People
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Jenny Gersten of Williamstown Theatre Festival
Anticipating Her First Season as Artistic Director
By: - Feb 16th, 2011Jenny Gersten worked under Michael Ritchie as associate producer of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 1996 to 2004. We discussed plans and ambitions for her first season as artistic director. As a producer she does not direct. She describes administration, budgets and marketing as her "comfort zone" while conveying concerns about the artistic challenges. We discussed welcoming the Gersten era of one of America's great theatre companies.
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Lisa Corrin to Leave as Director of WCMA
Will Join the Williams Fine Arts Faculty
By: - Jan 26th, 2011Today Lisa Corrin called to let me know that as of June 30 she will be leaving as director of the Williams College Museum of Art. She is currently rehanging the permanent collection of the museum. It will reopen during the spring with eight major exhibitions and related programming. She will join the Willams fine arts faculty. Also she will be a fellow at the neighboring Clark Art Institute next year and serve as a visiting scholar in the Museum Studies program at New York University.
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Herb Snitzer at Gallery Kayafas
Celebrating Jazz in a Book and Exhibition
By: - Dec 30th, 2010Recently, after a lapse of some years, we reconnected with the jazz photographer Herb Snitzer who now resides in Florida. He will be in Boston during January for the opening of an exhibition at Gallery Kayafas. He is also launching a new book. We discussed a career in the arts that spans 5O years and an archive of 700,000 negatives.
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Dan Bosley Celebrated
Retirement Event Held at Mass MoCA
By: - Dec 10th, 2010Twenty one years ago Tom Krens pitched the idea of transforming the abandoned 17 acre Sprague Electric campus into Mass MoCA. That development cast a long shadow on the political careers of State Representative, Dan Bosley, and North Adams Mayor, John Barrett. Last night, at MoCA, Bosley celebrated a birthday and retirement after 24 years. Barrett, now out of office after 26 years, dropped by. As did a who's who of politicians including former Governor Jane Swift. On Monday Mass MoCA has "a major funding announcement ."
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David Wilson Five
Avatar Aftermath Then to Now
By: - Nov 27th, 2010At the end of the summer of 1968, having published several issues of Avatar, David Wilson and Charles Giuliano parted to pursue new options. For a time they again collaborated publishing a newsletter/ fanzine The WAG Newsletter. They were involved in the music business as critics, publicists, and broadcasters. Eventually, they pursued academic interests, Art History, for Giuliano, and Psychology for Wilson. A couple of years ago they connected and are again working together on projects such as this.
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David Wilson Four
Avatar and Mel Lyman
By: - Nov 20th, 2010The Mel Lyman gang from Fort Hill confiscated issue #25 of the Avatar. All but a handful of the 45,000 copies were sold as scrap paper. When the dust settled Charles Giuliano and David Wilson collaborated during the summer of 1968 to publish Boston's notorious underground paper. Together they reflect on those events.
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Tom Rush Recalls
Folk Music in Harvard Square
By: - Nov 17th, 2010When Tom Rush performed at the Colonial Theatre we connected. Currently he is working on his memoirs. Tom took time to answer a couple of questions about how he evolved as a musician while an undergraduate at Harvard. This dialogue evolved out the series of interviews with David Wilson about art and culture during the 1960s in Boston and Cambridge.
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David Wilson Three
Folk Clubs of the 1960s
By: - Nov 14th, 2010During the `1960s David Wilson took a break from editing Broadside to become manager of the folk club Cafe Yana. They got wiped out during the weekend of the Kennedy Assassination when everyone stayed home. Later, Wilson split the gate with Dick Waterman presenting Mississippi John Hurt which was a great success. But then he lost it all presenting blues artist Bukka White. With humor and insight Wilson recalls the Boston/ Cambridge club scene in the 1960s.
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John Douglas Thompson Three
How Characters Evolve from the Text
By: - Nov 08th, 2010Thompson dismissed preliminary remarks about Macbeth a role he will perform later this year. Any preconceived notions are irrelevant until he finds the character in a careful reading of the text and through the rehearsal process. He discussed how the technique of Viewpoints was used by director Tina Landau in Antony and Cleopatra.
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John Douglas Thompson Two
Passion and Politics
By: - Nov 08th, 2010There was a stark, minimalist staging of Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage. The use of a trough of water to signify the Nile was discussed. Also the casting of Thompson and Kate Mulgrew as a middle aged couple with more emphasis on politics than passion.
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John Douglas Thompson on Antony and Cleopatra
Difficulties and Challenges
By: - Nov 07th, 2010A growing number of influential critics regard John Douglas Thompson as one of the leading, clasically trained actors of his generation. We have engaged in an ongoing dialogue about his canonical roles. It started with Othello, three years ago, at Shakespeare & Company, continuing through Richard III this summer. Following a performance of Antony and Cleopatra, with Kate Mulgrew, we disussed the challening play.
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David Wilson Interviews: Two
The Bosstown Sound and Folk Turns Political
By: - Nov 05th, 2010The then young Mike Curb, CEO of MGM Records, hyped an ersatz movement in the 1960s, the ill fated Bosstown Sound. The bands of that era performed at the Boston Tea Party in the South End. The folk music scene in Cambridge focused on Club 47 on Mount Auburn Street. As America was drawn into the Vietnam War David Wilson recalls a shift to radical politics and the protest movement.
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The David Wilson Interviews: Part One
Broadside and Folk Music in Harvard Square
By: - Nov 04th, 2010During the summer of 1968, Charles Giuliano, Dave Wilson, Sandi Mandeville and Arden Harrison worked together to publish the underground paper Avatar. Wilson was a founder of the influential folk music publication Broadside. This first in a series of interviews covers the early years of the folk music scene in Harvard Square.
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Jane Farver Retires from List at MIT
Remarkable 12 Years
By: - Oct 27th, 2010Jane Farver will leave her position at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in May. For the past dozen years Farver has been among the best and brightest in the Boston arts community.
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Tony and Tina's Wedding
S&Co. Gala Fuggedddahboutit
By: - Oct 10th, 2010How fitting that there was a play within a play for the annual gala that hilariously raked in a ton of bling for Shakespeare & Company. The founding artistic director, Tina Packer, exchanged vows with the current one, Tony Simotes. That was followed by the ersatz wedding of Tony Nunzio and Tina Vitale. Their family of made men and wannabes made it up from Joisey and Queens to mix with, and loosen up, an assembly of Berkshire blue bloods who shelled out top coin for the privilege.
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A Tea Party for Pittsfield
Kamms Seek Museum for Collection
By: - Oct 09th, 2010Over the past 30 years the Los Angeles based Sonny and Gloria Kamm have acquired 10,000 tea pots. Currently, they are seeking a museum partner to house their collection. The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield appears to be a finalist. To house the Kamm's Tea Pot Museum the plan would be to acquire a church property in the heart of the city.
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Steve Lawson of Williamstown Film Festival
A Life in Theatre and Film
By: - Oct 06th, 2010In 1969, while a sophomore at Williams College Steve Lawson worked that summer for the then young Williamstown Theatre Festival. From a base in Williamstown he divides his time in New York and LA keeping up on theatre and film. He is the Executive Director of the Williamstown Film Festival which will have its 12th season from October 15 through 24. Over two weekends the festival will screen 33 films.
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Ed Bride and Pittsfield CityJazz Festival
Sixth Annual Event Oct. 8 to 21
By: - Sep 30th, 2010The sixth annual Pittsfield CityJazz Festival will run from October 8 to 21. There will be lots of free events as well as ticketed concerts at the Crowne Plaza and Colonial Theatre. There is also a vital educational component with performances and jazz history in local schools. Over ribs and corn bread we talked with organizer Ed Bride about his life long passion for jazz.
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Tony n' Tina's Wedding
Shakespeare & Company Gala Oct. 9
By: - Sep 25th, 2010Coming off the heels of its most successful summer season to date, Shakespeare & Company celebrates its Fall Gala with a very special one-of-a-kind performance of the famed Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding on Saturday, October 9th beginning at 5:00pm. The Fall Gala while honoring Artistic Director Tony Simotes and Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer will also benefit the Company’s thriving Education Program.
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Paris Hilton Banned in Japan
Drugs and the Stars
By: - Sep 23rd, 2010Poor little rich girl Paris Hilton was denied entry into Japan because of her recent drug bust in Vegas. After a tough night in a hotel, perhaps a Hilton and its VIP suite, she boarded her private jet and returned to party another day in the USA. Drugs and the stars. What else is new?
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Leonard Nimoy at Mass MoCA
Lecture October 21
By: - Sep 20th, 2010Photographer Leonard Nimoy, whose exhibition Secret Selves is on display through January 2, 2011, at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) will offer insight into his creative and technical process during a talk at the museum on Thursday, October 21, at 5 PM. Nimoy strives to reveal his subjects' other half in Secret Selves. Shot in nearby Northampton, Massachusetts, in 2007, the series is exhibited for the first time at MASS MoCA.
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Photographer Don Snyder 1934- 2010
Tangled Up in Blue
By: - Sep 13th, 2010For a significant period of his life the visionary photographer, alchemist, and guru, Don Snyder, lived in the Berkshires. Don and his wife Mikki raised a family in a cottage on the property of the photographer, Benno Friedman. During an era of love peace and happiness an extended family frequently gathered at Benno's for seasonal celebrations. Don was a singular presence in this community of artists and free spirits. Don photographed Gerard Malanga and I just moments after we first met. We have collaborated yet again to remember a remarkable artist and friend.
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John Douglas Thompson Reshapes Richard III
A Critical Dialogue Focused on S&Co's Production
By: - Aug 27th, 2010Recently Ben Brantley of the New York Times posted a rave review of John Douglas Thompson as Richard III in a production at Shakespeare & Company. There are now only a few performances left of this summer long event. We engaged with Thompson is an extended dialogue about his radical interpretation of Richard III.
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Sidewalk Sam Projects for North Adams
Matisse Blossoms on Holden Street
By: - Aug 26th, 2010Next summer there are plans for Sidewalk Sam and an army of volunteers to create the world's largest sidewalk painting in the parking lot of Mass MoCA. To give the folks in North Adams a hint of the immensity of that project, and to assist with fund raising, during the Down Town celebration Sam and his wife Tina were on hand to help create an enormous Matisse on Holden Street. Everyone involved had a blast.
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Jeff Buckley's The Last Goodbye
What's Next for Williamstown Hit Musical
By: - Aug 19th, 2010The all too brief two week run of the smash hit The Last Goodbye with the music of the cult rocker Jeff Buckley conflated with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has come to an end on August 20. The world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival was more like an extended workshop. Everyone agrees this show is Broadway bound. We met with the creative team of Michael Kimmel and Lauren Fitzgerald who insist on taking "their baby" through just one measured step at a time.
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