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San Francisco Opera’s current production maximizes the values of the piece through excellent casting, fine musical direction by Eun Sun Kim, and the addition of what amounts to another character, the stunning scenic design by Alexander V. Nichols, under the purview of Director Matthew Ozawa.

It turned into a shocking success, the opening of the Dreigroschenoper (Three Penny Opera) in November 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. Now, almost 100 years later, Bertolt Brecht's work with the music by Kurt Weill, is back at its original showing, now called the Berliner Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin.

A special concert will cap this weekend on Sunday, Oct. 24, when pianist Ted Rosenthal performs his unique interpretations of George Gershwin compositions. Highlighted by his innovative treatment of the legendary Rhapsody in Blue, Ted’s repertoire for this first “tea time jazz special,” is collectively known as Rhapsody in Gershwin.

During the era of KIng Cotton North Adams thrived by processing bales shipped north from plantations. The Eclipse Mill produced thread which was woven across the street in the Delftree Mill. Until 1938 the mills employed child labor. During a single visit Lewis Hine created nine photographs outside the mill. These images as well as vintage views of the Eclipse Mill comprise a special exhibition. They flank the entrance ramp to the vast artist/ loft complex. The community based project is an aesthetic, historic and humanistic accomplishment.

You might consider a review of the songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein to be “old hat;” why bother seeing a show with songs that are so familiar to all of us. See it because Ruggiero and the cast take these songs and bring a newness to them with sometimes subtle twists that carry them in the 21st century.

Marking Lives COVID-19 is a community art project conceived by Concord-based artist Elizabeth Awalt to commemorate the American lives lost to COVID. This exhibition is a realization of the collaborative social media project. It includes North Adams artist Sarah Sutro.

The virtual screening of Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision- a walk-through installation performance celebrating the lives of Women of Color will premier on November 5th at 8pm. Set inside a historic Women’s Club mansion in Pittsfield MA, each of the 21 rooms represented a stage or theme of initiation in the lives of Black, Indigenous and Immigrant Women of Color.

Barrington Stage Company will offer a Playwriting Workshop for Veterans under the direction of Barrington Stage Associate Artist and Award-Winning Playwright Mark St. Germain. In this 4-class seminar, students will explore the fundamental craft of playwriting with the goal of every student completing a ten-minute play. The culmination on the fourth and final day of class will be a rehearsal and performance by professional actors.

Stuart Brown, a theater critic and founder of a 24/7 online radio station devoted to musical theater, has created an escape room through which you strive to save Broadway from the Grinch. The escape room will go live around the first week of December. To access the escape room, go to https://soundsofbroadway.com/escaperoom. The "save Broadway" escape room will join two existing ones on the website.

Ric Haynes is an artist, arts therapist, humanist, and a storyteller. His life has brought him on journeys, both voluntary, and involuntary. Those experiences along with a vivid memory have given Haynes all of the source material he needs to tell his stories.

Appropriately, Theatre Rhinoceros presents “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” in its new, intimate home in The Castro.  Their choice of play to christen the new venue fits like a glove. Thematically, the suitability is clear for the longest running LGBTQ theater company in the universe.  And in a setting where the audience can reach out and touch the performers, a small two hander where the actors’ every small gesture can be seen.

Across the country arts organizations are making a concerted effort to include Americans of color in their presentations.  The concert at Symphony Hall in Boston this week was a highly successful concert of  inclusion.

Arvo Pärt has celebrated birthdays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His music is often performed at the Temple of Dendur where one wall dances with reflections from a pool of water, reflections that seem to move with the beat of the music. They soothe and elevate, a mood captured by the Nile River in the temple’s original Egyptian location.

Melia Bensussen demonstrates a sure hand with this Eugene O’Neill play set in Connecticut on July 4, 1906. In Ah, Wilderness!, O’Neill who is better known for his dramas of love, loss, disillusionment, self-delusion and alcoholism, shows his lighter touch. It is a family comedy about some of the same subjects but more upbeat.

Ceramic art works and products have increased substantially in size and expression over the last ten or more years. The sky is the limit here at the current MoCA exhibition and the energy was palpable in the galleries during a rainy Saturday.

At a time when we should all be thinking about how America’s history might be taught in all its blood and glory, Definition Theatre succeeds in tossing new ingredients into this steamy pot of burgoo. Its new theatrical film, America v.2.1: The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro, is a raw, sad and funny story of a future America, told in four parts.

Over 96% of staff at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,voted to strike on Wednesday, November 17 in support of a fair union contract. Workers in departments across the Museum will picket at 465 Huntington Avenue that day starting at 8:30 am. The MFA Union includes curators, conservators, library workers, public-facing staff, educators, and administrative and professional workers.

Our panel discussion will consider ways in which the practice of Indigenous curation enacts sovereignty. We will address the various challenges of doing Indigenous curation within and, at times, against art institutions. Our discussion will take into account the difficulties of collaborating across various differences—cultural, disciplinary, educational, etc.—that are specific to exhibiting Indigenous arts.

Come from Away is docked in South Florida before heading north. The musical relates the true tale of a small Canadian town that welcomed and cared for stranded passengers on Sept. 11, 2001 and the days after.

Hue & Cry: French Printmaking and the Debate over Colors presents a wide array of French color prints from the Clark’s works-on-paper collection, by artists including Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Jules Chéret, Maurice Denis, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Édouard Vuillard.

GableStage in Southeast Florida is opening its season with Arthur Miller's "The Price." New Producing Artistic Director Bari Newport is directing it, based on late Producing Artistic Director Joe Adler's notes. This production of "The Price" marked Adler's last directorial effort at GableStage, where he spent 20 years as Producing Artistic Director. GableStage has dedicated this production to Adler.

The big winners of the Berkies were A Crossing: A Dance Musical, presented by Barrington Stage Company, which won the Sally and Robert Sugarman Award for a World Premier of a New Work as well as many acting and design awards, and Nina Simone: Four Women, presented by the Berkshire Theatre Group. 

The funniest complication is that Mrs. Warren has steadfastly refused to reveal who is Vivie’s father; so there is the possibility that it could be Sir George or even the Rev. Samuel, who wasn’t always a man of the cloth.

Madama Butterfly inspires a deep look at its historical context through a contemporary lens. Internal and public discussions are part of the project dubbed The Butterfly Process by Boston Lyric Opera.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), opens a suite of seven newly renovated galleries that explore the rich visual culture of the Dutch Republic and Flanders during this time, bringing together nearly 100 paintings by the greatest masters—including Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Gerrit Dou, Frans Hals and Anthony van Dyck—in addition to works on paper and decorative arts such as silver and Delft ceramics.