Stage
‘The magic that existed back then’: Academy of Music to screen time capsule film of New Year’s Eve 1984 concert at The Rusty Nail
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer It’s been 40 years since the band NRBQ played at Sunderland’s The Rusty Nail on New Year’s Eve, but a devoted fan and friend of the band kept the night alive with his concert footage. Later this month, the Academy of Music will screen...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Shining the spotlight on social responsibility: Productions focus on themes of loneliness, and more
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate Tom Hanks knows a thing or two about good stories Tom Hanks is often quoted as having said: “The best stories are always about loneliness.” After seeing the 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Primary Trust” at Barrington Stage...
Rock for all: Whole Children’s resident Friendship Band to perform alongside indie rockers Yo La Tengo at 20th anniversary concert, The Bash, Oct. 23
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer The Northampton organization Whole Children, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with indie rock band Yo La Tengo at 33 Hawley on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m. At...
‘One sentence can change the course of a relationship’: Valley Players stage first full production, ‘Constellations,’ this weekend and next
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Valley Players, a local volunteer theater group formed earlier this year, will perform their first full production in Amherst this weekend and next. The show, “Constellations,” by playwright Nick Payne, will be at Munson Memorial Library...
Farewell to the ‘Doctor of Rock’: Sept. 29 Iron Horse concert pays tribute to Smith professor before he hops the pond
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer After more than two decades at Smith College, a beloved music professor will say goodbye to Northampton with a farewell concert at the Iron Horse next week. Professor Steve Waksman, who has taught at Smith for 23 years, will complete his...
‘Jazz without borders’: Multicultural theme defines Northampton Jazz Festival, Sept. 27-28
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer In a year of international strife, the Northampton Jazz Festival is aiming to bring people together with music that transcends borders. The Northampton Jazz Festival, which will return for its 12th year on Sept. 27 and 28, is celebrating...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Exploring gender and body positivity on stage
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate This summer three outstanding shows in the Berkshires demonstrate that the performativity of gender has broken free from traditional gender-based casting in some places. In this edition of Theater Matters, we explore how some...
Something for everyone: UMass Fine Arts Center announces robust 2024-2025 season lineup
By PAIGE HANSON For the Advocate Earlier this week, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center announced its lineup of performances for its 2024-2025 season, which includes quite a few notable offerings, including “a one-time Grateful Dead keyboardist,...
Music in the sky: Summit House Sunset Concert Series returns to its 173-year-old home
By PAIGE HANSON For the Advocate For the first time in two years, The Friends of Mount Holyoke Range have returned the Summit House Sunset Concert Series to its namesake, Skinner State Park’s historic Summit House. The Summit House, which sits at a 935-foot elevation...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: The popularity of socially responsible theater
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate The stories that make up what we see in theater are just one aspect of what makes live entertainment so compelling, but the way those stories are told has much to do with whether the play continues to make you think even after...
Mixtape: Bucket list concerts: Big names on tour this summer
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Everyone should have a bucket list of concerts they want to go to before, ya know, the end — artists you’ve been in love with since you can remember, or just for the ‘Wow, I can’t believe I saw them’ factor. If live...
Rattling those musical bones: Folk/blues veteran Chris Smither releases his 20th album ahead of 80th birthday
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer When Chris Smither found his live gigs shut down during the worst months of COVID-19, he figured it might at least be a good opportunity to write some new songs — something the veteran folk/blues singer and guitarist admits is not the...
The Iron Horse rides again: The storied Northampton club will reopen at last, May 15
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer In late March, the fabled Iron Horse Music Hall, slated to reopen in mid May, was still a pretty raw construction site. Boards, pipes, boxes, and other materials were piled on the floors, along the walls, and on tables. Extension cords to...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Valley theater companies and audiences grow: Attracting new audiences has become an art in itself
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate In this next year, theater goers from Hartford to the Berkshires are going to have more entertainment choices than they’ve had in many years because attracting new audiences has become an art in itself. Older, more established...
You’re up next: Western Mass open mic scene heats up post-pandemic
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Not so long ago, there was a general lament sometimes heard among Valley musicians: “There aren’t enough places to play around here.” That might have been true for professional players who wanted to be paid — and maybe, despite the...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Two world premiers explore family, place and identity
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate World premieres are challenging pieces of theater in every sense. For many theaters and theater companies, it’s safer to produce an “old chestnut”— a show that has a proven track record with audiences, or a show that is...
Staying in the game: Veteran actors and teachers Raye and Candace Birk are still involved with theater after decades of performance
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Looking for some talented older actors who can play a wide range of roles? Who have decades of experience in theater, film and television? Raye Birk and Candace Barrett Birk are at your service. The Florence couple, relatively new...
A song for the ages: Easthampton Theater Company presents ‘Torch Song,’ an iconic work of queer theater
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Ever since the November 2022 elections, politicians in over a dozen Republican-controlled states have seemed to compete with each other in attacking parts of the LGBTQ community: banning or restricting gender-affirming medical care for...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Holiday favorites blend old and new traditions
By JARICE HANSON For the Advocate For theater aficionados December has been rich with holiday performances that run the gamut from musical reviews to the classics, and occasionally, campy reminders that the holidays bring out the child in all of us. This year, three...
New life for Iron Horse: Parlor Room buys longtime entertainment venue, plans to reopen early next year
By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL Staff Writer At long last, the Iron Horse Music Hall has a new owner, and music could be emanating from the venerable Center Street location as soon as February. The Parlor Room, a nearby music venue run by a nonprofit, announced last month...
Mixtape: Music for the people, by the people: New arts cooperative, THCC, seeks home for member-run music venue
By JENNIFER LEVESQUE For the Advocate We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The music scene just hasn’t been the same post-COVID. Many venues remain vacant and are quite literally decaying. Some opened for a short period of time, then closed indefinitely....
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: The best of the Berkshires: Two plays with two different styles give audiences Broadway-quality productions, plus what’s on stage for spooky season
By JARICE HANSON For the Advocate With the summer season winding down and “transition time” — both in terms of the seasons and the local theater offerings — ramping up, two plays stand out as “the best of the best.” Donald Margulies’ newest (and perhaps his best)...
On the big stage: UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center offers music, dance, theater and more in new season
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Like so many other arts venues, the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts had to resort to online productions during the worst of the pandemic. As FAC Director Jamilla Deria told the Gazette at the time, planning for the...
Music with a message: Northampton Jazz Festival takes over downtown next weekend with a celebration of music and civil rights
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Max Roach is celebrated as one of the most influential drummers in jazz history, a pioneer of Bebop who led groundbreaking ensembles in every decade of his long career. As a drummer and a composer, he’s credited with making drums a more...
Lights, camera, action — and more: Black box theater at Holyoke Media becomes a forum for the arts and other events
By STEVE PFARRERStaff Writer Musicians are always looking for another venue to play. Actors and playwrights search for a new place to stage a show. Dancers want another floor to move on. At Holyoke Media, they all can find room. The independent, nonprofit...
Time to swing: Jazz drummer and South Hadley native Joe Farnsworth returns to the Valley for a concert honoring his idol, Max Roach
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Joe Farnsworth was 10 or 11 when he got the chance to meet a drumming legend: Max Roach. It was at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1979, where Roach taught. Farnsworth, who grew up in South Hadley, remembers how one of his...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Post-pandemic, theater companies work to reconnect with audiences
By JARICE HANSON For the Advocate This has been a summer of some outstanding theater opportunities for audiences to become reacquainted with familiar company names that may have been on hiatus over the past couple of years (due to that pesky pandemic that has kept...
End of summer mixtape: A selection of some of my favorite recent releases from Oozie, VIDEORENTAL and Pamela Means
By JENNIFER LEVESQUE For the Advocate Years ago, the late musician Ted Pratt made a Facebook post stating he wanted to start a thrash band and call it “Uzi Jacuzzi.” Intrigued, vocalist and guitarist Tristan Jorud reached out to Pratt and the two got together that...
He might be drunk, but he’ll make you laugh: Comedian Sam Morril brings his Class Act tour to town
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Edgy. Sardonic and deadpan. Willing to joke about difficult subjects. Willing to joke about himself. As Sam Morril sees it, pretty much anything is fair game for comedy, at least as an antidote to the news and to life in general. “It’s a...
Taking Annie Baker’s drama class: Chester Theatre Company closes season with Obie winner “Circle Mirror Transformation”
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Over the years, the Valley has sent some talented playwrights into the world — the late Wendy Wasserstein, a Mount Holyoke College graduate, is one notable name — but few can rival the success of Annie Baker, the 1999 Amherst Regional...
Shantay, You Stay! Queens of western Mass. dispel myths, misconceptions about drag culture
By EMILY THURLOW For the Advocate Whether he’s sporting villainous Maleficent-style horns, channeling his inner witch dressed as Winifred Sanderson, twirling in a red-and-black polka-dot a-line dress or lounging around in a raglan T-shirt, Aaron Johnson is still,...
Stagestruck: Putting Down My Pen
I filed my first article for the Advocate in May 1986. This one is my last. After 36 years and some 2,000 reviews, previews, features, interviews and musings, I’m giving up my ticket to the critic’s proverbial aisle seat and taking my place in line at the box office....
Stagestruck: Backstage Stars
One night last month I was at the Academy of Music for a show, and there, behind the concession stand, was Nikki Beck. “Are there three of you?” I asked, amazed. She laughed and said, “Probably.” Nikki is one of the busiest theater people around. You’ll never see her...
Stagestruck: Christmas at the Darcys’
In this season of entertainments that cater to our appetite for cozy tradition (I’m talking about you, Nutcracker, Messiah and Christmas Carol), two shows next weekend hit the nostalgia nerve from a different angle, adding a holiday-themed sequel to a classic love...
Stagestruck: Wit and Wile on the Riviera
As winter approaches, National Theatre Live serves up a summertime tonic (as in, gin and). The live-capture of the National’s stylish Much Ado About Nothing screens twice this month in the big theater at Amherst Cinema, the Valley’s indispensable film house. Director...
Stagestruck: Riot Grrrls
When I was in London this fall, I saw two shows that turn received history on its head. In the West End, I finally caught up with the long-running mini-musical SIX, in which the half-dozen wives of Henry VIII sing their side of the story. And at the Globe, a new,...
Stagestruck: Becomings
In the Valley this weekend and next, there’s a show in which a man becomes a woman, one in which a man becomes a feminist, and a few more that feature (mostly) women who promise to become hilarious. The latter shows all spring from the same fertile source, Pam...
Stagestruck: Fall Harvest – a cornucopia of theater, music & dance
Next month on area stages (and a screen), three shows that place women front and center, bucking prejudice, expectations, even labels. Plus, a musical farce featuring a woman with a goatee. That one first. Die Fledermaus, the fall offering from Valley Light Opera, is...
Stagestruck: A Happenin’ Weekend
Two shows happening in Franklin County this weekend (c’mon Hampshire, it’s not that far) – one an actual happening, the other a comedy about politics that we could wish were actually happening. The comedy, opening at Silverthorne Theater Company on Friday for a...
Stagestruck: Angela and Lefty
I went to college with Angela Davis, though we moved in different circles. One of us was a campus radical, marching for peace and justice, the other was a serious student focused on getting good grades. The good student was Angela; I was the peace-marcher (and...
Stagestruck: Love and War
The funniest show I’ve ever seen onstage I didn’t see onstage. It was One Man, Two Guv’nors, the runaway hit that began at London’s National Theatre, went on to Broadway, and made a star of James Corden. I saw it onscreen at the Amherst Cinema, part of the NT Live...
Stagestruck: Roots & Wings
The title of the Puppets in the Green Mountains festival that was supposed to happen two years ago came from Goethe: “There are two things that parents should give their children: roots and wings.” Sandglass Theater’s biennial puppetfest revives this month, after the...
Stagestruck: Dancing (and Singing) Queens
Danny Eaton opened the Majestic Theater 25 years ago with a jukebox musical, The Buddy Holly Story. So it’s fitting that this anniversary season on the West Springfield stage kicks off with another hit-parade show – and closes next spring with The Buddy Holly Story....
Stagestruck: The Colossus of Roads
His name was Moses, his chosen people were New Yorkers escaping summer in the city, his promised land was Jones Beach, and his Red Sea crossing was a borough-slicing expressway to Long Island Sound. He was Robert Moses, the fascinating, maddening subject of a smart,...
Stagestruck: Black Plays Matter
2020’s Summer of Rage following the murder of George Floyd — another “last straw” in police killings of Black men — gave rise to much soul-searching in many areas of American society, including the theater community. Some of the fruits were on view this summer. Most...
Stagestruck: Don’t Pass Over This One
The most stimulating, challenging and heartbreaking play I’ve seen this year is playing at Chester Theatre Company through this weekend. Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over takes place on a violent street corner in today’s America, where two young Black men dream of...
Stagestruck: The Land on Which We Dance
It’s become standard practice in the region’s theaters to offer a land acknowledgement before every performance. As Jacob’s Pillow’s artistic director Pamela Tatge says every night, “The land on which we dance is the ancestral homeland” of the Native peoples whose...
Stagestruck: Brothers in Blood
By coincidence, two plays now running in our region center on pairs of Black brothers, one bonded by blood, the other by circumstance. Hymn, now playing at Shakespeare & Company, is a study of class and family framed as a bromance. Pass Over, at Chester Theatre...
Stagestruck: Turning in the Keys
After a boundary-busting 30-year run, the Ko Festival of Performance is coming to a close. Formed as a collaborative, for many years the summer mainstay has been guided by Sabrina Hamilton, one of its co-founders. In a message announcing this final season, Sabrina...
Stagestruck: Tropical Tolstoy
The title character in Anna in the Tropics, now playing at Barrington Stage Company, isn’t a person, but a book. And she plays a central role, thematically, narratively, even physically. The book is Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s winter’s tale of love – illicit,...
Stagestruck: Wars, Merry and Cold
Just about the only things Shakespeare & Company’s two current productions have in common are fresh air and trees. The Bard’s sun-and-shadow comedy Much Ado About Nothing sprawls over the outdoor New Spruce Theater, the set’s Italianate columns backed by a grove...
Stagestruck: Pillow in Motion
Kyle Abraham, who calls his company A.I.M (Abraham In Motion) and dedicates his work to “issues of social and historical significance” and “identity in relation to personal history,” brought a new full-length work to Jacob’s Pillow last week. His deft and daring,...
Stagestruck: Small Disasters
Plays about Big Issues are often more issue than play. Too many are simply platforms for a message, their characters little more than representatives of situations or points of view. The Big Issue in Anna Ouyang Moench’s Birds of North America, at Chester Theatre...
Stagestruck: Two Schools, Worlds Apart
The set in Barrington Stage Company’s ABCD is bisected by a hallway lined with lockers. It both connects and separates two city schools that are miles, and worlds, apart. May Treuhaft-Ali’s world-premiere play (her first professional production, in fact) is based on...
Stagestruck: Once, Upon a Stage
It must be a challenge to cast Once, the 2011 musical based on the 2007 film. The stage version calls for 13 performers who can sing, act and play an instrument, all of them to a high standard, plus do a passable Irish or Czech accent. I’m very happy to report that...
Stagestruck: B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching
Code-switching is a term in linguistics that describes how people raised in two different cultures “switch” their use of language, and by extension behaviors, according to which milieu they’re in. These days, it applies particularly to people of color in a...
Stagestruck: Bodies of Evidence
The Covid Era has been a bad-news/good-news time for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Bad news: On top of being shuttered by the pandemic, in late 2020 the Doris Duke Theatre, the company’s cozy second stage, burned to the ground in an unexplained fire. Last summer and...
Stagestruck: Hot-Weather Hits
After shutting down two years ago, then edging back with skeleton seasons last year, theaters in the region are back at full capacity this summer, for the most part with vax-and-mask policies still in place. Here are some of the shows I’m looking forward to seeing up...
Stagestruck: Annotated Austen
When I saw that Chester Theatre Company was reviving Pride@Prejudice this summer, I went Wow. I love this play. I saw Chester’s original staging in 2011, then again the next year at Capital Rep in New York, and in the Year of Covid I directed an adaptation set in a...E-Edition
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