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During a year of Covid disruption our theater correspondent, Nancy S. Bishop, has taken time to publish a book of essays. She describes growing up a Cubs fan while pursuing the literary life. Some years ago she went bonkers over Bruce Springsteen. Often with her nephew, she has attended more than 30 concerts. The range of her interests and insights is formidable. Hop on and enjoy the ride for a tour of the Windy City and its arts.

During this holiday season if you can't get to the Nutcracker it will come to you. The San Francisco Ballet will stream the Sugarplum Fairies to your very own livingroom. Plan on great family entertainment.

My hot water tank blew last week.  I went to bed on Friday after a hot shower, and woke up Saturday morning with only cold water. A new hot water tank was installed on Tuesday, and order was restored.  Four days of dishes and pans got washed, as did I.  No big deal.

Palm Beach Dramaworks' third annual New Year/New Plays Festival will take place via Zoom. This year, the South Florida theater company's annual event will last five days, instead of the usual three. Audiences assist in the process of writing new plays by offering feedback.

New York theatre curators Valeria Orani and Frank Hentschker will host the Third Edition of the Italian & American Playwrights Project (IAPP) on Monday, December 14, 2020, 4:30 pm live on US Non-Profit Digital Theatre Platform www.HowlRound.com. 

Recently the Doris Duke Theatre of Jacob's Pillow was lost in a fire on November 17. You can help to rebuild this landmark of American dance in the Berkshires.

The artist Andy Warhol focused on making "underground movies" from 1963 to 1987. Drawing on his entourage they were primarily shot in his studio known as "The Factory." As art they were deadpan and amateurish. The "actors" were primarily drama queens with no professional training. Andy turned on the camera and let them be themselves. In so doing he captured the flavor and essence of an era. While often enervating to sit through the films offer insidious insights of what was cool and camp during an era of great invention and energy.

James T. Demetrion, the second and longest-serving director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1984–2001) and director of the Des Moines Art Center (1969–1984) and Pasadena Art Museum (1964–1966), died Nov. 29. Demetrion had celebrated his 90th birthday in July.

South Florida's MNM Theatre Company is streaming the musical revue 'Closer Than Ever' through Dec. 31. Director Jonathan Van Dyke has found a creative way to make the actors look like they're close to each other on screen. 'Closer Than Ever' is a riveting, sung-thru song cycle.

Not until actress Jessica Sherr penned her one woman show, Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies, has anybody dared to give us a wildly exciting, action-packed recounting of Bette Davis’ life as a young aspiring actress hellbent on becoming a star. 

 Barrington Stage Company (BSC), announces the 2020 Associate Artists – lighting designer David Lander, director/choreographer Jeffrey Page and actress Alysha Umphress.

Now elderly, infirm, and living in Provincetown, Alice Brock, the famed proprietor of Alice’s Restaurant in the Berkshires, has always helped others. Her restaurants were staffed with friends and neighbors. She was always a soft touch for a free meal, job, or handout. Today it’s Alice, afflicted with ailments, who needs a helping hand.

South Miami-based Area Stage Company is presenting a new, original musical as an online radio series. The Ballad of Janis Matthews & The Dodo Scouts takes place in Colorado during the 1960's. Area Stage will present the musical as a four-part radio series. The musical's live world premiere is scheduled for Summer 2021.

Fred Taylor breathes life into this narrative, literally having a conversation with you, including many hilarious anecdotes, home-spun punch lines but also always making you feel like you were re-living the moment with him. The Taylor bio has been written by jazz historian Richard Vacca.

In a year like no other, we're as grateful as ever for you, our art-loving community near and far. Thank you for your continued support, words of encouragement, and mask-covered smiles — we wouldn't be here without you. 

Boston Lyric Opera, ever on the lookout for startling innovations that work, has hired Darrah to produce a stop motion feature-length animated version of Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

Boston Lyric Opera, ever on the lookout for startling innovations that work, has hired Darrah to produce a stop motion feature-length animated version of Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

Edward Smaldone is a contemporary composer of classical music. His distinctive textures include unusual combinations of instruments, odd beats, counterpoint and rich harmonics. These elements blend but do not merge. Rough edges combined with smooth melodic lines are ear catching. Lines often stretch wide and giant leaps leave gaping spaces between notes.  

The son of famed artist Allan Houser, Haozous has drawn inspiration from his Apache culture, Indigenous and world art, and from his father’s artworks. “I’ve wanted to make this statement for many years,” said Haozous, artist and Executive Director of the Allan Houser Foundation.

Hancock Shaker Village felt like a home-away-from-home this year. In a year when we are counting our heroes, the Village has had many.

“The Last Vermeer”, a TriStar Pictures film based on the book “The Man Who Made Vermeers” by Jonathan Lopez, opened in over 800 ‘live’ theatres on November 20, 2020; centers around one such court case and trial reparation event in the Netherlands in 1945. 

Count on Bard to bring us unexpected, deserving programs concert after concert.  Henri Tomasi’s Fanfares Liturgigues opened this program.  The fanfares were conceived as part of Tomasi’s opera Don Juan de Manara. They premiered as a stand alone a decade before the opera opened in Munich. What a splendid work.

Barrington Stage Company will present a free virtual reading of The Supadupa Kid 2: Move, the action/superhero book by Pittsfield-based author Ty Allan Jackson. The reading will feature a cast of local youth and parents from the Berkshires and NY State Capital Region. Julianne Boyd will direct the reading, which will begin streaming free on December 3. 

Kev Berry is an award-winning playwright and a superb monologist.  In Harsh Cacophonies I and II,, he is directed by his usual collaborator, Alex Tobey. The monologue was created in three separate pieces, which can be performed as stand alones.  The three are joined for this production and work well together.  Two hours fly by, in part because Berry is in a manic state. His speech and stories are always clear, but often rush.  This locates us in the urgent terrain from which his stories grow.

The Clark Art Institute’s popular First Sundays Free program continues on Sunday, December 6, with a day celebrating music. Admission to the galleries is free all day.