New York Times

Dzul Dance will present a new work Danzon to launch their new season. The performance will take place at Chelsea Morrison Theater (at Millbrook School), School Road, Millbrook, New York, 12545 on Saturday, November 6 at 8:00 PM,

The Met Live in HD series continues with Boris Godunov on Saturday, October 23 at noon. It will be shown in the Berkshires at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Beacon Cinema, in Pittsfield, and at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. The new production opened with rave reviews on October 11.

When the Boston Expressionist Hyman Bloom (March 29, 1913 to August 26, 2009) passed away none of his works were on view in the major New England museums. Bloom, his partner Jack Levine, and Karl Zerbe were the leaders of what is regarded as the most significant and influential movement of artists in Boston during the 20th century. Their neglect has been a scandal for Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. We are informed that a work by Bloom will be hung in the new wing of the MFA which opens in November. It remains to be seen how the museum will treat Levine and Zerbe. The MFA owns a minor work by the still living Levine which it acquired through the WPA.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance, international arts presenter and home of America’s longest-running dance festival, now offers a curated online selection of informative and entertaining PillowTalks. Based in Becket, Mass., Jacob’s Pillow hosts more than 160 free pre-show talks, post-show interviews, and hour-long PillowTalks during its annual Festival. PillowTalks are a series of hour-long moderated discussions with choreographers, performers, historians, filmmakers, and experts in the arts and related fields.

In the exercise of power, influence and ego art critics often like to make or break individuals and movements. The combative stances perpetuate the notion of artists as warriors. High art is depicted as a clash of the titans. The great artists are simply the last ones standing.

In 1969, while a sophomore at Williams College Steve Lawson worked that summer for the then young Williamstown Theatre Festival. From a base in Williamstown he divides his time in New York and LA keeping up on theatre and film. He is the Executive Director of the Williamstown Film Festival which will have its 12th season from October 15 through 24. Over two weekends the festival will screen 33 films.

Boston correspondent Barbara Brilliant offers a selection of highlights of arts and entertainment for October. We are moving into high season with many options for audiences.

Coming off the heels of its most successful summer season to date, Shakespeare & Company celebrates its Fall Gala with a very special one-of-a-kind performance of the famed Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding on Saturday, October 9th beginning at 5:00pm. The Fall Gala while honoring Artistic Director Tony Simotes and Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer will also benefit the Company’s thriving Education Program.

The Massachuetts Institute of Techology offers a great range of arts events many of which are free to the general public. We have the complete breakdown of the dense October calendar.

In addition to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, in Great Barrington, the enormously popular Met Live in HD series of broadcasts has now been expanded to the Northern Berkshire Audience. The series, which is sure to sell out, as it has at the Mahaiwe for the past two seasons, will start on October 9 with Wagner's Das Rheingold.

Recently Ben Brantley of the New York Times posted a rave review of John Douglas Thompson as Richard III in a production at Shakespeare & Company. There are now only a few performances left of this summer long event. We engaged with Thompson is an extended dialogue about his radical interpretation of Richard III.

Now that she has stepped down as founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company Tina Packer is finally able to focus on her own career as an actress. She has brought to fruition a project that has absorbed her for decades. Over three days she presented five acts totaling some 15 hours on stage with her partner Nigel Gore.

As the summer season of 2010 winds down it is time yet again to swing in the Wood. The a nnual Tanglewood Jazz Festival returns to Lenox for he last hurrah of summer on September 4 and 5. Get a groove on before heading back to school and work.

ICA/Boston Callithumpian Consort performs British composer Gavin Bryars's The Sinking of the Titanic. Audiences become passengers in a metaphor for our Post Crash Era.

As summer winds down it is exciting to anticipate the launch of the fall arts season. Our Boston correspondent and tipster is marking her calendar. Here are some suggestions and where to find them.

This eclectic concert at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, on July 23, is an entertaining and introspective look at the songs that inspired Maureen McGovern before her Academy Award-winning hit “The Morning After.” Her repertoire includes selections of iconoclastic singer-songwriter material including “The Circle Game,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress,” “Imagine,” “Fire and Rain” and many others.

A U.S. premiere from Thailand arrives at Jacob’s Pillow July 14-18 in the Doris Duke Theatre. In the full-length work Chui Chai (Transformation), internationally acclaimed performer and choreographer Pichet Klunchun entwines khon, a form of traditional Thai masked dance drama, with contemporary movement. Intricate costumes and masks and music by Sinnapa Sarasas create a world of ancient beauty and drama that Klunchun juxtaposes with elements of modernity

An all-star troupe of Shakespeare & Company talent comes together this summer for an unforgettable rendering of Shakespeare’s gripping Richard III. In the whirligig of its ambitious plots, the beauty of its language, and the chilling magnetism of its haunting central figure, Richard III has proved an irresistible lure for over 400 years. This indelible interpretation, featuring OBIE and L ucille L ortel Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson (title role in Othello 2008 & 2009), was conceived by Artistic Director Tony Simotes and directed by Jonathan Croy with assistance from Malcolm Ingram. Richard III runs July 2 through September 5,

The second annual Boston Book Festival will take place on Oct. 16, 2010, in various locations around Copley Square. A complete rundown of scheduled events.

The work I am doing now has everything to do with those early interactions between my hands, my being, and the exterior world. My hands and thoughts have been the bridge between the worlds, even the fact that I still prefer to write on this white page with a soft lead pencil is evidence of the same basic tendency. Whenever I was sick, lying in bed with the Book of Knowledge encyclopedia spread about me, cutting paper into smaller pieces and stapling them together to make small books into which I would transcribe drawings of monkeys, etc. Hours spent happily reading or making art are still primary pleasures for me.

Lester Johnson, who died recently at 91, was one of the leading artists of the Figurative Expressionist movement which developed in the 1950s and early 1960s. Much of this activity occurred at the Sun Gallery in Provincetown as well as in New York. The two other primary artists were Jan Muller who died in 1958 and Bob Thompson who was 29 when he died in 1966. Although there was no direct connection Figurative Expressionism saw related developments in San Francisco and Chicago. The movement was pushed aside with the emergence of Pop art then reformulated as Rhino Horn from 1967 to 1978.

The genesis of Rosanne Cash’s new album The List dates back to a day in 1973 when Cash’s father, the incomparable Johnny Cash, discovered some gaps in her knowledge of American roots music. He spent the rest of the day making a list on a legal pad, and at the top he put “100 Essential Country Songs” handed it to her and said, “This is your education.” She will perform this material at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on June 29.

The Fall/ Winter schedule for Shakespeare & Company will includeThe Real Inspector Hound , The Annual Fall Gala , As You L ike It , The Fall Festival of Shakespeare , The Santaland Diaries , The Mystery of Irma Vep , Shakespeare and the L anguage that Shaped a World , and rounding out the season , Hamlet (The Company’s New England Tour of Shakespeare) will come home for a limited run.

Jacob’s Pillow kicks off Festival 2010 on June 19 with the Season Opening Gala, the world-renowned dance organization’s biggest annual fundraising event. Following an exclusive Gala performance in the Ted Shawn Theatre and the presentation of the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award to choreographer and director Bill T. Jones, guests are treated to dinner and dancing to live music. This evening is widely celebrated as a signature summer event in the Berkshires and attracts a multitude of dance lovers, celebrities, government dignitaries, and visitors from around the world every year.

Mahler is an unseen but fully-present character in Mengelberg and Mahler. He is Mengelberg’s cherished friend, his inspiration, his conscience, and ultimately his spiritual salvation. Mahler’s musicâ€"parts of his 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th Symphonies, plus "Wenn dein Mütterlein" from the Kindertotenliederâ€"is a full partner in this production. These musical portions do much more than set the scene: they are essential to Mengelberg’s understanding of his own life.