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November 18 - December 8, 2021
Happy Thursday, everyone.
Check out Chris Rohmann's review of Cabaret here. Then go see it! (or Dance Nation, or Play On!, or Testimonies, or Elf the Musical, or Don't Dress for Dinner) It's another busy weekend at the theatre - don't forget your vaccination cards!
The next issue will include events from November 25 - December 15. Submit upcoming events via the link below or by emailing me before Tuesday at midnight. Any questions, comments or feedback? Email me at pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com
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YOUR EVENT HERE
$5 per week for your poster and ticket link in top billing!
Email me to reserve your dates.
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THIS WEEK IN THEATRE NEWS:
from American Theatre
To Be a Long Hauler; Or, If We Can Build It We Can Thrive
by Tania Richard
From the article:
One puff Advair, one Singulair, two hits of Nasacort, one Zyrtec, two puffs of Albuterol, one Benzonate, three Ibuprofen.
In August 2021, I took these medications every day to perform School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play. We were the first Chicago production to do in-person performances with a live audience since March 2020. The show was shut down three days before opening due to the pandemic. There was promise that we'd pick up as soon as the virus “cleared.” Two to three weeks turned into sixteen months.
Have you read an interesting article about theatre recently? Send it to me! pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com
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K and E Theater Group Presents CABARET
Leave your troubles outside – life is beautiful at Cabaret! John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff’s Tony®-winning musical is about following your heart while the world loses its way. K and E Theater Group will continue its supersized season with the timeless “masterpiece of musical theatre” (Chicago Tribune) Cabaret onstage, live at Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley Street, in Northampton, November 18-20, 2021.
In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920's draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the cabaret. With the Emcee's bawdy songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin's natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally's boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. Cabaret has some of the most memorable songs in theatre history, including “Cabaret,” “Willkommen” and “Maybe This Time.”
K and E Theater Group's production of Cabaret features Eddie Zitka as the Emcee and Myka Plunkett as Sally Bowles, Christopher Marcus as Clifford Bradshaw, Becca Greene-Van Horn as Fraulein Schneider, Gene Choquette as Herr Schultz, Jay Torres as Ernst Ludwig, and Carina Savoie as Fraulein Kost. Cabaret also features Brenden Bartlett, David Cavallin, Kelsey Collis, Natasha Ellis, Dominique Libera, Hannah McCluskey, Andre Ruiz, Beth Siegling, David Webber, and Jami Wilson.
Bill Martin is the Musical Director leading a band of eight musicians. Chris Webber serves as Stage Manager. K and E Theater Group Artistic Director Eddie Zitka is the Director and Choreographer.
Tickets are general admission for $27.00. There is no reserved seating. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit KETG.org/cabaret.
* This production includes strong sexual content, smoking, and depictions of violence. Strobe lighting will be used. Parental guidance is suggested.
** Proof of vaccination and face coverings that cover the nose and mouth will be required for entrance and while seated at the Northampton Center for the Arts.
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UMass Theater's presents Dance Nation, a play about dance, ambition, and growing up
Dance Nation
by Clare Barron
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams '11G
Nov. 18, 19 at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at 2 p.m.
The Rand Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts (formerly the Fine Arts Center), UMass
Tickets sold through the Fine Arts Center Box Office and at the door.
Prices: $15 general admission, $5 youth, students, and seniors |
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Being thirteen feels like being between two worlds: playing with toys on the one hand, and burning up in the heat of a first crush on the other. In Clare Barron's Dance Nation, competitive dance becomes a backdrop and a metaphor for the internal complexities and contradictions of young teenager-hood.
"What I love about the play is its honesty; it exposes the complexity and vulnerability of girlhood. The humor is an added bonus," said Dawn Monique Williams '11G, who is Associate Artistic Director of Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, CA, and whom we are thrilled to welcome back to campus to direct this production.
The story centers on a dance troupe, their coach, and their parents, as they gear up to present their newest number. The dancers, an ensemble of different races, ethnicities, body types, and gender presentations, navigate conflict, negotiate the demands of their own ambitions and confront the challenges of growing up.
"It's shockingly and darkly funny, touching and vulnerable, and so lovely," said production dramaturg Bianca Dillard, a student in our MFA program.
Meanwhile, the casting adds a layer of meaning, as none of the actors playing the dancers are actually 13, but are all in fact well past pubescence.
"The actors' older bodies are haunting these thirteen-year-old characters," Dillard said — and vice versa — making this a sort of ghost play, in Barron's terms.
The result is a play that, like its subjects, is by turns compelling, hilarious, ferocious, and touching — and a must-see event.
This is a dance party you won't want to miss.
Get your tickets today!
Content Advisory: Gore, coarse language, depictions of self-harm, simulated masturbation and descriptions of masturbation, sex and sexual violence |
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Black Cat Theater presents Play On!
South Hadley High School, 153 Newton St, South Hadley, MA 01075
November 18, 2021 @ 7pm; November 19, 2021 @ 7pm; November 20, 2021 @ 7pm; November 21, 2021 @2pm.
Produced by Black Cat Theater, Inc., Play On! by Rick Abbot is the hilarious story of one plucky community theatre group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.
Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does. Play On! is a hilarious love letter to community theatre.
https://fb.me/e/47Gbelvdg
Note for Attendees: Masks will be required while inside South Hadley High School and throughout the performance. If you have any questions regarding Black Cat Theater's Covid-19 safety precautions, please contact blackcattheater@gmail.com or 413-351-9411.
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Testimonies
by Ellen W. Kaplan
directed by Hilary Dennis
November 18, 2021
7:30 p.m.
The LAVA Center
324, Main Street, Greenfield, MA
Testimonies is based on interviews with Ezidi (Yezidi) women in camps in Northern Iraq, in 2019. The Ezidi are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority who trace their roots back to ancient Mesopotamia. They practice a pre-Islamic religion, that draws inspiration from Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Traditionally, Ezidi are farmers and shepherds, but in the mid-seventies Saddam Husain had Ezidi villages destroyed and their inhabitants transferred to collective settlements. In August 2014, the Ezidi (Yezidi) people were subjected to genocide: thousands were massacred, kidnapped, enslaved, raped and tortured by the Islamic State (ISIS).
https://silverthornetheater.org/event/testimonies/
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DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER AT THE MAJESTIC THEATER
NOVEMBER 18 – DECEMBER 5
The second show of the Majestic’s 24th Season opens this Thursday. Don’t Dress for Dinner, a madcap French farce written by Marc Camoletti (who wrote Boeing Boeing, a recent Majestic production) runs through December 5.
The comedy is set in renovated French farmhouse two hours from Paris. Bernard is hoping to send his wife Jacqueline off to her mother’s place for the weekend so that he can romance his mistress Suzanne, a Parisian model. He’s also hired a Cordon Bleu cook, Suzette, as an alibi, and he’s invited his friend Robert to dinner. Jacqueline, though, is becoming suspicious, and in a phone conversation with Robert it’s revealed that they, too, are also having an affair. Suzette, the caterer, arrives, and Robert introduces her as his mistress. Bernard is furious because of the mix-up, and Jacqueline feels betrayed because she thought she was Robert’s only mistress. Suzette is convinced, for a little extra money, to go along with the deception — but then Suzanne arrives and she now has to pretend she’s the cook!
The cast includes Jack Grigoli (Bernard), Scott Renzoni (Robert), Bethany Fitzgerald (Jaqueline), Elizabeth Pietrangelo (Suzette), Alexandra O’Halloran (Suzanne) and Shaun O’Keefe (George). Danny Eaton is producing director, Stephen Petit is the director/production manager and Greg Trochlil is set designer. Costume designer is Dawn McKay, stage manager/associate producing director is Sue Dziura, and Dan Rist is lighting designer.
In accordance with regulations from the Actors' Equity Association, an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance, the Majestic Theater requires all attendees to wear masks at all times (except when eating and drinking), to be fully vaccinated against COVID, and to present their vaccination card (or a photo of it on their cell phone) upon arrival. At this time, no food or drink may be brought into the theater, and needs to be consumed in the Majestic Café.
Tickets range in price from $31 - $37 per show, and are available for sale at the box office in person Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 1pm; or on the phone at (413) 747-7797.
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Ja'Duke Theater Elf the Musical
12/3/21 @ 6pm; 12/5/21 @ 2pm; 12/17 and 12/18/21 @6pm ;12/19 @2pm
Ja'Duke Theater
Based on the beloved holiday film, this hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy follows Buddy the Elf in his quest to find his true identity. Buddy, a young orphan, mistakenly crawls into Santa's bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole. The would-be elf is raised, unaware that he is actually a human until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa's permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh realities that his father is on the naughty list and his half-sister doesn't even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas.
This modern-day holiday classic is sure to make everyone embrace their inner elf. After all, the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear!
https://www.jaduketheater.com/
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Bright Half Life
By Tanya Barfield
Directed by Gina Kaufmann
December 3-11, 2021
Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center
289 Main Street
Greenfield, MA 01301
This intimate and celebratory production is under the direction of Gina Kaufmann, who directed Silverthorne’s The Revolutionists in 2019. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and a Professor of Theater (Acting and Directing) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a feminist who prioritizes social justice in her directing work and in her season planning. Throughout her thirty-year career as a director, almost every project Gina chose to work on was selected at least in part by her desire to wrestle with gender, gender hierarchies and revising form and expectations to open up our minds to new models of relating to one another.
Featured in this production are Kyle Boatwright in the role of Vicky, and Katie Mack, a member of the Actors Equity Association, as Erica. Boatwright is a Pioneer Valley-based musician, actor, coach, and creative collaborator. She was last seen on the Silverthorne stage in The Revolutionists (2019) and recently directed Smith College’s production of Stoop Pigeons. This will be Katie Mack’s first time working with Silverthorne, but Valley theater-goers will remember her performances at The Majestic in West Springfield. Ezekiel Baskin is stage manager and John Iverson will provide technical direction.
Moving seamlessly from head-over-heels romance to marriage to children to skydiving and so many little intimacies in between, the two characters, Vicky and Erica, span decades in an instant and slowly, delightfully, allow us to know and love them. Bright Half Life is a joyful and complicated chronicle of a deeply committed lesbian relationship.
“If these women, these maybe soul mates, could somehow suddenly see what the years will bring, would they still go out on that first date?” The New York Times
Tickets are available at the door and via Eventbrite.
Friday, December 3, 10, 2021 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday, December 4, 11, 2021 @ 7:30 PM
Sunday, December 5, 2021 @ 3:00 PM
Masks and Proof of Vaccination required for admittance. Click here for more details.
https://silverthornetheater.org/event/bright-half-life/
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