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Check out our what to do section for a complete list of Berkshire cultural attractions.
The Run Around
By Bess Hochstein
July 2008
 For weeks now K & I, like many culture vultures of the Berkshires, have been running around, trying to do as much as possible during the sultry summer season. This has led to frequent “double-headers:” taking in two, or more, events in one day. For example, last week we met up with our friend DS at the brand new Haven Cafe & Bakery in Lenox, then went to an opening at Church Street Art before heading to Pittsfield for 3rd Thursday. Starting at Ferrin Gallery, we strolled the festive downtown stretch with seemingly thousands of others, enjoying strange and wonderful sights such as the mysterious Silver Swimmers; members of the nascent “Pittsfield Panty Raid” roller derby team; the popular Farmers Market and tables of food from many nations; a line-up of antique autos at one end of North Street and an even larger line-up of Harleys on the other end; and, most wondrous of all,  a sandy beach on a sidewalk plaza, full of delighted children bopping beach balls and building sandcastles to the rhythms of Kripalu’s KDZ Drummers instead of waves. Pittsfield has been lucky, enjoying perfect weather for 3rd Thursdays thus far; let’s hope the sunshine returns on August 21 for the next 3rd Thursday, which will have a 1950s back-to-school theme. We regretfully left Pittsfield before members of the Bang on a Can ensemble (gone AWOL from their residency at MASS MoCA) took up their instruments for a free performance at the Lichtenstein Center because we had tickets to The Book Club Play at Berkshire Theatre Festival.
It happened again on a recent Friday, when we attended a reception at Stonover Farm (among the attendees was Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, and an accomplished photographer) before running off to BTF again, this time for the opening of A Man for All Seasons, which runs only through August 9, before Noel Coward in Two Keys begins on August 12. (Among the audience was heartthrob Randy Harrison, who’s now appearing in Waiting for Godot at BTF’s Unicorn Stage.) The next day, we went to The Mount for an illustrated talk by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz, the creative duo behind the wonderful “New Yorkistan” cover of the New Yorker magazine in the aftermath of 9/11. Kalman’s most recent book, The Principles of Uncertainty, is one of my favorites – I bought it as a gift for seven people this year – so I had to have her sign it at a post-talk reception on at The Mount’s gracious Terrace Café.  Then I had to buy another of her books, The Elements of Style, a whimsically illustrated version of the classic grammar tome by Strunk & White. It turns out her partner, Rick Meyerowitz, is the brother of a local celebrity, Steve Meyerowitz, alias Sproutman, whom I profiled a few years ago for the Berkshire Eagle. The duo donated their time to help Edith Wharton’s historic estate through its financial troubles. The Mount has a remarkable roster of Monday afternoon lectures, including an illustrated talk on Coco Chanel on August 4; another on English socialite and groundbreaking garden designer (and friend of Edith) Norah Lindsay on August 11; and another on Voltaire’s mistress Emilie Du Châtelet, whom some credit as the true author of Voltaire’s oeuvre, on August 16; plus a literary stroll through Edith Wharton’s Paris on August 25. Enhancing the experience of the illustrators’ talk was the view of Wharton’s gardens in full bloom from the Terrace, a pleasure anyone can enjoy for free on Wednesdays at 5 pm, along with readings from Wharton’s work, and also on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings in August, when the Terrace Café is open for wine and light fare at 5 pm, a perfect pre-theater respite. We also got advance word of exciting upcoming programs (hint: an appearance by the editor of a major national food magazine and former New York Times restaurant reviewer) so stay tuned for new developments. We would have lingered longer on the Terrace, but we had to run to the Daniel Arts Center at Simon’s Rock for a dance performance staged by the Berkshire Fringe.
We did it again on Monday, when our first stop was the opening party for Jae’s Spice in Pittsfield. More than 600 people turned out to celebrate the revival of what is sure to be a successful Asian-accented restaurant in the heart of Pittsfield. Not that I was keeping count, but I saw Mayor James Ruberto; Ellen Spear, who heads Hancock Shaker Village; Barrington Stage Company’s Julianne Boyd accompanied by actor Christopher Innvar (who stars in the upcoming production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives, which comes to the Main Stage when The Violet Hour closes on August 2) as well as the head of BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab Bill Finn with Nikos Tsakalakos, fresh from his successful Songs of a Night Owl cabaret; galleristas Leslie Ferrin of Ferrin Gallery,  Denis Ulick of Church Street Art, Tom Hoadley of Hoadley Gallery, and Peter Dudek of Storefront Artist Project; Stuart Chase, executive director of the Berkshire Museum, with his wife Julie, the creative genius behind special events at The Clark; plus the new culinary team of restaurateur Jae Chung -- himself a Pittsfield resident -- and executive chef Douglas Luf. We needed to cut short our hob-nobbing to attend an intimate performance of chamber music in a private home by cellist Owen Young and pianist Alan Murchie of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to benefit The Mount. Last night we took it slower, enjoying an excellent new play, The Understudy, at Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Nikos Stage, followed by a late-night repast by the firepit on the patio at the ‘6 House Pub, though had we been more ambitious we would have been able to fit Three Sisters into our schedule, but it’s already gone from the Main Stage, where the Feydeau farce A Flea in Her Ear has taken its place.
The rest of this week started out relatively reasonably, with two consecutive nights at Jacob’s Pillow: first, the fast and fancy footwork of Mimulus from Brazil; then Slow Dancing at the Duke. There’s more dance on Friday; I’ll cross the border to Chatham, NY, where PS/21 presents Take Dance Company,  led by former Paul Taylor dancer Takehiro Ueyama. Then it’s a classical weekend: on Saturday we’ll see the first-ever presentation of Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin at Tanglewood, and we’ll return Sunday afternoon as cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins the BSO and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto makes his Tanglewood debut in Lalo’s Cello Concerto; the program also includes orchestrations by Enríque Arbós of pieces from Albéniz’ Iberia and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. Then we dash off to Simon’s Rock for another Fringe performance, this time by experimental performance troupe the Missoula Oblongata, called The Last Hurrah of the Clementines. We’ll get to Godot at BTF on Tuesday, and on Wednesday return to the Pillow for the free Inside/Out preview of Indian dancer Shivalingappa before settling into the Ted Shawn Theatre for Stockholm 59 degrees North.
On Thursday we’ll catch Othello, which has earned rave reviews at Shakespeare & Company, on Thursday. But we have a conflict; the Tanglewood Wine & Food Classic kicks off a four-day extravaganza with a gala dinner and auction at Koussevitsky’s mansion Seranak on Thursday evening, featuring a gourmet meal by chefs from Wheatleigh and Manhattan’s Bar Boulud, complemented by the award-winning wines of Pride Mountain Vineyards, and there’s no way we can do a double-header for these two events. Fortunately the wine and food festival has plenty more in store, including a “Meet the winemakers” reception at Wheatleigh on Friday afternoon and a Tuscan Twilight Soiree on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at a private home in Richmond, featuring renowned Masciarelli wines accompanied by grilled pizzas with garden-fresh toppings plus an assortment of breads and cheeses. After these lovely indulgences, we’ll head back to Shakespeare & Co. for the official opening of The Goatwoman of Corvis County.
We’ll return to Tanglewood on Saturday morning for seminars on subjects such as the wines of the Loire Valley; old-world and new-world Pinot Noirs, pairings of wine and cheese; a chocolate and wine tasting by Joshua Needleman of Chocolate Springs,  all before the centerpiece event, the Grand Tasting, a four-hour festival of wines from around the world with hourly cooking demonstrations by some of New England’s leading chefs on two stages and samples of food from local and regional restaurants. The event extends to Sunday with a catered brunch featuring organic produce from the gardens of a private home in Richmond. Just to make sure it’s sufficiently decadent, beverage choices include Moet & Chandon champagne, St-Germain elderflower cocktails, or Bloody Marys made with local vodka. Following Tanglewood’s Sunday afternoon concert, an all-Mozart program conducted by André Previn, the Wine & Food Classic concludes with A Vinous Quintet, exploring the connection between wine and music, and the correlation between sonics and the senses. With all this wining and dining I’m afraid I’ll miss the annual Crafts Fair at Monument Valley Regional High School that weekend, and the West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival on August 9, but there’s only so much running round we can do!
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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