We're returning to the world of Jane Austen-inspired theater with a costumed, staged reading of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, and directed by Ariel Bock! 

It was fun to revisit our old haunt the Gloucester Writers Center. Much has changed since we were residents several years ago. Last night we attended a reading by Joe Rukeyser and Kathleen Williams.

OUT magazine suggested an opera based on the film The Hours back in 2014.  At the time, Fabian Brathwaite wrote: (wishful thinking) Based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the 2002 Stephen Daldry film is basically two hours of “EMOTION!” Tears, breakdowns, more tears and a prosthetic nose — ingredients for operatic gold. And look no further for casting. Just give Meryl three weeks and a pack of lozenges. Renee Fleming now takes on Meryl Streep's role.

George Fifield, founder of the Cyberarts Festival and Boston Cyberarts, curator, scholar, arts administrator, creative mentor, videographer, educator, and a major champion of fusing art with technology, passed away on November 11 at the age of 72 from complications that followed a devastating fall that occurred at his Martha’s Vineyard home early last summer

Leave it to Gil Rose, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera to present one of the most important operas of the last decade. At Jordan Hall in Boston, Rose and his company gave a superb concert production of  John Corigliano’s “Lord of the Cries.”  Commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, this was its east coast debut. Corigliano’s first opera, The Ghost of Versailles met with consistently rave reviews and was not performed often after its premiere. Corigliono swore off the form.  He wanted to write music that was heard.

Dorothy's Dictionary is a funny, touching piece of theater about two contrasting people developing a bond over time. The play's word premiere production is running through Dec. 11 at Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University. Theatre Lab is dedicated to producing new work.

Two compelling exhibits are on display at Wrightwood 659, the Lincoln Park gallery dedicated to exhibiting socially engaged art and architecture. Michiko Itatani: Celestial Stage celebrates the work of the Chicago painter and her fascination with science and culture. The First Homosexuals: Global Depictions of a New Identity: 1869-1930 offers the first multimedia survey of early works of queer art.

Phil Kline's Unsilent Night has been presented in 150+ cities across five continents since its debut 30 years ago on the streets of Greenwich Village. Free as always.

This rendering must be measured by a very different yardstick than traditional versions. By a calculation based on contemporary sensibilities, Adaptor/Director Emma Rice’s innovation succeeds in providing a multifaceted entertainment executed with top rate professionalism.

Geoffrey Richon is a major contractor and philanthropist in Gloucester. He co-founded Gloucester Stage Company. For artistic director he hired and later fired the playwright Israel Horovitz. He was outed as a sexual predator, first by the Boston Phoenix in 1993, and then by the New York Times in 2007. The company has been through rough times but Richon sees a bright and expanded future.

Okay – let’s cut straight to the chase.  The unique chronical of “Little Shop of Horrors” is laugh-out-loud funny; the music is foot-stomping energetic; the production is superb; and the performances are great.  Did I miss anything?  If you see this TheatreWorks production and disagree, check with your physician to make sure you have the pulse rate of a sentient being.

Confocal microscopy, also known as confocal laser scanning microscopy, is a specialized optical imaging technique that provides contact-free, non-destructive measurements of three-dimensional objects. For this website, plants considered sacred by indigenous groups of the Americas were scanned at St. Lawrence University’s Microscopy and Imaging Center.

The Metropolitan Opera website is down for the third day in a row. Griner freed. Met Opera now captive?

This and That delights.  The production also raises questions: Can a serious effort be delivered with casual aplomb?  Great beauty?  Mystery?  From a messy theater?  In the hands of Philip Soltanoff  and Steven Wendt, the answer is a resounding Yes.

Leah Nanko Winkler writes in a cinematic style – the play opens with a series of brief scenes (fewer than five lines), which sets up the meeting and subsequent developing relationship between Steph and Lane at the Revival Coffeeshop. It is the usual Rom-Com mixture of unsaid things, clues that aren’t picked up, and fears.

As a world premiere, this is a work in progress. Changes are being made. When I saw it, one song had been moved, and a reprise was eliminated.

Lucas Hnath's intense drama, "Red Speedo" is playing in an admirable production by South Florida-based producer Ronnie Larsen. The production runs through Dec. 30 at the intimate Foundry space in Wilton Manors, near Ft. Lauderdale. "Red Speedo" represents a significant departure from the kind of work that Larsen usually produces and creates.

The Guggenheim Museum releases its schedule of exhibitions for 2023.

Zen Buddhist teaching and the use of Koans are for the purpose of disabusing one from thinking, and instead simply acting.  Quiet oneself sufficiently, be fully present in the moment, and the correct response to the moment will arise on its own – naturally, instinctively, organically.

Her father, an artist, took the poet Eve Rifkah to the Museum of Fine Arts. There the young girl became intrigued by Suzanna Valadon the model for Renoir's stunning Bal a Bougival. She has written a book of verse comprising conversations with and about herself and the legendary artist/ model. Our paths crossed at Manship Artists Residency.

It comes as a surprise to noone who attends Met Operas that the House is in trouble. Only Peter Gelb, who at first said that people were asleep after Covid, seems to find the Met Opera's failure to sell tickets news. His response is also odd. The operas he proposes to produce to cure are chamber operas unsuited to an opera house too large for our times.

The Clark Art Institute hosts three free events as part of I/O Fest, the Williams College Department of Music’s annual immersion in the music of today. Students in the music program take audiences on a tour of new sounds and adventurous music during a concert for families on January 15.

The artist Marjorie Minkin divides time between Boston and the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. Her Lexans have been shown in galleries and museums in MA, NYC, LA, Michigan, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany and Seoul. This is the first time a solo installation will be shown in Boston.  The work will be exhibited in the Atrium gallery at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston from January 5th through March 30th, 2023.

A vibrant equity national touring production of "Aladdin" is playing in Miami through Sunday. "Aladdin" offers a feast for the eyes. The popular musical's basis is a 1992 animated film, which an ancient folktale inspired.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC),  announces the 10-minute plays, playwrights and casting for the 12th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, part of the 2023 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival. Performances February 17 through March 5, 2023.