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  • Experiments in Opera Presents Anthony Braxton

    Feisty Opera Company Improvises at The Brick

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 18th, 2023

    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).

  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

    Adams Theatre Benefit's Razom for Ukraine

    By: Adams - Jun 26th, 2023

    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 Adds New Dimensions to Ojai

    A New Silkroad Winds Across a Boundary-less World

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 27th, 2023

    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.

  • To Kill a Mockingbird

    At Bushnell

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 30th, 2023

    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.

  • On Stage This Summer

    From Connecticut to the Berkshires

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jul 05th, 2023

    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.

  • Dutch National Ballet

    World Class Company at Jacob's Pillow

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 18th, 2023

    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.

  • The Coronation of Poppea

    West Edge Opera Right Sizes a Classic

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 24th, 2023

    The narrative is historical only in the broadest sense.  While the plot points actually occurred from AD 58 to AD 65, not only are they condensed into one day, but their order is shifted!  Further, the librettist fancifully changes the character of characters, making some good who were actually bad and vice versa.  Who would have thought of the barbaric and narcissistic Nero as also having room for love and magnanimity?  So, for those who lambaste Hollywood for being fast and loose with the facts, let it be known that it had models to draw on

  • Is it Thursday Yet at La Jolla Playhouse

    Jenn Freeman and Sonya Tayeh Join Forces in Dance and Drama

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Aug 01st, 2023

    "Is it Thursday Yet", playing at the La Jolla Playhouse, tells the story of dancer Jenn Freeman, who was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when she was 33 years old.  Using actual recordings of her therapy sessions and home videos Jenn’s father recorded as she grew up, the play is essentially a documentary of Jenn Freeman’s life from infancy to young adulthood. Neither Jenn nor her family knew she had ASD.  

  • Sorrow, Fear and Stillness

    By: Cheng Tong - Aug 01st, 2023

    Each of us, each of us all, have lost someone or something.  Each of us has faced fear – fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of death.  In the moments of experiencing those fears,  and of the sorrow that can accompany them, they were real.  In some instances, they were debilitating.

  • Blues for an Alabama Sky By Pearl Cleage

    At Barrington Stage Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 06th, 2023

    In his first season as artistic director Alan Paul has selected the 1995 play by Pearl Cleage. Set during the Harlem Renaissance its a good but not great play given a flawed production directed by Candis C. Jones for Barrington Stage Company.

  • Letting Go: Stillness

    By: Cheng Tong - Aug 07th, 2023

    The Law Of The Heart, an ancient scroll, speaks of the Three Treasures:  The Way, The Teacher, and The Scripture. Each plays an important role along the spiritual path we walk.

  • Barrington Stage All Stars

    Julianne Boyd Directs Brian Friel’s Faith Healer

    By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 08th, 2023

    Julianne Boyd, the founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, retired last year. Unburdened by administrative responsibilities, she has been lured back to direct a dark, moody masterpiece, Faith Healer by Brian Friel (1929-2015) the greatest Irish playwright of his Generation. For this triumphant return she cherry picked a dream team trio of Christopher Innvar (Frank), the faith healer, Gretchen Eglof his long abused wife Grace, and Mark Dold as the whimsical roadie Teddy.

  • Tippet Rise Makes Music in Place

    The Montana Ranch Home to Concerts and Sculpture

    By: Susan Hall - Aug 09th, 2023

    Tippet Rise Art Center welcomes musicians and concertgoers for its eighth concert season, beginning August 18 and running through September 17. With more than 15 indoor and outdoor performances planned over five weekends, the season features a wide range of repertoire performed by artists who can be young trailblazers or legendary musicians. A highlight of this summer’s season is the debut of the new Wander series, which moves musicians and audiences between different works of art installed at the art center

  • Living a Daoist Life In Today's World

    Fall Course Offering

    By: Cheng Tong - Aug 14th, 2023

    This fall, beginning after Labor Day, I will be offering a new course entitled "Living a Daoist Life In Today's World."  The course will be 20 classes long and will include study of the Dao de Ching, The Law Of The Heart, and The 49 Barriers To Spiritual Growth.

  • Complexions Contemporary Ballet, at Jacob’s Pillow

    A Most Powerful Ballet Company

    By: Astrid Hiemer - Aug 15th, 2023

    Perhaps, it’s not accidental that 'Complexions' followed the 'Hip Hop Festival.'The performance started with an excerpt of 'Hissy Fits, 2006,' to ongoing very loud percussion, sounding like drum beats to, as per program, J.S. Bach music. And the music mostly continued at a high decimal, just like hip hop.

  • Here You Come Again

    Goodspeed’s Terris Theater in Chester

    By: Karen Isaacs - Aug 19th, 2023

    Entering Goodspeed’s Terris Theater in Chester to see Here You Come Again, you view a cluttered living space with decorations for multiple holidays, a disco ball, things hanging from the ceiling, etc. Is this a hoarding situation?

  • Here Lies Love on Broadway

    Concept, Music, and Lyrics by David Byrne

    By: Karen Isaacs - Aug 22nd, 2023

    Once the show actually began, I was engaged.  While it is just making its Broadway debut, Here Lies Love, with concept, music, and lyrics by David Byrne, music by Fatboy Slim, and additional music by Tom Gandey and Jose Luis Pardo, began as a concept album in 2010. From there, it ran at off-Broadway’s Public Theater (2013, 2014-15) and London (2014-15), both times garnering multiple awards.

  • Compagnie Käfig at Jacob’s Pillow

    Final Company in Residence, 2023 Season

    By: Astrid Hiemer - Aug 29th, 2023

    For PIXEL, by Compagnie Käfig, today based near Lyon, France, ten male Hip Hop dancers, French style, a woman contortionist, a roller-skater, small robots carrying tiny lights, and a huge metal hoop shared and interacted on stage with highly sophisticated projections, music, and sounds.

  • Adam Tendler and Cage at the Crypt

    Andrew Ousley's Death Defying Death of Classical

    By: Susan Hall - Sep 08th, 2023

    Leave it to the brilliant impresario Andrew Ousley and his music series, Death of Classical,  to bring us an incredible and surprising evening of John Cage music. Before Cage moved on to the concepts of indeterminacy and chance, he composed more conventionally arced works for the prepared piano, in which screws were systematically and specifically applied to some strings in a grand piano, Cage clearly began in one place and ended up in another.  Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano is a deliberate whole. 

  • Crowns

    An Uplifting Celebration of African-American Women and Hats They Wear To Church

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 14th, 2023

    Hats are an integral part of the African-American woman's church attendance. Playwright Regina Taylor celebrates not only hats but the women that wear them - their fortitude, their triumphs, and their tragedies. Animated vignettes and a gospel dominated song book provide for a rousing entertainment.

  • Ellen Shattuck Pierce Taking Place

    Boston's Hall Space

    By: Hall Space - Sep 15th, 2023

    Hall Space presents Ellen Shattuck PIerce "Taking Place." It's a lively exhibition of relief and hand colored laser prints.

  • The Addams Family

    A Fun Look At The Ghoulish Family

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 16th, 2023

    Horrors! Guess who's coming to dinner. Gomez and Morticia's daughter Wednesday has fallen in love and wants to marry a "normal" young man. She has even invited him and his family over for a meal. What can be done to stop such a fearsome turn of events?

  • Bald Sisters

    A Clash of Cultural and Family Values.

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 19th, 2023

    One Cambodian-American sister has married a Christian pastor and has remained in Dallas, where the mother had resettled the family. The younger sister had moved to New York City, rejecting some of the family's values, but reconnecting with Buddhism. When their mother dies, the sisters face conflicts that extend well beyond dealing with death rites.

  • Dopplegangers at the Park Avenue Armory

    Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch Double Our Pleasure

    By: Susan Hall - Sep 28th, 2023

    I like to attend an event without reading the build-up. This gives me a chance to respond viscerally. Every event at the Park Avenue Armory is tasteful. Pierre Audi, the artistic director, provides this. He is unique in New York.

  • Glow Ocean, at Future Lab(s) Gallery, North Adams, MA

    And NO KINGS DAY, both March 28

    By: Astrid Hiemer - Mar 26th, 2026

    The Future Lab (s) Gallery, 43 Eagle Street, in North Adams, Massachusetts, is currently inviting to the closing event of their 'Glow Ocean' exhibition on Friday, March 27, from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will be open one final time on Saturday, 3/28, from 1-3 p.m, so that protesters from North Adams and other visitors can still experience this immersive glow show. The 3rd NO KINGS DAY! is happening in all 50 Sates of the USA on Saturday, March 28, 2026

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