Arts

Arts

She Saw Hitler: Cassandra Speaks at Shakespeare & Company

Cassandra Speaks, the one woman show written in the mid 1990s for the actress Tod Randolph (above) by her friend Norman Plotkin about the journalist Dorothy Thompson,  manages to accomplish  a lot in one entertaining—indeed riveting—fell swoop, and in only about 90 minutes. Thompson, referred to in her

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Arts

Art Review: Canadian Club

David Harper's sculpture of a wild boar, "Finding Yourse," is constructed of fine porcelain and covered in soft cowhide at MASS MoCA's vast exhibition,Oh, Canada. Anyone who needs visible proof of the socio-psychological benefits of a free universal health-care system should make the

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Arts

Aston Magna At 40: Still Going for Baroque

As Aston Magna, the summer music festival he founded in Great Barrington, readies for its 40th season, Lee Elman seems as if he were born to the role of Berkshires cultural patriarch. His parents Barney and Mildred were early supporters of Tanglewood, making weekend visits from Westchester County and contributing

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Arts

BIFF Thinks Globally, Presents Locally

The Berkshire International Film Festival, running May 31 – June 3, takes the international part of its name seriously. For her seventh annual Festival, founder Kelley Vickery has slated more than 70 independent films from more than 15 countries, from Estonia to Tanzania. BIFF’s global scope also encompasses talent and

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Arts

Lungs at Barrington Stage

Brooke Bloom and Ryan King in Barrington Stage Company's production of Duncan Macmillan's Lungs, directed by Aaron Posner, the debut production at BSC's newly acquired theater space, the St. Germain Stage. We are in the midst of an extended period in theater, film, and

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Arts

Festival Explores Interplay of Jewish and African-American Music

As every great American composer, from Gershwin to Duke Ellington to Leonard Bernstein, would have explained without missing a beat, Jewish and African-American music not only have a lot in common — they helped create the distinctly American art forms of jazz, blues, and popular music of yesterday and today. On

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Arts

David Dorfman: Dance to the Music

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: above, Kate Enman; below, Cherylynn TsushimaProphets of Funk, an evening-length work performed by David Dorfman Dance this week at Jacob’s Pillow, begins with the choreographer strutting his stuff diagonally across the stage on a path of light. He’s no longer

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Arts

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: Articulate Company

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Rosalie O'Connor A well-composed program of work by three European choreographers, in performance by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet this week at Jacob’s Pillow, shows off the many skills of this company’s ten talented dancers: speed, strength, grace, presence,

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Arts

The Wharton Salon: Bringing Edith Wharton's Works to Life at The Mount

Preview by Bess J.M. Hochstein Longtime Berkshire theater goers fondly reminisce about the days in the late 1970s when Tina Packer and her merry band of thespians took up residence at The Mount, where, in addition to Shakespeare, they performed theatrical adaptations of the work of the estate’s

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Arts

David Neumann and Jodi Melnick Join Forces at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: above, Julieta Cervantes; below, Cherylynn Tsushima Is it downtown week at Jacob’s Pillow? In the Ted Shawn Theatre, Trisha Brown, enduring icon of the Judson Church dance days, marks her company’s 40th anniversary in a program that travels through the

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Arts

Trisha Brown Dance Company Marks 40-Year Anniversary at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Julieta CervantesTrisha Brown is the Eileen Fisher of the dance world. Like Fisher’s clothing, Brown’s dances are loose, comfortable, fluid, and seemingly simple and unstructured while actually finely and smartly constructed with shrewd attention to detail. Like Fisher in the

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Arts

Word Up! Taylor Mali on Word X Word Festival 2011 and the Lives of the Poets

What’s the word? Find out this week in Pittsfield at the third annual Word X Word Festival from August 13 – 20. This celebration of words written, spoken and sung—created in 2009 by Jim Benson, proprietor of Mission Bar + Tapas—kicks off with its now-legendary rooftop party, one of

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