Future Lab(s) is an artist run, community based gallery that welcomes the public to the historic, cultural district in North Adams, MA. We are a visual arts gallery and installation space dedicated to providing support and exhibition space to (primarily) northern Berkshires artists at every stage of their artistic development. 

Running June 28 through August 27, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2023 will feature nine weeks of performances in the Ted Shawn Theatre and on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, as well as special events, parties, and pop up performances in Berkshire County. This season will offer the largest breadth of international performers since 2019, as well as multiple performances with live music, and dance styles ranging from hip hop and street dance to ballet and contemporary.

There is a lot of great music on tap for the next three weeks. It's time to shake of cabin fever and get out and about. Laissez les bons temps roule as they say in Creole.

It is time yet again for the much anticipated 12th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival which is part of the 2023 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival that runs through March 5.  For the 2023 version, under new artistic director, Alan Paul, 10X10 New Play Festival cast features 10X10 veterans Matt Neely, BSC Associate Artist Peggy Pharr Wilson and Robert Zukerman.  Making their BSC 10X10 debuts are Skyler Gallun, Sky Marie and Camille Upshaw.  

Oscar night will prove to be absolutely Mirvalous. The Champagne poured at the 95th Oscars®, taking place on Sunday, March 12th will be fabulous FLEUR de MIRAVAL.

In 2015 I wrote a book of poetry, Shards of a Life, which was launched with a reading and dialogue with director, Susan Wissler, at Edith Wharton's The Mount. It was an auspicious beginning. Each winter other books of poetry and oral history followed. There was a disruption in 2021 entailing recovery from spinal surgery. The eighth book, Annisquam: Pip and Me Coming of Age, is on track for a Spring/ Summer release.

Too bad and not long enough! The 73rd Berlinale is now film history. After the limited screenings during the Covid years, the festival became an obvious success.

Kissing the Floor,  a radical and strangely beautiful retelling of Antigone by Sophocles, is playing on Theatre Row in New York through March 12th. It is beautifully acted. The language, even as it describes ugly scenes, is lilting and lovely. Playwright Ellen McLaughlin often delves into Greek subjects.

After more than a year of bargaining, the Whitney Museum Union of Local 2110 UAW have reached a tentative agreement with the Museum on a first union contract. Union members are in the process of voting on the contract.

The Vienna Philharmonic arrived at Carnegie Hall, a highly anticipated occasion that enticed the cast of Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera to come over for a busman’s holiday. Richard Strauss, who was featured in the first program, loved Lohengrin.  His last tone poem, The Alpine Symphony was performed in a program with Arnold Schoenberg's Vertlarke Nacht.

August Strindberg's "Totentanz" had its opening in Berlin at Bertolt Brecht's famed theater, the Berliner Ensemble. Written in 1900 it is one of those plays that lets one shudder about the senselessness and cruel relationship some couples endure and call it a marriage.

Like Sutton Hoo, King Tut’s Tomb, and Scythian Gold, the most exhilarating archeological finds are often the discoveries of beautifully crafted metal objects. A gorgeous shiny object suggests riches of untold value, something precious with which to feather our nests. Viewing the Fuller Craft Museum’s compelling show Creative Alloys is a bit like peeking at an elegantly revealed excavation filled with treasures.

Though The Art of Burning is described as a comedy, it is really a drama centering on Patricia (Patti) who is about to be divorced from Jason, after a many year marriage (they have a 16-year-old daughter).

Palm Beach Dramaworks is poised to perform August: Osage County. The production runs from March 31 thru April 16. Playwright Tracey Letts won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for August: Osage County. The director and a cast member say that despite its three-plus hours, the play flies by.

The Irish Rep has mounted a superb production of Samuel Beckett's difficult and riveting Endgame. It features Bill Irwin, know for his Beckett interpretations, and renowned Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson. The hit show will be live streamed for its final performances,

 Pixies’ concerts are well-known for being “one-of-a-kind,” as the band has no pre-determined set lists, the “next song” is the one that “feels right," so you’ll never see the same show twice. And the song choices go deep.

Those familiar with 42nd Street Moon will see how this offering fits the company’s modus operandi. Obviously, it is a musical, and one that calls for a large ensemble, but with limited orchestration and minimal staging, all of which suit the company. But for that, you get Sondheim – witty, and sometimes searing lyrics, creative rhythms, often delivered in patter style, and great music. The music, however, is a little off the composer’s beaten path – a bit more conventional Broadway and a bit less dissonance.

Images Cinema presents its 14th annual farming and food film festival: Fresh Fest. Fresh Fest seeks to connect local farmers and food producers with the community around important conversations that impact all of us.

Rafael Mahdavi, is a global artist who lives and works in France and Greece. Some years ago he commuted from Wellesley to Paris. At that time I curated an exhibition simultaneously for New England School of Art/ Suffolk University and Boston's French Library. We have been in touch ever since. This is an update on the latest work.

In Bold Ventures: Thirteen Tales of Architectural Tragedy (Other Press), author Charlotte Van den Broeck asks some interesting questions: When is a mistake so all-encompassing that an individual feels he or she can’t go on? What is the line between creator and creation? If the art deconstructs, should the artist as well?

MASS MoCA announces Summer 2023 programming including the exhibitions Joseph Grigely: In What Way Wham? (White Noise and Other Works, 1996-2023), on view beginning May 28, Anne Samat: Love, on view beginning June 24, and Elle Pérez: Intimacies, on view beginning July 22

The Velvet Underground & Nico: Scepter Studio Sessions highlights the Velvet Underground and the music from their first recording sessions in April 1966 at Scepter Studios in New York City. The exhibition centers on the original tapes of the nine initial tracks recorded by the band, recently identified while processing Andy Warhol’s archive at The Warhol, which became the bedrock of their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967, Verve Records), one of the most jarring and influential albums in rock music.

Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border between the U.S. and Quebec Province in Canada as a result of a surveying error that occurred before the library was built.  A line on the floor designates the border.  The playwright has deftly used this real-life anomaly as the crucible for the play’s conflicts. After the Muslim Travel Ban of 2017, a kerfuffle arises as a result of a social media posting which suggests that the library is a good crossborder meeting place.  The message is not lost on Muslims, particularly families with members on both sides of the divide.

The Boston Modern Opera project is making its Carnegie Hall debut this weekend (April 15).  Bostonians have had the privilege of hearing and seeing this company for many years.  The program at Carnegie is enticing

Barrington Stage Company announces that Founding Artistic Director Julianne Boyd will be honored with The Berkshire Nonprofit Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, in partnership with The Berkshire Eagle on May 23.