Bella’s Bartok CD release show at the Colonial Theatre
Pittsfield – Berkshire Theatre Group will welcome Bella’s Bartok to the Colonial Theatre for a CD release masquerade show, with special guests Whiskey Treaty Roadshow and DJ BFG, on Saturday, April 16, at 8 p.m.
Northampton’s Bella’s Bartok is a six-piece bohemian Klezmer-punk powerhouse with pop sensibilities. This show will feature an amped-up version of the band’s signature high-energy experience, complete with special effects and surprises galore. With a masquerade theme, fans are encouraged to attend with masks of all kinds to celebrate the release of the new record, “Change Yer Life.”
The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow is a collaborative band bringing together five singer-songwriters in the vein of Americana, rock, and roots-folk music. The band recently debuted its first live album, “The Heart of the Run.”
DJ BFG is Berkshire County’s best-known multi-genre DJ. From his training at New York’s Scratch DJ Academy to his current position as special events DJ at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, BFG combines an old-school aesthetic with new-jack beats for a seamless, genre-hopping approach to dance music.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 on the day of show. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Colonial ticket office at 413-997-4444.
–E.E.
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Railroad history talk
Great Barrington — The Great Barrington Historical Society will present Peter McLachlan on Wednesday, April 13, at 7 p.m. at the Claire Teague Senior Center. McLachlan, of Newtown, Conn., was a longtime engineer on the railroad line from Pittsfield through Great Barrington to Danbury, Conn., and will give a talk on his experiences on the railroad and in the southern Berkshire area.
Passenger trains were an important part of southern Berkshire County’s transportation infrastructure for a number of years. There were as many as six round trips per day to New York City through Danbury at the beginning of the 20th century, and the railroads still ran two round trips per day into the 1960s. In his talk McLachlan will discuss his busy days on the railroad and include some tales of his times in the Berkshires.
McLachlan was an engineer on passenger trains for the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and the Penn Central Railroad from 1952 to 1969, and then a freight engineer for Conrail until his retirement in 1998. He has been a volunteer at the Danbury Railway Museum.
The presentation will include a display of photographs and blueprints of railroad trains and tracks. Light refreshments will be served. For more information contact the Historical Society at (413) 591-8702.
–E.E.
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WAM Theatre to present ‘The Last Wife’
West Stockbridge — WAM Theatre will present “The Last Wife” by Kate Hennig, the opening event in its 2016 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series, on Sunday, April 17, at 3 p.m. at No. Six Depot Roastery and Café.
A contemporary retelling of the relationship between Katherine Parr and Henry VIII, “The Last Wife” invites audiences to a powerful examination of patriarchy, sexual politics, and women’s rights. The play had its world premiere in 2015, with a sold-out extended run at Canada’s Stratford Festival.
Playwright Kate Hennig has been a member of the Groundswell Playwrights’ Unit, Tarragon Playwrights’ Unit, and the Banff Playwrights’ Colony. She has also written two highly subscribed blogs documenting her acting experiences with the Royal Shakespeare Company and “Billy Elliot: The Musical” on Broadway. Her play Waterworks was given a reading at the Stratford Festival in 2012.
Tickets are $20 and seating is limited. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact WAM Theatre at (413) 274-8122.
–E.E.
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Introduction to Gardening Organically
Lenox – On Saturday, April 16, from 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m., Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary will host an Introduction to Gardening Organically workshop. The workshop will focus on the benefits of organic gardening and impart practical information on how to incorporate the approach.
The program is free but registration is required. For more information or to register, call (413) 637-0320.
–E.E.
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Storytellers to face off at the Mount
Lenox — On Sunday, April 17, at 2 p.m., the Mount will host storytellers Matthew Dicks and Tom Lee, who will demonstrate the legacy of oral storytelling by juxtaposing traditional folk tales with modern narratives about everyday life. The tellers will touch on the themes “In the Beginning” and “Crime and Punishment,” highlighting the unique ways storytelling has changed over time.
Matthew Dicks first started telling stories in 2011 and has won 20 Moth StorySLAMs as well as three Moth GrandSLAM championships. Dicks is also the co-founder of Hartford, Conn.-based storytelling organization Speak Up, which produces shows throughout New England.
Tom Lee has been telling traditional stories for nearly 30 years and has performed at the Edinburgh Festival and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also participated in the 2015 Teller-in-Residence series at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tenn.
Tickets are $18 for the general public and $15 for Mount members. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Mount at (413) 551-5100.
–E.E.
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The Comical Mystery Tour to return to Ventfort Hall
Lenox — The Comical Mystery Tour ensemble will return to Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum for the murder mystery dinner theater program “The Killer Script” on Saturday, April 23, at 6 p.m.
The stage is set for a deadly rehearsal of the soap opera “The Numb and the Restless.” The producer, R. E. Mote, has ticked off someone enough that they have cancelled him permanently: was it director and ill treated brother-in-law Frank Lee, abused stage manager Shanel Surfer, over-acting new actor Foster Granite, or bubbly-yet-obsessive actress Sunny Delight? Dinner will consist of chicken Marsala with linguini and Italian vegetables, salad, cake, coffee, and tea, with beer and wine available for purchase.
In production since 1995, the Greenfield, Mass.-based Comical Mystery Tour has had over 50,000 audience members viewing and/or participating in their programs.
Tickets for “The Killer Script” are $30. Seating is limited and reservations must be made by Friday, April 15. For more information or reservations call Ventfort Hall at (413) 637-3206 or email info@gildedage.org.
–E.E.
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Shakespeare exhibit at Williams College
Williamstown – Through Tuesday, October 11, Williams College’s Chapin Library is hosting an exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. The “‘While Thy Booke Doth Live’: Shakespeare and His World” exhibit is located in room 406 of Sawyer Library.
The exhibition’s title is taken from a poem by Ben Jonson that appears in the 1623 First Folio collection of Shakespeare’s plays. Drawn from the rich holdings of the Chapin Library, the exhibition features works by Shakespeare in original editions, including all of the Folios, the 1640 edition of Shakespeare’s Poems, and late 17th-century printings and adaptations of some of his plays. Also on display are books which put Shakespeare in the context of English history and the theatres of London, works he used as source material for his plays, and writings by contemporaries such as Thomas Heywood and Christopher Marlowe.
The exhibition is free of charge and open to the public Monday through Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. For building locations on the Williams campus, consult the online map or call the Office of Communications at (413) 597-4277.
–E.E.
