Preview article by Gail M. Burns, November, 1998 For the past two months students at McCann, Mt. Greylock, and eight other western Massachusetts high schools have been hard at work preparing their Shakespearean productions for public performance. This is the week that McCann will offer local audiences “A Midsummer Night’s…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 1998 D.J. McDonald and Jennifer Johanos have done a great deal of work and research on the life and times of J. Robert Oppenheimer in creating their multimedia piece “Oppenheimer 2.0”, playing this weekend only at the Manic Stage. And therein lies the problem…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 1998 Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves was described in the Berkshire Opera Company literature as “the world’s reigning Carmen”. Being an opera idiot, I was not quite sure what that meant, until I went to Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood last night and was enlighted. Although they…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 1998 Its a wonderful title, isn’t it? “Trapped in the Car with Mom” is a new musical-in-progress currently being presented by Barrington Stage in the Clock Tower Building in Pittsfield. The show was presented in staged readings at Barrington Stage’s summer home in Sheffield…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 1998 Shakespeare & Company does many things well, but the two things it must do well to survive are stage Shakespeare and adapt Edith Wharton to the stage. In “Glimpses of the Moon” they have done the latter very well, but Edith Wharton, no…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October, 1998 Shakespeare & Company’s annual Halloween benefit – is highly entertaining and a lousy night of theatre. I have been wrestling with this dichotomy ever since I drove away from The Mount on Friday night. What is an entertainment presented by actors with sets…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, September, 1998 The Dorset Theatre Festival is closing its 1998 season with a splendid and moving production of Jon Marans’ play “Old Wicked Songs” directed by Mark S. Ramont. And why, you might ask, should I get in my car and drive all the way…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, September, 1998 Weston Playhouse is closing its 1998 season with a production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”. This is a first for Weston – in all its 62 years of producing plays it has never mounted Williams’ 1945 classic. It may be a first…
