MARK AUERBACH
WAM’s Fresh Takes Showcases a Pulitzer Prize Winner
WAM Theatre presents a staged-reading of the Pulitzer prize-winning Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes, as its next event in the 2015 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series, on August 16 at No. Six Depot Roastery and Café, 6 Depot Street in West Stockbridge, MA. Molly Clancy, curator of the Fresh Takes Series, directs.
According to Clancy, “Water by the Spoonful weaves parallel stories of a young Iraq veteran with the on-line lives of a group of recovering addicts who meet regularly in a chatroom. The boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace, birth families splinter and online families collide.”
Patrick Tobin (Photo by Walt Steinmetz)
“I’m excited to bring this Pulitzer Prize-winning play to our Berkshire audiences,” said Clancy, “Especially with this cast of talented actors, which includes some familiar faces our audiences will recognize from past projects and others that are working with us for the first time.”
For tickets: 800-838-3006 or http://www.wamtheatre.com/fresh-takes-play-reading-series-2015. Due to the limited availability, advance booking is highly recommended.
Discord in Hartford
Things aren’t all that harmonious these days between The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and its musicians. The Local 400 of the American Federation of Musicians and the management of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra are in contract negotiations.
Management’s proposal will have the Orchestra’s core musicians see pay cuts from an average $23,000 to $15,000, according to a news report by Ray Hardman at Connecticut Public Radio’s WNPR. These musicians would also be required to be available during normal daytime business hours, which precludes many of them from having “day jobs”.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra recently entered into an agreement with The Bushnell, which provides management and marketing services for The Orchestra.
Henry Rollins
For details on the discord: http://wnpr.org/post/hartford-symphony-orchestra-musicians-rally-protest-salary-cuts#stream/0
But, let me add a personal editorial comment. Connecticut is very proud of its cultural heritage, and its capital city has The Bushnell, a thriving performing arts center; Hartford Stage, a major regional theatre; and TheaterWorks, a class Off-Broadway theatre. There’s also the programs at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Mark Twain House, and Real Art Ways. These arts groups fill area shops, restaurants, and parking lots. They give downtown Hartford street traffic, after the local workers go home. They contribute to the city’s economy. It’s not all good news. Nonetheless, Hartford has also seen The Connecticut Opera and The Hartford Ballet fold in recent years.
The Capitol Steps (Photo by Peter Dervin)
By comparison, Springfield, a city of similar size, has little professional theatre in its city limits anymore other than the occasional visitor to CityStage and/or Symphony Hall, and The Springfield Symphony Orchestra annually struggles to maintain and grow its support base. The Quadrangle Museums have daylight programs, and most of the theatre activity is in the suburbs. So, when there are no performances, downtown Springfield is a ghost town.
The performing arts make a city vital. If we don’t nurture and support the arts in our cities, then they, arts and city, die. And, along with their demise, the restaurants, shops, and parking lots lose their base, and the downtowns become empty. If we don’t have a high quality of life in our city centers, we can’t attract businesses, conferences, and meetings.
Hartford has a chance to do something good by making sure its Orchestra is vital. I hope it realizes this.
Plan Ahead
Henry Rollins, the multi-talented musician, writer, journalist, publisher, actor and TV and radio host, has added a performance of his A Spoken Word Performance at the Mark Twain House and Museum on Monday, September 14. His previously announced Tuesday show is sold out. For tickets: 860-280-3130 or www.marktwainhouse.org.
Just Announced
Springfield Symphony Hall and CityStage have announced their upcoming season, which includes a Sinatra tribute with Patrick Tobin, The Capitol Steps, a 30th anniversary tribute to “The Breakfast Club” with Molly Ringwald and more. For details: 413-788-7033 or www.citystage.symphonyhall.com
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre at UConn in Storrs, CT has an ambitious line-up. Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Poject’s bold dramatization of the brutal Matthew Shepard murder and its impact on the townspeople of Laramie, WY, The Laramie Project, opens the season, The line-up includes: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and the zany musical Monty Python’s Spamalot.. For details: 860-486-2113 or www.crt.uconn.edu.
Keep in Mind…
The North Hall Arts Festival presents The Tom Knight Puppets on August 15 at 11 a.m. Admission is free for adults and children and there will be a free snack in the North Hall art gallery. Tom Knight has been writing and performing for kids since 1988. For details: 413-667-5543 or www.northhallhuntington.org.
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.
