By Mark G. Auerbach
Playhouse on Park brings Fairytales and Fun on June 13 to Auerfarm in Bloomfield, CT. It’s an outdoor afternoon of music, stories, and games run by the Playhouse Theatre Academy. Advance tickets are required for the event. For details: www.playhouseonpark.org.
BRUNILDA MYFTARAJ
Get Your Pink Hands Off Me Sucka and Give Me Back, Daniella De Jesús’ new play, Grand Prize Winner of the Barrington Stage Company’s 2021 Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, will be given a streamed virtual reading on June 4-6. Taylor Reynolds will stage the work for Barrington Stage. De Jesús is a member of the Public Theatre’s Emerging Writers Group,and a creator of the new web series Talk To Me on IGTV. As an actor, she’s best known for her performance as Zirconia on Orange is the New Black. For details: www.barringtonstasgeco.org.
Wild Kratts: Creature Power summers at the Springfield Science Museum through Sept. 21. Based on a popular PBS KIDS series, Wild Kratts®: Creature Power®! is an immersive, interactive exhibit where kids and families explore four animal habitats and the creatures within them, building STEM skills as they play. For details: www.springfieldmuseums.org
The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra presents a new live concert mini series in June. Music for the Spring will include works from Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Haydn, Charles Fernandez, and Franz Schubert. The June 11 program in New Britain includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor, featuring Virtuosi Concertmaster Brunilda Myftaraj on violin, and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E minor. The June 13 program in Hartford includes Charles Fernandez’s Oboe Concerto, featuring soloist Johanna Lamb, and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B? major, D. 485. For details: http://thevirtuosi.org/
Ligne In, works by the late artist Avital Sagalyn, will be on display through June 13 at Pulp Gallery in Holyoke. Sagalyn had an extraordinary personal history before and during her times in Amherst. Her biography is available at www.avitalsagaslyn.com. For details: https://www.pulpholyoke.com/
BEN SCRANTON
Field Trip, Springfield playwright Ben Scranton’s one-act play, is featured on The 49th Annual Playwrights’ Platform Festival of New Plays roster. This festival is a fundraiser for the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. Directed by Kyle Porter, Field Trip will be streamed free on June 4. For Festival details: https://playwrightsplatform.org/
The LAVA Center in Greenfield will host the Open Screen Film Festival on Sundays in July, an online showcase of Massachusetts filmmaking talent, from students to professionals and everyone in between. The festival will function like an open mic, in that there is no competitive selection process. The first program is July 11. For details: https://www.localaccess.org/
BRENT AUERBACH
Musical Motives: A Theory and Method for Analyzing Shape in Music, Brent Auerbach’s first book, has been published by Oxford University Press. Auerbach (no relation to me) is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at the UMass Department of Music and Dance. In his book, Auerbach discusses how motives tie together sound space, much like the motifs in visual art, and how their presence in a wide variety of musical styles (classical, pop/rock, Broadway, and beyond) provides common ground for a deeper understanding of the listening experience. For details: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/musical-motives-9780197526026?cc=us&lang=en&
GUY McLAIN
Guy McLain, the new director of the Westfield Athenaeum will be featured on a new program, Athenaeum Spotlight with Guy McLain, airing monthly on WCPC15 and 89.5fm/WSKB. The pilot episode ran this week. A new one, featuring historian Dennis Picard, airs in June. To watch or listen to the pilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM7-GfLMj6U
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and The Yale School of Drama. He has worked for arts organizations nationwide, and reported on the arts for print and broadcast. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat, Athenaeum Spotlight, and On The Mark for WCPC15 and 89.5fm/WSKB, and he’s a regular contributor to Pioneer Valley Radio.
