Spring Awakening, Part 2: New Music, Theater And Dance Lineups Released
We've heard from Kaatsbaan, The Foundry, Chester Theatre and Jacob's Pillow. They're all on for the summer!
Hunter Noack, IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild™. Photo: Sara Duncan
Last year, with every announcement of our cultural organizations’ season cancellations, our hearts sank lower. But like helium in a balloon, our hearts are lifted and expanding as the announcements of theater, music and dance lineups. Each arts group is still abiding by COVID-19 protocols, creating alternate approaches to performances and festivals; the professionals behind them aren't called “creatives” for no reason. Here’s what’s been most recently announced.
Kaatsbaan Cultural Park Spring Festival
The dance colony in Tivoli, New York is bringing together leading artists from the worlds of dance, music, poetry, sculpture and the culinary arts for its inaugural Spring Festival. Taking place during the last two weekends in May throughout Kaatsbaan’s 153-acre campus, the festival will feature 16 presentations on two outdoor stages, May 20-23 and May 27-30.
Among the dance companies represented will be American Ballet Theatre, Dorrance Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Martha Graham Dance Company. A site-specific commission will encourage visitors to wander through Kaatsbaan’s grounds while listening to live music via wireless headphones while encountering dancers across a range of styles. The music will be created by Hunter Noack, creator of “In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild ™” and James Edmund Greeley.
Culinary programs include Jeff Gordinier, author of Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World, who will moderate two roundtables about the Hudson Valley food scene and how foraging can change your life (and diet). Sculpture joins the festival with curated works by local artists placed throughout the grounds; the works will be available for purchase. And a poetry program brings performers Patti Smith and Tony Shanahan (longtime Patti Smith band member), who will pay tribute to Bob Dylan’s upcoming 80th birthday through original songs and poetry as well as works by Dylan.
Tickets are on sale now, and are limited as Kaatsbaan will operate at less than 3% capacity. All seating is outdoors and each order gives the ticket holder a 4x6 seating area.
The performing and visual arts space in West Stockbridge pivoted successfully last summer and fall to socially distanced outdoor (and often sold out) programming, along with an outdoor café with drinks from The Foundry’s bar, and food from local food vendors. The venue’s mission is to offer a platform of diverse music, theater and dance artists, and will be doing so every weekend of June through August on The Foundry Green.
Guests sitting at socially distant tables, enjoying drinks from The Foundry's bar and food from a local food vendor. Photo: The Foundry
This summer’s lineup includes local favorites post-punk Dust Bowl Faeries, brass band Brasskill, and cabaret duo The Fremonts. Duo Nouveau, a Flamenco duo, NYC jazz singer extraordinaire Emily Braden, and blues and soul singer Alexis P. Suter are cruising in from out of town. Again this summer, The Foundry’s collaboration with Berkshire Music Project will import dynamic artists to the area such as avant-garde internationally known composer Sxip Shirey.
Tickets are on sale now for performances Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m.
Although technically not in the Berkshires, we claim Chester Theatre Company because it’s close enough and attracts plenty of us to its first-class productions. However, this summer, in its 32nd season, Chester Theatre truly will have a Berkshires home: Its three productions will be staged in a large tent on the grounds of Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield.
In “Title and Deed,” June 16-27, a man has traveled to where we live, from somewhere undisclosed. Business or pleasure? Neither. The New York Times calls the play “A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life.” Keira Naughton returns to direct this production.
James Barry and Tara Franklin, who will appear in "Tiny Beautiful Things" at Chester Theatre Company. Photos: Chester Theatre Co.
“The Niceties,” July 14-25, concerns a Black student at an elite liberal arts college who is called in to her white professor’s office to discuss her paper about slavery’s effects on the American Revolution. A polite clash in perspective explodes into an urgent debate about race, history and power.
“Tiny Beautiful Things,” August 18-29, is written by Nia Vardalos and directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer, the company’s producing artistic director. Based on the “Dear Sugar” column written by Cheryl Strayed, it is the story of what we can feel and learn when we open up to each other, and to hearing answers we can’t figure out on our own.
Single tickets and subscriptions go on sale via the website beginning March 22.
It’s been a doubly tough year for America’s longest-running and largest dance festival. There was the cancellation of Festival 2020, and then the tragic fire of the Doris Duke Theatre, which was completely lost. But, to quote the fundraising campaign, Dance We Must, and dance they will this summer.
Last week, Jacob’s Pillow announced it will host a multi-platform virtual and on-site Festival June 20-August 29. There will be in-person, outdoor performances from leading dance artists across genres and virtual streaming of their work, accessible to dance fans around the world. As always, the Festival will also offer talks, classes, exhibitions and site-specific works that will invite audiences to explore its 220-acre campus in Becket, Mass. All Pillow performances will have limited capacities due to social distancing requirements.
Artist and performance details will be announced next month.
