New York Times

On the occasion of the opening of the Linde Family Wing of Contemporary Art we reflect on a troubling history. There has been a struggle going back to the 1930s and the founding of the Institute of Contemporary Art. There has been an awkward relationship between the ICA, MFA and other museums in the area. It is now time for art workers to unite and throw off their chains.

Directed by Susan Vogel (2011, 53 min.). Filmed over three years in Venice, Nsukka, and the United States, this is a powerful portrait of Africa’s most widely acclaimed contemporary artist El Anatsui. Fold Crumple Crush gives an insider’s view of the artist’s practice, the ingenious steps and thousands of hours of labor that convert used bottle tops into huge, opulent wall hangings. Anatsui explains how his artworks have become a marriage of painting and sculpture—objects that speak of African history but also reach for the ethereal—and he talks about his aspirations for artworks he has yet to make.

Fears that ART's Diane Paulus would trash George Gershwin's folk-opera "Porgy and Bess" prove unfounded in vibrant production. Opera or musical theater? Who cares.

With three women in charge, artistic director, Diane Paulus, playwright, Suzan-Lori Parks and music director/ composer Diedre L. Murry this ART production of The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theatre is more about Bess than Porgy. Audra McDonald stars in this revision of an American classic by and for women. Norm Lewis, however, more than holds his own as Porgy and Phillip Boykin as Crown must be seen and heard to be believed. Incredible. This Cambridge smash hit will swarm over Broadway for the Holidays.

When the Tanglewood season was planned surely nobody anticipated the interest and controversy that would be evoked by a concert version of the opera Porgy and Bess (1935) with music by George Gershwin, libretto and lyrics by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin. In one of the most anticipated and controversial theatre events of the season American Repertory Theatre opens its Broadway bound musical version this week

Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director Tony Simotes announces the titles for its 17th annual Studio Festival of Plays—a mini-marathon of plays never before performed at the Company, running one-day only on Monday, September 5th in Founders’ Theatre. Staged readings begin at 11:00 AM, and continue through to 11:00PM. Company actors and special guest actors will present seven productions throughout the day, in the form of works-in-progress and staged readings.

There is no question that the first season of artistic director Jenny Gersten has done well at the box office. In a release WTF announces that its sales for August are double what they were in August last year. Overall they are stating attendance at some 44,000. According to the wildly uneven reviews, however, Williamstown Theatre Company has slipped from its once dominant position among the four major Berkshire theatre companies.

During dialolgues with theatre people it is usual to learn that they do not read reviews of their work. Or if they do well after a production has closed. We asked the playwright Mark St. Germain about that and found a rational and compelling response. While his play The Best of Enemies, which returns to Barrington Stage Company from October 6 to 16, got rave reviews he indicated knowing of them indirectly.

What does it take for the playwright Mark St. Germain to get into the heads of explosive combatants the black activist, Ann Atwater, going head to head with the Klansman. C. P. Ellis. Or to put a screed of racial slurs into the mouth of a young black mediator, Bill Riddick, sent by the federal Department of Education to bring about the integration of schools in Durham in 1971. It is the topic of St. Germain's play, The Best of Enemies which returns to Barrington Stage for its second run from October 5 to 16.

The August run of Mark St. Germain’s new play The Best of Enemies set attendance records for a drama on the Main Stage of Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass. The play returns from October 5 to 16. We met with him to discuss the play, his relationship with Barrington Stage and the craft of a playwright.

The production of Ten Cents a Dance based on a reworking of Rodgers and Hart by John Doyle is provoking a firestorm of controversy. The musical in which five women sing and play instruments with a male piano player is inspiring praise and scorn from audiences and critics. Everyone emerges from Williamstown Theatre Festival with an opinion. Here are links to positive and negative reviews. Don't miss the chance to wade in on this. See it while you can.

Increasingly the marketing and pr strategy of theatre companies has turned to social networking sources like Facebook and Twitter to drown out the negative reviews of established print and on line critics. Today Williamstown Theatre Festival sent out an e mail blast with raves from unattributed sources. The majority of Berkshire theatre critics were less than thrilled by the world premiere of Touch(ed) by Bess Wohl. But, hey, who cares what critics think?

Trisha Brown’s pioneering dance style is a celebrated cornerstone of modern dance. August 10-14, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival salutes the 40th anniversary of the Trisha Brown Dance Company with a commemorative program of works highlighting Brown’s inventive choreographic range.

When Nicholas Martin, after eight years of running the Huntington Theatre in Boston, took a similar position at Williamstown Theatre Festival the renowned festival was widely viewed as not what it had been. From 2008-2010 that state of the art excellence returned to the Berkshires. Under new artistic director, Jenny Gersten, Martin is directing She Stoops to Conquer surrounded by his theatrical family. During a rare day off we discussed his remarkable life in theatre.

At six feet six Tommy Tune, with nine Tony Awards, has cast a long shadow over Broadway. Reflecting on 50 years in show business through, song and dance with anecdotal commentary he will appear at the Colonial Theatre on Thursday, August 11. In an often hilarious dialogue we discussed a challenging life in theatre and dance that started deep in the heart of oh so macho Texas.

Lar Lubovich Dance Compay, which was founded in 1968, appears at Jacob's Pillow from July 20 to 24. The Pillow program includes North Star, a revival from 1978 set to music by Philip Glass, a duet from Meadow (1999), The Legend of Ten (2010), and Coltrane’s Favorite Things (2010), danced to John Coltrane’s version of the classic song “My Favorite Things” from the musical The Sound of Music.

When Rocco Landesman, the head of the NEA, suggested that there are too many arts organizations with supply outweighing demand there was a response of outrage in the arts community. Here in the Berkshires it begs the question of sufficient audience and patrons to support four major theatre companies. It also begs the question of the role of critics? Are we just providers of consumer information for ticket buyers?

The aesthetically hard to pin down master artist Cy Twombly was one of the giants of contemporary art of the last sixty years. His work has been embraced as well as vilified. It is provocative, disturbing and incomprehensible while being somehow brilliant and heroic. Leaving a legacy of art of undefinable and probably irrelevant interpretation, Twombly died in Rome last week. Despite notions to the contrary, he lived half the year in Italy and half the year in his native Virginia.

Our Boston correspondent Barbara Brilliant has tips for what's going on in the city and region. With a preview of Porgy and Bess coming to American Repertory Theatre starring diva Audra McDonald.

The Berkshire International Film Festival announced the winners of the annual BIFF Juried Prize Award and the BIFF Audience Award. In the Juried documentary category, the winner was CRIME AFTER CRIME directed by Yoav Potash, the powerful documentary film on the legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, a woman imprisoned for over a quarter century due to her connection to the murder of the man who abused her.

Now in its sixth year under founder Kelley Vickery, screened at multiple venues the Berkshire International Film Festival, which opened on Thursday June 2 and ran in Great Barrington and Pittsfield closed on Sunday, June 5. Cinematic treats and surprises were in store for the enthusiastic crowds who attended. A film festival may be the second best thing to do in the dark. BIFF seems to get better each year.

Never Stand Still, a new documentary directed by award-winning producer and director Ron Honsa and narrated by Tony Award-winner and Kennedy Center honoree Bill T. Jones will be screened during BIFF on June 4. Never Stand Still is an inspiring film about dance and the extraordinary performers who have dedicated their lives to it; filmed on location at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, a National Historic Landmark and America’s longest running international dance festival.

In a speech during the Creative Communities Exchange at Mass MoCA on May 20, Rocco Landesmann, head of the NEA discussed a new program. "The notion of “artist-citizens,” is what led me to propose $5 million of new funding at the NEA called “Our Town.” It’s called “Our Town,” frankly, because that’s a play, I am a theater guy, and getting to name things is pretty much the only prerogative of being chairman."

Last February NEA head, Rocco Landesmann, dropped a bomb when he applied the need for Darwin's concepts of Survival of the Fittest for the over expanded and under financed theatre community in the face of diminished audiences. During remarks at a lunch that concluded a conference at Mass MoCA he thanked its director, Joe Thompson, for publicly supporting his controversial but insightful position. It provided a lively bookend to the Creative Communities Exchange sponsored by Berkshire Creative and NEFA.

On Saturday, July 16, at 8 PM Buke and Gass will bring their unique blend of hybrid instrumentation, solid songwriting, dazzling effects and unique harmony to MASS MoCA's Courtyard Cafe.