See Robin Williams in ‘The Birdcage’
Great Barrington— The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center hosts a screening of “The Birdcage” on Saturday, March 25 at 7 p.m.
In the 1996 classic, “The Birdcage,” Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are Armand and Albert, life partners and the owner and a performer respectively at The Birdcage, a drag club in Miami Beach. Armand’s son Val (Dan Futterman) is engaged to marry, and a plot is devised to deceive his fiancée’s socially conservative parents.
This movie is rated R, with a runtime of 1 hour, 57 minutes.
Tickets are $8, available here.
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‘Song and Dance: Women of the Berkshires!’
Pittsfield— On Friday, March 24th at 7:30 p.m. see “Song and Dance: Women of the Berkshires!” at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Elizabeth Freeman Center.
The Berkshires serve as home to a number of women artists and women behind the scenes who are making a positive difference in our area, and celebrated musician Wanda Houston is looking forward to shining a spotlight on some of them. Honorees for the event include Barbara Seddon, Dr. Frances Jones Sneed, Ilana Steinhauer of VIM, Jane Ralph, Becky Ahamad, and Allison Rachelle Bayles.
Wanda Houston has organized an all women’s band (with the exception of two men, one on saxophone and one on piano) to back up vocalists for the evening. She then invited noted singers Gina Coleman (Misty Blues Band), Mary Ann Palermo ( First Take Band), and Olga Dunn Dance Co. dancers Kate Chester, Maya Jocelyn, Hope St. Jock, and Jane Singer to share the stage. The cast will be further augmented with the talents of singers Beth Maturevich, Chantell McFarland, and Jaane Doe.
Highlights of the concert promise to be Wanda Houston singing “You make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman,” a brief monologue about Elizabeth Freeman spoken live with choreographed movement, the full cast opening the show together, and more.
Tickets are $30, available here.
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The Caili O’Doherty Quartet to open the Litchfield Jazz Presents series
Litchfield, Conn. — Litchfield Jazz Festival’s “Litchfield Jazz Presents” series, run in tandem and collaboration with New England Arts and Entertainment, opens with the Caili O’Doherty Quartet on March 24 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Also, its 3-year old live stream series will now be presented for both in person audiences and live stream listeners at the Poli Club at the Palace Theater in Waterbury.
Caili O’Doherty, pianist and award-winning composer, teaches at Stanford Jazz Workshop, Litchfield Jazz Camp and for Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has appeared at international festivals from Panama to Ireland and served as a Jazz Ambassador for the US State Department performing in Colombia and West Africa. Last summer she made her first appearance at Litchfield Jazz Festival– with not a little associated drama.
Caili, who was still on deck from her Litchfield Jazz Camp faculty gig, stepped up to replace pianist Julian Shore for the debut performance of Litchfield alumnus, 20-year-old drummer/composer/pianist Anton Kot. Julian was felled by Covid during his return flight from Japan where he had been touring with guitarist Dave Stryker and Steely Dan to join Anton’s quartet at the Litchfield fest. With a day’s notice Caili stepped up, mastered the almost-all-original music for the set with one rehearsal and a night of burning the midnight oil, and turned in a bravura performance the next day. The audience responded with a standing ovation and kudos sent to the fest organizers for days afterward. In a word, Caili O’Doherty is a pro.
Caili will appear with Cory Cox on drums, Tamir Shmerling on bass and Tim Armacost on tenor sax. Cox is a graduate of the prestigious Brubeck Institute whose higher education was sponsored by piano icon Jason Moran, Shmerling has performed with artists Terry Lynne Carrington, Kevin Eubanks and others, and Armacost has played with a long list of jazz greats including Al Foster, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Jeff “Tain” Watts,Roy Hargrove, and Randy Brecker. (Coincidentally, the now 80-year-old Al Foster, one most revered jazz drummers of all time, will headline the 28th Litchfield Jazz Festival with guitarist Peter Bernstein’s band on July 29.)
Tickets are $36, available for each show at the Palace Theater Box Office, 203-346-2000 or on line at www.PalaceTheaterCT.org. Information for accessing the show via live stream will be available at www.litchfieldjazzfest.com.
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See an operatic adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’
North Adams— MASS MoCA presents a work-in-progress preview of Paola Prestini’s new opera “The Old Man and the Sea,” created with Royce Vavrek and Karmina Šilec on Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m.
This opera interweaves Hemingway’s classic fable with original portraits of quotidian life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to oceans. The evening will include an excerpt of the new work, followed by a conversation on stage with the principal creative team.
Helga Davis, a longtime collaborator and muse of Prestini—and another returning MASS MoCA artist—will sing as the narrator with Jeffrey Zeigler performing as the featured cellist. The cast includes a choir and brings to life Hemingway’s seminal characters Santiago, Manolin, and the wife, recast here as the Virgen del Cobre, a goddess in Santería, the Afro-Caribbean faith, who was found floating on a wooden board off the coast of eastern Cuba in 1628. Themes of baseball, ecology, religion, and economy help paint a conflict between progress and tradition, granting a contemporary perspective to a timeless tale.
Tickets are $15 Members, $35 Advance, $45 Day of, $70 Preferred, available here.
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Michael Garfield’s ‘Spinning My Wheels’ shown at the Bridge Street Theatre
Catskill, N.Y. — “Spinning My Wheels”, written and performed by Michael Garfield Levine and directed by Caitlin Langstaff, will be performed at 44 West Bridge Street in Catskill for three performances only – Friday and Saturday March 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday March 26 at 2 p.m. as part of Bridge Street Theatre’s 2023 SoloFest.
This brutally honest, often harrowing, and sometimes funny roller coaster of a ride takes us from the 1970s streets and theaters of New York to the hills of Vermont and into the depths of Michael’s psyche as he battles mental illness and addiction. Clawing his way back to sanity through bicycle racing and a life-long acting career, he encounters an Olympian, a Zen Master, a Holocaust survivor, a meditation teacher who becomes his wife; and a host of other masterful (and occasionally unsavory) characters.
A native New Yorker, Michael Garfield Levine has worked in theatre at the Champlain Shakespeare Festival, Portland Stage Company, and Virginia Stage Company, appeared in film and television (“Law and Order”, “The Sopranos”, daytime dramas), studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse, and was an original member of The Circle Repertory Lab. He has also made many commercials and done voice-overs for television and radio. He raced bicycles for 30 years, competing alongside National Champions, Olympians, and Tour de France winners. Michael drove a NYC taxicab for five years and lived to tell about it! He currently resides in The Hudson Valley where he writes and rides. “Spinning My Wheels” was originally developed in Melinda Buckley’s One Up! Solo Workshop and in Seth Barrish’s Solo-Show Performance Class at The Barrow Group.
General Admission $25 at the door, $22 in advance online, 18 and under $10. Tickets are available here.
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Shakespeare & Company present ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in an inclusive, sensory-friendly performance
Lenox— Shakespeare & Company will stage its first sensory-friendly performance on Saturday, March 25 at 2 p.m., presenting the Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Kevin G. Coleman at the Tina Packer Playhouse.
Sensory-friendly performances have been adapted to be less overwhelming to the senses. They are designed to welcome individuals with various sensory needs, including people on the autism spectrum, those living with cognitive, social, or physical challenges, first-time theatergoers, and others.
A more comfortable environment is created through modifications to the performance space. These often include reduced-intensity lighting and sound effects; dimmed house lights for the duration of the performance; pre-show materials that include story synopses, theater maps, and other “what to expect” content, and opportunities to visit the theater the day prior to the performance to become familiar with the space.
Shakespeare & Company’s Education Tour and Professional Development Manager Kaitlin Henderson explained that the Company hopes to use these performances as a starting point for further accessibility options at all shows.
She added that this sensory-friendly performance features the cast of the 2023 Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare, currently touring “Romeo and Juliet” across New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. The tour will return to the Berkshires Saturday, April 22 for an open-captioned performance at Shakespeare & Company, featuring “super captions” projected above the stage.
