It takes a gutsy and socially conscious community theater to follow a production of Falsettos with Rent, the powerful 1996 rock musical about AIDS that is set in New York’s gritty East Village. Even as it chronicles devastation, Rent—a cross between Hair and La Boheme— is a show that fills your heart with hope.
Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck, NY
Now - March 21
Devious scheming, sexual intrigue fueled by pitiless motives, Les Liaisons Dangereuses was ahead of its time in 1872, and its portrayal of sexual decadence still shocks today. This production of Christopher Hampton’s 1988 adaptation of the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos features Elizabeth Aspenlieder and is directed by Tina Packer.
Shakespeare & Company, Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Lenox, MA
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That’s right, free food on a Wednesday night. But not just any Wednesday. In the spirit of Erin Go Bragh!, Dream Away Lodge is laying on a free corned beef, cabbage, and potato feast to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Lest you fear that Erin Go Broke, consider the beer and whiskey—suited to the occasion quaffs such as Killians Irish Red on tap, Guinness Surge, Black and Tans, Jameson and Baileys— required to wash all that down and to sip later, while listening to the evening’s entertainers, Billy Keane and the Misdemeanor Outlaws. For libations, money changes hands. And since Dream Away does not take plastic, and there are no ATMs within miles of this mountaintop road house, remember to take cash.
Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes:
I have noticed that my ducks splashing around their little pond do actually look “ducky.” There is something about the line of their beaks, which gives them a perpetual smile. This together with their placid, easy going, seemingly self-satisfied nature creates the essence of “duckiness.” And so I come to realize why calling something that is pleasant and nice “ducky” makes sense, and why referring to a special someone as “my duck” is a form of affection. As for “sitting duck,” I first realized the metaphorical sense of the term several years ago after a flying predator carried off a duck two nights in a row. I, thereupon, moved my “sitting ducks” in at night to safety.
Just before Thanksgiving, when our turkeys graduate to the mating stage and the toms are parading about, flamboyantly displaying, gobbling loudly, viciously pecking at each other, and, in general, milling about in chaos, I know they are just being turkeys. As in “Oh, you turkey!”
The Red Lion Inn is hosting two special dinners later this month that are likely to sell out. On March 19, a ten-course vegetarian feast, each course accompanied by a different suitable wine; then on March 22, the annual collaboration of regional chefs heralding spring and showcasing the first harvest of the 2010 season—maple syrup—to raise funds for Berkshire Grown, an organization that supports local farms and farmers.
Celebrated Berkshire chefs, all members of Berkshire Grown, a non-profit organization created to promote locally grown food and the farmers, chefs and consumers who love it, celebrate the first harvest of the growing season each year with a maple-inspired dinner. Some of last year’s chefs (shown at right in the Red Lion Inn kitchen) will be returning, others are new to the event. They include Kate Baldwin (Kate Baldwin Catering), Chris Bonnivier (Gala Restaurant and Bar), John Dudek (Bascom Lodge), Dan Smith (John Andrew), Daire Rooney (Brix Wine Bar), Peter Platt (Old Inn on the Green) and host chef Brian Alberg (The Red Lion Inn). The March Maple Dinner begins with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails featuring locally produced beverages from the Barrington Brewery and Berkshire Mountain Distillers followed by a five-course dinner beginning at 7 pm. The Red Lion Inn is offering a special room rate for guests attending the dinner.
We have a sentimental attachment to the annual IS 183 costume ball: It was the first event we covered “live” for Rural Intelligence so we think of it as our anniversary party, too. While this year’s dance party on March 6 has a theme—Radioactive Bodega—that is somewhat puzzling, it is also a challenge that should make it just a visually stunning and amusing as Rock the Opera in 2008 (left) and the Hair Ball in 2009. If you like to dress up in a more conventionally glamorous way, the Berkshire International Film Festival is having a “Red Carpet” Academy Awards party at the Beacon Cinema on Sunday March 7. With the Beacon’s high definition screens, you’ll be able to analyze every borrowed diamond necklace and beaded dress in a way that you can’t at home, and you’ll have a crowd to gossip with over drinks and dinner all evening long.
Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes:
From an early age, I did come in contact with a rural environment of sorts, but I think you could fairly say it was something I had touched but not been touched by. We spent summers at Warman’s Bungalow Colony, owned and operated by my grandfather and his brothers and sister, in Swan Lake, NY—the Catskills. It had once been a dairy farm, but its former agricultural features had all been transformed to new uses: the barn to the “casino,” site of circuit-riding borscht belt entertainments, bingo games, and itinerant dress sales; the annexed utility rooms to my Tante Jenny’s grocery store and apartment; the chicken coop to the laundromat. And the pastures were populated by bungalows (“kuch aleyn”, or “cook on your own” in Yiddish). The one open area, at the far end of the property, was the baseball field. 
The only time, indeed, that I can remember venturing on foot into the “country” was to accompany my grandmother to a large scrubby field across the road full of high bush blueberries. I have vivid memories of the heat, the crescendos of katy-dids. and the scratches to our arms and legs as we filled large enamel cooking pots with the berries. Our discomforts were forgotten when we sat down to one of our favorite summer suppers, blueberries and sour cream.
Most of us are so used to frozen or defrosted shrimp that “seasonal shrimp” sounds as oxymoronic as jumbo shrimp. But they do exist. I recently found these Maine babies at the supermarket and at Rubiner’s in Great Barrington, where they should be available for another month or so. You can use them whole and unpeeled for a shrimp boil. However, with their softer texture and slightly sweet flavor, these winter gifts lend themselves beautifully to light and subtle dumplings.
Laurily Epstein, vice president of the Berkshire Grown board, got the idea for Farm Chic when she discovered a bag of costume jewelry that she no longer wore in the back of her closet, and she envisioned a charity swap meet. “I figured every woman has a bag like that, and we could have a sale to raise money,” says Epstein (modeling jewelry near right with Robin Ban and Hester Velmans), who notes that the donated items come in every imaginable style and range in price from $2 to $50. Her fellow committee members were so enthusiastic about the concept that they decided to add new jewelry and accessories to the mix, including work by local artisans such as Stephanie Iverson. 
The organizers are especially excited about the line of sterling silver charms ($65 each) that Great Barrington sculptor 
Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Peter writes:
If you look around the Red Bistro at Terrapin Restaurant, you’ll notice that everyone seems to be having a good time. It’s next to impossible not to enjoy yourself in the expansive bar section of this restaurant that opened in 2003 in the beautifully restored First Baptist Church, which dates to 1825. Chef Josh Kroner‘s menu offers astonishing variety and value. You can build your own sandwiches—hamburgers, sliced steak, ahi tuna salad, veggie burger etc. ($6.95 - $10.95) with your choice of toppings and rolls—or you can select from a wide variety of salads, quesadillas and pastas. If you feel overwhelmed by the options, the tapas plates($3 - $4) are the way to go. On a recent visit, we thoroughly enjoyed Thai meaballs in green curry, duck quesadilla, macadamia-nut tempura calamari, and crispy artichokes, which we washed down with excellent margaritas. And our cheerful waitress thoughtfully had our single order of fish tacos divided onto two plates in the kitchen. Terrapin is one of those reliable restaurants where the ambitious chef never forgets that the ultimate mark of good cooking is making people happy.
It’s the rare community theater company that has the chutzpah to put on William Finn’s landmark Tony-winning musical comedy about neurotic New York Jews at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. But the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck is a rarity—a gutsy community theater that does everything with the polish of a serious regional theater and its razor-sharp production of Falsettos (which runs through February 28) made me laugh and cry just as it did when I saw it on Broadway in 1992. The audience on Saturday, February 20, was especially enthusiastic because the performance was a benefit for the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, which hosted an after party in the lobby (where the guests included, above, AnnChris Warren with Victoria Howland, who plays the kosher caterer in Falsettos.) At the curtain—an inspired homage to the AIDS Memorial Quilt—actor Bill Ross, who played Marvin, told the audience that the Center had gotten some local criticism for staging this show, and he hoped that everyone would spread the word to help fill every seat for the final weekend and prove that there is community support for theater that tackles difficult subjects. In fact, the Center’s next production is another powerful exploration of the AIDS crisis: Rent, the 1996 rock musical, will run at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck from March 12 - 28.
