By Benjamin Cassidy
When the Berkshires and Southern Vermont are in full bloom this June, the local summer theater scene will just be sprouting. In Bennington, locals can check out a play â âThe Almost True and Truly Remarkable Adventures of Israel Potterâ â with Berkshires ties at Oldcastle Theatre Company beginning on June 15. Less than two weeks later, theatergoers can head just south to watch stage and screen stars in âThe Closetâ and âThe Sound Insideâ at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Musicians will tell their own stories throughout the region. On May 12, Brazilian jazz group Chico Pinheiro Quartet will play bossa nova and other genres from their homeland that are guaranteed to rouse at Brattleboroâs Vermont Jazz Center. On June 15, Roger Daltrey sings âTommyâ one more time at Tanglewood. And a week later, Aimee Mann will finish off a run of three singer-songwriters at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with her weighty brand of folk.
For those who may be seeking rustic solitude without the allergens, the Bennington Museumâs âCambium (Into the Woods): Works by Bill Botzowâ exhibit may be just the antidote. For all, there will be options, a welcome sign that the regionâs art scene continues to grow.
Chico Pinheiro Quartet
Vermont Jazz Center, 72 Cotton Mill Hill, Brattleboro, Vt.
May 12, 8 p.m.
A Brazilian group will play Brazilian jazz, bossa nova and samba.
June 9, 8 p.m.
Eugene Umanâs Convergence Project: The pianistâs annual concert will feature David Picchi on bass, Michael Zsoldos on saxophone, Jeff Galindo on trombone, Jon Fisher on drums and some special guests.
For the last two decades, the Vermont Jazz Center has been a consistent source of fresh work in the genre. Since, among others, Eugene Uman took the reins from founder Attila Zoller in 1997, one of the institutionâs objectives has been to stage one concert per month. It has achieved that goal since 1998, even exceeding 12-per-year on occasion. (Would it be jazz if there werenât a little room for improvisation?)
Perhaps it should be no surprise, then, that while many area cultural institutions are still shaking off winterâs doldrums in May, this Brattleboro institution is already in full swing. Uman, a pianist who once developed music programs in Colombia, turns to another musician with South American ties for Mayâs concert (May 12): Chico Pinheiro, a Brazilian guitarist, vocalist and composer who has been touring across the U.S. and earning acclaim in his homeland for years.
On that night, Pinheiro will play with Eduardo Belo on bass and Helio Alves on piano. (As of this writing, the drummer had yet to be announced.) If history serves, expect a performance fit for any time.
âThe Almost True and Truly Remarkable Adventures if Israel Potterâ
Oldcastle Theatre Company, 331 Main St., Bennington, Vt.
Opens June 15, 7:30 p.m.
A play based on Herman Melvilleâs âIsrael Potter: Fifty Years in Exileâ recounts a Berkshires manâs journey after entering the Revolutionary War.
Last year, Oldcastle Theatre Company went international with its season opener. In Donald Marguliesâ âShipwrecked! An Entertainment: The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself),â the title character is marooned on a Coral Sea island before he returns to England.
This yearâs first offering isnât without international incident, but the storyâs roots are far more local. âThe Almost True and Truly Remarkable Adventures of Israel Potterâ follows the journey of a Berkshires man who leaves his Western Massachusetts abode to fight in the Revolutionary War. He is soon captured and spends decades meeting a variety of figures in Britain before eventually returning home. Joe Bravaco and Larry Roslerâs play is inspired by Berkshires scribe Herman Melville, who wrote âIsrael Potter: Fifty Years in Exile.â
At Oldcastle, the cast will include Christine Decker, Richard Howe and Gary Allan Poe. Nathan Stith will direct.
âThe Sound Insideâ and âThe Closetâ
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Williamstown Theatre Festival, â62 Center for Theatre and Dance, 1000 Main St., Williamstown, Mass.
âThe Closetâ
Opens June 26, 7:30 p.m.
Main Stage: Mark Brokaw directs this world-premiere comedy featuring Matthew Broderick.
âThe Sound Insideâ
Opens June 27, 7:30 p.m.
Nikos Stage: David Cromer helms this world premiere drama starring Mary-Louise Parker.
The two plays, âThe Closetâ and âThe Sound Inside,â opening the 2018 Williamstown Theatre Festival suggest containment. Restraining anticipation for these world premieres, however, will be difficult for theatergoers.
Though the annual festival has a long history of bringing celebrated stage and screen actors to Williamstown, this yearâs initial offerings will raise eyebrows in the bookish Northern Berkshires locale. âThe Closet,â a contemporary comedy by Douglas Carter Beane that draws inspiration from Francis Veberâs film, âLe Placard,â casts Jessica Hecht, Brooks Ashmanskas and, in the lead role, Matthew Broderick. âThe Producersâ and âFerris Buellerâs Day Offâ star plays Martin OâReilly, a Scranton resident whose professional and romantic realities are upended by the arrival of Ashmanskasâ character.
Mary-Louise Parker (âProof,â âWeedsâ) will also command plenty of attention. She plays an Ivy League professor who must ally with a student to overcome a challenge in âThe Sound Inside,â a drama by Adam Rapp. With Carmen Cusack and Steven Pasquale also appearing on the Main and Nikos Stages this summer, excitement should remain high throughout the festivalâs eight-week run.
Roger Daltrey
Tanglewood, Koussevitzky Music Shed, 297 West St., Lenox, Mass.
Roger Daltrey with the Boston Pops
June 15, 8 p.m.
The Whoâs lead singer performs the rock opera, âTommy.â
Alison Krauss
June 19, 7 p.m.
One of the most decorated acts in music is touring after the release of her first solo album, âWindy City,â in nearly two decades last year.
Andy Grammer
June 22, 7 p.m.
The pop artist will make his Tanglewood debut a year after playing the Boston Pops July 4th Fireworks Spectacular.
In the Northern Hemisphere, summer begins on June 21 this year. But in the Berkshires, you can be forgiven for bumping that date up a week. Thatâs because Roger Daltrey and the Boston Pops will open Tanglewoodâs season on June 15 with a performance of âTommy.â
For many, Tanglewood, with its lush lawn and sweet sounds, evokes summer as much as bathing suits and ice cream trucks. And for many, Daltrey is just as connected to rock ânâ roll. The Whoâs lead singer helped the iconic group embark on multiple decades of commercial success and critical acclaim. He appears in Lenox one year after bandmate Pete Townshend played a different rock opera, âClassic Quadrophenia,â with the Pops at the storied summer music festival.
âTommyâ explores the life of a boy who is deaf, mute and blind. The Who released the double album in 1969, the same year the group first took the Tanglewood stage. This yearâs show, part of Tanglewoodâs Popular Artist series, precedes a June lineup of Alison Krauss, Andy Grammer and BĂ©la Fleck and the Flecktones, ensuring that Tanglewood will dive, not wade, into this summer.
Aimee Mann
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle St., Great Barrington, Mass.
Melissa Etheridge
June 10, 7 p.m.
The iconic rocker returns to the Berkshires less than a year after performing at Tanglewood.
Aimee Mann
June 22, 8 p.m.
The singer-songwriter is touring after collecting her first Grammy win earlier this year.
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo
June 25, 8 p.m.
The rock ânâ roll duo (and couple) will offer an acoustic performance that shows off Benatarâs mezzo-soprano range and Giraldoâs guitar wizardry.
Throughout the year, venues in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont book a broad range of singer-songwriters because the region reveres meditative verses and refined instrumentation. During a 12-day period in June, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center will pay homage to that culture by housing three of the most celebrated singer-songwriters around: Melissa Etheridge (June 10), Ani DiFranco (June 17) and Aimee Mann (June 22).
Though none of them are strangers to the area, Mann might still need to pull up Google Maps from time to time. Mannâs first landmark musical moment came when she contributed to the soundtrack for the film, âMagnolia,â which earned her three nominations at the 2001 Grammy Awards. A more recent one arrived this year when her 2017 album, âMental Illness,â won for best folk album at the 2018 Grammys.
The renowned lyricist isnât typically sunny in song. But in this part of the country, sheâll find an audience who knows that reveling in the summer light requires enduring the clouds.
âCambium (Into the Woods): Works by Bill Botzowâ
Bennington Museum, 75 Main St., Bennington, Vt.
âCambium (Into the Woods): Works by Bill Botzowâ
Opens June 2
The politician and visual artist submits a range of works that includes a multi-panel display depicting bug paths in a treeâs cambium layer.
âCrash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermontâ
Opens June 30
Paintings, photos, documents and furniture from 1933-1943 highlight the New Dealâs impact on creativity in the Green Mountain State.
Politics has always impacted art. For further confirmation, gallery-goers can visit the Bennington Museumâs late June opening of âCrash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont,â which illustrates the impact of federal programs on visual works in the Great Depressionâs aftermath. Yet, a show starting earlier in the month demonstrates that the Southern Vermont institutionâs remains dedicated to, first and foremost, showcasing regional ingenuity.
The exhibit, âCambium (Into the Woods): Works by Bill Botzow,â contains eight watercolor and mixed media works on paper, a large-scale multi-panel and wood sculptures by a Southern Vermont resident. That the local artist is a state representative could excuse overt partisan pieces. But Butzow doesnât go there. Instead, he draws inspiration from his natural surroundings, including cambium, the layer between the bark and wood on a tree.
âMy path to thinking about the cambium layer comes by noticing, by paying attention to the growing forms we see all around us,â Botzow wrote in an artistâs statement.
âAttention, noticing, touching, gathering, ordering, responding has led to sculptures and drawings that I hope in some way honor that liveliest, hidden place where the creative grows.â
Benjamin Cassidy is the arts and entertainment reporter for The Berkshire Eagle. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the University of Michigan, Benjamin now lives in Dalton, Mass.