Weekend Highlights July 14-18

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on July 14, 2010 - 2:10pm

 

RICHARD III at SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY
 
The reviews are trickling in, and as many expected, it looks like Shakespeare & Company’s production of Richard III, starring OBIE and Lucille Lortel Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson in the title role, is going to be the hit of the summer. Berkshire Living’s Lesley Ann Beck’s review of the play is scattered with words like “thrilling,” “marvelous” and “superb.” Filling out the cast are such Shakespeare & Co. mainstays as Johnny Lee Davenport, Nigel Gore, Annette Miller, Jason Asprey, and Tod Randolph. Runs through Sept 5.
 
413.637.3353
 
 
ARMITAGE GONE! DANCE and CLASSICAL THAI at JACOB’S PILLOW
 
Jacob’s Pillow Dance presents Armitage Gone! Dance in Three Theories, July 14-18, in the Ted Shawn Theatre, a new contemporary ballet work choreographed by artistic director Karole Armitage and inspired by physicist Brian Greene’s best-selling book, The Elegant Universe. Armitage has worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merce Cunningham, and Madonna, and her dance repertoire ranges from ballet to a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway show, Hair.
 
Greene’s book details the inherent conflict between the two great pillars of modern theoretical physics, quantum mechanics and Einstein's general theory of relativity. It ventures into the ideas emerging from attempts to resolve the conflict, particularly string theory. Using concepts specific to each theory as a springboard to generate inventive movement, Armitage has created a contemporary ballet work in three distinct sections. Each section, Relativity, Quantum, and String, is defined by its own dance structure and musical language. For Armitage, contemporary physics is replete with visual metaphor and she uses such principles as a means for exploring new possibilities in movement and spatial patterning.
 
 A work for eleven dancers, Three Theories is set to a commissioned score by maverick composer Rhys Chatham, Sangeeta Shankar’s South Indian Classical Carnatic violin music, and John Luther Adams’s evocative Dark Waves. The dance features stark lighting design by longtime collaborator Clifton Taylor and costumes by Deanna Berg.
 
Also this weekend 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. This engagement marks the first time Jacob’s Pillow has presented classical Thai dance in its 78-year history.
 
413.243.0745
 
 
ALEC BALDWIN, ARLO GUTHRIE and AUDRA McDONALD at TANGLEWOOD
 
It’s a weekend of celebrities and musical superstars at Tanglewood. On Friday night, Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the podium to conduct a pairing of Mozart’s Requiem with Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, written to celebrate the BSO’s 50th anniversary. On Saturday, Tilson Thomas follows up last week’s performance of Mahler’s second symphony with Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.  Rounding out the weekend events are a special Sunday-afternoon Shed performance by the Boston Pops Orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart, joined by Alec Baldwin, who will narrate The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, and folk music legend Arlo Guthrie; and an evening recital in Ozawa Hall by Broadway/television songstress Audra McDonald.
 
 
PAUL ROCHELEAU PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT at CHESTERWOOD
 
Renowned Berkshire photographer Paul Rocheleau celebrates the beauty of the country home of America’s foremost public sculptor Daniel Chester French in a new exhibition, Paul Rocheleau: Photographs of an Artist’s Landscape, at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Mass., opening Saturday, July 17. The exhibition will be on view through September 19. A free opening reception with remarks by Rocheleau will be held at Chesterwood’s Morris Center on Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
 
Rocheleau’s photographs, several of which will be included in the exhibition at Chesterwood, accompany an article about Daniel Chester French as a garden designer in this month’s issue of Berkshire Living, to which Rocheleau frequently contributes. The article, entitled “A Cultivated Gentleman,” was written by local author and editor, Gladys Montgomery, who will give remarks about the sculptor and his little known passion for gardening at the exhibition opening reception.
 
Chesterwood, A National Trust Historic Site, is the home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost public sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), creator of the Minute Man and Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. Open daily, May 29 through October 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Guided tours are available at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., for an additional fee.
 
Chesterwood is located at 4 Williamsville Road, off Route 183, in Stockbridge.
413.298.3579, ext. 25210.
 
 
3rd THURSDAY in PITTSFIELD IS an ARTY PARTY
 
This Thursday, July 15th is the third 3rd Thursdays of 2010 and the theme this month is Arty Party, featuring live music, art openings and receptions, an open call for fashion models, a beach party with real sand and a water slide, and a live drawing session. North Street will once again be closed from Park Square to Maplewood & Linden Streets.
 

 

 

PLAY BY DALTON NATIVE GETS BPL READING
 
Dalton, Mass., native Michael Dowling’s latest play, Tamarack House, will be given a staged reading by the Berkshire Playwrights Lab tonight at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass., at 8. BPL co-artistic directorr Jim Frangione will direct Dowling’s play, set in a big, old boarding house that sits on a beautiful spot of land in a small New England town remarkably like Dalton. The house's days are numbered, as giant developments are encroaching. Even though it's run down and beat up, it still has hidden potential - not unlike its five current residents, who need to come up with a plan...and quick.
Admission is free.
413.528.0100
 
 
SARAH LEE AND JOHNNY AND MIKE AND RUTHY at GUTHRIE CENTER
 
On Friday, July 16 and Saturday, July 17, the husband-and-wife duo Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion will bring their act home to the Guthrie Center’s Troubadour Series. Warming up the crowd for them will be husband-and-wife duo Mike and Ruthy.  Both groups represent folk-royalty of sorts, born to the manner – Sarah Lee is the daughter of Arlo Guthrie and the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie; Ruthy is the daughter of fiddle legend Jay Ungar and folksinger Lyn Hardy.
 
Since their marriage in 1999, Sarah Lee and Johnny have teamed up to play over 1,000 shows and have released several significant albums, including Go Waggaloo, a 2009 Smithsonian Folkways release featuring children’s and family songs (Sarah Lee Guthrie and Family, including Johnny and Sarah Lee’s two daughters Olivia and Sophie), Folksong (Live, 2009), and Explorations (2005). Both artists also have releases of their own, including Sarah Lee’s 2002 album Sarah Lee Guthrie, and Irion’s 2001 Unity Lodge.
 
Mike + Ruthy, the folk-rock duo formerly of The Mammals, will release a new duet album, Million to One, in just a couple of weeks. The recording features upbeat and dreamy folk-pop tunes based in roots music but also owing a debt to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Yo La Tengo.
 
 
POOL BOY DIVES INTO BARRINGTON STAGE
 
Barrington Stage Company's Musical Theatre Lab, under the mentorship of Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist William Finn, kicks off its fifth season with the world premiere of Pool Boy, a splashy new musical with music and lyrics by Nikos Tsakalakos and book and lyrics by Janet Allard. Pool Boy begins performances on Wednesday, July 13 at 7:30pm and has an opening night set for Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30pm at BSC’s Stage 2 space, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield. The premiere engagement is scheduled to run through Sunday, August 8.
 
What happens when an aspiring songwriter spends his summer serving cocktails to the rich and famous? In hopes of catching a break, he hobnobs with the big shots and is seduced by L.A.’s glitz and a sexy older woman. Love and chaos ensue in this rocking new musical set poolside at the Hotel Bel-Air, based on Niko Tsakalakos’s experience as a pool boy there.
 
Performances of Pool Boy are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 7:30pm at BSC Stage 2, 36 Linden St., Pittsfield. Opening Night: Wed., July 21 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $15-$45. Seniors: $20 all matinees. Pay What You Can Night for 35 year olds and younger: Fri., July 16 at 7:30pm. Post-show discussions with the cast will be held following the Thursday, July 15 and Thursday, August 5 performances.
 
413.236.8888

 

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