum and The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp, features rarely exhibited masterpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert, Jan Brueghel, Clara Peeters, Jacob Jordaens, Frans Francken II and Michaelina Wautier, among many others. Prior to Salem it was on view in Denver and Montreal

  • Two Cuban Women at the Museum of Fine Arts

    Rituals for Remembering: María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Ana Mendieta,

    By: MFA - Apr 29th, 2025

    This focused exhibition brings together works from the MFA’s collection by María Magdalena Campos-Pons (born 1959) and Ana Mendieta (1948–1985). Though the artists never met, their work shares a reckoning with displacement and exile from their homes in Cuba, a deep reverence for the landscape, and a transformative use of natural elements like water, earth, and fire.

  • Beyond Belief

    Freedom from Bitterness Through Knowing

    By: Cheng Tong - Apr 28th, 2025

    Moving beyond bitterness is not about forcing forgiveness or pretending the past didn’t happen. It is about recognizing where we are investing our energy. Are we feeding the rigid beliefs that keep the wound infected?

  • Don Giovanni Entrances in Philadelphia

    Opera Philadelphia Triumphs

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 29th, 2025

    Opera Philadelphia is presenting Mozart’s original version of Don Giovanni at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. It’s a lively, visually striking production designed to showcase both the richness of Mozart’s score and Da Ponte’s intricate libretto.

  • Writing Fragments Home

    Charming Premiere of a Boomerang Philippine-American Style

    By: Victor Cordell - Apr 26th, 2025

    Jeffrey Lo invites us into his imagination and relationships in this semi-autobiographical look at a 40-year-old wannabe playwright who has to return to his mother's home after losing his job and his girlfriend. Equally funny and sad, it offers insights into mother and adult child relationships.

  • Floyd Collins Echoes at Lincoln Center

    Fresh Faces Enliven the Cast

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 24th, 2025

    In 1925, a seemingly prescient family farmer became captivated by the idea of bringing a one-act Barnum and Bailey-style circus to the caves of Kentucky. Against this backdrop unfolds the story of Floyd Collins, whose entrapment in this famously fragile landscape—formed by the dissolution of limestone, collapsing sinkholes, sinking streams, and springs—captured national attention. His burial in the very Sand Cave he had chosen became a media sensation. Now it is a musical, Floyd Collins.

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