Stagestruck: Small Disasters

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

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...

Stagestruck: Two Schools, Worlds Apart

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

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: Bodies of Evidence

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

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.

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Stagestruck: Summer Snapshots

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...