Food, friends, music and beer: Food Truck Fridays is the place to be in Easthampton this summer
By ALEXA LEWIS Staff Writer Going out with friends can be challenging when clashing tastes in food make it impossible to choose a restaurant. But for Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton, the solution to this predicament is simple, and it comes rolling in on four...
Stagestruck: Small Disasters
Anna Ouyang Moench’s “Birds of North America,” at Chester Theatre Company, is the kind of piece in which Chester specializes and excels – small, subtle dramas that pull you in and make you think. It’s about climate change, but doesn’t hammer the theme. It’s more metaphor than polemic, more quiet anguish than loud confrontation.
Monte Belmonte Wines: The wine world is your oyster
Why, then, the world's mine oyster, Which I, with sword, will open. — William Shakespeare from The Merry Wives of Windsor Scott Soares’s world is an oyster. Well, his world when he is not being appointed by Presidents Obama and Biden to be USDA Rural...
The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: I’m Threatened By My Girlfriend’s Masturbation Habits
Hey Yana, I’ve been in a serious relationship for almost two years now and am only now feeling strong flare-ups of intense insecurity around sex. My partner and I have been having sex every day at least once a day, if not two or three, consistently for the...
Social Equity Programs try to level playing field for cannabis
Ilya Tunitskiy arrived in the United States when he was 7 years old, his family, who are Jewish, having fled religious persecution in Tajikistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tunitskiy said he grew up to be a normal teenager who, like so many others,...
Pride Proud: Celebrations emerge in some cities, replacing those that fizzled in others
When Taurean Bethea came out as a gay man at 33 years old, he never pictured himself waving a flag or marching in a parade about it. “It wasn’t something I felt was needed. Like, why do I need to announce my orientation? It just didn’t make sense to me,” he said. But...
Stagestruck: Two Schools, Worlds Apart
In the early 2000s, teachers and students at two U.S. schools – one student body predominantly Black and Latinx, the other white and Asian-American – were caught in wholesale cheating on mandated exams. May Treuhaft-Ali’s world-premiere play “ABCD,” at Barrington Stage Company, is molded by these incidents, but she’s motivated by the knowledge that they were not outlier instances.
Stagestruck: Once, Upon a Stage
“Once,” the 2011 musical based on the 2007 film, 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. Berkshire Theatre Group’s production pretty much checks all those boxes, with delightful results.
Stagestruck: B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching
“I see someone who wants to be told who they are, so they don’t got to ask it of themselves,” the photographer/savior says. “You’re so darn scared of feeling pain, you just don’t feel nothing at all.”
Stagestruck: Bodies of Evidence
Social/political themes are abundantly present in “The Equality of Night and Day,” a world-premiere work at Jacob’s Pillow from the Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE dance company.
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. Here are some of the shows I’m looking forward to seeing up and down the Valley.
Sessions
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Heather Maloney on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Iconic indie rock and Americana with nuanced lyrics and expressive melodies
The V-Spot: Do I Talk Too Much in Bed?
Does this mean you can just run your mouth, continuing to make her uncomfortable in the name of your personal consent crusade? No, of course not, but let’s explore the middle ground.
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Stagestruck: Summer Snapshots
Thinking back over the summer theater season just ended, images from memorable shows are passing before my mind’s eye, and ear — from striking moments in performances to sets and soundscapes. Here are some Valley snapshots. Chester Theatre Company celebrated its 30th...










