Filling the Gap

Filling the Gap

Contemporary dance, often considered among the most rarefied of art forms, may not seem like something you’d find in a southern Vermont grange hall. Thanks to Vermont Performance Lab, however, rural southern Vermont has become an increasingly attractive place...
Stagestruck: Vincent Dowling, 1929-2013

Stagestruck: Vincent Dowling, 1929-2013

When I first met Vincent Dowling in 1990, the year he founded the Miniature Theatre of Chester, he regaled me with tales of his early life as an itinerant actor, doing “fit-ups”—one-night stands on makeshift stages—in small towns all over his...
Sexy Spirits

Sexy Spirits

Sex is in the air on two Hartford stages. On one, sexual longing and confusion, Shakespeare style; on the other, the queen of sex talk. That would be Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist known for her witty, unabashed approach to bedroom issues....
Stage: What Happened

Stage: What Happened

This weekend, southern Vermont becomes a hotbed of exciting experimental theater from Vermont Performance Lab and Sandglass Theater. Not What Happened (pictured) is a new piece from three-time Obie award-winning writer/director/performer Ain Gordon. The piece includes...
Summer Arts Preview: In the Wings

Summer Arts Preview: In the Wings

Spring isn’t officially over and already the summer theater season is underway. Two shows are up and running in the Berkshires, with dozens more waiting impatiently in the wings. I count over 50 productions lined up in Western Mass. companies’ regular...