Thursday, July 28, 2022

Pioneer Valley Theatre News July 28, 2022

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Pioneer Valley Theatre Newsletter
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July 28 - August 17, 2022


It's the final weekend of the Ko Festival of Performance - and since this is the final summer of the festival, your last chance to catch a show at Ko. Performances of Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man are Friday and Saturday at 6:15 PM and Sunday at 10:15 AM - meeting at Emily Dickinson Hall to walk to the outdoor performance on Hampshire College farm land. Join me in wishing all the best to Artistic Director Sabrina Hamilton and the wonderful artists of the Ko Festival - congratulations on 31 years of bringing original devised works to the Pioneer Valley. 

You can read the StageStruck column about the final season of the Ko Festival of Performance here. Also this week in the latest Valley Advocate StageStruck column: Anna in the Tropics at Barrington Stage

The next issue will include events from August 4 - 24. 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

Submit Your Theatre Event
The Ko Festival of Performance: EZELL: Ballad of a Land Man
July 29-31 - meet at Emily Dickinson Hall, Hampshire College

Tickets and more information kofest.com
YOUR EVENT HERE
$5 per week for your poster and ticket link in top billing!
Email me to reserve your dates.
Click to Access: Pioneer Valley Theatre Google Calendar
Click to Access: Pioneer Valley Theatre Personnel Spreadsheet
THIS WEEK IN THEATRE NEWS:
from Howlround

“The Ills We Do, Their Ills Instruct Us So”: Indigenous Futurism at the South Dakota Shakespeare Festival
by Robert Hubbard

From the article: 

“This show may make you angry,” warned director/adaptor Tara Moses, an accomplished theatre artist and citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Lounging on lawn chairs and blankets on the inviting green space of Prentice Park in Vermillion, South Dakota, the predominately white audience at the opening night of South Dakota Shakespeare Festival’s (SDSF) production of William Shakespeare’s Othello listened to Moses’ passionate pre-show speech. After graciously greeting us in Mvskoke, her native language, and playfully advising that it was “okay to laugh at the funny parts,” Moses counseled, “You might feel unsettled… decolonization is difficult and unsettling work.”

Have you read an interesting article about theatre recently? Send it to me! pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com
PERFORMANCES
No Theater
let go 

a short adult comedy about love, death and piles of paper....

Performances
July 28 - August 6 at 8:00 PM 

TICKETS

Thursday, July 28 - sold out
Friday, July 29 - sold out
Saturday, July 30 - sold out
Wednesday, August 3
Thursday, August 4
Friday, August 5
Saturday, August 6

LIMITED SEATING-- Running Time: 1 hour w/out intermission
(Vaccination and Masks required)

LET GO with Roy Faudree and Jane Karakula 
@ A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main Street, Northampton, MA

Ko Festival of Performance presents EZELL: Ballad of a Land Man 
Clear Creek Creative 
Friday, July 29 and Saturday, July 30 at 6:15pm, July 31 at 10:15am 
Emily Dickinson Hall / Hampshire College Farm 
893 West St, Amherst, MA

An environmental, cultural and spiritual parable of domination and resilience that explores the complexities of climate change, indigenous erasure and environmental extraction (fracking) - that is based on the artists’ lived experience in their rural Appalachian community in KY. This immersive outdoor experience features a contemplative walk through the woods to the performance site with live music, the play, a return walk and a post-show dialogue with the artists and a panel of local experts. 

Tickets $30 Patron, $22 Standard, $10 Discount 

Purchase Tickets
info@kofest.com
Box Office phone line opens July 18: 413-559-5351

Theater Between Addresses
Grail Knight: An Immersive Play
7/29-7/30 at 7pm, 7/31 at 4pm
Three Sisters Sanctuary, 188 Cape St, Goshen, MA

Grail Knight, written by Sean French-Byrne and directed by Ezekiel Baskin, is an immersive retelling of the story of the Quest for the Holy Grail. Here Sir Galahad, the last knight of the Round Table, is reimagined as a young trans girl struggling under the weight of destiny and the task of fixing her predecessors’ Camelot. Galahad is joined on her quest by Sir Mordred, the king’s bastard, whose fate is to tear down Camelot, and Lancelot, her blood father who has done the unspeakable to ensure Camelot’s survival. To Mordred, Galahad is a mirror of his own experience; to Lancelot, Galahad is an uncomfortable echo of his past. Together, they seek the grail and face their entangled destinies.

Living in a broken world, the knights face questions that haunt us today: How can we fix the mistakes of our predecessors? How do we find agency and identity in a world where we must conform to survive? Is there room to live and love in a dying world? How can we break from the power structures and narratives we are raised with?

The play takes place throughout the Three Sisters Sanctuary, and the audience is free to explore the enclaves and secrets of the sanctuary throughout the play. As an audience member, it is your choice how you follow the grail quest; the threads of the story intertwine and weave, but each character’s path is unique - who will you follow?

This outdoor immersive play runs roughly 90 minutes. We encourage you to bring a picnic and continue your exploration of the sanctuary before or after the performance. Tickets are $15 for students, seniors, and those age 25 and under, and $25 general admission. The first $10 of each ticket will go to the Sanctuary, for their continued upkeep and operations, and the remainder of each ticket will go directly to compensating the artists involved in the production. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds - if you cannot afford the ticket prices but want to see the production, please reach out to us at theaterbetweenaddresses (at) gmail (dot) com and we will connect you with subsidized free or reduced price tickets. If you';re able to donate above the cost of your ticket, we encourage you to do so, to help us compensate our artists fairly while making sure we can provide free and reduced price tickets to everyone who needs them.

Performances will take place on July 21st and 22nd at 7pm, July 24th at 4pm, July 29th and 30th at 7pm, and July 31st at 4pm. Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/grailknight22 

If we need to cancel a performance due to extreme weather (heat or heavy rain/thunderstorm), all tickets for that performance will be honored at any future date, including additional rain dates on August 5th and 6th, or refunded upon request
Things I Know to Be True at Great Barrington Pubic Theater, August 4-14, turns an ordinary American family’s unraveling, redemption and bonds of love into extraordinary theater.
 
The GB Public Theater 2022 mainstage season continues Aug.4 – Aug 14 with an evocative, penetrating drama about the vicissitudes and complexities of family dynamics, self-identity and the nature and meaning of love today. Written by multi-award-winning Australian playwright Andrew Bovell, and rewritten for American audiences, it premiered in Milwaukee in 2019 to wide critical acclaim. It was slated for New York until Covid diverted plans. Earlier this year GBPT was able to secure rights for a brief East Coast premiere.
 
A year of change and unsettling discovery for the Price family is played out by a superb ensemble, including Corrina May; John Wojda; Liz Hayes; David Keohane; Raya Malcolm and Jo Michael Rezes. Directed by Judy Braha, who directed last year’s hit Mr. Fullerton, Things I Know to Be True brings the realistic joy, fierceness, fears and dreams of the family to the McConnell Theater stage for ten performances only.
 
Things I Know to Be True will be staged ten times only, from Aug. 4-14, Thurs.-Sun., 3pm and 7:30pm, in the McConnell Mainstage Theater, Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, 84 Alford Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Tickets can be reserved on the Great Barrington Public Theater website.
Happier Valley Comedy
The Understudies: An Improvised Musical
August 6 at 7:00 PM
Happier Valley Comedy's Next Door Lounge (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)

Be part of the fun as these brave improvisers and their trusty musician create an entire musical from scratch. First Saturday of every month at 7pm at the Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, on rte.9). Tickets: $13 online and at the door.

More information
WAM’s  2022 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series concludes with ESCAPED ALONE at The Mount

Sunday, August 7th at 2pm
The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, MA 01240 (& live streamed)
Tickets $15, $25

Candace Barrett Birk as Mrs. J, Joan Coombs as Vi, Eileen Schuyler as Lena, TAMIR as Sally

WAM Theatre concludes their 2022 Fresh Takes Play Reading Season with Escaped Alone, written by one of the most prolific living playwrights, Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, Cloud 9, Far Away). The play is directed by WAM’s Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven and will be presented live (and live-streamed) on Sunday, August 7, at 2pm at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home in Lenox. Tickets are on sale now.

"While written before this pandemic, Escaped Alone provides a resonant opportunity to use humor and absurdity to look at what’s going on in our world. If we can't laugh at all we are facing in our inner and outer worlds, then what do we have?” explains director Kristen van Ginhoven. “I am excited to explore how one of our most esteemed contemporary female playwrights defies convention to explore how we navigate catastrophe."

Back by popular demand, Escaped Alone, by iconic feminist playwright Caryl Churchill, brings us to a backyard where three old friends and a neighbor spend a series of summer afternoons chatting, while visions of apocalyptic horror play out inside their minds. Deemed “the most dazzlingly inventive living dramatist in the English language” by The New York Times, Churchill entwines histories, laughter, and song over tea and catastrophe.

Tickets are now on sale for Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill, directed by Kristen van Ginhoven at The Mount on August 7.  For more information or to reserve your tickets today, visit WAM online at wamtheatre.com or call 413.274.8122.

Happier Valley Comedy
2nd Saturdays Presents: Longform Improvisation
August 13 at 7:00 PM
Happier Valley Comedy's Next Door Lounge (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)

A cast of experienced improvisers dive into a variety of formats based on audience suggestions. Second Saturday of every month at 7pm at the Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, on rte.9). Tickets: $13 online and at the door.

More information.
Happier Valley Comedy
HVC’s Fun Fridays: Storytelling Standup Showcase
August 19 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.

More information
Happier Valley Comedy
HVC Presents: Not In Charge!
August 20 at 7:00 PM
Happier Valley Comedy's Next Door Lounge (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)

Join the talented group Not In Charge for a fast-paced improv show inspired by true stories from the cast! Third Saturday of every month at 7pm at the Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, on rte.9). Tickets: $13 online and at the door.

More information.
Happier Valley Comedy
The Happier Valley Championship
August 27 at 7:00 PM
Happier Valley Comedy's Next Door Lounge (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)

In this competitive comedy show, two teams of improvisers face off through scenes and games to see who can win the ultimate prize: your laughter! Fourth Saturday of every month at 7pm at the Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, on rte.9). Tickets: $13 online and at the door.


More information.
AUDITIONS & OPPORTUNITIES
Audition for Incident at Vichy - Fundraiser for Pioneer Valley Workers Center
August 5
LAVA Center, 324 Main St, Greenfield, MA 01301

Audition for Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy! We will be seeing actors on August 5 from 5pm to 8pm, August 6 from 3pm to 6pm, and August 7 from 4pm to 7pm. Please prepare a 90-second dramatic monologue (if you don't have one, we'll give you a side) and bring a resume and headshot if available.

Weeknight rehearsals begin September 2 and performances run from October 2 thru 8, all at the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen. Tech rehearsals are September 24 and 25. The production will be a fundraiser for the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. Actors will be paid between $50 and $250 depending on role; especially seeking Latino performers. If you can’t audition in person, send a self-tape to famp923@gmail.com.
LAVA Center Greenfield
Play Reading Series at LAVA Center, Greenfield
August 25 at 5:30 PM

Seeking two actors of color in their 20s or so for a cold reading of a play in progress at LAVA, one male for a small role, one female for a lead role. Come give it a try! Thanks!
the Drama Studio Open House
August 30th at 6 pm, for ages 6-8 and August 31st at 6 pm for ages 9-18
41 OAKLAND STREET, SPRINGFIELD, MA, 01108

Join us for our 2022 Open House to learn about our acting classes and Conservatory program!

Come and visit the Drama Studio on Tuesday, August 30th, at 6 pm for ages 6-8, and on Wednesday, August 31st, at 6 pm for ages 9-18.

Register here.
WAM Theatre is seeking a part-time (10-20/hrs a week) Company Administrator to support WAM’s daily admin activities and programming. This administrator will provide clerical and administrative oversight in order to optimize workflow procedures for WAM’s arts-activism mission.  Interested candidates should email a resume and cover letter with the subject heading “WAM Company Administrator” to kristen@wamtheatre.com by August 21, 2022.  A detailed job description can be found HERE
WORKSHOPS & CLASSES
Anyone who organizes or attends auditions or is involved in casting for the theatre, is recommended to take 30 minutes to listen to this conversation between casting director Victor Vazquez and dramaturg/performer Tatiana Godfrey.  Part of WAM Theatre's Spotlight Series, they talk about some of the problems that we run into in the traditional casting process, especially in terms of racial or gender stereotyping, and some of the opportunities and suggestions he has for better ways of placing actors in roles. 

https://www.wamtheatre.com/spotlight-series-with-casting-director-victor-vazquez/
Hampshire Shakespeare Company presents
Educational Theater Workshops
Aug 1-5
Northampton Center for the Arts

Fun and educational week-long theater programs for kids ages 7-15 run by local professionals.

https://hampshireshakespeare.com/
Yoga Sanctuary
Play Practice: Exploring Yoga & Theatre
Summer Program for Kids
8/1–8/5 (Monday–Friday), 9–2 pm
Yoga Sanctuary, Thornes Marketplace (Third Floor)

Join us for a fabulous week of daily yoga practice and theatre-making, as we use our bodies, breath, and voices to develop skills for acting and storytelling. Every day will include yoga techniques, theatre games, and creative exercises designed to unleash each student's unique expression, as well as foster dynamic group creation. Plus, all the summer fun of daily outdoors time and a special day spent walking and swimming in our beautiful local nature! On the last day, we'll host a sharing at 1pm for families to get a peak at what the students have been practicing this week.

Play Practice is open to students ages 10-13 of all experience levels (including no previous experience) and all physical abilities—yoga and theatre are for every body! Reach out to us with any questions.

More information.

Play Practice is led by Ellen Morbyrne, a local teacher and parent with over 20 years of experience as both a theatre-maker and a yoga practitioner. Ellen has been teaching and directing theatre at North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens since 2003, has taught theatre locally at high schools and homeschool co-ops and at the Drama Studio, and has been teaching yoga to folks of all ages since 2009. She is the cofounder of Real Live Theatre and teaches weekly yoga classes here at Yoga Sanctuary.

Cost: $325/child (regular price); $400/child (pay-it-forward price; help us offer a scholarship to another child!)
Happier Valley Comedy
Imrov One-Day Intensive
August 6
Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA)

Would you like to learn improv, play, and laugh in a supportive community?
Do you want to get better at thinking on your feet?
Could you use some practice turning off your inner critic?
Would you like to become more confident speaking in public?
Curious about how this whole improv comedy thing works?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, The Joy & Ease of Improv One-Day Intensive is an ever so lovely way to spend the day! Happier Valley Comedy's Founder and Head of Happiness Pam Victor offers this one-day intensive for adults who want to try something fun, rewarding, and, quite possibly, mind-expanding. You'll learn a very gentle, very easy, patient approach to improv comedy in an incredibly positive and accepting atmosphere that will get you up on your feet and out of your head. Through improv exercises, games, and scenework, you'll practice the vital improvisation skills of paying attention acutely, accepting other people's ideas, redefining and disempowering failure, staying in the moment, quieting your critical voice to invite more joy and ease into your work, and much more.

Join Pam for the Joy & Ease of Improv.
It’s good for the stage, and it’s good for the soul!

Prerequisite: None. No experience necessary. Being funny is not required! Shy people and introverts welcome.
At Happier Valley Comedy, we believe everyone can improvise.
(No joke.)

Saturday, August 6th
10am-4pm
(including short lunch break)
Happier Valley Comedy
1 Mill Valley Rd. in Hadley, MA
$125

More information
Submit your workshop, class, audition, performance, or any other theatre opportunity here!
Pioneer Valley Theatre Companies
Academy of Music Theatre

Amherst Community Theater

Arena Civic Theatre

A.C.T. Youth Theatre

Black Cat Theater

Chester Theatre Company

CitySpace

Cold Spring Community Theatre

Completely Ridiculous Productions

Drama Studio

Double Edge Theatre

Eggtooth Productions

Exit 7 Players

Ghost Light Theater

Greenfield Community College's Theater Department

Hampshire Shakespeare Company

Happier Valley Comedy

Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center

Ja'Duke Center for the Performing Arts

K and E Theater Group

Ko Theater Works/Ko Festival of Performance

Majestic Theater

Mount Holyoke College Rooke Theatre

No Theater

Northampton Community Arts Trust

Northampton Playwrights Lab
PaintBox Theatre

Panopera

Pauline Productions

Performance Project

Phantom Sheep Players

Play Incubation Collective

Real Live Theatre

Red Thread Theater

Royal Frog Ballet

Serious Play Theatre Ensemble

Shakespeare Stage

Shea Theater Arts Center

Silverthorne Theater

Smith College Department of Theatre

St. Michael's Players

Starlight's Youth Theatre, Inc.

Strident Theatre

Theater Between Addresses

TheatreTruck

Turbulent Times Theater

UMass Department of Theater

UMass Theatre Guild

Unity House Players

Valley Light Opera

Ware Community Theatre

Westfield Theatre Group

Wilbraham United Players

World and Eye
Want to know even more about events in the Pioneer Valley and beyond,
including reviews, interviews, and previews?
Pioneer Valley Theatre Google Calendar
In the Spotlight, Inc.

Berkshire on Stage
Stagestruck
ArtsBeat TV/Radio and News Column
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