The bouncy, Vaudeville-influenced opening number "The Four Immigrants" theme sets the early tone of the hope for success in the new land. The men struggle, as most immigrants will, but then the first major setback occurs, San Francisco's 1906 earthquake.

Cordelia Steep’s U.S. premiere of Lela and Co. is set in some unnamed wartorn region of the world—perhaps central Europe. It’s Lela’s story, beginning with her birth, when she learns that a woman’s role is “to sing the songs, the early songs and the late songs, the songs of sleeping and the songs of mourning.

Hir is a family story, a chaotic kitchen-sink story. Playwright Taylor Mac describes it as absurd realism, with a simple plot: The prodigal son returns home from the war and finds nothing is as it was when he left. Isaac (Tyler Olwin) has been away for three years, working on a mortuary crew in Afghanistan.

Armagnac has finally been recognized as the up and coming brandy. Its only taken 700 years to be recognized in the 21st century. At one time it was Louis XIV's favorite.

Syrians are spreading across the world as civil war rages on in their country. We who greet, house and share our countries with them are curious about the country from which they have come and what it feel like to live there during this period of torture and destruction. The theater of Syria helps us understand what prompts exodus.

Speech and Debate is a 2007 play by Tony winner Stephen Karam (The Humans). Since then there have been more than a hundred productions. It is being refreshed at Barrington Stage. It focuses on the bonding of three high school misfits. The awkward and insecure Howie (Austin Davidson) came out when he was nine. The uptight, preppy Solomon (Ben Getz) is a closeted wannabe investigative reporter. Diwata (Betsy Hogg) is a plain Jane, nerdy teen, passed over by the drama club, who wants to be a star. This makeover of a popular play slogs along until coming alive when the amazing Hogg takes the bit in her mouth and races hell for leather to a remarkable finish. Fasten your seat belts.

Picking up this series after some time, we are continuing with reports about our travels in North America. We flew to San Francisco to attend a theater conference and to discover the city once again, followed by visits to Muir Woods and California’s wine country. There will be other sketches drawn from different locations and events. Here my personal photo-perspective of the Golden Gate Bridge, arguably the most famous bridge in the USA.

Since BC, the land that is now Cantina Tramin in Italy has been likened to gold. Rare and important for centuries, the wines produced from this small terroir exceed others and is much like Burgundy which is considered the best wine growing terrain in the world.

San Frncisco based travel writer, Susan Cohn, is known for ferreting out unusual destinations in rural America. Her stories always have an off the beaten trail exotic, down home flavor. This time she reports on the Richard Petty Museum in North Carolina. Parked on the property are dozens of iconic vehicles that made three generations of the Petty family dominant winners in the popular NASCAR circuit. This is a must see destination for fans of the popular sport. Enjoy this tale of life in the fast lane.

Outre's production depicts a future-- and even a present -- in which surveillance is becoming more prevalent. Actors fare better after intermission in Outre Theatre Company's 1984. Interrogation scene not as graphic as what audiences are reportedly witnessing on Broadway.

In recent years the Paul Taylor Dance Company has regularly appeared at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. It has been a decade since the company performed at Jacob's Pillow. For its 85th season the company was lured bac k for its 16th time. Add one more when in 1954, as a dancer, Taylor made his Pllow debut with Pearl Lang's Company. On this occasion the program featured three iconic works.

In its smaller Nikos Stage the Williamstown Theatre Festival features another, homegrown, world premiere. Last summer playwright Harrison David Rivers was a fellow at the renowned festival. The play that he was developing Where Storms Are Born is being produced this season. Again there is a focus on diversity and plot points hinged on gay characters, There is risk taking in this strategy wih bold and progressive but unresolved results.

Several recurring themes frame the arc to provide color to the story telling. Detailed sexual activity with graphic anatomical references as well as analogies such as bullets and exploding grenades are often described. Unfortunately, the tsunami of f-bombs reduce their effectiveness and seem like a child's learning a nasty word and mindlessly repeating it until it becomes meaningless.

59 East 59th Street Theaters is presenting New York’s annual Edinburgh Festival Preview. The acting in the plays is terrific. While these are works in process, the directors give us engaging productions on provocative themes.

A light drizzle evoked soft programming and attendance for the Friday night peformance of Andris Nelson's conducting at Tanglewood. Perhaps there was a conservation of energy for tonight's historic two and a half hour performance of Wagner without an intermission. But history was made last night as well with the astonishing debut of pianist Daniil Trifonov performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467. As they say, the crowd went wild.

“In the Heights” by Lin Manuel Miranda chronicles the daily struggles of the neighborhood in its day to day existence of raising families, paying the rent and trying to keep one’s business from going bankrupt, along with the age-old frustration of the younger residents in not being able to make their own choices in their searches for love, romance, and marriage.

Celebrate the newly completed greenhouses in Fletcher Steele and Mable Choate's historic and recently renovated gardens at Naumkeag in Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 4-7pm on Saturday, July 22nd.

New musical based on comic book focuses on the Japanese immigrant experience in the turn-of-the-century San Francisco The how's scenic design draws inspiration from comic strips. The world premiere production of The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga by Min Kahng runs through Aug. 6

2017 marks the 4th appearance of the popular Chamber Music group, The Knights, at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall. With over 40 band members, based in Brooklyn, the popular group presented a varied show of classics and music with modern scores.

The new Met Tosca will premier with James Levine replacing Andris Nelsons at the helm. Kristine Opolais stepped out of the title role. They are together in Tanglewood for what promise to be a starry evening on August 26th.

The ever popular Sushi House in North Adama has been relaunched as Meng's Pan Asian. With an attractve design makeover and tweaked menu it was packed when our local arts group gathered for its usual Thursday night meeting. One of the best local, family friendly, affordable restaurants just got a whole lot better,

Vermont novelist Howard Frank Mosher died on January 29th of this year. Filmmaker Jay Craven worked closely with the Northeast Kingdom writer since 1985, making five films based on his stories. Craven will be on tour this summer, screening his first Mosher feature film,“Where the Rivers Flow North,” and providing reflections on three decades of collaboration with the Northeast Kingdom writer.

Naked Lunch is never going to be a mainstream film, but the opportunity to peer into the twisty subconscious of the creative mind and the keen brilliance of a jazzman the caliber of Ornette Coleman was a perfect coming together of two seemingly opposed forces. And no Interzone insectoid typewriter would argue with that.

The world premiere of the dark dramedy "Vignettes on Love" by David Steele provides enjoyable entertainment as it explores the dynamics of love from its giddiness to its hurt. It is produced by PlayGround and plays at Potrero Stage in, San Francisco, through July 30.

In our coverage of the Ella Fitzgerald at Tanglewood we commented on the decline of jazz programming. While Tanglewood has cut back drastically, Ed Bride, the director of Jazz Pittsfield in a letter reminded me other programming with centennials this year for Ella, Buddy Rich, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie.