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March 10 - 30, 2022
Creative Ground has made some updates to their website: explore the new and improved www.CreativeGround.org.
The next issue will include events from March 17 - April 6. 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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Theater Between Addresses presents White Rabbit Red Rabbit
March 13 at 2:00 PM in Belchertown
Tickets
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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 Howlround
Clowning for a Cause: Healthcare Clowns Offer Opportunities for Holistic Healing
by Amelia Parenteau
From the article:
Although the mark of countless successful theatrical performers is their passion, it takes a special combination of versatility and compassion to transition theatre skills into a healthcare setting. Tiffany Riley does precisely this work as a healthcare clown and a founder of the Laughter League and North American Federation of Healthcare Clown Organizations (NAFHCO). The mental health benefit provided by a clown’s visit is undeniable, leaving a “long-lasting shimmer of hope and good humor in the environment,” according to Riley. At a recent hospital visit, as she and her clown partner were leaving a child’s hospital room, they noticed three doctors standing outside the room, waiting until the clowns finished so they could enter. “That never would have happened twenty years ago,” she told me, “the trajectory has been doctors would barrel in and walk right past you as if you didn’t exist. But that relationship has changed through years of being present and doing good work. [Doctors have seen] the change in mood, how kids, families, and staff feel after being visited by a professional team of clowns.” Yet consistent, good work can only be observed by people in the healthcare setting. Many healthcare clowns struggle to explain their work to people outside of that environment.
Have you read an interesting article about theatre recently? Send it to me! pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com
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The Smith College Department of Theatre New Play Reading Series presents Cordelia Lear by Leonard Berkman and Nutella by Susan Yankowitz Directed by James Barry, MFA '22.
Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 PM on Zoom
Cordelia Lear: Isn't it about time that Cordelia Lear had her voice heard after King Lear AND Shakespeare have both evicted her from their heralded tragedy's mid-section? Be prepared for liberty's taken with Cordelia's age, marital non-status, etc. and for Shakespeare's mental and physical propensities.
Nutella: What is a woman of 75 doing as the sole female passenger on a container ship headed from the U.S. to France.? How will she deal with strange male attention, a daily diet of nutella served every which way, and a mid-Atlantic tempest?
Live on Zoom. Virtual Event - Register Here.
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The Academy of Music Theatre Youth Productions
Getting to Know... Rodgers & Hammersteins’ OKLAHOMA!
March 10 and 11, 2022 at 6:30PM
The Academy of Music Theatre
In a Western territory just after the turn of the 20th century, a high-spirited rivalry between local farmers and cowboys provides a colorful background for Curly, a cowboy, and Laurey, a farm girl, to play out their love story. Their romantic journey, as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road, contrasts with the comic exploits of brazen Ado Annie and hapless Will Parker in a musical adventure embracing hope, determination and the promise of a new land. In this adaptation for pre-high school students, the content has been edited to better suit younger attention spans, but all the elements that make this show a classic remain.
Tickets
Ticket Prices:
$10 + taxes & fees
All patrons MUST present proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative PCR test (within 72 hours prior to showtime) and a valid ID, and wear a mask inside the theater while not eating or drinking. Children under the age of 12 that cannot get a vaccine – MUST provide a negative PCR test and wear a mask.
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BLITHE SPIRIT REVIVES MAJESTIC THEATER’S 24th SEASON
MARCH 10 THROUGH APRIL 3
Blithe Spirit, a classic comedy by Noel Coward, will be presented at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater February 24 through April 3. The opening of the show follows a brief hiatus in the Majestic’s 24th season of live theater that was caused by an uptick in reported cases of COVID in the region.
The story focuses on Charles, a socialite and successful writer who is researching the occult for his latest novel. He arranges for clairvoyant Madame Arcati to hold a séance in his home, during which she inadvertently summons the ghost of Charles’ first wife Elvira, who has been dead for seven years. Only Charles can see or hear Elvira; his current wife Ruth doesn’t believe Elvira exists. The ghostly Elvira makes ongoing efforts to disrupt the marriage, including sabotaging Charles’ car in the hopes that he will join her in the spirit world. Instead, it is Ruth who is killed in the car, and her ghost immediately comes back for revenge on Elvira.
Producing Director Danny Eaton feels certain the play will lift the spirits of its audience. “We’re really glad to be reopening our doors after closing for a few weeks when COVID numbers were climbing in our area,” he stated. “We were very dismayed to reschedule our January play, Betty and the Patch, for June of this year, but it really made sense, given the circumstances, and our mission to help keep attendees, performers and staff in good health. We, along with everyone else, feel weary at times due to the pandemic, but Blithe Spirit will provide great laughs and we think audiences will really enjoy this solid comedy.”
Eaton reported that the down time was put to good use to upgrade amenities at the venue. “We’ve installed all new carpeting, stage lighting and sound equipment. New chairs have been ordered, and new HVAC systems are improving air quality throughout the theater and café. We’ve been very busy during the time we’ve been closed,” he stated.
The cast of Blithe Spirit includes Fleece (Ruth), Russell Garrett (Charles), Jeannine Haas (Madame Arcati), Sara Corbyn Woolf (Elvira), Stuart Gamble (Dr. Bradman), Christine Voytko (Mrs. Bradman) and Caelie Flanagan (Edith). Understudies include Myka Plunkett, Jack Grigoli, and Alexandra O’Halloran.
Sue Dziura, who is the associate producing director, is directing the play, Stephen Petit is production stage manager, and set design is by Greg Trochlil. Costume designer is Dawn McKay, Dan Rist is lighting designer and Aurora Ferraro is the associate production manager.
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Exit Seven Players Ltd.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
March 11, 12, 18, 19 @ 8pm and March 12, 20 2pm
Exit Seven Players Theater, 37 Chestnut Street, Ludlow, MA
Originally produced in London and on Broadway, the stage version of the best-selling novel by Mark Haddon won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.
“This adaptation by the acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens is intensely, innately theatrical; it is also funny and extremely moving…resonates with quality.” —Telegraph (London). “…just terrific…a profoundly moving play about adolescence, fractured families, mathematics, colours and lights…dazzling.” —Independent (London). “A beautiful, eloquent, dazzlingly inventive show about the wonders of life.” —Evening Standard (London).
Curious Incident follows a critical period in the life of fifteen-year-old Christopher, a young man with an extraordinary brain. He is exceptional at math but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, detests being touched, and distrusts strangers. Now it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher stands beside his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington, who has been speared with a “garden fork” (British for pitchfork, as the story is set in England.) Finding himself under suspicion, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington, and he carefully records each fact of the crime. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his life.
Through creative lighting and sound, clever staging and a versatile ensemble, Curious Incident invites the audience to embark upon a journey to understand the point of view of its unusual narrator and his completely unique way of interacting with the world. At times both comedic and heart-wrenching, Curious Incident is a timely examination of our assumptions about “normality” and neurodiversity.
Directed by Michael O. Budnick, Produced by Jami Wilson and Christine Greene
http://exit7players.org
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Please join us for the Scarlet Sock Foundation’s Fourth Annual Gala!
It's coming soon and space is filling up! Use THIS FORM to RSVP either in person or virtually by Friday March 4th. Our in person event will be Covid friendly--masks and vaccination are required and we are limiting seating.
When: Saturday, March 12, 2022 6:30-8:30 PM ET
The Scarlet Sock Foundation wants to share with you all the great work your support made possible this past year by funding social justice theater programming that lit up minds and stirred souls across the Pioneer Valley.
Come join us in person at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke or virtually to celebrate our 2021 grant recipients: Chester Theatre Company, Eggtooth Productions, The Performance Project, Silverthorne Theater Company, and WAM Theatre. Whether you attend live or via Zoom, you’ll be treated to a presentation showcasing their innovative work and learn why and how it changes young people’s lives for the better.
Scarlet Sock Foundation was founded in memory of Laura DiPillo, who passionately believed that all people deserve to be included and heard; in short, she believed everyone is deserving of love. That is why we support social justice theater, which aims to raise awareness about social issues and create community through the performing arts.
During the program, which is free to attend, you’ll be invited to make a donation to the Scarlet Sock Foundation. Those who join us at Gateway City Arts will be required to present proof of vaccination including booster and must be masked unless enjoying some of the light bites and desserts that will be provided.
Visit our website at www.scarletsock.org to learn more! Can't join us, but still want to help? Donate here.
Once again, you may RSVP by filling out THIS FORM by March 4 to receive the Zoom link or reserve your seat at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke!
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Will you participate? Will you be manipulated? Will you listen? Will you really listen?
Theater Between Addresses, in association with Aurora Nova, presents
White Rabbit Red Rabbit
By Nassim Soleimanpour
Featuring Cat/Milo Bezark
March 13 at 2:00 PM
Barn Studios & Theater, 715 Federal Street, Belchertown, MA 01007
With no rehearsals, no director, a different actor each night, and a script waiting in a sealed envelope on stage, internationally acclaimed White Rabbit Red Rabbit, by Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour, is an audacious theatrical experiment and a potent reminder of the transgressive and transformative power of theatre.
While forbidden to leave his native Iran, Soleimanpour wrote a play which travelled the world in his place. The audience joins each different performer on a journey into the unknown; stumbling upon the personal and profound, the limits of liberty and ultimately where theatre can take you. Since its joint premiere in 2011, the play has been translated into over 25 different languages and has been performed over 1000 times by some of the biggest names in theatre and film, including actors Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, John Hurt, and Stephen Fry.
Theater Between Addresses' production will feature Cat/Milo Bezark (the first known non-binary actor to ever perform this script!). Tickets are sliding scale/pay-what-you-can, with all proceeds going towards our summer immersive production of Sean French-Byrne's Grail Knight.
The performance will take place on March 13th at 2PM EST. Please bring a coat, as the performance space can get chilly in early spring!
Masks and proof of vaccination required (will check at door). The show will last approximately 60-90 minutes. There is no publicly-accessible restroom available at the space. Feel free to reach out at theaterbetweenaddresses (at) gmail (dot) com with any questions or concerns!
Note: This play is NOT overtly political, and should not be portrayed as such. It operates on a deeper, metaphoric level, and very expressly avoids overt political comment. All media and press agents have to keep in mind that the playwright is an Iranian citizen. We therefore ask the press to be judicious in their reportage.
Tickets
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Northampton High School
Mamma Mia! The Musical
Thursday, March 17 at 7pm, Friday March 18 7pm, Saturday March 19 2pm, Saturday March 19 7pm
Northampton High School 380 Main Street Northampton, MA.
Northampton High School is pleased to present Mamma Mia! The show is directed by Myka Plunkett, with choreography by Eddie Zitka and musical direction by Beau Flahive. The production features a live pit orchestra and a cast of more than 50 NHS students. Note: Masks are required and must be properly worn for the duration of the show.
Buy tickets early - the last musical performed in 2019 sold out!
When buying tickets online, be sure to select the date you want to attend. The musical has three evening shows (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) plus a Saturday matinee. We are absorbing the service fees for tickets, but we welcome donations if you are able to help us offset those fees.
Questions? Contact the Northampton Musical Booster Club at northamptonmbc@gmail.com.
Tickets
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Happier Valley Comedy
HVC's Fun Fridays: Storytelling Standup Showcase
March 18 at 5:30 PM
Happier Valley Comedy's Next Door Lounge (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)
Watch Happier Valley Comedy talent try out their latest material, laugh together, raise a glass, and support up-and-coming standup comedians. Doors open at 5:30. Showcase starts at 7pm.
Tickets and more information.
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A.P.E.@Hawley and The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought Present:
Bread & Puppet Theater
Sunday, March 20, 6pm
The Workroom, 33 Hawley Street
Bread & Puppet comes to A.P.E at Hawley Street in Northampton, MA on Sunday, March 20th with Finished Waiting, a new show created this winter by B&P director, Peter Schumann and the storied Vermont troupe of puppeteers, carpenters, bus drivers, musicians, dancers, agitators and bread-bakers—many of whom do all of the above in the process of inventing Bread & Puppet's aesthetically iconic and politically plainspoken shows and bringing them to audiences far and wide.
Finished Waiting is a show for this moment of political, social, ecological, and epidemiological rupture and uncertainty, a moment in which many feel the seduction of a stance of waiting: waiting for the pandemic to be over, for better leaders to be elected, for actions to be taken by the powerful to respond to ecological catastrophe, for families to be reunited or seemingly eternal wars to end.
What do we do and where do we go when we're finished waiting? What transformations might be possible in our lives and in our politics if we stopped waiting for them to change, or for others to change first? How is it possible to recognize the moment in which we can set waiting aside and set out toward something—and, as importantly, how can we recognize the moment in which we can, at last, lay aside cherished innocences or bootless hopes, see what is for what it is, and act accordingly? How can it become possible for us to arise together and promote the arising of new worlds of collective possibility through collective uprising?
Bread & Puppet foments such practices of rising in the provocatively quotidian terms of “Domestic Resurrection”— under the banner of which aesthetic and spiritual sublimity are not at odds with political stridency and the rigors of traditional household chores.
In Finished Waiting, Bread & Puppet invites audiences throughout the Northeast to harken to these practices of uprising, and take heart from them—as we all participate in the satisfaction of another, equally fundamental kind of waiting: the waiting for spring's arrival after a long winter. With this show, Bread & Puppet seems to call on us to recognize how nature itself shows us what is possible and what can arise, when we abandon waiting and embrace transformation.
According to Schumann the show will star “the clock and its customers, skies, cities, mountains, forward dancers, backward dancers, a stop officer, and an eye divinity who teaches seeing to non-suspecting eyes.”
After the performance Bread & Puppet will serve its free sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread & Puppet’s “Cheap Art”—books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread & Puppet Press—will be for sale.
Purchase tickets online
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K and E Theater Group Presents ALTAR BOYZ
K and E Theater Group will continue its supersized season by presenting the RAISE THE PRAISE Tour with the ALTAR BOYZ, at Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley Street, in Northampton, March 24-27, 2022.
ALTAR BOYZ is a foot-stomping, rafter-raising, musical comedy about a fictitious Christian boy-band on the last night of their national 'Raise the Praise' tour. The Boyz are five all-singing, all-dancing heartthrobs from Ohio: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham. With their tight harmonies and spectacular choreography, the ALTAR BOYZ will delight your audiences. As they perform their signature hits such as 'Rhythm In Me,' 'The Calling,' and 'I Believe,' the Boyz question their loyalty to each other and ask whether or not faith is really holding them together. They finally deliver a message of unity, that 'there is no star as bright as its constellation, no harmony in a single voice.'
Full of sharp parody, sinfully spectacular dancing and irreverent humor, ALTAR BOYZ has been adored by audiences all over the world. With an extraordinary mix of side-splitting songs, uncontrollable laughs and light-hearted fun, this award-winning and totally original musical is 90 minutes of heavenly delight that is destined to rock the masses of all denominations!
The Boyz raising the praise are Dante Woods as Matthew, Michael DeVito as Mark, David Webber as Luke, Michael Luciano as Juan, and Christopher Marcus as Abraham. Bill Martin is the musical director. K and E Theater Group Artistic Director Eddie Zitka is the director and choreographer.
Performances run from Thursday, March 24, through Sunday, March 27, 2022. Tickets are general admission for $27.00. There is no reserved seating.
For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit KETG.org. -----
Winner of 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Best Off-Broadway Musical
ALTAR BOYZ
Book by Kevin Del Aguila
Music and Lyrics by Gary Adler & Michael Patrick Walker
Conceived by Marc Kessler & Ken Davenport
Music Direction by Bill Martin
Direction and Choreography by Eddie Zitka
* There may be flashing lights used in this production.
** 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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