Washington Post

The Mount in Lenox announces its schedule of events for the 2016 season.

Highlights of Jacob's Pillow Festival 2016 include a world premiere engagement created by tap dance powerhouses Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Derick K. Grant, and Jason Samuels Smith; former New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan and choreographer Brian Brooks in an evening of new duets and solos, accompanied by eminent string quartet Brooklyn Rider; rare U.S. appearances by France-based Compagnie Hervé KOUBI and Korea-based contemporary ensemble Bereishit Dance Company; the explosive Che Malambo of Argentina; and the return of the beloved Seattle-based company Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Mass MoCA a kunsthalle or non collecting museum established a new paradigm when it opened 25-year-long, large scale installations of works by Sol LeWitt and Anselm Kiefer. Now six more A list artists are planned including space for multi media performance artist Laurie Anderson. During the recent media event to announce these ambitious projects we spoke with Anderson about her ongoing relationship with MoCA and the Berkshires.

Yesterday's lively press conference at Mass MoCA, announcing the $54.4 million Confluence Campaign, was preempted by a news leak of an embargoed press release by Geoff Edgers of the Washington Post. While that story provided a tantalizing overview the press conference covered many of the complex and exciting details. This updates our prior reports with more to follow.

On November 17 Mass MoCA announces plans for the renovation and programming of 130,000 square feet of industrial space as the final phase of development for its North Adams campus. Planned to open in 2016 the museum must match a state grant for $25.4 million. Works from the estates of Robert Rauchenberg and Louise Bourgeoise will be on view in addition to installations by Laurie Anderson, Jenny Holzer, James Turrell and Gunnar Schoenbeck.

CATF has been invited to transfer its world premiere production of Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons to New York City’s Off-Broadway venue 59E59 Theaters. Hailed as the Festival’s “most satisfying offering” by The Washington Post, Uncanny Valley will be presented by CATF for a four-week run beginning on October 2.

Dance Theatre of Harlem, led by Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, performs Donald Byrd’s smooth yet power-packed contemporary ballet Contested Space, which features a plethora of solos and duets. past-carry-forward, created for DTH by Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis, conveys the spirit and significance of the Harlem Renaissance.

Last night at the 38th Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky San Francisco based playwright Lauren Gunderson was honored for her play “I and You." Coinciding with the prestigious Humana Festival it was the annual conference meeting of the American Theatre Critics which juries the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.

"For our 86th Summer Season, we are producing a full schedule of musicals, plays, and special theatrical performances for another wonderful summer in the Berkshires with a splendid cast and crew of talented artists from across the nation,” said Kate Maguire. "Six extraordinary plays: The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful, Benefactors, Design for Living, A Hatful of Rain, including two world premieres: Cedars and POE and two wonderful musicals: A Little Night Musicand Seussical highlight our schedule and make for an enjoyable mix of masterful and provocative classics and contemporary works. A special week-long performance of A Lover's Talespotlighting the works of Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Ludlam and Alexandre Dumas and performances by our summer apprentices, our 86th season will be memorable and entertaining for all.”

A masterpiece of American Theatre, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman will be performed by Boston's The Lyric Stage from February 14 through March 15. The production with be directed by company founder Spiro Veloudos. Ken Baltin with appear in the lead role as Willy Loman accompanied by Paula Plum as his wife Linda.

The 82nd Festival season will feature more than 52 companies performing on three stages: the historic Ted Shawn Theatre; the intimate Doris Duke Theatre; and the open-air Henry J. Leir Stage, home to the Pillow’s free Inside/Out Performance Series, which served more than 21,000 community members last season. More than 350 free and ticketed dance performances, talks, tours, exhibits, films, classes, and community events will be offered June 14-August 24, 2014.

Wall Street Journal theatre critic, Terry Teachout, wrote a superb jazz biography "Pops: A Life of Duke Ellington." That became the one man play with John Douglas Thompson "Satchmo at the Waldorf" which opens soon Off Broadway. Now Teachout has written an even better biography "Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington." He is in the process of transforming that material into a play.

The illustrative realist painter has explored the old master techniques of Caravaggio as well as smarmy soft and hard core porn. At the eyebrow raising age of 41 he was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum of American Art. This review is resposted from a 2003 article in Maverick Arts Magazie.

During a visit to the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shephardstown, West Virginia we met with the artistic director Ed Herendeen. We discussed the process of commissioning Mark St. Germain's Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah. It transfers soon to Barrington Stage Company. We debated the controversial Modern Terrorism which we had seen the previous evening. This is the first of two parts of that lively dialogue.

A blessing and curse the life and career of the artist Matuschka has been defined by a single iconic image. It has both opened and closed reports on work that came before and after the cover of the New York Times Magazine in 1993. The media entirely focuses on that image and her somewhat complex and freaky life. Attempts to evaluate her as an artist are few and far between.

The Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The Grammy Awards and The National Endowment for the Arts with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, honored by performing for three presidents in the White House, and are winners of five Grammy Awards.

The second installment of MASS MoCA's Book Club will feature artists Johnny Carrera and Tom Phillips. It will be held on April 3rd at 6pm in the Life's Work exhibition. Unlike traditional book clubs, this program makes connections between museum exhibitions and the written word.

The Escher String Quartet – hailed by the Washington Post “as one of the top young quartets” in the world today will open the 2013 Season of the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival on Sunday, August 4 in the Spa Little Theatre.

As part of the celebrations for its 35th Season, Shakespeare & Company is pleased to introduce a series of presentations and events tailored to its summer performance season. Engaging discussions, riveting talks, and insightful Q&A’s will all be featured in the Company’s packed calendar of special events. For more information on all of Shakespeare & Company’s special 35th Season offerings, including Founders’ Talks, Author! Author!, Tuesday Talks, Wednesday Q&A’s, Behind the Scenes Tours, and other special events.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival kicks off June 16 with the 80th Anniversary Gala, followed by “a veritable dance explosion” (Claudia La Rocco of The New York Times) of more than 300 free and ticketed performances, talks, exhibits, classes, and events spanning three months.

The 80th Anniversary Season includes an impressive blend of world premieres, U.S. premieres, live music, company debuts, legendary dance companies, emerging choreographers, and more than 300 ticketed and free events, talks, performances, classes, exhibits, and tours hosted at the Pillow’s 163-acre National Historic Landmark site.

The Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, one of the most celebrated and longest-running jazz events in the world, will celebrate its landmark 35th Anniversary at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, June 30 and July 1, with a dynamic lineup of more than 20 acclaimed artists and ensembles on two stages.

Philip Glass’s twentieth-century masterpiece Satyagraha comes to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, November 19 at 1:00 pm, live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera. Don’t miss this “profound and beautiful work of theater” (Washington Post). Glass is widely regarded as among the foremost living composers.

In conjunction with the world premiere of Captors, the Huntington Theatre Company will host a Jewish Community Night featuring Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday, November 16 at the BU Theatre, Avenue of the Arts (264 Huntington Avenue). Captors, by Evan M. Wiener and directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois, tells the thrilling true story of the capture of architect of the Holocaust Adolf Eichmann by secret Israeli agents in Argentina in 1960.

In this third installment of a dialogue with Julianne Boyd, artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, we discussed the value and impact of reviews and critical dialogues. Is theater more of a life than a profession? What happens when boundaries get blurred?