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Summer in December
By Bess Hochstein
December 2007
 You’ve heard the phrase “Christmas in July.” It was invoked last week by Nancy Fitzpatrick, who owns The Red Lion Inn, Porches, and various other businesses in the Berkshires. She’s also a big supporter of Tanglewood, and while unveiling the world-famous music festival’s schedule for the 2008 season at the Mahaiwe, she brought a bit of summer to our wintry climes. And the schedule is full of special gifts, including a stellar kick-off with two consecutive nights of performances by local favorite James Taylor on July 3 & 4.
 The Boston Symphony Orchestra then opens on July 5 with James Levine conducting part one of the epic Berlioz opera Les Troyens (The Trojans). Tanglewood has special gifts for Berkshire residents: two free Shed tickets to the first 1,000 locals to show up at the box office starting on June 30, plus season-long lawn tickets for $75. Doesn’t that make you want to live here? But there’s another gift for everyone, regardless of where you live. Tanglewood is bringing back its much-missed Family concert, free for kids and $10 for the adults they bring with them.
When I got home from the post-announcement picnic-box lunch at Pearl’s – catered by the Red Lion Inn—there was another harbinger of summer waiting in my email inbox: Shakespeare & Company was ready to unveil its summer schedule, way in advance of the company’s previous season announcements. Having just returned from the press conference, I’m practically reeling from all the news.
First, the season: 2008 kicks off in late May with The Ladies Man, an adaptation of the Feydeau farce Tailleur pour Dames (“The Ladies Dressmaker”). Representing the Bard will be the company’s first main-stage productions of All’s Well That Ends Well, marking artistic director Tina Packer’s return to the role of director, and Othello. The outdoor Rose Footprint stage will host The Mad Pirate and the Mermaid, a new two-part comedy written by Company member Michael Burnet.
 Integral to the line-up is the news that the Company will have a new, flexible, 150-seat black-box stage by summer, which will open with one of two invitation-only performances of Shirley Valentine, with Packer reprising one of her most-beloved roles. (I don’t know what one has to do to get an invitation, but given the lasting popularity of this production, whatever it is must be worth it.)
This second stage is part of a huge undertaking by Shakespeare & Co. to create transform a derelict building into a new, cutting-edge Center for Production and Performing Arts, which will also include rehearsal spaces, costume and scenery fabrication shops and storage, and other facilities. We had a tour of the massive building, which is very much a work in progress.
There’s a capital campaign going on right now to ensure that this massive project gets done in time for summer. It had better, because the roster of plays scheduled for the space also includes The Goatwman of Memphis, which was well received in its premier during the Company’s Studio Festival of Plays on Labor Day weekend; and The Canterville Ghost, an adaptation of an early-career story by Oscar Wilde. Which brings us to two more pieces of good news:
1. The Wilde adaptation will be directed by Irina Brook, daughter of world-famous, genre-busting director Peter Brook. An accomplished director in her own right, Irina flew in from Paris to join in on the announcement.
2. Irina’s production will run from mid-September through early November, marking the start of Shakespeare & Co’s commitment to an extended season. In fact, 2009 begins for Shakespeare & Co. next January, with Elizabeth Aspenlieder starring in Therese Rebeck’s one-woman show, Bad Dates.
Not that Shakespeare & Co. has been on vacation, with all the educational programs they run throughout the year. Last weekend they presented a staged reading of An Impossible Life, a new play by David Black, featuring a starry cast including Peter Reigert, Ray Abruzzo, and Laurie Singer. And this weekend, 12/9, brings another staged reading: The Holocaust Kid, by local author Sonia Pilcer.
 They’re not alone in their extended-season productions; Barrington Stage Company is setting the trend, having already produced two post-summer shows. And right now through 12/9 audiences can catch a reprise of the wildly popular Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Berkshire Theatre Festival is also on the bandwagon, with its second annual production of A Christmas Carol beginning on 12/13 through the end of the year.
The fun never stops at The Mahaiwe, where we’re seeing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band this Sunday, 12/9. They’re also presenting two performances of The Nutcracker by the Albany Berkshire Ballet on Thursday, 12/13, and a “Live in HD” screening of the Metropolitan Opera’s 12/15 production of Romeo and Juliet.
 The Nutcracker heads north to The Colonial on 12/21, but before then you can watch Warren Miller’s Playground, billed as “the largest action sports film on the planet,” on 12/7; and enjoy “Oldies but Goodies” on 12/8. You can also take the kids to see Flat Stanley on 12/9; sit back for a “Celtic Yuletide” featuring Irish tenor Michael Londra, the band “An Dochas,” and the Haran Irish Dancers in an evening of Christmas from Ireland; and then enjoy the Albany Symphony Orchestra with guest cellist Matt Haimovitz in an evening of Memories of the Old Country.
Williams College is presenting the Dialogue One Solo Performance Festival, curated by theater professor and performer Omar Sangare; eight performers from the United States and abroad will present solo works from Thursday 12/6 through Saturday 12/8 at the ’62 Center.
Local museums and galleries are keeping busy, too. K just interviewed the curators of the LitGraphic show at the Norman Rockwell Museum, on assignment for an academic journal on comics. This show is bringing throngs of young viewers to the museum, and he’s returning on Friday with me to take another look.
The Berkshire Museum has scads of programming related to transportation, the theme of its Festival of Trees. On Saturday 12/8 they’re presenting a lecture by Raya Ariella, Climate USA Coordinator for Climate Crisis Coalition, called “Grease Cars: Alternative Transportation in the 21st Century,” on her journey to fuel her car with peanut oil.
 On Tuesday, 12/12, the Ferrin Gallery is hosting the Storefront Artist Project’s Social Salon on the topic “Does Size Matter?” in conjunction with its current exhibit of small works, none larger than 12 inches high. The date is intentional; later that evening, the Storefront Artist Project will raffle off more than forty 12” by 12” works by local artists. Tickets cost $25, and can be purchased at the Ferrin Gallery or the Storefront Artist Project’s Fenn Street headquarters; proceeds benefit their Artist Mentor Program, in which high school students work one on one with a professional artist.
The Clark is the place to be on Thursday, 12/13, if you like lectures. There’s a free lunchtime talk on the portraits of Gainsborough and, at 7 pm, a discussion called Art in Perfume/Perfume in Art by professor and author Richard Stamelman, as well as a sampling of fragrances by Norma Kamali.
I almost forgot to mention: It’s been snowing here for about four days running, and the skiers are gleeful. We are in the midst of a white Chanukah, and hopes are high for a white Christmas, too. To get into the holiday spirit, don’t forget about Williamstown’s annual Holiday Walk Weekend 12/7-9, with concerts, movies, and other events up and down Spring Street, including the ever-popular Reindog Parade. It’s sure to make you forget about summer and enjoy the winter here and now.
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, the Boston Globe, New England Wine Gazette, and Healing Lifestyles & Spas magazine.
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