by Mark G. Auerbach
Chester Theatre Company Announces its 30th Season
Four New England premieres highlight the Chester Theatre Company’s 30th Season, according to an announcement made by Producing Artistic Director Daniel Elihu Kramer. Kramer will open the season staging the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Best Play Winner The Night Alive, written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, as a tribute to Vincent Dowling, co-founder of Chester Theatre, then dubbed Miniature Theatre of Chester.
Now Circa Then, Carly Mensch play set in the New York City Tenement Museum, will be directed by Sean Christopher Lewis, the Barrymore Award winner making his Chester debut. Martin Zimmerman’s On The Exhale, a new play about gun violence in America, will mark the Chester Theatre directorial debut of Tara Franklin, the actor known for her performances at Chester and Berkshire Theatre Group. Rachel Bond’s Current Departure will star TV veteran Raye Birk. The company is also planning a special theatre piece, created by John Bechtold, to celebrate the history of the company in the town of Chester.
Some familiar faces will be a part of the Chester Theatre’s season. Joel Ripka and James Barry from The Aliens co-star in The Night Alive. Lilli Hokama, who starred in Chester’s I and You, appears in Now Circa Then. Paul Pontrelli, from previous season’s I and You and The Aliens, co-stars in Curve of Departure.
For season details: 413.354.7771 or chestertheatre.org
WAM Theatre Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven and the WAM team have announced expanded programming and new collaborations for their 10th anniversary season
WAM launches its 10th season with the world premiere of local playwright Anne Undeland’s Lady Randy, about Jenny Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill. The play was first developed by Undeland and director Jim Frangione at the Berkshire Playwrights’ Lab, making this a true collaboration of outstanding regional talent. Performances, April 18-May 5 will be held at Presented at Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, MA, which will host the WAM season..
WAM’s Fall production is Dominique Morriseau’s Pipeline, produced in partnership with Multicultural BRIDGE, October 25-November 10. Morriseau is a recent MacArthur Genius Grant award-winner whose play Detroit 67, is next on the Hartford Stage schedule.
There will be two Fresh Takes Play Reading Series productions. Karen Zacarías’s Native Gardens, with WAM Theatre co-founder Leigh Strimbeck will be performed on May 4. Paradise by Laura Maria Censabella, directed by Talya Kingston will be performed on November 2. WAM’s annual Summer Benefit Gala will be held on July 24 at the Stationery Factory in Dalton, MA.
For details: www.WAMTheatre.com
Matthew Penn
Keep in Mind
Arts Beat Radio airs every Friday at 8AM, on 89.5fm/WSKB. On February 8, we’ll check in with director Matthew Penn at Barrington Stage’s 10×10 New Play Festival and Berkshire Playwrights Lab. Greg Jones also previews the Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival. ArtsBeat Radio, live on Fridays at 8AM on 89.5fm/WSKB, on Westfield Comcast channel 15, or streamed on www.wskb.org. And, if you miss an episode, ind it on YouTube at WSKB Community Radio’s page
Aaron Diehl. Photo by John Abbottlow
Aaron Diehl brings his Paradoxes in Performance to The UMass Fine Arts Center’s Bowker Auditorium on February 8. Pianist Aaron Diehl is one of the most sought after jazz virtuosos, consistently playing with what The New York Times describes as “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint.” The program includes works by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Jelly Roll Morton, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and more, Diehl takes us through a tour of how classical and jazz traditions intersect and influence each other. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS or wwwfineartscenter.com.
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is one of the most celebrated and influential musical groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 60 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity. They perform at The Bushnell in Hartford on February 9. Their program includes works by Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Laurie Anderson. For details: 860-987-5900 or www.bushnell.org.
Screening: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The award-winning London musical hit, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,will be screened in performance on February 2 at the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a 2017 musical with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. The musical is inspired by the 2011 BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16., and has been nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Musical. For details: 413-584-9032 ext.105 or www.aomtheatre.com
Dustin Willis
The Opera Workshop program of the UMass/Amherst Department of Music and Dance will present a double bill of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges on February 2-3 in Bowker Auditorium. Both operas, sung in English, are directed by Dustin Wills, a New York City-based theatre and opera director and former artistic director of the Yale Summer Cabaret. For details: 413-545-2511, or www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance.
Spamilton: An American Parody © Photo: Roger Mastroianni
Spamilton: An American Parody, a spoof on the megahit Hamilton from the creators of Forbidden Broadway, is worth a road trip to Boston, where it’s playing February 12-March 10, at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. A hit in New York, this tour is running nationally, but no local stops have been announced in the near future. For details: 617 266 0800 or www.huntingtontheatre.org
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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. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio for 89.5fm/WSKB.
