Stage
Making It Up: Solo actor Seth Lepore courts uncomfortable moments onstage
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...
Between the Lines: The Vagina Dialogues
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...
Stagestruck: Sunshine and Shadow
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...
Just say Yes, and…
“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...Stagestruck: Carving the Pie
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...
Puppets and Potatoes
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...Alternative Theater
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...
Dream Theater
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...
Shaggy Dog Story
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...
Younger but Wiser
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...
Blood Relations
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...Double Edge Theatre
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...All in the Timing
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...
Use Your Illusion
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...
Print of the Week: Muscovite Muscle
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...
Rock 'n' Roll High School?
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:...
There's a Hole…
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...
With Forks and Hope
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...
Scout and Clown
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...
Pick of the Week: Enchanted March
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...
To Slip Away…
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...
Kickin' It
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...
She's Got Legs
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...
Gentlemen, Yes!
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,...
Fresh Side Story
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...
In a Name
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...
Belly Interesting
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...Play In A Day
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...
City of Angels
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...
Vaude-Villains
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...
Ballet For Battle
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...
Diaspora Diorama
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...
Amazonian Appetites
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...
Dream the Impossible Dream
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...
Arts Part: Smelling Good
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),...
Innuendo A Go-Go
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...
Writing About
Talking With, a play by Jane Martin, is a group of stories aimed at evoking a sense of the Everywoman. The cast for the show includes many members of the Town Players. The characters who inhabit the play include an elderly woman looking for some peace and quiet, a...
On Stage
Under the direction of Jodi Falk and Jennifer Polins, the Catalyst Dance Company performs in downtown Northampton this week in celebration of its 10th anniversary. The program takes place in Pulaski Park and features work choreographed by Jim Coleman, Therese...
Going Greek
If you've ever wondered if there was more to sorority life than pillow fights, sweater sets and cute frat boys, don't miss this week's installment of Funny Fridays. Ladies from ImprovBoston (pictured) trek west to perform RUSH, an improvised insiders'...
Dramatic Vegetables
Broccoli is seldom accused of being sexy. But it is, of course, good for you. If you (or your kids) don't like eating your vegetables, the pep talk fun of Foodplay may be just the spoonful of sugar you need to chomp down the cruciferous stuff. The troupe employs...
Refugees in Song
Following the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959, the Drepung Loseling Monastery, in the hills on the northern outskirts of Lhasa, was closed, along with nearly all of Tibet's 6,500 monasteries. Many were completely destroyed. Most of Loseling's monks were...
Pope Hope
In 1965, the country was in the midst of a vicious war, had just endured the assassination of its beloved president, and was embarking on an era of free love and decadence. John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves (which first premiered off-Broadway in 1971) is set in...
Our American Tragedy
"Sockdologizing" was a fashionable slang word in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it means stunning, forceful or decisive, as a blow. It's one of the last few words President Abraham Lincoln heard before he was shot.Lincoln and his wife, Mary, seated in...
Jagged Little Pillow
Modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn and his wife, Ruth St. Denis, purchased the Jacob’s Pillow farm in 1930 in hopes of creating a pastoral setting for their dance company. But the Denishawn Company’s residence was to be short-lived—the couple separated a...
For Never Was a Story of More Woe
Abitter family feud, unrequited young love and suicide–not reality TV, but the classic story of Romeo and Juliet. The local Hampshire Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare Under the Stars 2008 summer season kicks off with a production of this enduring, popular...
Sirens and Scallywags
Pregnant with connotations of Johnny Depp and stacks of illegally copied CDs, the word "pirate" lurks in the blogosphere and on our televisions. But rarely does one get to observe live-action swashbuckling. Enter The Mad Pirate and the Mermaid, in which an...
Big Top Talent
There’s a new circus in town. Circus Smirkus brings together talented children ages 14 to 19 from around the world. Audiences are treated to a dazzling array of acrobatics, juggling and madcap antics, with hilarious lessons in science, math, history and...
Aftermath
After 15 years apart, Ray and Una meet again. So begins David Harrowers' Olivier Award-winning play, Blackbird, the latest production by the Chester Theatre Company. Their relationship would have been unremarkable had Una not been 12 and Ray 40 at the time of...
The Expert's Secret
John Hodgman has a secret. Fortunately, he isn’t very good at keeping it. This week, the comedian and writer performs a “completely secret” show at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls. Audiences may readily recognize him as the disgruntled PC in a recent...
All the Park's a Stage
"It's really like the circus coming to town," says Steven Maler, artistic director of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. To mount a three-night engagement of As You Like It in Forest Park Aug. 8-10, Maler's troupe will head west from Boston with...
Wiping Up
Among the most absorbent of hip-hop performers, MC Mr. Napkins raps about common concerns with an earnestness that's far less dramatic than the braggadocio of most gangstas. When he takes on a cop, it's a cop who's stopped Mr. Napkins for not obeying...
Paint It Black
Founding member and director Tony Simotes of Shakespeare & Company draws some fascinating parallels between the story of their current production, Othello, and the situation in present-day America. Othello, a Moorish mercenary who is chosen to lead the navy of...
Wrung Dry
Chester Theatre doesn't mess around when it comes to casting. Their actors tend to have extensive, impressive bios. That often makes a visit to what used to be called "the miniature theatre" worthwhile. In the case of Chester Theatre's current...
Marathon Man
Ten thirty. That’s 10:30 a.m.—not a respectable hour for theater people. Still digesting my morning coffee, I’m sitting in Shakespeare & Company’s mainstage theater amid a respectable, if compact, crowd of theatergoers. It’s the...
Cutting Both Ways
The Double Edge Theatre farm in Ashfield seems like a rural kingdom. Its main buildings cluster together near the road, and its 105 acres stretch away into the hills. Bringing the troupe to Ashfield from its original Allston home (a move the group made in 1995) was an...
Comedic Jihad
If only the Middle East could take a cue from these two travelling comedians: Azhar Usman (a Muslim) and Rabbi Bob Alper (a Jew) have combined their respective arsenals of yuks to battle a common enemy: boredom.Alper, who holds a doctorate from Princeton’s...
Feed Me!
It's a pretty safe bet that sometime in your adult life, you will manage to kill a few houseplants through simple neglect. Though it's easy to forget to pour water over your roommate's African violets every morning, it's pretty hard for even the most...
Cowardly Lyin'
By coincidence, both Pittsfield's Barrington Stage Company and the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge are currently running plays by that epitome of urbane wit and sexual skirmishing, Noel Coward. Both productions are attired in smoking jackets and evening...
Better Than Beijing
If, like most people, you didn't get a chance to go to Beijing and witness the spectacular show of human strength, agility and showmanship that is the Olympics, have no fear, Cirque du Soleil offers a chance to see some other extraordinary physical feats (and you...E-Edition
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