Editor’s Note: We had so much news this week that we decided to break Bits & Bytes into two parts. This is the second part.
The First Congregational Church UCC in Stockbridge presents ‘Soprano Riot!’
Stockbridge— On Saturday, September 30th at 7:30 p.m., the First Congregational Church UCC in Stockbridge presents “Soprano Riot!”, a concert of music for one and two sopranos featuring sopranos Nellie Rustick and Amy Shake with pianist David Anderegg.
Repertoire to be performed includes Aaron Copland settings of texts by Emily Dickinson, Lori Leitman’s settings of texts by Margaret Atwood, and songs by Florence Price using poems of Langston Hughes. There will also be two world premieres, the complete “Songs from a Bad Year” and “Two Vocalises for Enrique” by David Anderegg.
Nellie Rustick is a versatile soprano and actor whose most recent appearances have been as Gerhilde in Wagner’s “Die Valkyrie” in the Tundi Wagner festival in Brattleboro, and as Eleanor Roosevelt in the musical “Eleanor!” at the Strand Theater in Hoosick Falls.
Amy Shake is a singer and voice teacher. She has appeared in a wide variety of roles with the Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre, MosaicArts, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society, Hillman Opera, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Octavo Singers, and Lyric Arts International.
The concert is on Saturday, September 30th at 7:30 p.m., the First Congregational Church UCC on Main Street in Stockbridge. Suggested donation for the concert is $20. The proceeds will support all the programs of the church. For further information, please call the church office at 413-298-3137.
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The Northampton Jazz Festival returns
Northampton— On Friday, September 29th and Saturday, September 30th, the Northampton Jazz Festival returns to downtown Northampton.
On Saturday, “Jazz Fest Day”, all music is free and open to the public from 10:45 a.m. through 6:30 p.m. at four venues including Pulaski Park on Main Street.
The Saturday evening headliner concert is the “Max Roach Centennial Celebration” at the Academy of Music with the Joe Farnsworth Quintet featuring special guest NEA Jazz Master George Coleman with Christian Sands on piano, Peter Washington on bass, and Jeremy Pelt on trumpet. This star-studded quintet is eager to celebrate the legacy of drummer, bandleader, composer, UMass-Amherst professor and civil rights activist, Max Roach. Tickets to this celebration concert are $30 to $50 and can be found online.
The festival is Friday, September 29th and Saturday, September 30th in downtown Northampton. A full lineup of musicians and the schedule can be found online. Volunteers are still needed to staff the Friday and Saturday events. To volunteer, visit Northampton Jazz Festival online.
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Sharon Playhouse presents ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ with a star-studded cast
Sharon— From September 29th to October 15th, the Sharon Playhouse presents “The Lifespan of a Fact” by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, based on the book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal.
Based on the true story turned Broadway play in 2018, starring Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, this fast-paced story explodes with blistering comedy and timely relevance. Facts become blurry when they’re twisted into fiction in the high-stakes world of publishing. Emily Penrose, the demanding editor-in-chief of a high-end magazine, hires a determined young fact-checker named Jim Fingal, to work on a groundbreaking essay written by the famous author, John D’Agata. The deadline is tight, the essay is dense, and everyone must make a good-faith effort to tell the story honestly. But the overly eager Jim takes his fact-checking too far, creating the ultimate showdown of fact versus fiction!
Directed by TONY Award nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge, the cast includes a brilliant roster of Broadway, TV, and film performers, Jonathan Walker, Jennifer Van Dyck, and Reynaldo.
Performances run from September 29th to October 15th in the Bobbie Olsen Theater at the Sharon Playhouse on Amenia Road in Sharon. Tickets are $35 to $50. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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The David M. Hunt Library presents ‘Frame by Frame: Paintings in Sequence and Montage’, an art exhibition by Elizabeth Buttler
Falls Village— From September 28th through October 27th, the David M. Hunt Library presents “Frame by Frame: Paintings in Sequence and Montage”, an art exhibition by Elizabeth Buttler.
A stop motion animator with credits including “The Penny Cartoon for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” and “Wallace & Gromit” for Aardman Animations, Elizabeth Buttler found that her work in fabricating, sculpture, and animating informed and improved her drawing and painting.
According to the artist, “In the past few years, my animation background started to seep into my paintings. As an animator, I spent years drawing sequences of movement. It was always magical to watch them come to life. In my sequential paintings, I just do a few frames of movement, enough for the viewer to enjoy looking back and forth between the paintings to catch a glimpse of a moment in time.” An example is a dog pensively waiting for its dinner bowl expressed in three paintings, or movements.
The exhibit runs from September 28th through October 27th at the David M. Hunt Library on Main Street in Falls Village. There is an opening reception on Saturday, September 30th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. More information can be found online or by calling 860-824-7424.
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The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents “Art and Globalism in Eighteenth Century Europe” with Sarah R. Cohen
Pittsfield— On Saturday, September 30 at 3 p.m., the OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents “Art and Globalism in Eighteenth Century Europe” with Sarah R. Cohen.
This lecture will explore art produced in Europe during the eighteenth century, a time traditionally known as the “Enlightenment,” considering the visual and material aspects of various artistic media in a range of European countries, as well as art obtained from other parts of the world, and we will query how this art both represented and actively contributed to Europeans’ understandings of their own societies, as well as their perceptions and misperceptions of Asian, Turkish, Native American and African cultures. Special attention will focus upon the ways art helped to shape Europeans’ gender politics and definitions of race both within Europe and in the slave-holding colonies of the Caribbean islands.
Sarah R. Cohen, Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History, University at Albany, SUNY, received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University. Her research has focused extensively upon representations of the body in European art from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. She has published multiple books and articles and her current work explores the global implications of art made for the French dining table in the eighteenth century.
The in-person talk is on Saturday, September 30 at 3 p.m. at the Berkshire Museum on South Street in Pittsfield. Admission is $15, $10 for both OLLI at BCC and Berkshire Museum members, free for students, staff, and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, Simon’s Rock, and Williams; youth 17 and under; and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards. This event will not be recorded. More information can be found online.
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Jay Craven’s ‘Martin Eden’ to screen at Bennington Museum
Bennington— On Friday, September 29th at 7 p.m., the Bennington Museum presents a screening of Jay Craven’s new narrative feature film, “Martin Eden,” based on the novel by Jack London (“Call of the Wild” and “White Fang”), including a Q&A with writer/director Jay Craven.
London’s autobiographical novel “Martin Eden”, set in 1909, tells the story of a poor and unschooled sailor who unexpectedly meets Ruth Morse, a magnetic young woman of means and education. Their unconventional attraction upends both lives and propels timely themes of impossible love, dogged individualism in pursuit of the American Dream, and the quest for a comfortable place in an inconstant world.
“Martin Eden” received its world premiere at the Nantucket Film Festival and has won Best Film and Best Director awards at the Boston Film Festival and Best Narrative Feature at the Arlington International Film Festival. In her Provincetown Magazine review, film critic Lee Roscoe calls the film “ a gem” that “should be counted amongst the classics of American cinema.”
The screening is on Friday, September 29th at 7 p.m. at the Bennington Museum on Main Street in Bennington. Tickets are $12 and $10 for members. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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The Monterey Native Plants Working Group presents “Uprooting Invasives” with Wayne Mezitt
Monterey— On Saturday, September 30th at 11 a.m., the Monterey Native Plants Working Group presents “Uprooting Invasives”, an illustrated tutorial with Wayne Mezitt, Chair of the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group and Past President of the American Nursery and Landscape Association.
How can we conquer the aggressive plants that strive to overtake our gardens, fields, shorelines, and roadsides thereby endangering our native plants and animals? Mezitt will help us to identify and eradicate some of our most threatening green adversaries, including Japanese Knotweed, Bittersweet, Burning Bush, Goutweed and Japanese Barberry.
The tutorial is on Saturday, September 30th at 11 a.m. at the Monterey Community Center on Main Road in Monterey. Register by emailing pollinators01245@gmail.com.
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Clark Art Institute expands “Rx for Wellbeing” program to Berkshire Medical Center trauma program
Williamstown— The Clark Art Institute and Berkshire Medical Center are teaming up to provide a new mental health service aimed at providing assistance to trauma victims.
The Clark currently offers a county-wide program, “Rx for Wellbeing” at the Clark, through local mental health practitioners as a means of encouraging engagement with art as part of a therapeutic treatment plan for those dealing with issues like depression, anxiety, and social isolation. The new initiative with Berkshire Medical Center, “Access to Wellbeing at the Clark”, extends the program to offer victims of trauma opportunities to engage with art as a part of their recovery efforts.
“There have been a number of scientific studies that have linked engagement with art to improved health and wellbeing,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “We firmly believe that looking at a painting or any other type of art can spark self-reflection, inspiration, and understanding that can help people in numerous ways. By deepening our commitment to this project, we hope we will be able to help better serve the needs of our community by providing a way to assist them in discovering and enjoying the restorative power of art.”
More information on how individuals can participate in the program can be found online or by calling 413-458-0563.
