Renee Fleming (photo Decca/Andrew Eccles)
RENEE FLEMING STARS in GARSON KANIN REMAKE ‘LIVING ON LOVE’ at WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – World-renowned soprano Renée Fleming stars in the world premiere of Joe DiPietro’s “Living on Love,” based on the play “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin, at Williamstown Theatre Festival, running on the Main Stage from Wednesday, July 16, through Saturday, July 26.
ALAN TURING BIO-DRAMA ‘BREAKING THE CODE’ at BARRINGTON STAGE
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – “Breaking the Code,” Hugh Whitemore’s biographical drama of Alan Turing, the famed mathematician and computer science pioneer who solved the German Enigma code during World War II, opens at Barrington Stage Company on Thursday, July 17, and runs through Saturday, August 2.
Amanda Boyd will play Dido
‘DIDO AND AENEAS’ CHAMBER OPERA at PS21
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” will get a semi-staged concert performance at PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Centuryon Saturday, July 19, at 8pm and Sunday, July 20 at 2pm, in a collaboration between PS21 and Concerts in the Village of Kinderhook, N.Y. The production features a live chamber orchestra which will also perform selections from Purcell’s music for “The Fairy Queen,” an adaptation of Shakespeare’s wedding comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Basya Schechter (photo Jason Gardne
KLEZMATICS and KCB HEADLINE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL of YIDDISH MUSIC and DANCE at YIDDISH BOOK CENTER
(AMHERST, Mass.) – The Klezmatics and the Klezmer Conservatory Band – widely considered to be the two greatest modern klezmer groups – headline Yidstock 2014: the Festival of New Yiddish Music at the Yiddish Book Center from Thursday, July 17, through Sunday, July 20. The third annual Yidstock Festival features an international cast of musicians, an expanded lineup of workshops, and a pre-Shabbat concert on Friday afternoon by the Nigunim Trio, featuring Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London of the Klezmatics.
Jane Curtin
KATE BURTON, JANE CURTIN, and CAMPBELL SCOTT to READ ‘SELECTED SHORTS’ at MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Comic, romantic, and magical short stories about love and obstacles and getting what you wish for, written by Louise Erdrich, Robert Coover, and Maile Meloy, will be read by stage and screen stars Kate Burton, Jane Curtin, and Campbell Scott in a live taping of the hit public radio series Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, July 19, at 8pm. This “Wishes and Dreams” edition marks the seventh time Selected Shorts has been performed at the Mahaiwe.
Kire Tosevski
BEETHOVEN GETS MUSIC-THEATER TREATMENT at THE MOUNT
(LENOX, Mass.) – “Beethoven Love Elegies,” a dramatic program interweaving a script drawn from Beethoven’s letters and diaries and accounts by his contemporaries with performances of some of his greatest known works, will be performed by the Ensemble for the Romantic Century (ERC) as a fully staged theatrical concert at the Stables Theatre at The Mount for 12 performances from Wednesday, July 16, through Sunday, August 3.
Steve Wynn of the Baseball Project
MEMBERS of REM, DREAM SYNDICATE to SING ABOUT BASEBALL at HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – The Baseball Project, a rock ‘n’ roll supergroup featuring members of R.E.M., Dream Syndicate, Hindu Love Gods and Young Fresh Fellows, bring their growing body of songs about America’s national pastime to Club Helsinki Hudson on Wednesday, July 23, at 8pm. The group was one of the surprise hits at the original Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA five years ago.
Chris Stack and Birgit Huppuch in ‘Love in the Wars’ (photo Julieta Cervantes)
WORLD PREMIERE of NEW KLEIST ADAPTATION by JOHN BANVILLE at BARD SUMMERSCAPE
(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – Love in the Wars, a theatrical adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s romantic drama Penthesilea by Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville, receives its world premiere at Bard SummerScape 2014 now through Sunday, July 20, in Theater Two of the Fisher Center at Bard College.
Netsayi and Black Pressure
NETSAYI BRINGS JAZZY AFROPOP to MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Netsayi performs her unique brand of “Chimurenga soul” music at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 19, at 8pm. Netsayi’s music boasts a jazzy, rhythmic pulse that connects Afropop to folk-rock, connecting the dots between Joan Armatrading and Angélique Kidjo. Using handcrafted wooden instruments native to Africa, Netsayi’s enchanting vocals and insightful lyrics bounce playfully behind an energetic stage band.
Jennifer Rohn
ONE-WOMAN COMEDY ‘HIGH DIVE’ at CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY
(CHESTER, Mass.) – “High Dive,” a one-woman comedy by Leslie Ayvazian that relies on audience participation, will get a special three-night run from July 22 through July 24 at Chester Theatre Company as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. The production stars Jennifer Rohn in her sixth CTC appearance.
Charlotte Bray
TANGLEWOOD’S CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS AMERICAN, WOMEN COMPOSERS
(LENOX, Mass.) – Works by American composers, especially works by former/current Tanglewood Music Center Composition Fellows and works by women composers, will be featured in this summer’s Festival of Contemporary Music, under the direction of composers John Harbison and Michael Gandolfi, at Tanglewood, running Thursday, July 17, through Monday, July 21, in accordance with Tanglewood’s season-long focus on American music.
Scene from ‘Crime or Emergency’
MUSIC-THEATER DUET ‘MELODRAMA OF CONSCIOUSNESS’ at SIMON’S ROCK
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Playwright/performer Sibyl Kempson and composer/musician/performer Mike Iveson Jr. bring their critically acclaimed play, “Crime or Emergency,” to the second week of Mass Live Arts at Simon’s Rock College, from Wednesday, July 16 to Friday, July 18. Assuming a post-logical incoherence as the basis for human motivation, feeling, and violence; Crime or Emergency threatens our conceptions of contemporary American theater and identity as we safely understand it. Iveson, with his demonic arrangements of the indigenous music of his native New Jersey, joins Kempson in a rapturous and obsessive melodrama of consciousness. Their dual performance pits them in a life-or-death struggle for the right to devour the soul of the play.
Tommy Stinson
ROOTS-ROCK ALL-STARS LUKAS NELSON and TOMMY and RUBY STINSON to PLAY BENEFIT for FARMON! FOUNDATION
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Willie Nelson’s son Lukas Nelson, Replacements cofounder Tommy Stinson, and his daughter Ruby Stinson will perform in “FarmOn! Hoedown,” an all-star roots-rock benefit concert for the FarmOn! Foundation at Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday, July 18, at 7pm.
Tasha Lawrence
NIKOS STAGE SEASON OPENS with ‘A GREAT WILDERNESS’ at WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – “A Great Wilderness,” a new play by Obie Award-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter, inaugurates the 2014 season on the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, running through Sunday, July 20. Walt has devoted his life to counseling teenage boys out of their homosexuality at his remote Idaho wilderness camp. Pressured to accept one last client, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel with the arrival of Daniel.
CAPITOL STEPS RETURNS to CRANWELL for 2014 SUMMER SEASON
(LENOX, Mass.) – The award-winning musical satire group Capitol Steps is back in residence at Cranwell Resort now through Sunday, August 31, with nightly shows at 8pm except Tuesdays. The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. They’ve also been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and can be heard 4 times a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during their “Politics Takes a Holiday” radio specials.
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