MASS MoCA and Jacob’s Pillow present work-in-progress showing of ‘Marks of RED,’ the newest multidisciplinary performance artwork by award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts
Pittsfield – On Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m., MASS MoCA and Jacob’s Pillow present a work-in-progress showing of “Marks of RED,” the newest multidisciplinary performance artwork by award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts.
Enjoy an open rehearsal experience with an intimate look into the making of the fourth chapter of Pitts’ “RED” series, exploring Black embodiment, aliveness, and human connection. A work of magical realism narrated by and featuring the viewpoints of six women, the performance is an Afrofuturistic meditation on the “womb space,” divining the effect that memory has on our experiences, senses, bodies, reality, and imaginative possibilities.
With scenic designs by Mimi Lien, video mapping projection by Lucca Del Carlo, lighting design by Sarai Frazier, and production by TRIBE arts collective, the showing is at MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA Way in North Adams. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Triplex Cinema presents screening of award-winning drama ‘The President’s Cake’ with talkback by Executive Producer Marielle Heller
Great Barrington – On Saturday, March 7, at 7:15 p.m., the Triplex Cinema presents a screening of the award-winning drama “The President’s Cake,” with a talkback and Q&A with Executive Producer Marielle Heller.
Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film explores childhood under Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. When 9-year-old Lamia is selected to bake a cake to celebrate the president’s birthday, she embarks on a journey through a landscape marked by fear and scarcity, where even basic ingredients are difficult to obtain. Her search for eggs, flour, and sugar becomes a coming-of-age story set against political repression.
Marielle Heller is a director, writer, actor, and producer whose debut feature, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” earned the Independent Spirit Award for best first feature. She later directed “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” both of which earned Academy Award nominations for their respective stars — Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in the former, and Tom Hanks in the latter. Most recently, Heller wrote and directed “Nightbitch,” starring Amy Adams. As an actor, Heller appeared as Alma Wheatley in the Emmy-winning series “The Queen’s Gambit.”
“Marielle has been the creative force behind some of the most moving films of the last decade,” said Ben Elliott, creative director of the Triplex Cinema. “We’re thrilled to welcome her to discuss her work on ‘The President’s Cake’ and the collaboration behind bringing the film to audiences.”
The event is at the Triplex Cinema, 70 Railroad Street in Great Barrington. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Berkshire International Film Festival Social Club celebrates 28th anniversary of ‘The Big Lebowski’ with bowling, White Russians, and a rad music mix
Great Barrington – On Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m., the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) Social Club celebrates the 28th anniversary of “The Big Lebowski” with bowling, White Russians, and a curated music mix.
Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money. Directed by the Coen brothers, the film premiered in 1998 and quickly became a cult classic. Fun fact: the Coen brothers attended Bard College, and Great Barrington’s “The Cove” inspired the film.
The event is at Cove Bowling and Entertainment, 109 Stockbridge Road in Great Barrington. Costumes are encouraged. Tickets include bowling, bowling shoes, pizza, fun, and prizes. There will also be a cash bar. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Crandell Theatre presents an interactive dance party screening of ‘Purple Rain’
Chatham, N.Y. – On Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m., the Crandell Theatre presents an interactive dance party screening of “Purple Rain.”
It’s a timely moment to watch this homage to Minneapolis, whose 1980s music scene launched Prince Rogers Nelson into the stratosphere. Featuring sites around the City of Lakes, from the famed club First Avenue to Prince’s childhood home, “Purple Rain” captures the singer-songwriter’s singular charisma and musical genius. The Triplex will evoke a concert-like atmosphere by supplying flameless candles to raise during the film’s namesake song, spurring an interactive dance party set to Prince’s electrifying closing medley.
The event is at the Crandell Theatre, 48 Main Street in Chatham, N.Y. Copies of “My Pinup,” Hilton Als’ memoir about Prince, will be for sale. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Valley Classical Concerts presents acclaimed cellist Camille Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal in concert
Northampton – On Saturday, March 7, at 3 p.m., Valley Classical Concerts presents acclaimed cellist Camille Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal for a program of sonatas by J.S. Bach and Edvard Grieg, plus an eclectic selection of shorter works by Eric Satie, Camille Saint-Saëns, Radiohead, and original pieces.
Camille Thomas is considered among the most compelling musical voices of her generation, recognized for an artistic philosophy that balances technical mastery with a profound humanitarian spirit. She is a prolific chamber musician who frequently commissions music that resonates with modern global challenges, ensuring that the classical tradition remains a living, breathing entity. In 2017, she was the first female cellist in 40 years to sign an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She plays a 1730 Stradivarius cello with a direct link to several of the great cellists of the past.
Under the guidance of legendary pianist Maria João Pires, Thomas’ partner, pianist, and composer Julien Brocal has developed a philosophy of performance that prioritizes the human element over mere technical display, focusing on the organic connection among performer, score, and audience. His recording career has been met with significant critical acclaim, including being named “Newcomer of the Year” by BBC Music Magazine in 2018.
The concert is at Sage Hall, Smith College, 144 Green Street in Northampton. Audience members are encouraged to arrive at 2 p.m. to enjoy a pre-show conversation with the artists and longtime NEPM host John Montanari. Students ages 18 and under are admitted free. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Clark Art Institute presents Pianist David Kaplan and Soprano Ariadne Greif in concert
Williamstown – On Saturday, March 7, at 2 p.m., the Clark Art Institute presents pianist David Kaplan and soprano Ariadne Greif in concert to celebrate the closing of its “Shadow Visionaries” exhibition.
The concert draws a direct line between Romanticism and Surrealism, with works by Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Francis Poulenc, ruminating on ambiguity, liminality, love, irony, irrationality, absurdity, and the grotesque. Hector Berlioz’s crepuscular and revelatory “Nuits d’été” (“Summer Nights,”) a group of six songs based on selections from poet Théophile Gautier’s La Comédie de la Mort (“The Comedy of Death,”) is the centerpiece of this program. Rodolphe Bresdin’s print titled “The Comedy of Death,” on view in the “Shadow Visionaries” exhibition, draws inspiration from this same source.
The concert is at the Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street in Williamstown. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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The Foundry presents Celtic roots music by Kalos
West Stockbridge – On Saturday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m., The Foundry presents Celtic roots music by Kalos.
Innovative interpreters and composers of Celtic roots music Eric McDonald, Ryan McKasson, and Jeremiah McLane make up Kalos. They are masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges, delivering an alluring musical complexity full of spontaneity and joyful exuberance. Pulling from parallel strands of influence, they create a swirling level of intensity that traverses darkness, light, and everywhere in between. At their live performances, which are full of organic banter and good humor, they create an environment of their own design.
The concert is at The Foundry, 2 Harris Street in Pittsfield. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Schumacher Center for a New Economics presents ‘Unnamed: A Conversation at the Edge of Sense’ with filmmaker, writer, and educator Nora Bateson and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe
Great Barrington – On Saturday, March 7, from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., the Schumacher Center for a New Economics presents “Unnamed: A Conversation at the Edge of Sense” with filmmaker, writer, and educator Nora Bateson and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, facilitated by board member Alex Forrester.
There is a strange doubling in our times. On the one hand, an over-inflation of sense-making: everything must be explained, processed, optimized, and made legible to algorithms and governance. On the other, a profound exhaustion of sense: the feeling that nothing makes sense anymore, that our categories are failing us, that the old maps no longer describe the territory. These are not separate crises. They are one movement, marking the dynamics of the frantic work of trying to restore coherence to a world that keeps exceeding our grasp.
And what rushes in to do this work? Authoritarian movements are winning the sense-making game right now. They offer clean hierarchies, clear enemies, the comfort of knowing exactly who belongs and who doesn’t. Meanwhile, progressive responses often remain trapped in the soft governance of betterment: more therapy, more processing, more wellness initiatives, more breakthroughs. One offers the sword. The other offers the gentle nod. But both attempt to seal the cracks, to make the world legible again.
What if there is something else? What if there’s a staying with the non-legible that lies in excess of the usual parameters of the political? Perhaps, not another position, not another program, but attention to what moves in the gaps, the places where mastery fails and something unnamed slips through.
“Unnamed” gathers two thinkers — Nora Bateson and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe — to sit at this edge. They gather not to explain. They gather not to solve. They gather to notice what trembles just before language coheres, and to ask: what forms of aliveness are stirring outside the logics of healing, justice, and progress?
The gathering is at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street in Great Barrington. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Berkshire Botanical Garden presents kokedama workshop with artist and horticultural therapist Brian Mikesell
Stockbridge – On Saturday, March 7, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Berkshire Botanical Garden presents a kokedama workshop with artist and horticultural therapist Brian Mikesell.
Discover the art of kokedama, a centuries-old Japanese practice that blends horticulture and design. Unlike bonsai, which focuses on outdoor trees, or ikebana, which features cut flowers, kokedama are living plants such as anthurium, orchid, peperomia, or zantedeschia, displayed in moss-and-soil spheres that can hang or sit in a dish indoors.
The workshop is at Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge. All materials are included, and you’ll leave with your own kokedama to enjoy at home or give as a thoughtful, handmade gift. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Federation for Children with Special Needs presents 27th annual ‘Visions of Community’ conference local watch party
Pittsfield – On Saturday, March 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the Federation for Children with Special Needs presents its 27th annual statewide conference, ‘Visions of Community.’
The Pittsfield Watch Party offers free admission and specialized materials. Attendees will view two keynote speakers: Yale Professor and author of “Be Unapologetically Impatient,” Christina Cipriano, and founder of the 21st Century Dads Foundation and host of the SFN “Dad To Dad” podcast, David Hirsch. Participants will also join two workshops.
The event is at St. Stephen’s Church, 67 East Street in Pittsfield. Admission and parking are free. Breakfast and lunch are provided. Support in English and Spanish will be available throughout the day. More information can be found online.
