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Art of Puerto Vallarta
Sculpture Walk on the Malecón
By: - Jun 24th, 2015Puerto Vallarta’s spectacular curving esplanade known as the Malecón is the place for a relaxing stroll any time of the day, but Tuesday mornings hold a special attraction – a free guided walk of the dramatic monumental bronze and stone sculptures that punctuate this broad, exclusively pedestrian, seaside promenade.
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De Leon Springs State Park
Florida's Fountain of Youth
By: - Jun 24th, 2015De Leon Springs was first occupied as early as 8000 BCE by local Native American tribes. In the 16th century, Spanish forces passed through (perhaps including Explorer Juan Ponce de León, whom history links to the fabled Fountain of Youth). The area came under American ownership after Florida became a territory in 1821.
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Tanglewood This Week
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Huey Lewis, Mark Morris and More
By: - Jun 24th, 2015For under $100 you can purchase lawn tickets and see four popular artists at Tanglewood.
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Moby Dick at Lookingglass
New Production Adapted from Melville's Novel
By: - Jun 23rd, 2015Lookingglass's black box theater in the old Water Works on Michigan Avenue in Chicago becomes the interior of a great whale with steel hoops extending from stage rear to the top of the theater.
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Kerouac
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Tarzan
Swingers in the Berkshires
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015A reunion this summer in the Berkshire church that Ray and Alice made famous. This time though I won't be swinging on the rope. Planning to keep both feet on the ground.
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Hook
Abstract Art
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015Cracking the code of complex concepts for most people it helps to have a humanizing hook. What is the anecdote and eureka moment that allows us to connect with daunting aesthetics and technologies? It is the sizzle which enhances the flavor of the steak.
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Conor McPherson's Shining City at Barrington Stage
Irish Drama Features Mark H. Dold as Priest Turned Therapist
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015The title Shining City is a Bliblical reference that "A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." But there is much that is obscure and repressed in this drama by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson.
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Petrenko to Berlin Philharmonic
Boston Breathes a Sigh of Relief
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015Andris Nelsons' name has whirled in the air around Berlin. He succeeded Sir Simon Rattle at Birmingham and it is Rattle who is stepping down in Berlin. Nelsons was a natural choice. The orchestra made its announcement today: Kirill Petrenko is their man. Recently he has triumphed at the Munich Opera where we heard his wonderful Lulu.
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Sheryl Crow Rocks Tanglewood
If It Makes You Happy
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015The Tanglewood 2015 season opened with Sheryl Crow backed by Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.
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Season Finale: Schubert and Beethoven Trios
Year-End Wrap up at the Rosen Salon
By: - Jun 21st, 2015Music salons at Joseph and Christina Rosen's are a treat. Over the course of a season, you can hear up and coming pianists, singers, and contemporary composers. The warhorses of music sound fresh and inviting. Only one of the pleasures of an evening is hearing Joe Rosen perform on the clarinet.
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Thoreau or, Return to Walden
David Adkins Bonkers in the Woods
By: - Jun 21st, 2015If you have read Walden and think you know Henry David Thoreau guess again. The world premiere Thoreau or Return to Walden written by and starring David Adkins, directed by Eric Hill presents the New England transcendentalist and abolitionist as an eccentric just short of lunacy.
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Heisenberg with Mary Louise Parker
Simon Stephens Brings Quantum Entanglement to Life
By: - Jun 20th, 2015Heisenberg is a dashing new play by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog, a hit on Broadway. His new play is more complete and satisfying, although its subject might disturb people who need predictability and order. Certainly Mary Louise Parker doesn't, as she loosey-goosey's through her life. Don't be put off by hints of quantum physics in the title. The play is uproarious and the best take on a May-December romance you'll see. It begins with a kiss, passes through the usual, and ends with indeterminacy.
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Son of a Beach
Screw Skull and Bones
By: - Jun 19th, 2015Time was when parents bragged about their kids getting into Ivy League Schools then on to law, medicine or an MBA. Not anymore.
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Monteverdi Trilogy Heads to the Berkshires
Early Music Festival Travels to Great Barrington
By: - Jun 18th, 2015Every two years the Boston Early Music Festival schedules a week of concerts and operas that make Boston the world capital of early music. This year's focus was on Claudio Monteverdi, the first great opera composer. All three of his surviving operas were given stylish productions and featured some of the best singers of early music in the world. Taken from Greek myth and ancient Roman history, the stories resonate with the lives we live today.
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Basment Tapes
Tales from the Crypt of the MFA
By: - Jun 16th, 2015During my recent book launch at The Mount my friend private art dealer Jim Jacobs regaled playwright Mark St. Germain with stories of our time together as interns in the Museum of Fine Arts back in the 1960s. At Mark's suggestion this has now inspired a suite of poems gathered as The Basement Tapes. It is my first attempt to create an extended work an idea which previously was suggested by my poet friend and mentor Stephen Rifkin
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ICA Boston to Survey Black Mountain College
Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957
By: - Jun 16th, 2015When the rise of the Third Reich led to closing the Bauhaus in 1933 the architect Walter Gropius and his wife the weaver. artist Anni regrouped in rural North Carolina to establish a small experimental outpost for advanced art and design Black Mountain College. The faculty and students were intended to build their dorms and studios as well as grow their food and raise livestock. Never having a solid endowment the experiment ended in 1957. Gropius went on to Harvard and the rest of the faculty scattered. The impact on post war American arts was indelible. Organized by former curator Helen Molesworth this promises to be one of the most ambitious and informative exhibitions of the fall season. It will be on view in Boston Oct. 10, 2015 to Jan. 24, 2016 and then travel to LA and Columbus, Ohio.
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New Country at Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC
Intimate Show Makes a Big Noise
By: - Jun 16th, 2015The good news is that the edgy. enticing New Country, due to popular demand, has been extended to June 27 at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. It is good enough to see twice. This is the kind of show that comes along every once in awhile. Presented by Fair Trade Productions in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and written by Mark Roberts this is a must see production.
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Man of La Mancha Thrills at Barrington Stage
Jeff McCarthy in a Career Defining Performance
By: - Jun 15th, 2015When Jeff McCarthy brings down the house with an iconic barnburner The Impossible Dream it is richly evident that the fifty-year-old musical Man of La Mancha still packs a whallop that can blow the socks off of an audience. This Barrington Stage production that launches the Mainstage of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield is the benchmark hit of the still new 2015 Berkshire theatre season. It is doubtful that any actor will match or surpass his performance as the male lead in a musical.
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Gilbert Conducts Joan of Arc at the Stake
Marion Cotilliard Simply Magnificent as Joan
By: - Jun 13th, 2015The North American continent does not have military heroines. A 17th century Mexican nun, Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, was censored for her apostatic writings, but never picked up a sword. Without queens and saints, we have struggled into modern times. For comfort when France was challenged, as it often has been in history, the country looks to its patron saint, Joan of Arc, who helped end the Hundred Years War before she was burned at the stake. The New York Philharmonic reminded us of her trials in the ineffably moving composition of Paul Claudel and Arthur Honegger.
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Francesco Clemente's Encampment at Mass MoCA
With Jim Shaw to January, 2016
By: - Jun 13th, 2015During the Pluralism of the 1980s the Italian born artist Francesco Clemente was a part of the neo expressionist movement. Having recently reinvented himself the artist who lives in New York and India had a series of glitzy decoratve tents fabricated by artisans. The artist has painted the interiors with provocative, fluid, naive narratives. This imajor installtion in Mass MoCA's vast Building Five has been paired with the cartoon inspired, theatrical scaled paintings of the populist artist./ musician conceptualist Jim Shaw. The work is obviously fun and accessible but skates on thin ice.
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Harold Pinter's Betrayal
The North Coast Repertory Theatre to June 28
By: - Jun 13th, 2015The North Coast Repertory Theatre’s potent production of marriage infidelity and betrayal is full of clever directorial touches, like the timing of Pinteresque pauses and the overall pacing between the excellent ensemble cast of Carla Harting, Jeffrey Frace, and Richard Baird, with Benjamin Cole contributing as a pompous and frustrated European waiter.
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The Mount
Booklaunch at Edith Wharton's Berkshire Home
By: - Jun 10th, 2015On a perfect June evening a booklaunch, my first, on the terrace of Edith Wharton's The Mount in Lenox. Witty exchanges with director Susan Wissler. Reading Gonzo poems from Shards of Life. Elegant gathering with Berkshire friends and neighbors, artists, writers and citizens of the world. Superb food and fine wine. Guests exploring the formal gardens. Signed a ton of books.
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Branding Chicago
The Art and Design of Promoting South Side Products
By: - Jun 10th, 2015Valmor Products’ advertising and packaging is the subject of a funny, provocative and eye-opening exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. Love for Sale: The Graphic Art of Valmor Products runs until August 2 in the 4th floor north exhibit hall, just across from the not-to-be-missed exhibit of the paintings of Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist.
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Joan of Arc, Patron Saint of France by Marion Cotilliard
Honegger, Claudel and Alan Gilbert Join Forces
By: - Jun 09th, 2015On June 10, 2015, Alan Gilbert will present Honegger's most famous composition, Joan or Arc at the stake. Modestly, Honegger said he only followed the inspiration of his librettist Paul Claudel. Their collaboration was inspired. Gilbert discussed the dramatic oratorio with Come de Bellescize, the stage director, and Pierre Vallet, who assisted Seiji Ozawa with his production of the oratorio.
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