Weekend Preview July 23-25

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on July 20, 2010 - 4:01pm

 

‘ART’ at BARRINGTON STAGE
 
Since its premiere in 1995 in Paris, Yasmina Reza’s award-winning comedy ART has been performed worldwide and translated in over 30 languages. ART explores the value and meaning of friendship and art when a (nearly) all-white painting ignites an escalating argument among three men, threatening to destroy their long friendship. ART runs at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., from July 22 through August 8.   
 
 
Performances of Yasmina Reza’s ART are from July 22 through August 7 are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, Friday matinees at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm at BSC Mainstage, 30 Union St., Pittsfield. Additional matinee performance on Wed., July 28 at 2pm. Opening Night: Sun., July 25 at 5:00pm. Tickets: $15-$56. Seniors: $35 all matinees. Pay What You Can Night for 35 year olds and younger: Fri., July 30 at 8:00pm. Barrington Stage is fully-accessible, including wheelchair accessibility and assisted listening devices at every performance. Accessible seating is available by reservation. For ticket information, call 413-236-8888, stop by the BSC Box Office at 30 Union Street, or visit www.barringtonstageco.org.
 
           
RECEPTION for VEN VOISEY at BERKSHIRE MUSEUM
 
For the past two months, North Adams-based artist Ven Voisey has been working in full view of the public as Berkshire Museum's artist-in-residence. A multidisciplinary artist who frequently incorporates sound, light, and motion into his work, Voisey drew upon the Museum's exhibitions and environment for his show, Artifact, which is on view now through August 29 in the Wider Window gallery. Voisey will talk about his residency and its impact on his work during a free reception for Artifact on Thursday, July 22, at 5 p.m.
 
 
Voisey is Berkshire Museum's second artist-in-residence. Last year Maggie Mailer set up her easel in the Museum's galleries. Her experience resulted in a new body of painting directly influenced by the art on the Museum's walls. Voisey's experience has been different; during his residency he was most influenced by the Museum's environment - visual, aural, and spatial - and drew inspiration from both objects displayed in the galleries (including mounted heads of wild animals on view during the special exhibition Armed & Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal) and the artifice of the museum as a space for displaying the natural world in a controlled environment. The resulting installation includes sculpture, painting, photography, animation, and work across multiple media.
 
 
In many ways, Voisey's residency was itself an act of performance art. One day he camped out in the Museum's Crane Room, literally – setting up a blue tent and recording noise and visitors in the space. On other days, he set up microphones in front of the mounted heads of a lion and a musk ox, with signs that could be interpreted either as prompting the long-dead animals to speak or encouraging visitors to make noise in an environment where noise is generally discouraged. His photographs documenting these juxtapositions became part of the exhibition, as much as the acts themselves were part of his creative residency. The centerpiece of Artifact refers to the sound people use to hush each other in spaces such as museums and libraries. A Sign for the Sound of Everything at Once begins with "Shhh" painted on the wall, embellished with motion-activated bulbs that flash in a visually "noisy" manner.
 
 
Ven Voisey's show Artifact runs through August 29; the public is invited to a free reception and artist talk on Thursday, July 22 at 5 p.m. Other special exhibitions now on view include Wrapped! Search for the Essential Mummy and Nancy Graves: Journey to North Africa through October 31, and Joe Wheaton & Susan Rodgers: Spatial Relationships through October 11. Berkshire Museum is located at 39 South St. on Route 7 in Downtown Pittsfield.
 
413.443.7171

 
CLARINET/MANDOLIN LEGEND ANDY STATMAN PERFORMS
 
Clarinetist/mandolinist Andy Statman, one of the key pioneers of the modern klezmer revival, will headline the annual “Challahpalooza: The Berkshire Jewish Music Festival,” on Sunday, July 25, at 7 at the Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial High School, 197 East St., Lenox, Mass. Statman is both a master of klezmer and Hasidic music as well as a legend in American folk-roots styles.         
 
 
“It’s fair to say that without Andy Statman, the klezmer revival as we know it wouldn’t have happened, or at least it would have sounded very different,” says Seth Rogovoy, author of the The Essential Klezmer, the bestselling guidebook to klezmer music. “Andy Statman brings to his performance decades of study and immersion in the klezmer and Hasidic musical traditions, as well as American musical traditions, and what comes out is a uniquely spiritual blend that speaks with a distinctive voice and accent to our contemporary time and place,” adds Rogovoy.
 
 
This concert is presented by Chabad of the Berkshires.
413.499.9899
 
 
BANG ON A CAN CELEBRATES GEORGE CRUMB
 
The ninth annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA is underway, and Banglewood, as it is informally known, takes part in International George Crumb Day this Saturday, celebrating composer George Crumb's combination of drama, darkness, and mysticism, with a series of events culminating with an evening concert of his music at 8, at which the fellows and faculty of the Bang on a Can Festival will perform a selection of Crumb's work including world premieres of Jim Findlay's staging of Crumb's music. Findlay uses video to make seamless the stylized ritual theater of Vox Balaenae, the anti-war intensity of Black Angels, and the eerie lyricism of Madrigals I-IV.
 
 
Saturday’s festivities start with a conversation/demonstration between stage director and designer Jim Findlay and composer David Lang at 3. This informal close-up look at Crumb's music will include film, projection, discussion, demonstration and performance. The conversation will be followed by a recital in the galleries at 4:30 of George Crumb: Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III), performed by the Festival ensemble.
 
MASS MoCA Box Office: 413.662.2111
 
 
MILLAY COLONY OPEN HOUSE 2010
 
The Millay Colony for the Arts holds its annual Open House Benefit on Saturday, July 24, from 5 to 8 pm. This year’s event will feature jazz funk trio efbom, alumni art for show and for sale, local food and spirits, and hula hoops. Efbom is an instrumental groove trio whose music occupies a space between the combo experience of modern jazz and the realms of funk-groove music. Its original work and novel approach to funk and jazz classics provide a balance between thoughtfully constructed arrangements and improvisational exploration.
 
 
The evening will feature a cocktail party with homemade organic sausages from Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats, bread & cheese from Hawthorne Valley Farm, wines selected especially for the occasion by Michael Albin of Hudson Wine Merchants, and an array of enticing hors d’oeuvres. Throughout the evening, artist-residents' studios will be open for guests to visit. Artmaker/bookmaker Christopher Kardambikis will lavishly and lovingly decorate the Colony buildings and grounds.
 
 
The cocktail party will be held at the Millay Colony in Austerlitz, located on the grounds of Steepletop, the estate of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.
 
 
Tickets for the benefit event are $75 per person, $20 for children under twelve. This includes parking, food, drink, studio visits, and entertainment. All donations to the Colony, including ticket costs, are tax deductible.
 
518.392.4144
 
 
‘AFTER THE REVOLUTION’ at WTF
 
On the Nikos Stage at Williamstown Theatre Festival this week, Carolyn Cantor directs the world premiere production of Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution, which was developed as part of the 2009 WTF Fellowship Project. It’s 1999, and three generations of a radical leftist family meet in New York to celebrate the law school graduation of Emma, the family’s youngest torchbearer. A public revelation about her late grandfather, a victim of the blacklist, sends Emma reeling as the family begins to fracture. Shaken and betrayed, she must weigh her fierce politics and family loyalty to decide if the ends really justify the means. After Friday night’s performance, playwright Amy Herzog will take part in a talkback moderated by Seth Rogovoy, editor-in-chief of Berkshire Living.
 
The cast features of After the Revolution includes Mark Blum (Twelve Angry Men, A Thousand Clowns), Peter Friedman (Ragtime, Circle Mirror Transformation), David Margulies (The Sopranos, Wonderful Town), Katharine Powell (The Farnsworth Invention), Lois Smith (True Blood, Buried Child), Elliot Villar (Coraline, The Brothers Size), and Mare Winningham (St. Elmo’s Fire, Grey’s Anatomy).
 
 
AFTER THE REVOLUTION
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
July 21 - August 1
www.wtfestival.org
 
 
 
IMPROV GROUPS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD

 
WAM Theatre and NEW STAGE Performing Arts Center have joined forces to host the first ever improvisation throw-down between The Mop & Bucket Co. (MOPCO) of Albany, N.Y., and The Royal Berkshire Improvisation Troupe (RBIT).  These two improvisation champions are prepared to face off in a friendly Theatresports tournament to benefit WAM Theatre’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play, to be performed at the NEW STAGE Performing Arts Center (NSPAC) in November 2010. A portion of the proceeds from 'Melancholy Play' will in turn be donated to the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts. Judges for the competition are author Daniel Klein, Megan Whilden, the city of Pittsfield’s Director of Cultural Development, and Seth Rogovoy, editor-in-chief and critic-at-large at Berkshire Living.
 
WHERE:
55 North Street, Pittsfield, MA (above the Beacon Cinema)
NEW STAGE Performing Arts Center (NSPAC)
 
WHEN:
Monday, July 26th, 2010
7:30pm
 
TICKETS:
$15
Call 413.418.0999 to purchase tickets
 
 
LATIN, ROOTS AND BLUES AT HELSINKI

While Club Helsinki Hudson has yet to officially open its doors, for several months now it has been presenting concerts as part of its “Sound Check Series.” You’d be hard put to tell the difference between these shows – and this weekend’s lineup – and the operation of a regular nightclub (except for the fact that the club is not serving alcohol yet). This weekend is a perfect case in point: Friday night the club presents Grammy-nominated Latin alternative band Locos Por Juana; Saturday night roots artist Eilen Jewell performs with her band; and on Sunday night, the Wood Brothers -- featuring Chris Wood of Medeski, Martin and Wood – play modern folk and blues with special guest Tristen.
 
518.828.4800
 
 
LITERARY FESTIVAL DEBUTS AT THE MOUNT
 
The first annual Berkshire WordFest will be held July 23-25, 2010, at The Mount in Lenox, Mass. The festival opens Friday evening with a talk by Francine Prose, winner of the 2010 Edith Wharton Achievement Award. Discussions, interviews, readings, booksignings, and more take place on Saturday and Sunday. The Festival Fundraiser on Saturday night features special guest Garrison Keillor, winner of The Mount's 2010 Henry James Award, designed to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to American culture.
 
Authors attending include novelist Kurt Andersen; humorist Roy Blount Jr.; novelist Elizabeth Brundage; New Yorker staff writers Susan Orlean, Judith Thurman, and Tad Friend; John Hockenberry, journalist/foreign correspondent and co-host of WNYC's The Takeaway; novelists Francine Prose, Elinor Lipman, Martha McPhee, Katie Roiphe, Dani Shapiro, Jim Shepard, Tatjana Soli; memoirist and former Gourmet magazine editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl; and Simon Winchester, non-fiction writer. Also appearing are Berkshire-based poets Deborah Bernhardt, Abbot Cutler, Peter Filkins, Hannah Fries, Michelle Gillett, Leslie Harrison, Lawrence Raab, and Tess Taylor.
 
Berkshire WordFest events range in price from free to $250; all event and schedule information is available at Berkshire WordFest.
413.551.5113
 
 
CELEBRATING WILLIAM STEIG AT NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM

 

Norman Rockwell Museum will celebrate the art of acclaimed New Yorker and children's book illustrator William Steig and his wife/creative collaborator Jeanne Steig during SuperSteig Day, a family event to be held at the Museum on Saturday, July 24, from 1 to 4 p.m. Start the afternoon with a special tour of the exhibition "William Steig: Love & Laughter," which features an amusing collection of original drawings by William Steig, and unique assemblages by his wife Jeanne. At 1:30 p.m., join actress Ann Undeland for a dramatic reading inspired by the art and stories found in such William Steig children's books as "Shrek!," "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble," and "Alpha Beta Chowder." At 2 p.m., meet artist Jeanne Steig in person for a trash-to-treasures art workshop for all ages.
 
 
RICHARD SHINDELL and JOHN GORKA at the GUTHRIE CENTER

It’s been a couple of decades or so since the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band entertained its strong following from a home base at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Penna., but two of the original members might just get a chance to catch up on old times at the Guthrie Center Troubadour Series this weekend, when new-folk icons Richard Shindell and John Gorka perform on Friday, July 23, and Saturday, July 24, respectively.
 
Shindell, now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, established his craftsmanship with a 1992 release, Sparrow’s Point, which demonstrated not only his ability for producing high quality musical arrangements but also his penchant for simple, homespun lyrics that command deeper complexities. Shindell has followed with five studio albums and one live album, all of which have garnered critical acclaim.
 
Since his days at Moravian College and as soundman at the famous folk house Godfrey Daniels, John Gorka has released 11 studio albums, from I Know in 1987 to his latest, So Dark You See (2009). Prior to the I Know release, Gorka won the Kerrville New Folk competition (1984) and he began touring both the U.S. and Europe. Gorka’s prolific output since his initial album has earned him a solid reputation as, according to a recent Rolling Stone review, “the preeminent male singer/songwriter of the new folk movement.”
 
 
OPERA, PETER SERKIN, BRAHMS and STRAUSSES at TANGLEWOOD
 
In the third week of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood season, the orchestra performs three concerts focusing on the work of German and Austrian composers. On Friday, July 23, Johannes Debus leads the BSO and soloists in a concert performance of Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. Guest conductor Herbert Blomstedt returns to Tanglewood Saturday, July 24, to conduct an all-Brahms program, featuring pianist Peter Serkin, in Piano Concerto No. 1. To conclude the weekend, the BSO gives a Sunday matinee performance, conducted by Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf, featuring waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss II on Sunday, July 25.
 
Following the BSO’s afternoon concert, at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall, Herbert Blomstedt and conducting Fellows Keitaro Harada, Cristian Macelaru, and Alexander Prior lead the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a Sunday evening performance in Ozawa Hall. On Thursday, July 29, German baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Andreas Haefliger give a recital of Lieder and piano music by Brahms and Schumann.
 
Tickets are available through Tanglewood’s website or through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200.
 
 
STAGING SHAKESPEARE: THE REST OF THE STORY
 
 
Shakespeare & Company artistic director Tony Simotes and actor/director Jonathan Croy, who collaborated on the production of The Life and Times of Richard III running through Labor Day weekend at the Lenox theater, will discuss the challenges and rewards inherent in a devotion to the works of the Bard in Staging Shakespeare, part of Berkshire Living’s award-winning Rest of the Story series of free public forums moderated by editor-in-chief Seth Rogovoy, on Sunday, July 25, at 11 a.m., at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bookmark/Search this post with:
view counter