MARK AUERBACH
Pilobolus Returns to Amherst
Pilobolus, the world-famous contemporary dance troupe returns to the UMass Fine Arts Center March 22 to perform their popular and unusual mix of acrobatic dexterity, inventive wit and startling imagery, performing new intriguing works alongside some of their more classic crowd-pleasers.
The program for their FAC performance includes new 2014 works On the Nature of Things and The Inconsistent Pedaler, and 2015 work Thresh|hold, all three commissioned by the American Dance Festival. Other pieces include 2004’s celebrated Megawatt (with a soundtrack of Primus and Radiohead, among others), and the troupe’s 2011 collaboration with pop rock band OK Go, All Is Not Lost.
Pilobolus
Pilobolus is an internationally acclaimed arts organization renowned for its unique, diverse collaborations that break the barriers between creative disciplines. The company is committed to constantly making things, always creating collaboratively, and continually exploring new ways of using the human body as a graphic and expressive medium.
Pilobolus was founded in 1971 by a group of Dartmouth College students with no training in dance and no interest in playing by the rules of classical dance technique. They employed an inventive naïveté that the contemporary Pilobolus organization still energetically applies to the diversity of opportunities in today’s world.
Pilobolus has created and toured over 120 pieces of repertory to more than 65 countries and currently performs its work each year for over 300,000 people across the U.S. and around the world.
For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS, or www.fineartscenter.com.
Cassie Abate, Connecticut Repertory Theatre director and choreographer. (Photo by JKBK Photography)
Think Summer!
Connecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs has announced its summer season, which includes Frank Loesser’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Peter and The Star Catcher, and West Side Story. How to Succeed, with a book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert made Robert Morse a Broadway star, and its recent Broadway revival starred Daniel Radcliffe, and later Darren Criss and Nick Jonas. Peter and The Starcatcher, a recent Broadway hit, is an adult prequel to Peter Pan. West Side Story is the musical classic by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins – a retelling of Romeo and Juliet on the streets of New York City. Cassie Abate stages West Side Story. For details: 860-486-2113 or www.crt.uconn.edu.
Tanglewood has added Jackson Browne, Earth Wind and Fire, Train, and The B-52s to its summer line-up. For details: www.tanglewood.org.
Opportunity
Podcasting 101 with NPR Producer Susan Davis. Muddy Puppy Media presents Podcasting 101 workshops with acclaimed NPR producer Susan Davis on April 30 at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield and on May 1 at Time & Space Limited in Hudson, NY. The workshop will be of interest to both aspiring podcasters and podcast-loving audiophiles. Susan Davis has worked as a producer for Marketplace, Soundprint, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation at NPR, as well as for The State of Things on North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC. Her recent podcast clients include NPR’s Alt Latino, The Good Fight with Ben Wikler (#1 on iTunes), Press Record (from the Southern Oral History Project at UNC Chapel Hill), The Monti Radio Hour, and Classical Classroom. For details: [email protected].
Tom Dahl (Photo by Rick Teller/Majestic Theater)
Of Note
Blandford native Tom Dahl is featured in The Majestic Theater’s production of Butler, running through April 3 in West Springfield. Tom attended the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Center High School, and pursued his degree at Marymount Manhattan College. After an acting apprenticeship at Louisville’s Actor’s Theatre, he made his professional debut at The Chester Theatre. Butler is Dahl’s fourth show at The Majestic, where he is an original member of their improv group The Majesters. He recently played “Brick” in the Ashfield Theater’s production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dahl also dabbles as a sketch comedy writer/actor for film, most of which have been shot in western Massachusetts mainly using local actors, including his comedy pilot Zooquarium which was filmed at the Zoo in Forest Park, Springfield. For his “day job”, Tom is opening an “Escape Room” at Eastworks in Easthampton. For details on Butler at The Majestic: www.majestictheater.com.
The Springfield Museums has appointed Kay Simpson as President, and Heather Haskell as the organization’s next Vice President. Simpson has worked for the Museums in various capacities as a museum educator and administrator, and served as Vice President from 2010 through 2015. Most recently, she was appointed Interim President following the departure of Holly Smith-Bové in June of 2015. Heather Haskell has been employed at the Springfield Museums for almost thirty years, serving as the Director of the organization’s two art museums since 1998 and as Director of Collections for the last eight years. For information on the programs and services of the Springfield Museums: www.springfieldmuseums.org.
Southern Comfort, the ground-breaking musical that premiered at Pittsfield’s Barrington Stage in 2013, has moved on to New York, where it’s at the Public Theatre through March 27. Based on Kate Davis’ 2001 Sundance Award-winning documentary, Southern Comfort tells the true story of a group of transgender friends living life on their own terms in the back hills of rural Georgia. Jeff McCarthy and Annette O’Toole recreate the roles they originated in Pittsfield. PS. The Public got Hamilton on the road to Broadway. For details: http://publictheater.org/en/Public-Theater-Season/Southern-Comfort/
UMass Opera Workshop
Keep in Mind…
UMass Opera Workshop presents scenes from Mozart operas Cosi fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni, on March 21-22 at Bowker Auditorium at the UMass Amherst campus. Also on the program is Lorenzo Speaks, an original monologue written by Vernon Hartman. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS, or www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
