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August 4-24, 2016
Did you know that Pioneer Valley Theatre News is on Facebook? Like us there for more news and information.
Check out what may be the remains of the first theatre built in Times Square.
The next issue will include events through August 31. 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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THIS WEEK IN THEATRE NEWS:
from Howlround
Zelda Fichandler's Address to the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society in Celebration of the Third Annual Zelda Fichandler Award—October 26, 2011
by Zelda Fichandler
From the article:
Thank you so much, Jonathan, for your gracious introduction and your ongoing work as artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater. And congratulations on being the inaugurating recipient of this Award. I feel at home here in the Kreeger with my tribe of artistic directors, directors and actors and other theatre folk from around the country. I look forward to speaking with you.
This Award was launched to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and was the brain child of the Society’s President, Karen Azenberg, who flew in from directing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to be with us; Laura Penn, our Union’s dedicated Executive Director; and Tom Moore, who flew in on his own steam, having become—to top his directing career—a trapeze artist!
Have you read an interesting article about theatre recently? Send it to me! pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com
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NCT Kids! presents A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Book and Lyrics by Willie Reale
Music by Robert Reale
Directed by Cate Damon
Musical Direction by Mitch Chakour
August 4-6
10:30 AM
Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Smith College
122 Green Street, Northampton, MA
Join NCTKids this summer for a tuneful re-telling of Arthur Lobel’s beloved classic children’s books Frog and Toad. In A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD, follow best friends--worrywart Toad and confident Frog--as they sing and dance their way through a year in the swamp with all their hopping, crawling, flying friends. All the gentle joy and fun of Lobel’s books come to life in this charming, funny, Tony award-nominated musical for kids of all ages!
More information and tickets available online. Call the box office for tickets at 413-585-3220 or email with any questions. Facebook event here.
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New Century Theatre presents JAR THE FLOOR
by Cheryl West
Directed by Gilbert McCauley
August 4-6
Theatre 14,
Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Smith College, Northampton
Humorist and author Erma Bombeck once said, “Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.” She could have been talking about Cheryl West’s heartwarming dramatic comedy set in a Chicago suburb. A quartet of single African-American women, spanning four generations, come together in celebration of their great grand- mother, MaDear’s 90th Birthday. Filled with all the resentment, love, accusations and humor that any family reunion brings, JAR THE FLOOR has been hailed as “Boisterous, earthy, enraged and insightful” (Seattle Times) and “...one of the wisest plays I’ve seen in ages” (USA Today). Don’t miss this laugh-filled and poignant closer to NCT’s 26th season.
Call 413-585-3220 or click here for tickets. Facebook event here.
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Silverthorne Theater Company presents THE TURN OF THE SCREW
AUGUST 4-6
Sloan Theater at Greenfield Community College
Jeffrey Hatcher’s masterful adaptation of Henry James’ eerie Victorian tale of two very frightening children recreates the nightmare world of a country house that may or may not be haunted by the malevolent spirits of former servants. This is a tour-de-force piece in which two actors, Valley favorite Stephanie Carlson as The Governess, and Steven Eldredge (The Man) inhabit the liminal space between reality and imagination.
Guiding this production is Ellen Kaplan, one of the most prolific directors in the Valley and beyond. Kaplan’s contributions to local, regional and national theater are legion. She is currently chair of the Smith College Theater Department; a noted playwright, she recently returned from Malta where a new play received a staged reading.
The Turn of the Screw will run July 28 through August 6. The August 4 post-show talkback will be led by Smith College professor Michael Gorra, whose biography of Henry James was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Nighttime show curtain time is 7:30 pm; Saturday matinees at 2 pm. Tickets are $19 general admission, $17 students/seniors (over 65). Group rates for 10+ are available. Pre-sale discount tickets are available at the World Eye Bookshop, Main Street, Greenfield, and Broadside Books, Main Street, Northampton, after June 1. They are now available by calling 413-768-7514 or online at Brown Paper Tickets or at silverthornetheater.org
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Double Edge Theatre presents Once a Blue Moon (Cada Luna Azul)
August 4-22
Wednesdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.
All performances will take place at Double Edge's Farm, 948 Conway Road in Ashfield, MA
Once a Blue Moon (Cada Luna Azul) is inspired by magic realism and many Latin American stories, including Alejandro Jodorowsky's Where the Bird Sings Best, Isabel Allende's Eva Luna, writings by Borges and Marquez, as well as poetry by Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz, Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton and the film Black Orpheus. The story reflects an increasingly universal situation in which “progress” displaces people, in this case causing a flood. It is a story of memory, culture, and song, imbued with the excitement of Latin American carnival. Audience members, traversing the landscape, encounter and mingle with the townspeople of Agua Santa.
For tickets and more info., visit the website.
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RLT presents the world premiere of our "new" Shakespeare play "The Life and Death of Queen Margaret," featuring a kickass all-female cast!
Friday & Saturday, 8/5 & 8/6 @ 7:30pm
Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre,
Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts at Smith College
Get your tickets now!
In a year when Hillary Clinton, campaigning for President of the United States, is not only vilified above and beyond her male counterparts for comparable behavior, but also has her physical body available for public discussion and judgment, Real Live Theatre brings you a 'new' Shakespeare play which examines what really goes on when women rise to power inside patriarchal systems.
"The Life and Death of Queen Margaret" follows the story of Margaret of Anjou - a fierce, strong-willed, and independent woman who was both a historical figure and also one of Shakespeare's greatest characters. Her rise to leadership and subsequent downfall, portrayed through bitingly relevant and alarmingly prescient 400-year-old texts, hold a necessary mirror up to our modern society.
Cast: Myka Plunkett, Linda Tardif, Jeannine Haas, Julissa Rodriguez, Kate Hare, Faolain Bobersky, Ellen Morbyrne, Emily Tanch
Production: Toby Bercovici (direction), Annelise Nielsen (choreography), Ezekiel Baskin (lights/stage management), Julia Vincenza Whalen and Rich Vaden (costumes), Catherine McCurry (sound), Josh Platt (dramaturgy), Dan Morbyrne (fight choreography)
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Billy Shakes Free Shakespeare presents HAMLET
August 5th and 6th starting at 5:00, and August 7 starting at 1:00
Pines Theatre, Look Park, Northampton
Billy Shakes Free Shakespeare is glad to be back for it's second year at the Pines Theater in Look Park Northampton! The show will go up the first weekend of August with the performance on the 5th and 6th showing at 5:00 and the7th starting at 1:00. There is no fee for entrence to this show! It is free! Come on by, pack your car with your friends, and see a fantastic production on Hamlet on a beautiful summer day! No cost to you! The first hour of our show will be a sort of meet and greet with the characters of Hamlet! Ren Faire style! There will be vendors and concessions, and music! If you have any questions please contact us.
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PaintBox Theatre presents Peter Pan
Performances at Williston, Easthampton
Friday August 5: 7:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday August 6 and 7 - 10:30 and 1:00
Yes, we have gone and done it. Troy David Mercier IS Peter Pan! I think that's all we have to say. This is going to be a delight. Oh, here's a question: how are we going to fly him if we don't use strings? Imagination, of course! In our version the entire audience gets to fly. Oh, and Connor Paradis (last season's Jim Hawkins) has agreed to play Tiger Lilly.
Info:
Tickets: Available at the door or at BrownPaperTickets.com.
Admission: $10.00 for single tickets.
Group Discount: 15 people or more - $7.00 per ticket - email Tom for details
Web site: PaintBoxTheatre.com
Questions: Tom@TomMcCabe.com
Phone: 413-923-7159
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Ko Festival of Performance presents TENDERNESS by The Performance Project’s “First Generation” Ensemble
Fri., August 5 and Sat., August 6 at 8:00 pm; Sun., Aug 7 at 4:00 pm at Holden Theater, Amherst College.
Young theater artists from Springfield contrast the dehumanization at the core of violence, racism, and the school-to-prison pipeline with the eternal power of human tenderness.
Tickets $20; $16 Students and Seniors. Call about a limited number of $8 tickets.
To order before July 4, call 413-427-6147, or online anytime atwww.kofest.com. After July 4, Box Office line: 413-542-3750.
Part of Ko Festival of Performance, celebrating its 25th season, a perennially popular summer theater experience in Western Massachusetts. July 4-August 7, 2016 on the beautiful campus of Amherst College. KoFest presents five weekend-long theatrical performances, two special single events, and three 6-day intensive theater workshops.
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MAJESTIC THEATER SUMMER CHILDREN’S THEATER presents
A LITTLE PRINCESS
Sunday August 7 - 2pm & 6:30pm
Monday, August 8 - 10am, 1pm & 6:30pm
Tuesday, August 9 - 10am, 1pm
Wednesday, August 10 - 10am, 1pm
The Majestic will also present children’s theater this summer. “The Frog Prince: A Musical," "A Little Princess" and "Treasure Island" will be presented in July and August. Admission is $9 per person. Those who purchase tickets to all three plays at the same time join "The Snack Club," which entitles them to get free snack at each play.
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The North Hall Arts Festival will present a staged reading of The Gin Game
on Sunday, August 7 at 2:00 p.m. Admission to the play is free, with general seating. The hall is wheelchair-accessible and air-conditioned. An after-party follows, with donations welcomed.
The Gin Game is a two-person, two-act dramatic comedy by Donald L. Coburn that won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, set entirely on the porch of a retirement home, centers on two strangers who form a strained bond as they develop their relationship playing gin rummy.
The staged reading at North Hall, directed by actor and playwright Mitch Giannunzio, stars Kenneth Tigar and Margery Shaw. Giannunzio’s play “Last Tag” was made into a Sweepsweeks CBS-TV movie, Falling For You, starring Jenny Garth. His play A Smaller Place was made into a feature film, The Hiding Place, starring Kim Hunter and Timothy Bottoms.
Shaw has performed over 150 leading roles in regional theatres throughout America, including the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, the Buffalo Studio Arena, St. Louis Repertory, Stage West in Massachusetts, and the Repertory Theatre of New Orleans.
Tigar, a recipient of a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award, has appeared in Barney Miller and the Lethal Weapon movies, The Good Wife and The Avengers. He can be seen on both the Amazon series Alpha House with John Goodman and the Netflix series House of Cards with Kevin Spacey. He directed the national tour of The Gin Game with Academy Award winner Kim Hunter.
This event and others in the series is made possible by support from the Westfield News Group, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the arts councils of Chesterfield, Cummington, Huntington, Montgomery, Russell, Southampton, Westhampton, and Worthington.
For more information about the Festival’s events, visit www.northhallhuntington.org or phone 413-667-5543.
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