Click to Hide
Please Check Directly
With Lodging Property
If You Do Not See
Availability Displayed.
|
March Madness
By Bess Hochstein
March 2009
One might think Tina Packer, entering her final summer as Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, is as mad as a March hare, given the ambitious schedule she has put together for her swan song. But there’s method to her madness; recognizing the tough economic times, she is, essentially, doing a bit of recycling, bringing back several of the most popular productions of the recent past. At the press event unveiling the season, Packer announced, starting on May 21, audiences at their Lenox venue will have the opportunity to see the high-energy Shakespeare & Young Company production of “Romeo and Juliet,” which toured New England to great acclaim this year. Founder’s Theatre will open in June with “Hamlet,” and last year’s “Othello” will return in July; both earned rave reviews from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, played to sold-out audiences, and left those who couldn’t get tickets empty-handed and disappointed. And because we need to balance tragedy with comedy, “Twelfth Night” rounds out the Founders’ Theatre season. Tickets are on sale now, so don’t risk getting shut out.
Beyond the Bard, Packer announced the ‘Diva Series,’ a trio of limited engagements at the new Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, launching with her own much-loved star turn in “Shirley Valentine” May 27-31. I missed last fall’s workshop production of “The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon,” so I’m glad it’s playing June 3-14, starring Penny Kreitzer, who wrote this one-woman play-within-a-play based on her experiences as an actor trying to present the true-life story of an artist killed in the Holocaust. Completing the series, Annette Miller returns to star in “Golda’s Balcony” June 17-July 3, dedicated to local luminary William Gibson, who wrote the play and died this year. All three plays will enjoy a special one-night-only return engagement September 11-13 in tribute to steadfast supporter Elayne Bernstein, and to maintain the momentum of the  Company’s capital campaign to complete fundraising for its production and performing arts center.
In the face of current economic challenges, Shakespeare and Company has adopted the battle cry, “Play On!” as this year's theme.
It’s a slogan sure to be realized with still more Bernstein Theatre productions, including “Pinter’s Mirror,” three one-acts commemorating the iconic playwright’s death last year: “A Slight Ache,” Family Voices,” and “Victoria Station;” Donald Freed’s “Devils’ Advocate,” exploring Manuel Noriega’s one-night of asylum at the Vatican embassy; “The Dreamer Examines his Pillow” by John Patrick Shanley, which was workshopped in last year’s marathon Studio Festival of Plays;. “White People” by J.T. Rogers, another Studio Festival alumni; and “Measure for Measure,” a mid-day ‘Lunch Box Shakespeare’ production that includes a boxed lunch at intermission -- perfect for a summertime picnic. The free, family-friendly Bankside Outdoor Festival features A.A. Milne’s “Toad Hall,” adapted from “The Wind in the Willows;” and Company Director of Training Dennis Krausnick’s “Word Play,” a feast of language featuring the Bard’s silliest and most startling insults interspersed with facts, folklore, and other surprises.
But that’s not all! The annual day-long Studio Festival of Plays moves back to Founder’s Theatre in September 7, and the plays keep on coming at the Bernstein Theatre. This year’s annual autumn ghost story is “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” a spoof of the Sherlock Holmes, and, over holiday season, the family-friendly “Cindy Bella (Or The Glass Slipper), a new spin on the classic tale of Cinderella. Following the success of this year’s winter production, “Bad Dates,” audiences will have another chance to see its star, Elizabeth Aspenlieder, up close and personal in “Les Liaisons Dangereuse” in early 2010.  As if that’s not enough, Packer promises surprises throughout the summer, including special guests, lectures, poetry slams, and post-performance contemporary music in the Bernstein Theatre lobby.
That’s not the only surprising space for music. Last week we caught The Low Anthem, a band on the verge of hitting the big time, at Mission Bar + Tapas. Mission has a great schedule of bands and open mic nights, and is holding its next singer/songwriter showcase on March 28 at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage 2. It’s no shock that the Mahaiwe presents great music, but the performing arts center did surprise us with the recent announcement that Rufus Wainwright will perform on April 24. Tickets are selling like mad, so get yours while you still can.
In the meantime, the ‘Live in HD’ broadcast from the Met of “La Sonambula” on March 21 and Grammy-Award winning country/blues musician  Kathy Mattea’s performance on March 22 come under the banner of this month’s Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts, sponsored by The Women’s Times, which also includes Patty Larkin with Trout Fishing in America at The Colonial on March 21; a new piece by Cynthia Hopkins, “The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success)” at MASS MoCA on the same Saturday evening; and “Ain’t I a Woman: Unsung African American Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement” at Barrington Stage Company on March 29. Plus more surprises -- typically summertime venues will greet spring with festival events, including an informal woman-only performance by Ben Munisteri Dance Projects at Jacob’s Pillow on March 20; a staged reading of David Hare’s “Amy’s View” by the Aglet Theatre Company at Berkshire Theatre Festival’s Unicorn Theatre; and a lecture at  The Mount on March 28 by author Julie Wosk called “Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves: Artificial Women Through the Ages.” I can only imagine what Edith Wharton would think – that the world has indeed gone mad!
While the Berkshire Women in the Arts Festival has livened up the season, it’s not the only game in town. On March 26 Bela Fleck brings his new body of work, “The Africa Project,” to The Colonial, which continues on a global path with “Inco Son: Music and Dance of the Andes” on April 3, before presenting the “Charlotte’s Web” on April 5, and the off-Broadway hit “Mother Load” on April 14. The Mahaiwe presents Close Encounters with Music’s “A Night of Quintets” with the Amernet String Quarter on March 28; “An Evening of A Capella” on April 5; the debut of the Russian National Ballet Theatre’s “Swan Lake” on April 10; and a live, puppet-peppered performance of “Stellaluna” on April 13. And, just as soon as one festival ends, another begins. Aptly, April 1 is the kick-off of the first (and sure-to-be-annual) Berkshire Fools Festival, five-day extravaganza of art exhibitions, lectures, performances, parades, and parties, plus tricksterism, tomfoolery, mischief, mayhem, silliness and shenanigans throughout Pittsfield. Sounds like more divine madness!
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.
|
|