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The artist Martin Mugar has posted a number of provocactive think pieces to this site. His self published book Drawing and Painting provides lesson plans for progressive faculty and students. It distills what he learned earning an MFA degree at Yale followed by decades of teaching. Like all of his writing the book is challengings and insightful.

Inside common experiences, one financial and the other political, are revealed in a broad slapstick comedy, Quiet Enjoyment and Duck, darkly humorous explorations of Snowden's dilemma and ours.

Repertorio Espanol Presents The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao based on the novel by Junot Diaz. It is written and directed by Marco Antonio Rodriquez. The Pulitzer winning novel (2008) creates a painfully socially dysfunctional character. A young Dominican man armors himself within the world of sci-fi fantasy in order to weather the difficult process of assimilation. The story is as much a tale of one man's unbearable loneliness as it is a metaphor for the scars and trauma of ruthless dictatorial oppression, social fragmentation, ultimate immigration and assimilation.

This fictional account tells of the life of the real Afong Moy, who in 1834 at age 14, became the first Chinese female to step foot in the United States. Unique to her era, only in the 20th century did Chinese women begin to trickle into this country. The Chinese Lady is a two person play by Lloyd Suh.

In The Crypt, composer and performing artists collaborate. Selections of a talented impresario invite artists and audience to enter special moments together. Sounds reverberate from stone as candles cast warm light. Moments nourish the soul to spread and re-capture the precious environment for which composer John Luther Adams has always fought. Adams now focuses on the power of music to transform. In the bows and string of the Jack Quartet, it does.

Falling is a touching, honest look at a family caring for an autistic young man. New City Players' production presents a master class is naturalistic acting. The production runs through Sunday.

James Aponovich is on the short list of leading American realist painters. He is having a stunning exhibition of new work at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Nabucco evidences the Verdi sound and style associated with the masterpieces of his rich middle period. The music is melodious throughout, with demanding arias and complex ensembles, though none are among his more memorable. However, the overture, which includes many of the opera’s themes, captivates and is often performed on its own in concert halls.

“The Clark’s upcoming summer season is an ambitious program highlighting new discoveries and new initiatives,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “We are truly energized by the opportunity to activate our entire campus by sharing exhibitions that will introduce our visitors—and the world—to artists whose work is vibrant, dynamic, and inspiring. This summer’s programs span more than one hundred years of artistic practice and explore a rich array of themes through both historic and contemporary lenses.”

In recognition and celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Jazz Studies department and the Jazz Studies program, New England Conservatory is hosting Jazz50, a year-long series of concerts and events.

Super diva Barbara Hannigan and the Jack Quartet with Sae Hashimoto on vibraphone performed the music of John Zorn in the Veterans Room of the Park Avenue Armory. Hannigan had selected this room because she wanted the audience to have an intimate experience. We heard her daring and beautiful take on Zorn’s Jumalattaret, which was even more bold and beautiful than its US premiere in Ojai last June.

New Production of Les Miserables immerses us in the dark, yet hopeful tale of redemption and the capacity for change. An equity U.S. touring production is docked in the Sunshine State. Jean Valjean is unrecognizable following his transformation, thanks to deft acting by Nick Cartell

“I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.”– Harold Pinter, taken from his 2005 Nobel Prize Lecture

Palm Beach Dramaworks presents a shattering 'Streetcar.' Actors, design team shine in South Florida nonprofit, professional theater company's vivid mounting of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece.

San Francisco Opera’s new production of Marriage of Figaro retains the time frame of the original (late 18th century) but moves the action from Spain to post-Revolutionary America. The shift in venue carries no significance for this opera.

Jason Hardink will perform at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on October 20. This is an unusual concert celebrating the centennial anniversary of the premiere of Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra announces Tanglewood’s first-ever fall/winter/spring schedule of performances and activities to take place on the grounds of the famed music festival, October 2019 through June 2020.

Having reuturned from a monestary in China the North Adams based monk and teacher Michael McGrath resumes his writing. He says in part that " For the Daoist, the Longevity Practice is for the purpose of cultivating stillness. In stillness, we become fully aware of the present moment, and that awareness brings clarity."

Barrington Stage Company has announced three productions for its upcoming 2020 season – the musical masterpiece South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan and The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, and Anna in the Tropics, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Nilo Cruz, on the St. Germain Stage.

Actor shines as Wiesenthal in GableStage production of one-character play. Tom Dugan's piece is laser focused, touching and funny. The play centers on the end of the humanitarian's "career" bringing former Nazis to justice.

Laurie Anderson curated the New York Philharmonic NightCap at the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse on October 5. This nightclub event followed a performance of Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique in David Geffen Hall. The host, Nadia Sirota, pointed out that connection between Berlioz’ and Anderson’s work. Both use narrative but that by Anderson and her friends tests the boundaries of sound.

LeKae, a black woman, plays the white boy Huck, and the viewer happily suspends disbelief, as she thoroughly convinces playing the role of the youth as he breaks away from the constraints of convention. They reproduce the escape from the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, rafting down the Mississippi, wide-eyed and reveling in the beauty of the world and of freedom.

As the final production of the 25th season, artistic director, Julianne Boyd, is directing the world premiere of a timely social justice play American Underground by Brent Askari. It postulates a future when all American Muslims are treated as enemies of the state.

Seeing Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce on stage together in The Height of the Storm by Florian Zeller is watching master craftsmen work. I wouldn’t care what the play was about; I want to marvel at their skills.

Joshua Gelb and Nehemiah Luckett do more than put on a good show. They ask us to look within the iconography and stereotypes of The Jazz Singer as props for the American story. The Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Art Center is the quintessential stage for this piece. A theatrical venue that reforms and reshapes itself to respond to an ever changing neighborhood demographic it is both old and new. The old playhouse in which the play was performed was built in 1915. It stands a block away from the historic Bialystoker Synagogue which opened in 1905 in a building originally built in 1826. The building was reputedly a stop on the underground railroad.