April/May 2009

Films ° Performances ° Lectures
and other events in April and May 2009

April 3–18

In Matthew Barber’s Enchanted April, two housewives, desperate to escape the dreariness of their lives and a war-torn London, impulsively decide to rent a villa in Italy, recruiting two other women to split the cost: a young socialite, and an imposing dowager. Under the spell of Mediterranean sunshine, these four different women re-discover themselves and their relationships in ways never expected. Call for times. Quality Community Theater, 55 Hopkins Street, Reading, MA. (781) 942-2212, www.qptheater.com

April 3–May 9

The Huntington Theater presents the world premiere of David Grimm’s A Miracle at Naples. In Renaissance Italy, a band of traveling commedia players ignites the passions of the locals when they arrive to perform at a local festival. They romp through the town piazza, seeking pleasure and finding love in this outrageously smart and bawdy comedy. Call for times. Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. (617) 266-0800, www.huntingtontheater.org

April 24–May 9

Set in a small Kansas town in the early 1950’s, William Inge's Picnic examines a community of people seeking to find their right place in the world. Longing, fear, and loneliness are set at loggerheads when an outsider arrives. Fueled by liquor, the plot swerves headlong toward change and heartbreak. Call for times. The Actors Studio of Newburyport, 50 Water Street, Newburyport, MA. (978) 465-1229, www.newburyportacting.org

May 1–17

Playwright Martin McDonagh has built a reputation for being simultaneously affectionate and acerbic in his depictions of Irish life. The Cripple of Inishmaan tells the tale of Billy Claven, a young man from a small island off the west coast of Ireland. With this dark, shockingly funny and deeply touching chapter of his Aran Islands Trilogy, McDonagh captures the depth of feeling that the Irish people have for family, home, and their roots. Call for times. Vokes Theatre, Route 20, Wayland, MA. (508) 358-4034, www.vokesplayers.org

May 1–17

When gods and mortals spar, the results set both a king and a city on a path to tragedy. The Bacchae, by Euripedes, tells how the citizens of Thebes deny the divinity of Dionysus—leading him to incite the local women into a frenzy. Leaving their homes and fleeing into the mountains, they enact the wild rituals of worship to the god. The young king Pentheus wrestles the god for control of his city. An undeniable masterpiece, it is a primal and powerful play that has remained relevant for 2500 years. Call for times. Whistler in the Dark Theatre, 12 Maplewood Avenue, Everett, MA. www.whistlerinthedark.com

March 12

White Box Theatre, Redfern Arts Center, and the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery present Sebastienne Mundheim’s Sea of Birds, a tale of one child’s memories of a displacement camp in wartime. Using paper sculpture, dance-based puppetry, and live musicians, audiences will be transported to a fantastical world exploring history, memory, and the power of imagination. 6, 7:30, and 8:30 pm. Space limited. Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond, Keene State College, 229 Main Street, Keene, NH. (613) 358-2168, www.keene.edu/racbp

Music

April 4

One of the finest members of an amazing new generation of American quartets, the Pacifica Quartet will perform works by Beethoven (Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6), Alban Berg (Lyric Suite) and Brahms (Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2) 8:00 p.m. Pacifica Quartet. Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College, Northampton, MA. (413) 774-4200, www.musicindeerfield.org

April 19

The Music Hall presents an evening with Philip Glass, the first composer to win a world-wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music. Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of our time. The concert will feature Songs and Poems for Solo Cello, written by Glass for cellist Wendy Sutter. 7 p.m. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, NH. (603) 436-2400, www.themusichall.org

May 9

The Hyde Cultural Center and Connecticut Lyric Opera present Verdi’s La Traviata, the imaginative, sensual, and emotional story revoloving around the relationship between the stunningly beautiful but frail courtesan Violetta Valery, her lover Alfredo Germont, and his disapproving father, Giorgio. His efforts to thwart their relationship serves as a catalyst to the opera’s heart-wrenching climax. 7:30 p.m. Hyde Cultural Center, Woodstock, CT. (860) 928-2946, www.ctlyricopera.org

May 16–17

The Chameleon Arts Ensemble’s season comes to a close with music that transports us to a mystical realm, a rapturous place of inner spirituality and otherworldly fantasy. The program, of spirits voices ecstatic, features music by Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Arvo Pärt, and the world premiere of a new work by Shirish Korde. Both nights will feature a talk with Mr. Korde one half hour before the performance. Call for times. Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. (617) 427-8200, www.chameleonarts.org

Film

April 1

Restored in 2008, The Exiles (1961) is an incredible feature film by Kent MacKenzie, chronicling a day in the life of a group of twenty-something Native Americans who left their reservation in the ‘50s to live in the Bunker Hill district in Los Angeles. Following the 72-minute film, John Cutnose (Cheyenne/Lakota) speaks about his experiences as an Indian living in the L.A. area. 3:30 p.m. Mashantucket Pequot Museum, 10 Pequot Trail, Mashantucket, CT. (800) 411-9671, www.pequotmuseum.org

April 22–28

The Independent Film Festival Boston, New England’s largest film festival, celebrates its seventh anniversary. Assembling the best films from veteran and up-and-coming local and international filmmakers, the festival screens an amazing array of films and holds daily panel discussions. Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, 100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA. (617) 478-3103, www.icaboston.org, www.iffboston.org

April 4–5

The Portland Ballet presents Giselle, one of the most celebrated ballets of the Romantic era. Adolphe Adam’s intoxicating ballet is the dramatic story of a peasant girl whose betrayal by her aristocratic lover causes her to go mad before dying and returning as a ghost. Call for times. John Ford Theater, 284 Cumberland Avenue, Portland, ME. (207) 772-9671, www.portlandballet.org

April 16–19

Part ballet, part modern, part street dance, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (now known as bjm_danse) defies categorization with its delicious blend of hip, funky moves infused with infectious energy, humor and imagination. The company will perform Boston premieres of two shows: Jack in a Box, choreographed by Aszure Barton, and Rossini Cards, choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti. The group continues to evolve with all of the vitality and spirit of exploration for which it has been known since its inception in 1972. Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, 100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA. (617) 478-3103, www.icaboston.org

April 24

Complexions Contemporary Ballet, founded by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, is a New York City-based company of dance thoroughbreds, consisting of classical and contemporary dancers who have awakened audiences to a new, exciting genre that combines the best of athleticism, lyricism and technical training and experience. 8 p.m. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT. (203) 254-4010, www.quickcenter.com

April 7

Layla S. Diba, an independent scholar and Islamic art advisor, will give a talk entitled The Power of Images: Qajar Photography and Its Influence on Modern Iranian Art. Photography was enthusiastically adopted in Qajar, Iran, shortly after its invention in 1839. This lecture will trace the critical role photogra-phy played in the development of European style academic painting in the late 19th century. It will then focus on the renewed impact of Qajar photography on the work of leading Iranian modernists of the generation after World War II in Iran and abroad, 6 p.m. Sackler Lecture Hall, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. (617) 495-9400, www.artmuseums.harvard.edu

April 16

Experts of various fields will discuss the current challenges facing the great city of Venice during Monuments in Peril: Venice. The panel will feature Dr. Fabio Carrera, an urban information scientist and director of the Venice Project Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Dr. Frederick Ilchman, an assistant curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dr. Eugene J. Johnson, architectural historian and professor of art at Williams College; and Dr. Ralph Lieberman, photographer, independent scholar, and professor of architectural history at RISD. 7 p.m. Clark Museum, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. (413) 458-2303, www.clarkart.edu

April 25

In conjunction with his show at Cavalier Galleries between April 16-May 4, photographer Steve McCurry will give a talk entitled Stories from the Field. McCurry will share highlights from his career on the road: his numerous close calls, his search for the Afghan Girl, and some of the unforgettable people he has met. This lecture is free and open to the public. 2 p.m. The Auditorium at UConn, Stamford, One University Place. Stamford, CT. (203) 251-8400, www.stamford.uconn.edu

April 30

Michelle Lamunière and Penley Knipe will give a talk entitled Sacred Sites: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Jerusalem. This talk will highlight a recent acquisition of nineteenth-century photographs of sites sacred to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Photographic techniques and the challenges faced by photographers in the field will also be explored. 3:30 p.m. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. (617) 495-9400, www.artmuseums.harvard.edu

May 9

In conjunction with Tabitha Vevers’ exhibition Narrative Bodies at the DeCordova Museum (on view through May 17), Senior Curator Nick Capasso will present a talk on this mid-career survey exhibition, which highlights the artist’s feminist engagement with tradition and myth. 3 p.m. DeCordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA. (781) 259-8355, www.decordova.org