Pittsfield – Berkshire Theatre Group kicked off its sixth annual Made in the Berkshires festival on Friday, November 11, at the Colonial Theatre with an eclectic program of drama, film, poetry, music, and alarmingly dangerous dance moves.
The Eagles Big Band opened the show with a medley of classic Big Band-era hits, including Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” and Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.” As a matter of fact, the Eagles Band’s set the evening’s mood perfectly.
Next on Friday night’s program came Ruslan Sprague’s evocative “Fall.” Sprague choreographed the piece and performed it with Anna Acker, a local dance professional with the Albany Berkshire Ballet. A pristine recording of Abel Korzeniowski’s music supported the choreography beautifully and made for a taut, seamless, and emotionally compelling dance performance.
Nothing is more inspiring than young kids performing music by J. S. Bach. Berkshire Children and Families’ Kids 4 Harmony, directed by Alicia Stevenson, performed J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Carlos Gardel’s “Por Una Cabeza.” These young players (first violins: Geivens Dextra and Gerdlie Jean Louis; second violins: Leila Paredes and Tianna Houle; violas: Johan Serrano and Hannah Beckington; cellos: Gerdrose Jean Louis and Heather Cruz) are obviously serious about every note they play. It showed, not only in their admirable performance technique, but also in their professional stage demeanor. Most impressive.
Andres Ramirez’s Funk Box Dance Studio is devoted to a style of choreographed movement known to its youthful practitioners as “B-boying” but as “breakdancing” to most everyone else, as in, “Dad will break every bone in his body if he attempts any of these dance moves.” The least lissome among us — the osteoporotic, the arthritic, the sensibly sedentary — wince when we see kids pulling these crazy stunts. But when they finish dancing and — miraculously — skip nimbly offstage, unaided by the medical personnel mere mortals would have required, we breathe a sigh of relief and applaud their intrepid acrobatics. The b-boys and b-girls in Friday evening’s Funk Box troupe consisted of dancers Andres Ramirez (Director/Choreographer), Anastasiya, Annah, Anthony Redd, Charlie Razor, Cody Dodge, Eva Matkovska, Gianni Bruno, Isabella, Jake Paris, Jeffrey Diaz, Kiera, Luiza, Marc Matkovsky, Owen Klatka, and Yaraliz Mejia.
The most poignant moment in Friday evening’s program came in “Through the Looking Glass: Musings From the Pens of Berkshire Women Writers.” The readings — Hilary Somers Deely as Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Barbara Sims as Fanny Kemble, Kate Maguire as Edith Wharton, Normi Noel as Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Jurian Hughes as Harriet Beecher Stowe — addressed a range of social and political topics, hitting a number of timely post-election nails on the head. Hughes’ reading of a well-chosen selection from Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was especially gripping. Yes, it’s definitely time to re-read this Pre-Civil-War classic.
