Stage
Stagestruck: Jacob’s Pillow — Tapping into the Essence of Dance
If dance is “the hidden language of the soul,” as Martha Graham put it, tap is its least bashful dialect. For the past few years Jacob’s Pillow, the country’s premier modern dance festival, has featured tap dancing in its eclectic roster of summertime performances....
Stagestruck: Shaking Up Shakespeare
Shakespeare & Company doesn’t only do Shakespeare. This season, only three out of nine productions are by the company’s namesake, though several others play with Shakespearean themes, from a contemporary reflection on war to a political farce that resonates...
StageStruck: Cat and Tat
Here’s one thing the two very different Tennessee Williams plays now running in the Berkshires have in common: The sets have no walls. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Stockbridge mainstage, four white-and-pastel pillars frame the sparsely...
‘Something about people lifting and throwing logs gets me all giggly and shouty’ Staff Picks for July 14-20, 2016
Split Shift/Fear Nuttin Band – Saturday Split Shift and Fear Nuttin Band are clebrating their 15th anniversaries this weekend. iRockRadio presents Rock Fest featuring the two bands, along with other locals: Sakara, Sever The Drama, NoSho, Neon Fauna, Sanity is...
StageStruck: Power and Value
Two brief plays currently running in the area look at the power and value of art through quite different lenses, but ask similar questions: How does a work of art “speak to us” as individuals? How does its character affect our perception of it? How does its very...
Saturday’s Tribute to Daddy K (KJ Morris) @ Diva’s
This past Saturday at Diva’s Nightclub in Northampton, a tribute to KJ Morris was held. Under the name Daddy K, Morris was a dancer and drag performer at Diva’s and was a huge part of the LGBT community in the Valley. Drag queens and kings, close friends,...
Stagestruck: English Stages, Part One — The National
Three of the four shows I saw at the National Theatre in London last month were star vehicles, and the fourth one’s ensemble cast featured a very well-known face. The first three also, coincidentally, ended in sudden reprieves from ignominious deaths. Another...
Queer Music Before WWII
Wilkommen, Bienvenue Sarah Kilborne’s revelatory new night of cabaret delves into a little-known yet revolutionary moment in music history: queer music composed and performed prior to World War II. Her one-woman show is “an enlightening, enchanting trip to a...
This Weekend: Full Disclosure Festival with a secret history booth, uncertainty cube, +
Meet-Cute ArtFor this year’s Full Disclosure Festival — a weekend of public installation art, performance art, and art to be named — each participating artist was paired with a researcher and sent on a blind date. The point of the meeting was for the artist to get a...
Stage Struck: True Illusions
Two world-premiere musicals have just opened in the region. One is an unassuming little pocket piece with a nifty hook, the other a glamorous spectacular that assumes it’s going to Broadway. The Musical Theatre Lab at Barrington Stage has developed dozens of new works...
Club Life: Happy Brffday to the Queen of Crossplay; Lamb of God Tribute, more
Happy Brffday, GirlThe self-anointed Queen of Crossplay (a blend of cross dressing and cosplay) Serenity Lockhart is having a birthday party Saturday night at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke and everyone is invited. Dress to impress Her Majesty and to coordinate with the...
CHART Who Charges the Highest Concert Ticket Fees in the Valley?
By Kristin Palpini After looking into what the Historic Preservation Fund fee charged for admission to Calvin Theater concerts is for, Advocate staff wanted to know how fees compare around the area. Below is a comparison of the fees charged for upcoming shows at area...
Winter Season Wrap-up
I see a lot of plays, and I cover as many as I can. But the feast of performances always overwhelms the column inches, so now, with a new summer theater season on the horizon, I’m taking a final look back at the shows I’ve enjoyed since last summer. Promising...
StageStruck: Seven Devils, Three Witches and a Nun
Halloween is half a year away, but there are devilish doings in the Valley, foreshadowed by witchery in Lenox. A one-woman show at Amherst College this weekend puts a clown face on a 17th-century tale of demonic possession, and last month Shakespeare & Company...
StageStruck: Revolting Children
When Matilda the Musical opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010 – quickly moving to the West End, where it still resides – the British press greeted it as an “anarchically joyous, gleefully nasty” antidote to the sugary concoctions of other kid-centered musicals. (That...
Pearl Street Punchlines: A visit to Northampton’s open mic comedy night
It’s 7:30 on a Wednesday night at Bishop’s Lounge in Northampton. The crowd is small, but people are filing in one at a time. At the bar, heads turn each time the door opens, looking for a familiar face. The venue is cozy and intimate, and everyone seems to know each...
Whistleblowers: A new musical reveals the history of child factory labor in the Hilltowns
When you browse the faded pages of an historical account, local lives don’t always shimmer to the surface. But Hampshire College professor of History Susan Tracy noticed a few intriguing details when she was paging through the 1870 census for Colrain, the small...
Stagestruck: Stan and Ollie, Meet Punch and Judy — Serious Play’s “Endgame”
The story goes that Samuel Beckett was walking through a London park with a friend on a glorious spring morning when his companion exclaimed, “Isn’t this just the kind of day that makes you glad to be alive?” To which Beckett replied, “Oh, I don’t think I’d go that...
Get Out with Staff Picks
Amherst Art Walk • Thursday The first Thursday of every month is Art Walk night in Amherst. From 5 to 8 p.m. downtown galleries throw open their doors to art lovers. This Thursday, check out Stephen Gingold’s nature photography, Hillary Wilbur Ferro’s prints and...
StageStruck: Class Act — A drawing-room whodunit indicts the social order
An Inspector Calls starts off like a good old-fashioned drawing-room whodunit, proceeds through a roller-coaster of revelations that incriminate just about everyone, and ends with a Twilight Zone-worthy surprise. J.B. Priestley’s play, written during the Second World...
San Fran Caravan
On a recent trip to the Bay Area to visit family and friends, I also (of course) saw three shows – a smart new comedy, a hit Broadway musical, and a big-tent extravaganza in which circus meets horse whisperer. When this area’s summer-season lineups are...
Gone girls
America is obsessed with breasts. So what does it mean for a woman when she has to give hers up? Written by local playwright Laurel Turk, Breastless is the story of one woman’s determinedly truthful exploration of body image and sexuality after a double mastectomy....
Whodunit?
Stuffed to the brim after enjoying a dinner celebrating their daughter’s engagement to a business competitor’s son, the wealthy Birlings are all rubbing their bellies when Inspector Goole shows up and accuses them of being involved in the murder of a working-class...
“The StageStruckies” — Advocate theater critic’s annual review
Winter is drawing in and I’m looking back on the many shows I’ve seen this year. Some have been naughty, most have been nice, and a few are getting lumps of coal from this reviewer. So here are my virtual awards — let’s call them “The StageStruckies”...
Boo! It’s Christmas
An old miser eats some strange cheese and gets visited by four ghosts: his dead business partner and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. They cajole, guilt and scare him into being less of a stingy crank to his family and employee. And it works. Ebenezer...
StageStruck: The Double Whammies – Part One of critic Chris Rohmann’s year-end theater review
Looking back on the 100-plus theater productions I’ve seen this year, I’ve noticed how many of them fall into pairs of various kinds. In my next column I’ll be handing out awards for the year’s best—and worst—productions and performances. But first, let’s take a look...
It’s Nutcracker time!
The wind gets cold, the winter holidays draw near, and Pioneer Valley Ballet presents its annual performance of the Nutcracker ballet. The Nutcracker is the classic tail of a weirdo godfather bestowing gifts on wealthy kids at a party. One of the toys, a nutcracker,...
StageStruck: Eyre Apparent
Here’s the thing about theater: It brings performers and spectators together in a mutual act of imagination – and the simpler the stage, the greater the imaginative act. The lush British costume dramas that come to our TV and movie screens are essentially Classics...
Winter Arts Preview
Super Troupe Pilobolus Dance Theatre has been praised with innumerable adjectives over its 34-year history: endearing, emotional, witty, hilarious, colorful — and my favorite, from The Los Angeles Times: “physically awesome.” Founded in 1971 by Dartmouth College...
Staff Picks: And the Neighbors, Pink Panther and more
Rhythm Inc With Total Collision • Saturday This Thanksgiving week, Rhythm Inc and Total Collision — featuring members of the Springfield-based Fear Nuttin Band — will remind the Valley we have some awesome reggae-hip-hop fusion to be grateful for. The two groups will...
Stagestruck: Anal Sex Meets Show Tunes – A new musical finds Don Juan on campus
I’m not a prude,” says Mark Swanson, “but it does feel strange telling the singers to be sure to enunciate fuck-ing.” He’s the music director for Donny Johns, a new musical opening at UMass Amherst this weekend. It’s a way-updated riff on the Don Juan story, set...
StageStruck: Six Degrees of Bloody Murder
The first time I saw Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller about a wheelchair-bound photographer who solves a murder while gazing out his window, I was so scared by the gripping climax that I couldn’t shut my eyes in bed for fear of intruders in the dark. Mind...
StageStuck: Flying Fishes
I have a friend who’s an Episcopal priest. When we first met, I asked him if his was a High Church or Low Church, referring to the degree of formality in the service. He replied, “We’re a Whatever Works Church.” That’s pretty much the strategy adopted by Abigail, the...
Journey to the Center
John Sheldon is tired. Tired, he says, “of seeing how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves, how we treat our planet.” He’s embarked on a Journey to the Center of the Earth — “the place where everything intersects, where life really comes from.” His vehicle for...
StageStruck: The Odd Quartet – Barbershop harmony, with an ethnic difference
Mark St. Germain is a founding member of Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield and its practically-resident playwright, having debuted eight scripts there over the years. His best-known works are fictional peeks into the lives of real people, including Sigmund Freud...
StageStruck: Main Street Parade – A 20th-century travelogue comes back home
Double Edge Theatre may call their Ashfield farmstead home, but they are a world-class, and world-traveling, company. In addition to their annual farm-spanning summer spectacle and small-scale shows in their barn-theater, for the past couple of years they’ve been...
Review: Out of Tragedy, Magic and Myth
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...
Don’t Blink: Live Art Magazine showcases one-night-only local acts in Northampton
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....
StageStruck: NT Liveliest
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...
Stagestruck: Endless Summer – Berkshire theaters carry on into the fall
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...
Get In Here! Local Fall Arts Preview
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...
StageStruck: Industrious Angels
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...
Stagestruck: In the Vanguard – Women take center stage in the Valley
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...
Arts & Culture: Herencia Latina, a celebration of Latino American heritage in the Pioneer Valley
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...
The Faces of War: Two plays at the Academy of Music bring the U.S. military into sharp relief
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...
Stagestruck: Last Acts — Summer theaters wind down their seasons
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,...
StageStruck: Small and Smart
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...
StageStruck: Two-Handers
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...
Stagestruck: When Civilization Goes ‘D’oh!’ Homer, Bart, et al. as survivors in a post-electric age
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...
Dance-Theater at the Pillow
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...
Berkshire What-Ifs
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...
Intertwining Roots: Teens explore race relations through music and dance
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...
Nightcrawler: Presto-Chango, magicians come to CT
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...
Summer Arts Preview: The Best Up-coming Concerts, Shows, and Events of the Season
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...
Scene Here: Springfield Symphony Hall
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,...
StageStruck: Homer’s Daughter
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...
Madness, Mayhem, 24 Hours
“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...
The Arts: Saving their own lives
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The Arts: Music, shadows and gongs
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