Emily Taplin Boyd (by Jordan Matter)
BARRINGTON STAGE PRESENTS FESTIVAL of NEW 10-MINUTE PLAYS
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Afraid to take a chance on a new play? Do most plays seem to drag on too long for your patience and comfort in our amped-up, always wired world? Take heart — Barrington Stage Company (BSC) has a solution. Beginning Thursday, February 14, 2013, and running through March 3, the downtown Pittsfield theater company presents a risk-free festival of ten new 10-minute plays running in repertory at BSC’s St. Germain Stage, located at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street. The 10×10 New Play Festival is part of the city’s 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival, running February 14-24, 2013, and featuring music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more.
Alexandre Lunois, The Department Store (Le Bon Marché), 1902. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1990.14
NEW EXHIBIT SHEDS LIGHT on ILLUMINATION of PARIS
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Electric Paris, a new exhibition exploring how artists depicted the changing appearance of interior and exterior spaces as the city transitioned from oil lamps to gas and electric lights, featuring works by Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, and others, opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, February 17, 2013, and runs through Sunday, April 21, 2013. Drawn primarily from the Clark’s collection, the exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs from high art and popular culture. It also includes images by Mary Cassatt, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Prendergast, and other artists working in Paris in the late 19th century. Former Clark Fellow S. Hollis Clayson is guest curator for the exhibition.
Laurie Anderson
LAURIE ANDERSON to SPEAK on DESIGNING and CUSTOMIZING INSTRUMENTS for PERFORMANCE AND RECORDING
(TROY, N.Y.) – Performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson will discuss her ever-evolving development of new instruments and interfaces for her productions and performances, and her “new rig,” which finally allows her to travel with a suitcase of her custom configuration of instruments, in a free talk at EMPAC on Thursday, February 14, 2013, at 7pm. Anderson will also discuss her new work with the Kronos Quartet, which premieres in March as part of the inaugural performances of the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University.
Williams Chamber Players
WILLIAMS CHAMBER PLAYERS to PERFORM BACH, BARTOK, BRAHMS, MENDELSSOHN and KECHLEY
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – The Williams Chamber Players will perform works by Bach, Bartok, Brahms, Mendelssohn and David Kechley on Friday, February 15, 2013, at 8 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams College campus. The concert is free and open to the public. The Williams Chamber Players is a group made up of musicians seasoned by careers rich in musical diversity. In this concert the group presents contrasting styles with composers from the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Sara Katzoff directs Barbara Cardillo, Joan Coombs, Kelly Galvin and Erin Ouellette.
MULTI-MEDIA EXHIBITION EXPLORES WOMEN’S LIVES
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – 10X10on10, a multi-media theater and visual art exhibition exploring women’s lives and inspiration throughout life’s decades, will feature work by nearly fifty visual artists, writers, and actors. The event, a collaboration between Alchemy Initiative and WAM Theatre, is part of the 2nd annual 10X10 Upstreet Art Festival, and features six performances and opening and closing art receptions that will be held at yBar in Pittsfield from Saturday, February 16, 2013, through Sunday, February 24, 2013.
Sean Connery as James Bond
JAMES BOND FILM FESTIVAL in CHATHAM
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Four great James Bond films, including the three original films starring Sean Connery and the Casino Royale remake that enlivened the franchise and introduced the latest Bond, Daniel Craig, will be screened by the Chatham Film Club at the Crandell Theatre Saturday, February 16, 2013 and Sunday, February 17, 2013. There are two screenings daily, starting Saturday with Dr. No (1962) at 2pm and From Russia With Love (1963) at 5pm. Sunday screenings include Goldfinger (1964) at 2pm and Casino Royale (2006) at 4:30pm. Cultural critic Seth Rogovoy – who recently wrote about the Jewish roots of the Bond series for The Forward weekly newspaper (“On Her Majesty’s Semitic Service”), will introduce the 2pm screening of Goldfinger. All films are open to the public. Tickets $5 at the door, or $4 for Chatham Film Club members with a membership card.
JAZZ PIANIST-COMPOSER ARMEN DONELIAN to TACKLE 10 AMERICAN COMPOSERS for 10X10 FESTIVAL
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Pianist and composer Armen Donelian brings his trio to Baba Louie’s Backroom on Friday, February 15, 2013, at 8pm, to explore the music of 10 American composers whose inspiring work spanned jazz’s first century, including Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington and Chick Corea, as part of the second annual 10×10 Upstreet Winter Arts Festival. The virtuoso pianist, accompanied by Dave Clark on bass and Conor Meehan, a Berkshire native, on drums, will add his unique interpretation to 10 pieces by 10 masters of jazz’ first 10 decades, in a program sponsored by Berkshires Jazz, Inc.
Marie-Elizabeth Mali (photo by Seth Rogovoy)
yBAR to HOST WEEKLONG POETRY FESTIVAL
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – The second annual 10×10 Poetry Festival, presented by WordXWord as part of the 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival, takes place February 17 – 23, 2013. The festival will include performances by writers and poets ranging from up-and-coming teen writers to well-established, published professionals, including Housatonic poet Marie-Elizabeth Mali and poet, performer and LGBTQ advocate Joanna Hoffman to close the festival. All events will take place at yBar, 391 North Street, Pittsfield, and will begin promptly at 8pm. Admission is free.