Mahaiwe and Berkshire Playwrights Lab present “Some Old Black Man”
GREAT BARRINGTON — Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center will co-present a YouTube screening of James Anthony Tyler’s “Some Old Black Man,” starring Wendell Pierce and Charlie Robinson, on Saturday, April 24 at 3 p.m. The performance will be followed by a live conversation with the actors, the playwright, and director Joe Cacaci.
“Some Old Black Man” was first produced by Berkshire Playwrights Lab in 2015 as a staged reading at the Mahaiwe. In 2017, BPL gave the play a full production at Saint James Place, which was subsequently staged at 59E59 Theaters in New York City in 2018. The Guardian called the UMS-filmed version “a riveting drama, not only about all that is left unsaid in families, but also the intergenerational experiences of racism in America.” In another summary of the play, The New York Times called Wendell Pierce “one of the greatest actors of his generation.”
In the play, Calvin Jones (Wendell Pierce), a hip African American college professor, moves his 82-year-old ailing but doggedly independent father, Donald Jones (Charlie Robinson), from Greenwald, Mississippi into his Harlem penthouse. The play begins with an argument over what to eat for breakfast, then turns into a generational clash over race, opportunity, and a decision that Calvin made years ago.
“Some Old Black Man manages to be both timely and timeless, speaking with urgency and eloquence to how we live today,” said BPL Co-Artistic Directors Richard Dresser and Felicia Harden.
The event is free, but requires registration online at either the Mahaiwe or Berkshire Playwrights Lab website.
—A.K.
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Stockbridge Cultural Council announces FY21 grants
STOCKBRIDGE — State Representative Smitty Pignatelli and Karen Marshall, chair of the Stockbridge Cultural Council, recently announced the award of 18 grants totaling $6,600, for cultural programs taking place in Stockbridge and/or serving its residents.
This year, the Council gave grants to: Greenagers/Climate Action; Laurel Hill Association/Laurel Hill Day; Indigenous People’s Day Walk; IS183/Berkshire Artists Residency Program; Berkshire Theatre Group/BTG Plays summertime classes; Tom Truss/Rewritten; Chester Theatre 2021 season; Shakespeare & Company 2021 Fall Festival; Mass Audubon/Bringing Nature to You; Berkshire Pulse Outdoor Dance Festival; Pooja Prema/Rites of Passage 20/20 Vision; Berkshire Ukulele Band & Berkshire Sings!; Berkshire Music School/Global Influence on American Music; Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives/History of Ice Glen and Ice Harvesting in Stockbridge; SculptureNow/IceFire; Arts in Recovery for Youth; Cantilena Choir summer concerts; and Berkshire Children’s Chorus/Take the Lead Program.
The Stockbridge Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils (LCC) serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.
Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers. The members of the Stockbridge Cultural Council are: Karen Marshall, Lionel Delevinge, Lynn Edelstein, Janet Egelhofer, Mary Flournoy, Ed Lane, Andrea Sholler, Rebecca Weinman, and Rena Zurofsky.
The Stockbridge Cultural Council will seek applications from Stockbridge-based artists and organizations again in the fall. For guidelines and complete information on the Cultural Council, contact Karen Marshall at culturalcouncil@stockbridge-ma.gov Applications and more information are available online.
—A.K.
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Former EPA leader Enck addresses plastic pollution for Earthweek at Williams College
WILLIAMSTOWN — In honor of Earthweek at Williams College, Judith Enck, former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional administrator and visiting professor at Bennington College, will give the talk “Moving Beyond Plastic: The Environmental Justice, Climate Change and Health Issue of Our Time.” The online event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Thursday, April 22, at 7 p.m.
In her talk, Enck will shine light on the enormous environmental and health implications associated with the production, use, and disposal of plastics. In addition to its impact on animals and wildlife, she will delve into how plastic production has become the fossil fuel industry’s “Plan B,” what plastic pollution is doing to rivers and oceans, its health implications, and the export of the United States’ and Europe’s plastic waste to Asia and Africa.
Enck has held top positions in state and federal government, and founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change.
—A.K.
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Berkshire Regional Planning Commission receives CARES Act funding
PITTSFIELD — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded a $842,522 CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) to develop and implement an economic recovery and resiliency plan and provide technical assistance to bolster the region’s ability to withstand future economic disruptions.
The two-year project will fund expansion of Berkshire County’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) to include regional resiliency planning, and will also help identify and support recovery projects, rebuild the region’s online data and economic indicator tracking capabilities, provide technical assistance and capacity building opportunities to local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities, and support workforce and industry-building efforts to facilitate meaningful work toward economic recovery, growth, and resiliency.
Work to overhaul an online data clearinghouse is already underway, with a focus on improving user experience and encouraging a broader range of agencies to access the site for a better understanding of existing conditions in the county and to support their own grant-writing efforts.
BRPC staff will expand upon the County’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy to develop new protocols for coordination during future disruptions. Staff will facilitate significant recovery-oriented projects and identity additional grant-eligible projects.
The Planning Commission will work with 1Berkshire to provide technical assistance to local businesses. 1Berkshire will also take the lead role in industry-specific capacity building efforts, primarily focusing on industry clusters identified in the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0. BRPC also continues to offer direct financial assistance to income-qualified small businesses through CDBG micro-enterprise grant programs.
—A.K.
