Stage
by Hunter Styles | Nov 3, 2015 | Arts, Stage
Double Edge Theatre brings its high-flying act to Springfield Soldiers who died in the muddy trenches of World War I left newborn children at home. By the time those children turned 50, Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the moon. The 20th century was a time...
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Amanda
Drane | Oct 13, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Stage
Within seconds of meeting each other, tap and jazz dancer David Bovat and percussionist Jeff Hinrichs are moving and grooving. Hinrichs lays down a quick tempo on the djembe, which makes a deep, hollow sound, and Bovat’s tap shoes start click-clacking in double time....
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 7, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
If proof were needed of the sheer variety in the transatlantic fare served up by the National Theatre’s NT Live, we’d need to look no farther than the next two offerings in that stage-to-screen series coming to the Amherst Cinema. One is a classic Restoration...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Time was, at the end of August the summer theaters would fold their (figurative) tents and wait for spring. While that’s still true of the Valley theaters that brighten our hot-weather months, three of the Big Four Berkshire festivals now extend their seasons into the...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 29, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, News, Stage
What’s on tap for arts and culture over the next few months in the Pioneer Valley: Party Animals How do you describe The Surrealist Cabaret by the Royal Frog Ballet? You let the frogs do it. From the event’s website, The Surrealist Cabaret “is a walking...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 23, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
It’s all about possibility – “One of Emily’s favorite terms,” Wendy Kohler explained as we gathered in pairs and singles at the Emily Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, ready to embark on “an immersive journey” inspired by her letters, poems and hometown. Kohler is...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 22, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
You’ll probably think I’m some kind of androphobe, or that I’m just beating the same drum to death, but after a summer when so many of my favorite plays and performances were by women, I couldn’t help noticing the same theme carrying into the fall. Turns out the...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 14, 2015 | Arts, Film, Music, News, Stage
Herencia Latina Pioneer Valley is a celebration of the region’s Latino American heritage. The Pioneer Valley History Network is working in collaboration with Latino organizations, local libraries, museums, and colleges to bring a schedule of programs, activities, and...
by Hunter Styles | Sep 8, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Stage
Pittsburgh playwright Tammy Ryan was picking up her daughter from kindergarten in 2007 when she noticed the mother standing next to her, dressed in military fatigues and combat boots. They had met the week before. Now, she was leaving for a nine-month deployment. “I...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
As the season winds down, several summer theaters in the area have already folded their tents, with others running through this weekend and a couple playing through the end of the month. You can have your pick of a classic American drama, a classic screwball comedy,...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
My partner and I spend a week on Cape Cod each summer, and while the beach is restorative, for me the trip is also a very welcome busman’s holiday. By sheer good fortune, the timing of our visit allows us to catch two productions by the hands-down hottest...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 5, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
A pair of two-character plays now on area stages illustrate the crucial importance of casting. With only two actors – both of them, in these cases, onstage the whole time – the stakes increase. The players not only have to complement each other, artistically and...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 4, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
The summer season still has a month to go — with new productions still in the wings — but already the hands-down winner for Most Intriguing and Strange can be named. It’s New Century Theatre’s season closer, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, a meditation on human...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 1, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I’m more a theater person than a dance person – though attending Jacob’s Pillow for the past three summers has given me a much greater appreciation for (and understanding of) the terpsichorean art. So this season I was especially interested in a couple of...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Four plays I saw last week at Berkshire theater companies demonstrate the variety and versatility of the region’s summer stages: a musical born of adolescent angst; a period piece with – a rarity in any season – an all-African-American cast; a glossy drama about...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 23, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Stage
Bernice Kwade lives in two worlds at the same time. “When I’m at home, it’s a totally different environment than when I go out,” she said. “My parents are trying to instill traditional African values in me, but we live in America now. I want to have a more liberal...
by Gary Carra | Jun 16, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler, Stage
Magician Criss Angel recently appeared at a special press conference at Connecticut’s Foxwoods casino to reveal his latest trick. “My goal is to redefine magic touring like Cirque du Soleil did for the circus,” Angel said of his upcoming Supernaturalist show, an...
by James Heflin | Jun 2, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Stage
Summertime, and the livin’ is greatly enhanced by a calendar ripe with performances. In a Valley that comes alive with music, theater, and every other incarnation of the arts, it can be tough to know where to turn. We’ve compiled a short list of highlights from the...
by Kristin Palpini | May 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Scene Here, Stage
It’s the final performance of the 2015 Springfield Symphony Orchestra season and the 71-year-old group has put together a timely show, The Rite of Spring with Spencer Myer on piano. Buses for retired living communities line the street outside. Inside Symphony Hall,...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 15, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
Jeannine Haas confesses that she “got through 21 years of formal education without ever reading the Iliad,” and that when she was first preparing to perform the one-person play based on that epic, “I thought, ‘Oy, it is gonna be a pain to read.’ But honestly, it was a...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 10, 2015 | Stage, Stagestruck
“This is how I feel about the 24-Hour Theater Project: I think doing it is nuts.” That’s Elizabeth Foley, one of the organizers of Northampton’s annual festival of instant theater, which blooms and dies again this Saturday. The event, which she describes as...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, Music, Stage
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by James Heflin | Feb 4, 2015 | Arts, Film, Music, Stage
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by Chris Rohmann | Feb 3, 2015 | Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I was in Singapore last month when, by happy coincidence, the Singapore Fringe Festival, an annual showcase of alternative theater and visual arts, was underway. Over half of the festival’s 11 productions were homegrown, and I caught four of them. The performances (in...
by James Heflin | Jan 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Stage
Photos by Jerrey Robers and James Heflin For a lot of people, it’s the stuff of anxiety dreams: a mic awaits on a stage. An expectant crowd is staring at you. You don’t have a script, even if you’ve done some homework — you just have to talk. That scenario is, says...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Between the Lines, Featured, Film, News, Stage
The show must go on, as they say — until it’s gone on long enough. On Jan. 14, the student-run Project Theatre group at Mount Holyoke College canceled its annual production of Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues, opting instead to write and produce a new show of...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 1, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
As the year has drawn to a close, I’ve been looking back over the hundred-plus shows I’ve seen in 2014. And as the seasons begin to turn from the dark back into the light, I’ve been thinking about some of those theater moments when a dark theme was...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 1, 2015 | Stage
“The watchword of improv,” Pam Victor reminds us, “is yes, and… ” That means going with whatever your scene partner throws at you, and adding something of your own that moves things along. Victor and her fellow improvisers in The...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 1, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
Two years ago on this page I looked back at the first annual Valley Gives Day, a 24-hour fundraising event for area nonprofits, organized by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. The intention was to provide a common platform for local organizations...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 24, 2014 | News, Stage
In Britain and the Commonwealth, the day after Christmas is celebrated as Boxing Day — traditionally a day for gifts to servants and the poor, now observed as an extra opportunity to recover from the Christmas Day glut. Sandglass Theater’s An Almost Victorian...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 5, 2007 | Stage
Most of the region's summer theaters are up and running, with a couple more still waiting in the wings. A glance through the schedules—and the ticket prices—reveals two interesting disparities: between the Valley and the Berkshires, and in the hills...
by James Heflin | Jul 19, 2007 | Stage
There's never much danger of boredom at a Double Edge Theatre performance. There is, however, an occasional sense of real danger—actors swing through the air, rappel down buildings, and have close encounters with fire. Theirs is theater of physicality and...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 26, 2007 | Stage
My Pal GeorgeWritten and performed by Rick Cleveland; directed by Eric Simonson. Through July 21, Berkshire Theatre Festival (Unicorn Theatre), Main Street, Stockbridge, (413) 298-5576.Two summers ago, Rick Cleveland sat at a center-stage table in the Berkshire...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 9, 2007 | Stage
Kimberly AkimboBy David Lindsay-Abaire; directed by Ed Golden. Through July 28 at New Century Theatre, Theater 14, Smith College, 413-587-3933.This is about those families where the parents are immature and irresponsible, so the kids have to grow up too fast. It...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 15, 2007 | Stage
Two-HeadedBy Julie Jensen, directed by Marc Geller. Through August 18, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, (413) 298-5576.In September 1857, a wagon train bound for California camped in southwestern Utah near a Mormon settlement. The fanatical and paranoid Mormon...
by Advocate staff | Aug 22, 2007 | Stage
Ashfield’s Double Edge Theatre celebrates its 25th year this weekend with tales of Merlin, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The Magician of Avalon is a collaboration with Charlestown Working Theatre of Boston, q-Staff Theatre of Albuquerque, New...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 15, 2008 | Stage
Shakespeare & Company isn’t only about Shakespeare. Over 30 years they have salted their repertoire with non-classical fare, with an increasing emphasis on modern works. This summer, two of the troupe’s mainstage offerings are Shakespeares and two are...
by Sarah Feldberg | Feb 20, 2008 | Stage
Cultural nostalgia and myopia tend to make family psychodramas seem like a symptom of modern malaise as “discovered” by Mr. Freud and dramatized by Mr. Allen. Tony Kushner reminds us that intergenerational conflicts are timeless in his adaptation of Pierre...
by Sarah Gibbons | Feb 21, 2008 | Stage
In Russia, the circus has long been a higher art form, one nearly as revered as ballet. Due to Catherine the Great’s patronage, the circus was quickly woven into Russia’s cultural tapestry, and highly competitive state circus schools were eventually...
by Sarah Feldberg | Feb 28, 2008 | Stage
Rock 'n' Roll High School?I've always been guiltily familiar with tabloid culture, and quick to concede the merits of The O.C. and the cross-generational appeal of Mean Girls. However, in my old age, I've apparently fallen slightly out of the loop:...
by Sarah Gibbons | Mar 6, 2008 | Stage
The word "lacuna" means gap, missing information, the space between, a hiatus. It is appropriate, then, that Amherst college student Jonah Shepp chose Lacuna Park for the title of his play to be performed at Amherst College's intimate Studio 3. The play...
by Tom Sturm | Mar 6, 2008 | Stage
Lewis Carroll's work has been inspirational to a host of authors, illustrators, filmmakers and playwrights alike, his writings perhaps spearheading the genres of modern fantasy and/or literary surrealism. One can detect his influence everywhere from The...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 19, 2008 | Stage
Commedia dell Smartass By Sonya Sobieski; directed by Dan and Ellen Morbyrne. Serious Play New Directors Series, East Street Studios, 47 East St., Hadley, March 7-9, 14-15, (413) 584-5535. That title is intentionally double-take-inducing. It opens with the...
by James Heflin | Mar 20, 2008 | Stage
Enchanted April, which premiered in Hartford, is the story of two World War II-era British women who meet at a social club. The pair, tired of their stuffy lives, decide to rent an Italian castle for the month of April, along with two other women. All four experience...
by Tom Sturm | Mar 27, 2008 | Stage
Based on the novel of the same name by Amherst-based writer Ilan Stavans, The Disappearance follows the post-Holocaust story of a Belgian actor's struggle for identity. The story and sets transport the viewer from places like the National Theatre to the Amsterdam...
by Levon Kinney | Apr 3, 2008 | Stage
Don't be alarmed when the ground begins to shake in Northampton this Sunday. The seismic activity usually associated with the San Andreas Fault is the result of 10 dance companies and schools prancing to and fro for the semi-annual Just for Kicks performance to...
by Kendra Thurlow | Apr 10, 2008 | Stage
Slowly the young woman lowers the giant fan spanning her body—just enough that her shy eyes peek out. She blinks coquettishly at her audience before raising the fan again, high enough to show off her garter adorned with tassels that sway back and forth as her...
by Levon Kinney | Apr 10, 2008 | Stage
What do William Howard Taft, badminton duels and heavy petting have in common? They are some of the subjects of these gentlemen's quest for fun, accompanied by harmonious kazooing. The Two Man Gentlemen Band offers a feverish blend of banjo, bass, foot-stomping,...
by Kendra Thurlow | Apr 17, 2008 | Stage
Most of the performers gracing the stage at Northampton's Academy of Music next week in West Side Story are high school- and college-age, with a few notable exceptions like radio personalities Bill Dwight and Chris Collins. "I could have cast this musical...
by Sarah Gibbons | Apr 17, 2008 | Stage
The spelling of the word "theater" inspires at least tepid debate. Some think "theater" refers to the venue while "theatre" refers to the medium, but many examples to the contrary appear. It seems as though those who employ the...
by Sarah Gibbons | Apr 17, 2008 | Stage
The precise control of the abdominal muscles and the independently operating hips of belly dancers collaborate in a set of movements that can seem more foreign than even the mysterious strains of the oud (Middle Eastern stringed instrument) to which they dance. During...
by Kendra Thurlow | Apr 24, 2008 | Stage
Started in 2002 by Hadley playwright Tanyss Rhea Martula, the 24-Hour Theater Project is a whirlwind of theatrics as playwrights, directors and actors produce several short plays within 24 hours. Starting from scratch, playwrights have 12 hours to conceive and...
by Chase Scheinbaum | Apr 24, 2008 | Stage
Los Angeles, that sparkling, sunny city, is known as much for its grit as its glitz. There are gunshots and gangs, seismic rumblings and smog, not to mention the harrowing realities of parking. This darkness contrasts with the bright lights and sunshine, rendering the...
by Sarah Gibbons | Apr 24, 2008 | Stage
Sitting in Hugo's, nursing the end of a head cold and a whiskey sour one rainy February night last year, I was surrounded by friends, acquaintances and assorted locals in various states of dress and sobriety. There was a building sense of anticipation, as those of...
by Kendra Thurlow | Apr 24, 2008 | Stage
The 1957 Broadway debut and the 1961 version of West Side Story featured explosive, athletic ballet, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, who had the initial idea for the musical. Drawing inspiration from Robbins, break dancing, crumping and capoeira, choreographer Maura...
by Sarah Feldberg | May 1, 2008 | Stage
Think of shadow puppets, and diaspora and political persecution are not necessarily the first things that come to mind. However, Philadelphia-based artist Erik Ruin has used a fairly unsophisticated medium to explore darker topics. His show, Flight, utilizes intricate...
by Sarah Feldberg | May 8, 2008 | Stage
The myth of Medea has been a profound source of inspiration for 20th- and 21st-century artists with drastically different aesthetics: everyone from Leonard Baskin to Margaret Atwood has been inspired by the tale of the mother who murdered her children to avenge her...
by Sarah Gibbons | May 14, 2008 | Stage
Firmly established as a seminal work of fiction, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote not only deals with philosophical themes like identity and deception, but also with their comedic foils, imitation and fantasy. Cervantes instills in his character qualities that...
by James Heflin | May 15, 2008 | Stage
This fall, the Massachusetts Review will publish a play by UMass-Amherst professor Julian Olf. This week, as a result, Olf’s play will premier at UMass. It’s got quite a handle (parentheses included), (People Almost Always Smell Good in the Art Museum),...
by Sarah Gibbons | May 21, 2008 | Stage
Protestantism, fish and chips, The Office, the English language and punk are just a few of the British things we Americans have taken and made our own. Some say this Americanization strips the original British-ism of its refinement, while others remember that the...
