Theater

Arts

A Masterful Clown's Free Performance at Simon's Rock

Tomas Kubinek gives performance art a good name.  "Mr. Kubinek is an acrobat, storyteller, stilt walker, unicyclist, musician, magician, clown and comic whose jokes and ad-libs bring giggles from youngsters and laughter from adults," according to The New York Times.  As critic Lawrence Van Gelder wrote: "Mr.

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Arts

Recession Drama: Shakespeare & Company Will Do More With Less

Tina Packer usually defies—and exceeds—expectations. Over 32 years in the Berkshires, the founder of Shakespeare & Company has transformed the troupe that put on plays in the dilapidated Mount and its surrounding woods into a theatrical powerhouse. With year round educational programs and a reputation for producing gutsy

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Arts

"Kiss This - A Valentine's Day Cabaret" at Barrington Stage

Nikos Tsakalakos is the type of talented and ambitious young artist who finds Pittsfield a font of creativity. "Two years ago, Bill Finn told me his crazy idea that he wanted to make Pittsfield the epicenter of new musical theater," says Tsakalakos, who was a student of the

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Arts

"Selected Shorts" Returns to the Mahaiwe

The theme song alone (Roger Kelloway's Come to the Meadow) is enough to trigger endorphins, even before anyone has uttered a word.  Then comes the voice of host Isaiah Sheffer announcing another NPR broadcast of PRI's Selected Shorts, and instantly, fans of the show (and they

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Arts

At Shakespeare & Company, Call on Lizzie Aspenlieder for A Good Time

A one-woman show is challenging on many levels for an actress, but Elizabeth Aspenlieder has the added burden of performing in Shakespeare & Company's first full-fledged winter season in its new Elayne P, Bernstein Theater in Lenox. "I'm the guinea pig," Aspenlieder says cheerfully

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Arts

The First Breeze of Summer

The main stages may be dark, but this is a busy time for our regional theaters which must announce their summer seasons so they can start casting their plays and musicals. The  Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge will start its 2009 summer season in late spring and it will continue

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Arts

The True Meaning of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"

In Charles Dickens's day, his novel A Christmas Carol was credited with reviving enthusiasm for a holiday, that, incredibly, had fallen out of favor with the public and appeared to be on the wane.  Needless to say, modern marketing will never permit such heresy again.   Nonetheless, Dickens'

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Arts

"This Wonderful Life" at Barrington Stage Company

Could there be a better moment for a Christmas play about a despairing banker who considers suicide because his savings-and-loan is about to go under and, with help from an angel, rediscovers the meaning of life?  Timing is everything in theater as in life, and Barrington Stage Company (BSC) has

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Arts

Channelling Katharine Hepburn at TriArts in Sharon

There was no one more tweedy and New England than Katharine Hepburn, which is why it seems so apt that the TriArts Sharon Playhouse is presenting Tea at Five, a one woman show about the legendary actress, for the Thanksgiving weekend.   The production originated last summer at TheatreWorks in New

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Arts

Duncan Sheik Comes to Albany & Great Barrington

Duncan Sheik, the 38-year-old alternative rocker and songwriter, has had a cult following since his days at Brown University.  He made Broadway history when Spring Awakening, his musical about adolescent sexuality, opened to rave reviews on Broadway. "A straight shot of eroticism steamed open last night at the Eugene

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Arts

The Murder of Lidice; A Multi-Media Event

With the very air around us still crackling with political energy, the Spencertown Academy will host a live performance of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem, "The Murder of Lidice" this Friday night. On June 10, 1942, the German government announced that it had destroyed the small

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Arts

A Choreographer Climbs the Walls at Bard

The Richard B. Fisher Center helped put Bard College on the cultural map, and now the Fisher Center is putting dancers on the roof of the iconic Frank Gehry-designed building. This weekend and next, site-specific Canadian choreographer Noémie Lafrance will premiere a work called Rapture on the brushed stainless-steel exterior

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