Jaune Quick to See Smith responded to my posthumous interview with Katherine Porter. It was too long and detailed to post as a comment. It's a remarkable tribute from a renowned woman artist to another. Recently Jaune was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum. I have had a long involvement with both of these artists.

In the late 1960s a new generation of artists revitalized the Boston art world. They created Studio Coalition the nation's first open studios event. Katherine Porter emerged with immediate recognition and success. She was shown twice in Whitney Biennials and exhibited in major galleries. Social concerns informed her work. She moved a number of times seeking a like minded community. We reconnected when for several years she lived in Vermont. In her final recent move she settled in Santa Fe.

“Dragon Mama,” a one-woman show by Sara Porkalob, is but one of three staged productions in this season of the venerable Williamstown Theatre Festival. With a brief run it is presented on the black box Center Stage. It has been used only once preciously.

South Pacific is a show for romantics. It is one of my favorite shows and the audience’s cheers on opening night showed that they, too, loved it.

Both the Royal Ballet and Jacob’s Pillow were formed in 1931. There have been many interactions but in the current season the renowned company has visited the Berkshires for the first time. It is their only North American stop. Some five years of planning, fund raising, and logistics were entailed for this historic event.

A nine-day tour reveals a complex and contrasting country geographically and politically. Diet, weather, and many cultural norms are extreme. Although on-the-ground costs can be quite reasonable, organized tours which tend to be expensive are highly recommended. It is a rewarding journey for the experienced and inquisitive traveler.

You will recognize the tunes that are well integrated into the plot – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Addicted to Love,” “I’m the Only One,” “Into the Mystic,” “Lost in Your Eyes,” “Smalltown” and “Never Gonna Give You Up,” among others.

In this account of a true story, essayist John D'Agata wrote a piece about the suicide of Levi Pressley who jumped from the top of Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Fact checking showed that D'Agata fabricated numerous but inconsequential details for the sake of style. The philosophical differences between the author and the fact checker provoke a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes truth. It's more complex than you might think.

In this Weber/Rice musical biography, the charismatic and adulated Eva Peron insinuates herself into the highest level of Argentinian politics while in her 20s. Deploying an unusual device, an activist narrator, Che, skulks about and cynically undermines the public face of the title character.

The world premiere of “Five Ways to Die” took place at HERE in New York. If the subject is “death,” it must be an opera. Tosa jumps to her death from the walls of  Castel Sant'Angelo. Aida and her lover die in an airless Egyptian tomb. La Traviata coughs herself to death in a Parisian garret.  Defying death, all these women sing marvelously.  We suspend disbelief, carried away by gorgeous tunes. Experiments in Opera, a successful and innovative company, takes a different approach.

Though long forgotten, gigantic works by the academic painter Guillaume Guillon-Lethière have been hiding in plain sight at the Louvre. Installed in the 1830s they flank the walls of the museum's gift shop. That will be removed when the first ever major retrospective of the artist moves from Williamstown to Paris. He was born to a plantation owner and slave woman in Guadeloupe. In his day he was respected but less so with time until now. The Clark exhibition makes a less than compelling case for his reevaluation. With more large signature works the Louvre show may better state his case.

The vibrant anti art movement Dada fizzled in Paris in 1922. A number of its exponents, artists and writers, regrouped with the launch of Surrealism just two years later. It broke out in Paris with competing manifestos published by Andre Breton and Yvan Goll. They each led rival factions but the more aggressive Breton prevailed. It proved to be the ,most popular and sustained movement of modernism. There are numerous current exhibitions celebrating its legacy.

“It is a thrill to welcome Camille A. Brown back to the Pillow, this time for the world premiere of I AM,” said Jacob’s Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge. “Since she received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2016, she has seen a meteoric rise as a choreographer and director of opera and Broadway productions, from her stunning work on Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, to her Tony nominated work this year on the Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen. 

Jacob's Pillow launched the 2024 season with serious fun. It's been ten years since the all male, gender bending Trocs have visited Pillow. Remarkably the renowned company is celebrating 50 years of artful parody. Raucous laughter and applause filled the Ted Shawn Theatre.

Gerry McIntyre has directed and choreographed a flawless production of Mel Brooks’ hilarious musical Young Frankenstein. On opening night, it rocked a full house at the Colonial Theatre, where it will be fun, fun, fun until July 21.

Our friends at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox are coming out of the holiday weekend with continued fireworks: Ted Rosenthal Trio returns to the Berkshires to perform on July 9, at 7pm.

Surrealism by Provincetown artist Jay Critchley

Before he left for Hollywood, Martin Mull started as an artist in Boston. He partnered with fellow RISD graduate, Todd McKee, as the satirical Smart Duckys. With a twist I covered their first pop-up exhibition for the Boston Herald Traveler. Mull is best known for a long career in film and television. Artist, musician, actor he was a man of many talents.

A Tender Thing, by Ben Power, explores an interesting premise. What if the star-crossed lovers had survived? He assembled the text by reordering and conflating excerpts of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and a number of sonnets. Hence Elizabethan language has been conveyed in a contemporary context.

This summer, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) invites you to reimagine the world of maps and globes in an installation conceived by Argentinian artist Agustina Woodgate. In Ballroom, the gallery floor is filled with globes that have been meticulously sanded to remove all traces of information, transforming what were once vital sources of knowledge into mute objects.

Lu Dongbin, also known as Lü Dongbin or Lu Tung-Pin, is a towering figure in Chinese mythology and religion. As one of the Eight Immortals, a revered pantheon within Daoism, he transcends the boundaries of a mere historical figure. He embodies wisdom, benevolence, and mastery of the Dao (the Way), leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire generations. This exploration delves into the life, legends, and significance of Lu Dongbin, the scholar-immortal who wields both sword and wisdom.

Reacting to the carnage of WWI Dada was spawned at the Cafe Voltaire in Zurich in 1916. The absurdist, anti-art movement was founded by sound and noise poet and performance artist Hugo Ball. He wrote its influential manifesto. The Cafe lasted several months but the spirit of Dada spread to Berlin, New York and Paris. Largely a literary movement its artifacts are rare. They survive as ransom note graphics and raw agit-prop collages, Dada perished in the mayhem of culture wars in Paris in 1922. Many of its artists were absorbed into surrealism which had two published manifestos in 1924.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will bring the acclaimed Social Tango Project—an innovative dance company founded and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina— for an immersive week-long engagement during Week 4 of the Festival. Offering audiences a deep dive into the art of tango, Social Tango Project will showcase this social dance like never before in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre from Wednesday, July 17 to Sunday, July 21. 

The Ulysses Quartet performed Beethoven’s final work, his string quartet in A minor, in the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. The classical spirit of Leonard Bernstein, who is buried here atop Battle Hill, pervades the place. Programs are various and always tasteful. The setting enhances the experience

Our lives are filled with memories. Lisa, the main character in 2.5 Minute Ride, wants to share memories of her father, his life, and her relationship with him. The autobiographical play by Lisa Kron is at Hartford Stage through Sunday, June 23.