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In Like A Lioness
By Bess Hochstein
This year March arrives with a greater roar than ever. It’s Women’s History Month, and Bard College at Simon’s Rock’s Eighth Annual International Women’s Day Conference, The Power of  Women in the Arts, kicks off on March 6 with a staged reading of renowned social psychologist/author Carol Gilligan’s adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. The next day’s program features a stellar line-up including Gilligan; actress/fiber artist Karen Allen; Martha Richards, founder and executive director of The Fund for Women Artists; award-winning Latina poet and human rights activist Marjorie Agosin; Susan Fisher Sterling, director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; and Irina Brooks, director in residence at Shakespeare & Company.
This year’s theme proved so relevant to our region that it spawned the month-long, first-ever Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts. Sponsored by The Women’s Times, the Festival encompasses more than 60 cultural events across all media -- from music, dance, theater, and spoken-word performances to film, lectures, and visual arts exhibitions -- in more than 30 venues, including Norman Rockwell Museum, MASS MoCA, The Clark, The Mount, Williams College ’62 Center, Hancock Shaker Village, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Storefront Artists Project, The Lichtenstein Center, Barrington Stage Company, and Ferrin Gallery.
For example, on March 9, Tina Packer, founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, presents “Women of Will,” her exploration of women’s roles in the plays of Shakespeare’s middle years. On March 15 both Images Cinema and The Triplex will screen the Oscar-nominated documentary Twin Lenses, about twin sisters who changed the course of fashion and magazine photography -- and host a discussion with filmmaker Naomi Rosenblum and her mother, Naomi Rosenblum, author of the recently re-issued book, A History of Women Photographers. On March 21, MASS MoCA presents “The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success),” a work-in-progress by the ever-inventive Cynthia Hopkins. And Grammy-winning country/blues diva Kathy Mattea hits the Mahaiwe stage on March 22.
 A centerpiece of the festival is the She’s Got Moxie! Awards Gala on March 13, celebrating women who have recently launched ambitious, successful cultural initiatives. The first recipients are Sara Katzoff, co-founder of the Berkshire Fringe Festival; Kelley Vickery, founder of the Berkshire International Film Festival; and Laurie Norton Moffatt and Ellen Spear, heads of, respectively, Norman Rockwell Museum and Hancock Shaker Village, and co-founders of the Berkshire Creative Economy Council. I’ve already reserved my seats at Shakespeare & Company for this must-see event.
We may as well move into Shakespeare & Co. that weekend; the next night, March 14, is IS183 Art School’s annual fundraising silent auction/dance party. This year year’s blow-out, The Hair Ball, at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, will be preceded by dinners at private homes and restaurants -- including Allium, Church Street Café, Firefly, and Haven -- and at Seven Salon Spa. To salute to all things hirsute, in early February Peter Alvarez held a cocktail party at his Lenox salon, treating IS183 patrons to “100 Years of Hair,” a show of iconic style through the decades. As another tease to “the mane event,” on February 26 Mission Bar + Tapas will host a preview of artwork donated for IS183’s silent auction by local artists, including the chance to bid early, “buy it now,” and purchase raffle tickets for an original watercolor study by Walton Ford (recently profiled in The New Yorker). Not only is Mission a great place to enjoy tapas and Spanish wine, it’s a hot new performance venue, hosting musicians, poetry slams, and open-mic nights, and presenting singer/songwriter showcases at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage 2, including an evening of regional folk/rock artists on February 28.
Speaking of BSC, over Valentine’s Day weekend I was fortunate to secure a seat for the sold-out cabaret evening “Kiss This,” featuring songs about love by up-and-coming artists, many of whom are showcased in the summer Musical Theatre Lab. If you’re in New York City on March 9, you can share the love preview summer productions during a benefit for the Lab at the Cosmopolitan Club, hosted by artistic director Julianne Boyd and Tony Award winner William Finn. And if you’re a fan of cabaret MC Nikos Tsakalakos, plan to attend BSC’s Memorial Day Weekend readings of “Poolside at the Hotel BelAir,” a musical he concocted while living in Pittsfield last summer. For your own chance to shine, sign up for BSC’s audition workshops in March, led by Boyd and Debra Jo Rupp (star of “That 70’s Show”), or enroll your children in the Saturday morning KidsAct! program.
At Shakespeare & Co., Elizabeth Aspenlieder has been lionized with rave reviews and sold-out shows for her solo performance in “Bad Dates,” which continues through March 8. “Romeo & Juliet” is touring schools throughout the Northeast, with hometown performances on March 19 & 20. K and I will be touring the county -- north to MASS MoCA on February 28 for choreographer Anouk Van Dijk’s evening-length performance, “Shotz,” and back again on March 2 to see Japan’s Awaji Puppet Theater Company at Williams ’62 Center – and south to the Mahaiwe for “Forever Tango” on March 1; live-in-HD broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera’s new “Madama Butterfly” on March 7 and “La Sonambula” on March 21; and “War of the Worlds & The Lost World” by L.A. Theatre Works on March 14. Of course there’s plenty going on mid-county; on February 28 Mad Science presents two performances of “CSI: LIVE!” at the Colonial, which is hosting National Acrobats of China on March 11; “Revolution: A Tribute to the Beatles” on March 14; the live musical “Footloose!” March 16-17; and “Celtic Crossroads” on March 20. We’ll stay closer to home on March 11 to see the Dowmel Lecture by Howard Dean at Monument High School.
We always stay close to home in summer, and a slew of new season brochures reminds me why. Tickets are  now on sale for Tanglewood, which has just announced that Tony Bennett will appear on July 21. Tanglewood has two extraordinary “Backstage Pass Weekends,” an innovative insider experience featuring three BSO concerts, four meals, and a variety of special activities – private picnics and receptions with BSO musicians; classes; discussions; private and public concerts -- as well as two nights of top-quality accommodations for every budget and a Tanglewood parking pass. Also new this summer is “One Day University at Tanglewood,” a program of three lectures in Ozawa Hall on August 23 by professors from Harvard and Yale.
I’m excited about Jacob’s Pillow summer schedule – I’ve already reserved tickets for a dozen shows, including personal favorites such as Merce Cunningham, Doug Varone, and Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, plus some international troupes with whom I’m less familiar – Ballet Maribor from Slovenia, Taiwan’s LAFA & Artists, Gallim Dance from Israel, and Canada’s Kidd Pivot. I’m also glad that Doris Duke Theatre performances will now be held on Wednesdays; more shows mean more chances to see innovative dance. Though the brochure’s not yet out, Williamstown Theatre Festival has also announced its season: A.R. Gurney’s “Children;” Sam Shephard’s “True West;” George Kelly’s 1920s farce, “The Torch-Bearers;” and Simon Gray’s comedy “Quartermaine’s Terms” on the Main Stage, and three world premieres on the Nikos Stage. Looks like a roaring good summer ahead!
About Bess Hochstein
Bess J.M. Hochstein came to the Berkshires as a second-homeowner before deciding to move here full time. Previously a communications executive, she's now a freelance writer living in Tyringham with her corgis Duffy and Hobbs and K. She writes for several publications, including Berkshire Living, Boston Globe and New England Wine.
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