August/September 2009

Films ° Performances ° Lectures
and other events in August and September 2009

August 1–9

Bad Habit Productions presents Tom Stoppard’s modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
are Dead. Experience Hamlet from the point of view of two of its minor characters, who navigate through a world of existential angst, frustrated actors, and palace intrigue. Directed by Steve Kleinedler. Call for times. Durell Theatre, 820 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA. (617) 331-2017, www.badhabitproductions.org

August 1–15

How the Other Half Loves is a classic comedy by Alan Ayckbourn. A late-night affair turns into a dinner party to remember where comedy is the main course. Westport County Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, CT. (888) 927-7529, www.westportplayhouse.org

August 6–September 5

The 10th Annual Deertrees Theatre Festival presents a variety of award-winning Broadway dramas, including Edward J. Moore’s The Sea Horse, Lee Blessing’s Cobb, Sam Bobrick’s New York Water, and Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Out of Sterno. Call for times. 162 Deertrees Road, Harrison, ME. (207) 583-6747, www.deertreestheatre.org

August 8–9 & 15–16

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew will be presented by the Actors’ Circle Theatre. This perennial favorite is the memorable story of Petruchio’s goal to marry the headstrong Kate and make her an “obedient” wife. Directed by Deborah S. Thurber. Deport Square Park, Peterborough, NH. (603) 924-3876, www.actorscircletheatre.org

September 11–October 11

Berlin, 1931: music, money, and love are there for the taking. In Cabaret, presented by the Trinity Repertory Theater, Cliff seeks inspiration for his novel. He finds it in Sally Bowles, the Kit Kat Klub’s chanteuse, who charms him into sharing his apartment. Cabaret celebrates the indomitable human spirit—what good is sitting alone in your room? Directed by Curt Columbus. Call for times. Chace Theater, Washington Street, Providence, RI. (401) 351-4242, www.trinityrep.com

September 11–October 11

Huntington Theatre presents Fences by August Wilson, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Price and Tony Award for Best Play. When his rise through the baseball leagues hit the ceiling of racial prejudice, Troy Maxson turned away from a world of unfulfilled promises and denied opportunities. But in 1957, his son Cory, an emerging football star, sees the world through very different eyes, and his wife Rose yearns for an outlet for her love. Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. (617) 266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org

Music

August 5

The legendary Etta James, best known for her signature song At Last, has been performing for five decades, bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. When it comes to music that speaks to the soul, she is virtually peerless. The Roota Band joins her for her The Music Hall debut. 7:30 p.m. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, NH. (603) 436-2400, www.themusichall.org

August 5, 7 & 9

The Boston Midsummer Opera presents Cosi fan tutte, Mozart’s timeless opera about contradictions of the heart. This modern, fully-staged adaptation will be sung in English and performed with a full orchestra. Conducted by Susan Davenny-Wyner, directed by Drew Minter. The cast features six young, vital opera singers, including soloists who successfully participated in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Program for young Artists. Call for times. Tsai Performance Center at Boston University, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA. (617) 227-0442, www.bostonmidsummeropera.org

September 15

The Berklee Performance Center presents the world premiere of Larry Bell’s Holy Ghosts, an original opera based on the play by Romulus Linney. Seeking to retrieve his runaway wife, Coleman Shedman follows her to a Southern pentecostal town. His wife, Nancy, is living with a Reverend, and refuses to return to the brutal, hard-drinking Coleman. Things get more complicated when the Reverend himself shows up. Rich with the feel of Southern rural life, the opera blends humor and poignancy as it probes into the stories of the various cult members and Coleman’s own revelation. Libretto by Romulus Linney and Andrea Olmstead. 8:15 p.m. Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. (617) 747-2261, www.berkleebpc.com

September 17

The New Haven Symphony will open their 2009-2010 series with performances of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Walton’s Violin Concerto with world-renowned violinist Kurt Nikkanen. 7:30 p.m. Woolsey Hall, 500 College Street, New Haven CT. 203-931-2998, www.newhavensymphony.org

Film

August 23

Listen as legendary painter Georgia O’Keeffe tells her own story in the award-winning documentary Georgia O'Keeffe. Rather than rely on a formal narrator, director Perry Miller Adato allows the artist’s personal voice to prevail. Adato creates intimate space in which O’Keeffe openly discusses her work and inspirations taken from the haunting mountain deserts of New Mexico. O’Keeffe speaks with warmth, humor, and practical wisdom as she narrates her own artistic journey. (1977, 60 min.) 2 p.m. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. (413) 458-2303, www.clarkart.edu 

September 19

Night of Stars is a showcase of Boston Ballet’s upcoming season. The evening features the talents of the entire company, including principal dancers and rising stars, as well as guest artists Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg from The Royal Ballet. This is also the first opportunity for the company to welcome Boston audiences to its new home theater, the Boston Opera House. 7 p.m. 539 Washington Street, Boston, MA. (617) 695-6950, www.bostonballet.org

September 25 & 26

For over thirty years, Pilobolus has been one of the most innovative and imaginative modern dance companies. Its trademark “combined bodies” choreographic style, kinetic energy and humor create colorful, lively moving images. 8 p.m. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT. (203) 254-4010, www.quickcenter.com  

August 9

Michael R. Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will present a lecture entitled Blindman's Bluff: Duchamp, Stieglitz, and the Fountain Scandal Revisited. The lecture will explore the profound impact Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain had on several members of the nascent American avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Fountain—the infamous urinal signed with the pseudonym “R. Mutt” and exhibited in New York in 1917—was deliberately shocking, and created a stir among artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, Arthur Dove, and Georgia O’Keeffe, whose work will be discussed in relation to Duchamp’s iconoclastic ideas. 3 p.m. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. (413) 458-2303, www.clarkart.edu

August 16

In conjunction with the exhibition Sculpting Color-Works in Polymer Clay (opening August 8), curator Kathleen Dustin will lead a discussion with participating artists. Unlike any other materials in fine craft, polymer clay has no ancient history, no millennia as a utilitarian art form, no past masters from which to draw inspiration or technical expertise. And unlike any other material, the artist can work directly with color in their hands, without intermediary tools. 1 p.m. Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA. (508) 588-6000, www.fullercraft.org 

August 13 & 20

For more than two decades, Suzanne and Terrence B. Murray have been quietly amassing an impressive collection of works by many of the major American artists who worked between 1870 and 1940. The Art of Life: Selections from the Terrence and Suzanne Murray Collection is open through October 12. Curator Nancy Whipple Grinnell will give a two-session art history presentation relating to the exhibition, making connections between the Murrays’ favorite art works and the early days of the Newport Art Museum. 5:30 p.m. Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI. (401) 848-2787, www.newportartmuseum.com

September 10

As a culmination of a two-month Berkshire Museum residency, artist Maggie Mailer discusses the work she made on-site in July and August. 7 p.m. Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street (Route 7), Pittsfield, MA. (413) 443-7171, www.berkshiremuseum.org