Weekend Preview August 25-29

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on August 25, 2010 - 1:35pm

WORD X WORD TAKES OVER PITTSFIELD

The Word X Word festival in downtown Pittsfield is moving into its final four days of theater, spoken word and music – all in celebration of words written, spoken and sung. Maybe You Will Marry a Red Haired Woman, a play conceived by actor Rudi Bach using the poetry of Tony Hoagland, closes its run Wednesday night at 7:30 at the New Stage. The piece features actress Carrie Saldo and musician James Bill of Bella’s Bartok.

Also on Wednesday, Barefoot Truth mixes the sounds of folk, rock, jazz, and reggae, with lyrics full of unbridled optimism, and Will Evans and Andy Wrba take The Mission Window, starting at 8.

A triple-bill of singer-songwriter JoAnne Spies, storyteller Sanjiban, and poet Phillip Levine perform at Bob Balogh’s Micro Theater, Thursday at 8.

Friday brings the festival’s first annual poetry slam at Shawn’s Barber Shop. Finals are on Saturday. Only one will walk away the winner of Word x Word 2010′s slam. Both slams begin at 6 p.m.

Saturday, the final night of Word x Word, features a concert/party at the Colonial Theatre featuring performace poet Rives, roots-rockers Langhorne Slim, and John Colvert, Chris O’Brien and friends from the The New England Americana Festival.

Find the complete schedule for Word X Word here.

UTE LEMPER at the COLONIAL

German songstress Ute Lemper brings her cabaret show Last Tango in Berlin to the Colonial on Friday, August 27 at 8. Lemper’s performing career grows out of a passionate and enduring commitment to art, politics and history, and out of a contentious and complicated relationship with her homeland and its past. Her versatility and sophisticated repertoire—including Berlin cabaret songs and the dark gems of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill—have led her to international acclaim as a recording artist and in the theatre, cabaret and film worlds.

Lemper was born in Münster, Germany in 1963. After graduation from the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna, she started performing in Stuttgart with roles in plays by Fassbinder and others. She went on to dazzle audiences in Europe and worldwide in musical theatre roles: Velma Kelly in Chicago (London, New York, Las Vegas), Lola in The Blue Angel, Peter in Peter Pan (both in Berlin), Cats in Vienna and Sally Bowles in Jérôme Savary’s Paris production of Cabaret.

Yet Lemper has returned again and again to the dark, complex and powerfully creative German past, in solo concerts like Kurt Weill Recital and Berlin Cabaret Evening, in symphony concerts, including The Seven Deadly Sins and Songs from Kurt Weill; in Pina Bausch’s Kurt Weill Revue; and on the discs Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (Vols. I & II), The Threepenny Opera, The Seven Deadly Sins, Mahagonny Songspiel and Berlin Cabaret Songs (comprising works of songwriters censored or persecuted by the National Socialists).

Although she is perhaps best known as the world’s leading interpreter of the music of the Weimar Republic era,. Lemper’s edgy aesthetic and repertoire also reach far beyond Germany. Though she says “I cannot stress enough my life’s journey exploring repertoire inspired by art of the Weimar Republic,” she points out that this art also “reflects other philosophical and cultural horizons, other political matters, and other times.”

In order fully to explore and comprehend the history she has inherited, Lemper has taken up material from other European traditions and from the United States. Lemper has explored extensively the French chanson of Edith Piaf, Jacques Prévert, Joseph Kosma and Serge Gainsbourg to the Belgian poet Jacques Brel. She has also explored the contemporary alternative rock repertoire—from Tom Waits and Elvis Costello to Nick Cave on her Punishing Kiss album—and finally created her own original material which can be heard on the latest album But One Day....

Of her recent evolution as an artist, particularly as a recording artist, Lemper says, “Beyond the historical recordings I have found my way into my own compositions and storytelling, inspired by themusic and literature of the Paris existentialists of the 1960s to off-beat contemporary rock writers like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Scott Walker, Elvis Costello and Divine Comedy. It has been an incredible satisfaction to produce my own work with a great team of people.”

Lemper and her three children, Max, Stella and Julian have had a home base in New York City for almost 10 years. Like Weill, Lemper is a German expatriate living in the United States. Unlike Weill and some of his contemporaries, Lemper is an expatriate by choice, and is hesitant ever to move back to Germany, but she revisits her culture fearlessly and brilliantly in art. “As a performer,” she says, “I like to breathe and live inside the centers of chaos in the worlds of today and yesterday. The longing for a place of harmony and the search for spiritual freedom lives through my new stories and melodies will always, though, keep Berlin alive with contemporary and nostalgic eyes,” she reminds us, “as the lust and anarchy of Weimar shall live forever.”

Tickets are $55 and $35 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10-5, performance Saturdays 10-2, by calling 413.997.4444 or online at http://www.thecolonialtheatre.org.

NEW VOICES IN AMERICAN SONG at MUSIC & MORE

On Saturday, August 28 at 4:30, pianist and composer Christopher Berg will join singers Paul Sperry and Katharine Dain at Music & More in New Marlborough’s Meeting House for a concert of music by three of today’s most highly regarded composers of American Song: Tom Cipullo, Richard Hundley and Berg himself. Each is a consummate interpreter of poetry through music, their works offering something for everyone – from funny to serious, from Broadwayesque to sublime.

The evening will begin with Berg wearing the hats of both pianist and composer, accompanying tenor Paul Sperry and soprano Katharine Dain to perform a group of his songs based on poems by Frank O’Hara, Carol Stevens Kner, and Vladimir Nabokov. In the second half of the program, Berg, as pianist, will collaborate on songs by fellow composers Tom Cipullo and Richard Hundley, which include musical renderings of poems by William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, Emily Dickinson, and others.

Paul Sperry is recognized as a leading interpreter and passionate advocate of

American Song. He has commissioned numerous works and created the country’s first full-year course in American Song at New York City’s Juilliard School. His many recordings range from the complete songs of Charles Ives to Bernard Rands’ Pulitzer Prize winning Canti del Sole with the New York Philharmonic. Katharine Dain is a brilliant young performer, praised by the New York Times for her “rich tone,” “deep emotion,” and “lovely, passionate” performances. Her recent performances range from leading roles in Baroque opera to 21st-century music. This summer, Dain will record the complete songs by Chopin under auspices of The Chopin Project.

Each of the three composers has perfected the art of communicating with their audiences through song. While they’re not yet household names, Cipullo, Hundley and Berg are renowned for the sophistication with which they treat their song texts, evoking at times comparisons to great song composers of the past, from Schubert to Hugo Wolf to Leonard Bernstein. Sperry, long championing each composer’s work, said of them, “…[these are] three of my favorite living composers. I prize them so highly because they all demonstrate a love of song, of poetry, of beautiful melody, of humor – qualities that I value when I go to a concert.”

Music & More’s “New Voices in American Song” will take place on Saturday, August 28 at 4:30 p.m. at the historic Meeting House in New Marlborough. A wine reception will follow in the Meeting House Gallery. Tickets cost $25/$20. Students with ID and children with parents are admitted for free. Please visit www.newmarlborough.org or call 413.229.2785 for tickets, discounts and information.

HUBBARD STREET CLOSES OUT JACOB’S PILLOW SEASON

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago returns to Jacob’s Pillow August 25–29 in a stirring Festival 2010 finale. In the company’s thirteenth appearance at Jacob’s Pillow in 27 years, Hubbard Street presents four diverse works by three choreographers: Batsheva Dance Company director Ohad Naharin, acclaimed contemporary choreographer Aszure Barton, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. The company’s program for Jacob’s Pillow includes two premieres by Cerrudo. An extra performance has been added on Thursday, August 26 at 2pm to accommodate the high demand for tickets.

Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa opens the program with swirling, fluid movement and gestural hand-work to a dramatic score by Arvo Pärt. Tabula Rasa means “blank slate” in Latin, and refers to the philosophical theory that individuals are only the sum of their experiences and environment. “Ohad Naharin’s choreography is notable for its movement quality—especially for its smoothness within technical difficulty,” says Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times. “But there is also an undercurrent of feeling that makes itself evident at all times.” Artistic director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company since 1990, Naharin’s talent has been recognized by numerous organizations and countries; he was awarded the “Chevalier de l’Ordres des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government (1998), the Israel Prize for Dance (2005), and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance (2009).

HSDC’s resident choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo, has choreographed two new works in the company’s program for Jacob’s Pillow. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Cerrudo is known for his fluid, loose-limbed style as both a choreographer and a dancer for the company. Blanco is a world premiere set to music by Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Valentin Alkan. This abstract work for four women is the companion piece to Cerrudo’s Deep Down Dos, which is also being presented at the company’s Jacob’s Pillow engagement.

Deep Down Dos enjoyed its orchestral premiere earlier this year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Jacob’s Pillow audiences will be the first to see the work in its full theatrical setting. Clean and architectural in aesthetic, the work is set to a multi-layered score by electronica and classical composer Mason Bates. When the dance was previewed as part of an orchestral concert, John von Rheinwrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Much of the score is driven by twitching techno-rhythms that periodically morph into quirky aural surprises—piano, harp and celesta sparkling like a city of diamonds, double basses shuddering like the shock waves from a temblor deep on the ocean floor. The kinetic activity packed into Bates' music calls to mind sleek bodies hurling themselves through space, and that's the dynamic energy Cerrudo has infused in his dancers…This breathless new ballet is another winner for the gifted Cerrudo.”

The evening is concluded by Aszure Barton’s work Untouched; a dramatically lit work for twelve dancers. The work is set to a layered score by an array of musicians Russian-born, New York City-based violist Ljova, Toronto-based pianist and composer Njo Kong Kie, and New York City-based sound designer, saxophonist and producer Curtis Macdonald. “Barton builds a world of bodily language suggesting rapidly-shifting power structures lightly dusted with the folkloric. The ambiguity of the work’s title echoes in your head as you watch: they’re immaculate… It features beautiful ideas about how and when dancers can enter and exit the stage. Its closing duet is spellbinding.” (Time Out NY). Aszure Barton’s own company has appeared at the Pillow on the Inside/Out stage in 2004, and the Doris Duke Theatre in 2005 and 2006. She has choreographed new works for many prestigious individuals and companies worldwide including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Fang-Yi Sheu, The National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, The Juilliard School, and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago was founded in 1977 by dancer/choreographer Lou Conte who, for the next 23 years, served as artistic director. Originally the company’s sole choreographer, he developed relationships with emerging and world-renowned choreographers as the company began to grow, adding works by a variety of artists such as Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington, Daniel Ezralow, and Twyla Tharp, as well as international choreographers Jirí Kylián, Nacho Duato, and Ohad Naharin.

Current Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton joined HSDC in 2009 after an international career as a dancer and director. He began his dancing career at the Joffrey Ballet where, mentored by Robert Joffrey, he performed leading roles in the company's contemporary and classical repertoire for 11 years. In 1989, Edgerton joined the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater, and after dancing for five years retired from performing to become artistic director of the main company, leading NDT1 for a decade and presenting the works of Jirí Kylián, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, Jorma Elo, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, among others.

Pillow audiences will have a chance to hear Edgerton speak about Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in a free PillowTalk discussion on Thursday, August 26 at 5pm.

Performance and Ticket Information

Wednesday, August 25 through Saturday, August 28 at 8pm

Thursday, August 26, Saturday, August 28 and Sunday, August 29 at 2pm

Free Pre-Show Talks with Jacob’s Pillow Scholars-in-Residence are offered in Blake’s Barn 30 minutes before every performance.

A free Post-Show Talk will take place in Blake’s Barn on Thursday, August 26 directly after the performance.

Tickets range from $58.50–$69.50

Tickets on sale now online jacobspillow.org, via phone at 413.243.0745, or in person at Jacob’s Pillow.

Jacob’s Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob’s Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped-accessible.

EMANUEL AX AND BEETHOVEN’S NINTH BRING CURTAIN DOWN ON BSO’S TANGLEWOOD SEASON

In the final week of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2010 Tanglewood season, American conductor David Zinman leads the orchestra in two concerts, beginning with the Friday, August 27, program featuring Holst’s The Planets and Poulenc’s Gloria, with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The following evening, Saturday, August 28, Zinman is joined by American pianist Emanuel Ax for Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in a program that also includes Dvořák’s New World Symphony. To conclude the weekend and the BSO’s portion of the Tanglewood season, Kurt Masur takes the podium on Sunday, August 29, and leads the BSO’s annual grand finale performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, soprano Nicole Cabell, mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, tenor Marcus Haddock˚, and bass-baritone John Relyea. The program begins with Bach’s motet Jesu meine Freude for chorus, conducted by Tanglewood Festival Chorus conductor John Oliver.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 27 – DAVID ZINMAN AND THE PLANETS

The BSO’s final weekend at Tanglewood this season gets underway Friday, August 27, at 8:30 p.m in the Shed as David Zinman (TMC Fellow 1958) joins the orchestra for a performance of The Planets, Holst’s vivid, ever-exciting musical journey through the solar system. Opening the program is Poulenc’s Gloria—which was commissioned in honor of Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1961—with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, and soprano soloist Isabel Bayrakdarian.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28 – EMANUEL AX IN BRAHMS’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2

Celebrated American pianist Emanuel Ax, who made his BSO debut at Tanglewood on August 6, 1978, joins the BSO and conductor David Zinman in the Shed at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 28, to perform as soloist in Brahms’s mercurial Piano Concerto No. 2. Joining the concerto and concluding the program is one of the most well known symphonic works ever written: the New World Symphony by Dvořák, who was a frequent correspondent and friend of Brahms’s.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29 – TANGLEWOOD’S GRAND FINALE

At 2:30 p.m in the Shed on Sunday, August 29, the Tanglewood season comes to an end as always with Beethoven’s immortal Symphony No. 9, this year conducted by the distinguished German maestro Kurt Masur, who has been an influential figure in the classical music world for more than half a century. The BSO is joined by vocal soloists soprano Nicole Cabell, mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, tenor Marcus Haddock, and bass-baritone John Relyea, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which opens the program with Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude.

Tickets are available through Tanglewood’s website, http://www.tanglewood.org, through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200

‘SUMMER’ ENDS at THE MOUNT

Summer, Edith Wharton’s bittersweet coming-of-age story, performed by the Wharton Salon finishes its run this weekend at The Mount. Adapted by Dennis Krausnick and directed by the Salon’s founder, Catherine Taylor-Williams, the play is based on the 1917 novella, the story of a young woman who loses herself in the passion of a summer love affair, only to find herself more deeply by summer’s end.

Summer features Adam Gauger, Reilly Hadden, Rory Hammond, Miles Herter, Alyssa Hughlett, Diane Prusha, and Robert Serrell, with music for violin composed and performed live onstage by Alexander Sovronsky.

Background on Summer, the Novella

Published in 1917 when Wharton was living in France, Summer conjures up the Berkshire landscape Wharton had left behind and unfolds a classic coming-of-age tale centered on the sexual awakening and self-discovery of a young woman, Charity Royall, over the course of a single summer in 1890. Royall’s passion and its consequences are reflected in the hills and trees of her native Berkshires; this charged atmosphere is one reason Wharton referred to the book as her “hot Ethan,” invoking her popular 1911 novel, Ethan Frome, also set in the Berkshires.

Synopsis of Summer, the Play

Charity Royall (Alyssa Hughlett) is bored and restless. Working at the local library to save money to escape her hometown, she meets newcomer Lucius Harney (Adam Gauger), a handsome young New York relative of the town’s “first family” who is researching a book about the historic houses in the area. Their early romance is thwarted at first by Mr. Royall (Miles Herter), her oppressive guardian, who makes an unwanted proposal of marriage to keep Charity to himself. Amidst the growing suspicions of the townspeople, the relationship between Harney and Charity blooms in secret. By late August, however, Charity is alone and pregnant. Harney has left town to marry Annabel Balch (Rory Hammond), a girl of his own class. Charity begins a desperate search to secure the survival of her child, a journey that leads her to self-discovery and, ultimately, self-acceptance.

Performance Details

Summer runs August 18-29 on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Performance dates and times are as follows: August 25 and 26 at 5:30 p.m.; August 28 and 29 at 10 a.m.

All performances take place in The Mount’s Stables Auditorium (wheelchair accessible) at the entrance to Wharton’s historic estate. The play runs 90 minutes without intermission. Audiences are encouraged to make reservations in advance, as the intimate 90-seat venue sells out quickly. Summer has mature themes and may not be appropriate for children.

Tickets are $35 general admission, which includes a Day Pass to The Mount, and may be purchased by calling The Mount’s ticket line, 413.551.5113.

For more information: The Mount or the Wharton Salon

PARSON DANCE at PS/21 in CHATHAM, N.Y.

Parsons Dance returns to PS/21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century with an all-new version of last season’s sold-out, rock dance opera, Remember Me,” along with the stroboscopic master work, Caught. Combining exceptionally athletic dancing, marvelous theatricality and sexy exuberance, the troupe will perform under the tent Friday and Saturday, August 27 and 28 at 8:00pm in Chatham.

Internationally lauded for humorous, superbly danced and accessible works, Parsons has captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. This is their fifth consecutive year at PS/21. “We are thrilled and honored that David Parsons has been so supportive of PS/21 since the very first year,” said PS/21 founder Judy Grunberg. “Parsons Dance has become one of those PS/21 traditions that is looked forward to expectantly each new season.”

When David Parsons founded the company, he made it his mission to bring modern dance to the widest audience possible. Entertaining and invigorating performances meld into an accessible and engaging mix. Parsons dancers don't necessarily fit the ballet dancer stereotype - hair is loose and long, body types vary, and it is not unusual to see a female dancer paired with a shorter male. These elements add relatability to the choreography.

The company’s goal is for audiences to leave feeling exhilarated, not confounded, as can happen with modern dance. "I like to communicate with people," choreographer David Parsons said. "I don't like a big question mark in front of your face when you see dance. I want people to be in my world, following along."

Parsons’ PS/21 performance will include two of their most popular pieces: Caught and Remember Me.

Direct from its first national tour, Remember Me has an entirely fresh look and feel. New choreography, all-new costumes by Project Runway designer Austin Scarlett, and dramatic new lighting by Tony Award-winning lighting designer Howell Binkley, turn up the passion and embolden David Parsons’ electrifying dance. This modern retelling of a classic tragic love triangle features Parsons Dance and the lead vocalists and music of the Grammy-nominated rock opera band, East Village Opera Company. With contemporary dance, live and recorded music, and complex digital lighting, Remember Me is the most ambitious production created by Parsons Dance in its 22-year history.

Caught is David Parsons’ unforgettable signature stroboscopic tour-de-force, featuring a solo dancer defying gravity and flying above the stage. Caught begins with a dancer moving around, then floating, then flying. "It is simply amazing to see a human being fly," said associate artistic director Elizabeth Koeppen. "I look out on the audience and they have their mouths open. They can't believe what they're seeing.” Caught has been described as “one of the great pieces of recent times.”

David Parsons has enjoyed a remarkable career as dance performer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer. Born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City, he was a leading dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1978–87. In 1985, he founded Parsons Dance with lighting designer Howell Binkley. As artistic director, Parsons has created more than 70 works for the company and participated in many educational and community outreach residency activities.

Parsons Dance will perform Friday and Saturday, August 27 and 28 at 8:00pm. Admission is $40 general admission and $35 for PS/21 members. For information or to order tickets, please call 518.392.6121 or visit http://www.ps21chatham.org. Tickets will also be available at the door until the show sells out.

BERKSHIRE PLAYWRIGHTS LAB BOWS WITH ‘SCAM’

The Berkshire Playwrights Lab concludes its summer season with a free staged reading of Scamby Blair MacKenzie, Wednesday at 8 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. When social misfit Savanna Keener brings home the Nigerian boyfriend she met online, her white suburban family is immediately suspicious. Is the handsome, sliver-tongued Morris really in love with their awkward daughter, or are his intentions more nefarious? The ensuing conflict, both hilarious and poignant, exposes family fault lines and raises the question: Who is scamming whom?

Blair MacKenzie is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he majored in theater. Blair has worked in casting and in theatrical general management. For five years, he co-owned and operated a restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side. For the past fifteen years, Blair has practiced social work with brain-injured and spinal cord-injured people at a major medical center in New York City, where he lives with his partner of twenty-three years.

Mahaiwe Box Office
14 Castle St.
Great Barrington, Mass
413.528.0100
Hours: Wed - Sat 12-6
Berkshire Playwrights Lab at 413.528.2544.

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