by Mark G. Auerbach Ali Louis Bourzgui, the Pittsfield actor who starred in the recent Broadway revival of The Who’s Tommy, takes on the role of Orpheus in Hadestown, beginning May 6. For details: https://hadestown.com/ Eliza Gonzales, UMass Theatre Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting, makes her Broadway debut as voice and dialect coach…
by Macey Levin Ralph Albert Blakelock is one of the least famous artists of the Hudson River School overshadowed by Thomas Cole and Frederic Church amongst others. In 1916, however, his “Brook By Moonlight” (below) was bought for $20,000, the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living…
by Macey Levin David Zellnik’s musical entitled “Yank” about gay soldiers during World War Two ran off-Broadway in 2005; it had several workshops in New York, but no Broadway producer or company took an option to produce it. In 2017 a production in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sent Zellnik to…
The Performing Arts season opens with Olli‘s Berkshire Previews on April 4 where ten artistic directors will present their season by Zoom over six weeks, each Friday morning, beginning at 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. Each artistic director will have 45 minutes to talk and take questions. The opening class features a Critics…
The second play in Bridge Street Theatre’s “Solofest” is the world premiere of “Help! I’m Trapped In A One-Woman Show” featuring Broadway actress Kate Skinner. As the audience enters one of the songs we hear is Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman,” an obvious teaser as to what is coming. This play…
“Papa said it was a curse. That Blakelock was cursed. Papa said because Blakelock was his dad he carried it too, and that I have it.He said I had him in my blood.That I was just like him.”  The tragic and nearly forgotten life of painter Ralph Albert Blakelock is reclaimed by his…
by Macey Levin Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, New York has begun its third “Solofest” with “Bent Compass” by Neil Brookshire and Colin Sesek. The creation of this play is a story unto itself. Brookshire and Sesek met in 2004 while working at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. When Sesek, an…
“Papa said it was a curse. That Blakelock was cursed. Papa said because Blakelock was his dad he carried it too, and that I have it. He said I had him in my blood. That I was just like him.” The tragic and nearly forgotten life of painter Ralph Albert…
