Front Page

In their respective practices, Sue Williamson (b. 1941) and Lebohang Kganye (b. 1990) incorporate oral histories into films, photographs, installations, and textiles to consider how the stories our elders tell us shape family narratives and personal identities. Implicitly and explicitly addressing legacies of racial violence and social injustice, their work offers a cross-generational dialogue on history, memory, and the power of self-narration.

Bill and Nancy have been married for 50 years, and on the surface, they have been happy, or at least content.  But when they dispassionately announce their decision to divorce to their visiting adult sons, Brian and Ben, the boys are flabbergasted.  As expected, they have questions like “What happened?” but worse, they have answers, like “We can fix this,” as if the breakup could be within their control.  And when they finally realize that it could actually happen, it’s “Why couldn’t you get divorced when we finished school, like normal people?”

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) announces that Broadway’s master songman, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, will bring his newest theatre concert Mandy Patinkin in Concert: BEING ALIVE, to the Boyd-Quinson Stage for one night only on Tuesday, June 27.

In the heart of Cape Ann, with its boulders and cellar holes, Dogtown Common stokes the cauldron of witchcraft and early New England mythology. Dogtown Common by Percy MacKaye, adapted and directed by Peter Littlefield will be performed at the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Rockport, Ma.

The simple storyline centers on Natasha, betrothed to Prince Andrey, who has been sent to fight against Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.  But when she visits Moscow, Natasha is taken with womanizer Anatole, and decides to abandon Andrey for the more glamorous option.  Things don’t go as planned. The end.

Lynn Nottage's drama, "Sweat" serves as a cautionary play about what can happen when unrestrained, explosive emotions flow during especially tense, sensitive times. Main Street Players in Miami Lakes, a professional, nonprofit company, is presenting a stellar production through May 14. "Sweat" takes place during the turbulent 2000s in a blue-collar community in Pennsylvania.

Four women writers of the Harlem Renaissance meet in "Telling Tales Out of School" by Wesley Brown, directed by Woodie King, Jr.

When booking our trip, we didn't know of Feria, a one-week celebration of community and Seville's history with livestock markets and flamenco that began in 1846. But when our new friend Carlos invited us to join him in going to the fair, we jumped on it. Feria takes place one week in April each year on 25 urban blocks that lie mostly barren except for preparation and celebration of Feria. Imagine the value of the property designated for this one event!

Rembrandt, the play at TheaterWorks Hartford through Sunday, May 14, is part meditation on art and part a very human exploration of love, dying and grieving

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) visited Cape Ann initially at the invitation of his friend and fellow painter, Leon Kroll (1884-1974), and produced his first oil painting outdoors in the United States during that trip. The Whitney Museum is lending Hopper’s five oils painted in Gloucester in 1912, including Briar (sic) Neck, Gloucester (1912); Tall Masts (1912); Italian Quarter (1912); and Gloucester Harbor (1912). The exhibition will mark the first time these works have ever been shown together on Cape Ann.

The once fabled Williamstown Theatre Festival, under interim artistic director Jenny Gersten, has cut back this season.

Lately I've been writing little metaphysical screenplays for dolls, dogs and humans. My friend Roy Rallo - with whom I work in opera - has been shooting them with my help.

Curtis Stewart is a man for all seasons.  He took over Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center this week. When you hear him, you know that Nietzsche was right: without music, life would be a mistake.

In 1944, African-American military units were always commanded by white officers, with black non-coms, and enlisted men, reflecting the plantation structure that preceded it by a century and more.  This organization represents the natural order to Captain Charles Taylor, a West Point grad, who happily manages and cajoles a platoon comprised of talented black baseball players who will get to play the Yankees if they continue to win all of their games.  To this day, a common condition persists, that racists like Taylor often carve out exceptions to allow minority peoples to reflect glory on their white overlords.

A freak June storm, an ever-more-common aberration in these times of climate change-induced storms, befell the northern Berkshires last week.  It offered five inches of rain, and an hour’s worth of half-inch hail that left the ground looking as though it had snowed.  The results were devastating to the meditation garden I have been building for 4 years.

The Clark Art Institute debuts a five-part outdoor concert series this summer. The Clark presents Hermanos Gutiérrez on June 28, Joe Henry on July 5, Makaya McCraven on July 12, Darlingside on July 19, and Kathleen Edwards on August 8. All performances are free and take place at 6 pm near the Reflecting Pool.

The Empress faces Sophie’s choice.  Either decision - to accept or reject the shadow - could leave blood on her hands.  High drama occurs with real or perceived betrayals and threats of killing, but since nobody dies, some would characterize “Die Frau” as a comedy!

Long before the Brooklyn Museum discovered the notorious Hannah Gadsby of "Nanette" and engaged her services as a curator of Pablo Picasso, Susan Rennie was gripped by the idea that art most often was created by the male gaze. 

Gabrielle Barzaghi is one of the leading contemporary artists residing on Cape Ann. Horse Opera is Barzaghi's fourth solo exhibition at the Matthew Swift Gallery, and presents a significant new body of her work comprising more than a dozen drawings.

In 1999, Anthony Braxton caught the performance of an Improv group at Wesleyan College where he has taught for twenty-three years. Among its members was Lin Manuel Miranda. He picked a trooper and asked him to do an improvisation with him. The duo, collaborating on compositions 279 to 283, was the inspiration for this funny, hip and moving improv designed by Experiments in Opera (EiO).

Locally rooted musical collective Floating Tower, working with Berkshire artist Joe Wheaton, will fill The Adams Theater July 1-2 with a unique, poignant musical tribute to the people of Ukraine. 

Rhiannon Giddens is leading new music which is both classical and popular. Her commitment to telling stories that have been buried and to showing us the world as it really is in music heralds anew age.

No matter whether you read it in school or more recently or even never read the novel, you owe it to yourself to see the absolutely fabulous new stage adaptation now at the Bushnell through Sunday, July 2.

Straw hat is old hat. Summer once meant shows performed in actual barns by talented and young kids. Or tours led by well-known movie and TV stars whose popularity had diminished. Not anymore.

The Dutch National Ballet’s first visit to Jacob’s Pillow offered a deep immersion in classical ballet, past and present. On every level it belongs to the top tier of dance in the Berkshires.