Arts

Arts

"A Chorus Line" Is Alive and Kicking at Berkshire Theatre Group's Revival

It’s always reassuring to see a completely bare backstage wall in any production of A Chorus Line. Basically, if you can’t get the nothingness right and demonstrate that you’re not hiding anything (with curtains, say, or  a completely darkened stage), or if you gussy it up with

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Arts

Vertigo Dance Company and LeeSaar The Company: Two Israeli Troupes at the Pillow

There’s drama in Vertigo Dance Company’s world premiere, Mana, which runs at Jacob’s Pillow’s Ted Shawn Theatre through Sunday, July 8, but the story remains out of reach. There are men in long, flowing, dark-colored robes, and women who begin the evening-length dance full

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Arts

Reviews: Three Days of Theater Across the Rural Intelligence Universe

Amy Spanger, Tyne Daly, and Marylouise Burke in David Hyde Pierce's version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Williamstown Theatre Festival.The Importance of Being Earnest may be the most perfect comedy written in the English language, so it can withstand some directorial tinkering. In

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Arts

Dance Review - Morphoses at Jacob's Pillow: Whose Dream Is It, Anyway?

Most who entered the Ted Shawn Theatre this week to see the group Morphoses in the world premiere of WITHIN (Labyrinth Within) probably realized that the second half of the evening’s program would be Pontus Lidberg’s 2010 film, called Labyrinth Within. Lidberg also choreographed and designed the “live”

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Arts

The Litchfield Hills Film Festival Finds a New Home, and a New Name

When Frank and Patrice Galterio launched the Kent Film Festival in 2006, they didn’t even know how to run a projector. The couple was more than a little surprised, and relieved, when upwards of 400 people showed up for the Festival’s maiden run of 45 films over two

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Arts

Kidd Pivot Founder Crystal Pite, 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Recipient, Turns Heads

Note: A version of this interview was posted on July 5, 2011. It has been slightly updated to run in advance of Kidd Pivot's 2012 engagement at Jacob's Pillow. The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award is no mere honor. In addition to the prestige of being

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Arts

Mimulus and Circa Open Jacob's Pillow: Give 'em Enough Rope

The Jacob’s Pillow 80th anniversary dance festival opened with two spectacular performances by Mimulus Dance Company, from Brazil in the Ted Shawn Theatre, and  Circa, from Australia, in the Doris Duke Theatre. The two troupes share more than just their home in earth’s southern hemisphere. Both companies also

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Arts

Who's on Second? Berkshire Actors Theater, with a Shanley Double-Header

There seems to be a pattern afoot in the nascent Pittsfield-based Berkshire Actors Theater. The company made its debut last summer with John Patrick Shanley’sFour Dogs and A Bone, and BAT’s sophomore season, which begins June 21, features a remount of that production, along with another Shanley

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Arts

Spring for Sound in Millerton

Pop music lovers: grab a lawn chair, put on your dancing shoes, and head to Millerton on Saturday, June 16, when 19 musical acts are set to hit the stage for Spring for Sound, a rocking fundraiser to benefit the North East Community Center (NECC). This is the second year

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Arts

Debra Jo Rupp Goes All the Way as Dr. Ruth

Preview performances of Mark St. Germain’s new play, Dr. Ruth, All the Way, get underway on June 19 at Barrington Stage Company. Debra Jo Rupp portrays the inimitable, diminutive Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who captured the attention of Reagan-era television viewers with her grandmotherly looks, chirpy Teutonic accent, and

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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

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