Front Page

Throughout his career, Carl Chiarenza (American, b. 1935) has demonstrated that photographs can provide much more than just documentary evidence. Rather than create straightforward records of the cast-off materials that appear before his camera, Chiarenza photographically transforms them into new and provocative images.

Five new short musicals will mark their world premieres virtually. The shows came out of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's "15-Minute Musical Challenge." The Cleveland-area's Beck Center for the Arts, in collaboration with the Baldwin Wallace University Music Theatre Program, will present the shows.

Wave Theory Records has released the original soundtrack from legendary filmmaker Robert Altman’s 1977 cult avant-garde film 3 Women, starring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. The strikingly dissonant score was written by American composer Gerald Busby,

The Chinese New Year is Friday, February 12, the Year of The Ox.  To those who celebrate, Xinnian Kuaile.

One of the largest, and most comprehensive, collections of 20th-century Mexican art takes over the Albuquerque Museum beginning February 6th.Consisting of more than 150 works— paintings, drawings, photographs, woodcuts, sculpture and publications. This blockbuster exhibition highlights the identity of Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.

The Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, near Orlando, is presenting A Class Act, based on the life of A Chorus Line lyricist Edward Kleban. The touching and funny production runs through Feb. 7. You must wear a mask and practice social distancing in order to attend.

Preparing for live-reopening, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) is sharing its rehearsal process. Arin Arbus, a regular as TFANA, directs. She and John Douglas Thompson have worked together on Otello and Macbeth. Now they take on Shylock and Merchant of Venice.

Georgia has been very much our minds this year and last. The state significantly contributed to the return of Happy Days. The Atlanta Opera Company is offering Love Letters to Atlanta on February 14. Morris Robinson, Jamie Barton and Kevin Burdette.

Boston Lyric Opera has boldly re-adapted Poe’s famous gothic horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher” with music of Philip Glass. It streams on operabox.tv for seven days starting on January 29/

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reopens February 3!.

Though not a play about COVID19, it is a true story of a pandemic expert. An interactive deep dive into the profundities of scientific exploration and the harrowing realities of facing your own mortality, The Catastrophist by Lauren Gunderson is a world premiere theatrical experience built of and for this moment in time. 

Irish Repertory Theatre (IRT) will show all nine of its original digital productions created during the pandemic. The festival starts on Jan. 26 and runs through Feb. 21. The event includes pieces by Brian Friel, James Joyce, Conor McPherson, and Eugene O'Neill. While there is no cost, IRT encourages donations.

In 2015, Michael Conforti retired as director of the Clark Art Institute after some 20 years. The Clark is very different now then what he signed on for. Today, the Clark hosts summer blockbuster shows and is one of the nations foremost research centers. From the beginning, it has had close ties with Williams College where Conforti teaches a graduate course in museum studies. He oversaw the expansion and renovation with architect Tadao Ando. While running the Clark he was on the road and hard to pin down. Now retired, we worked together on an extensive overview of his career, accomplishments, and issues for museums.

Theatre Lab, Florida Atlantic University's professional resident theater company, will offer its new play festival online this year. Miami’s Juggerknot Theatre Company and the international-based PopUP Theatrics offer the chance to travel the world from the comfort of your home. "Travel" to places such as Lagos, Mumbai, Portland-Oregon, Beirut, Los Angeles, and Mexico City.

Make Do is not what many artists are doing in the time of Covid. In the process of coping, they have extended boundaries, created new forms, and looked particularly to visual distribution channels  to show their new work. Chriselle Tidrick is a formidable aerial dancer who has also appeared on stilts at the Metropolitan Opera. Here is the dancer herself on how she came to create "The Limits of Escape."

Still Standing Standing Still, a virtual exhibition by North Adams artist, Galen Cheney, is now on view at Blue Heron Online Gallery. Linking through the site provides a slide show of recent work as well as a studio visit with the artist. Works may be purchased on line.

Mike Kaplan is a producer, documentary director, actor, award-winning poster designer and marketing strategist. He is known for co-producing The Whales of August, (Lilian Gish’s last film.) A Clockwork Orange,  I'll Sleep When I'm Dead,  Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and more. In addition, he is noted for his collection of historic movie posters that have been exhibited in Museums from Los Angeles to Jacob’s Pillow. He is also a songwriter.

Wide Slumber is a taped work presented at the Prototype Festival.  It premiered in Reykjavik in 2014.  Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson adapted a much lauded poem by Canadian a. rawlings. In evocative, erotic and riotous words. rawlings shows us the night zone between sleep and dreams.  Shakespeare dwelt there often – to sleep perchance to dream.  Wide Slumber is a large work.

Sandy Katz, a theatre critic and travel writer from Charleston, Carolina, busted out with charisma and personality. Dubbed “Traveling Sandy” her bags were always packed for any destination.

Southeast Florida's Island City Stage will present the world premiere production of Compensation. The play is about a young woman who becomes a surrogate for a gay couple. The production will open Feb. 5, with two weekends of live performances. A week later, the company will present Compensation virtually.

Undaunted by the constraints of COVID, the Prototype Festival launched its 7th annual event on January 8th. Modulation opened the week of new, streaming works. While the trailer and prologue look like the Hollywood Hills striped with waving geological lines, the three florescent doorways invite entrance to an interior. The inventive work, made up of 13 parts, is divided into three acts, Isolation, Fear and Identity.

Network for New Music gives us a delightful composer portrait of Pulitzer-prize winner Richard Wernick, a native Bostonian. He has studied at Tanglewood, and with Leonard Bernstein. Can you imagine a "Sunken Synagogue" replacing the Ys' cathedral of Debussy?

During the Covid pandemic artists continue to work. Exhibitions, however, have been cancelled. To meet a need Michael McGrath an entrepreneur and designer has created Blue Heron Gallery Online. The Berkshire based site will offer online exhibitions as well as options for a range of services from PDF and print catalogues to promotional and marketing strategies. Visitors to the exhibition have easy access to make "go to cart" purchases. The gallery will launch with an exhibition by Galen Cheney from January 13 through February 12.

The exhibition comprises a mix of both studio paintings as well as self portraits dating to the 80s and 90s.  The studio paintings reflect Schwartz’s long history of using her space as her subject matter.

Thinking Cap Theatre in Southeast Florida is launching a virtual series in which participants will read plays and then discuss them with artists. The first installment, "Race on the American Stage" kicks off this month. Pulitzer Prize-winning Fairview and the multi Tony-nominated Slave Play are among the featured works.