June/July 2009

Films ° Performances ° Lectures
and other events in June and July 2009

June 19–28

The Theatre of Northeastern Connecticut presents Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling. Six women discover, through laughter and friendship, the real source of strength and beauty. Bradley Playhouse, 30 Front Street, Putnam, CT. (860) 928-7887, www.bradleyplayhouse.org

July 10–August 1

What is truth? TheatreWorks presents Doubt: A Parable, the captivating drama by John Patrick Shanley that won a Tony Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and was made into an Academy Award-nominated movie. Father Flynn, an amiable new priest at a 1964 Bronx Catholic school, believes the clergy should be “members of the family” to its congregation. He immediately clashes with Sister Aloysius, the authoritarian principal, and the conflict builds when she accuses him of “interfering” with a student. TheatreWorks New Milford, 5 Brookside Avenue, New Milford, CT. (860) 350-6863, www.theatreworks.us

July 15–26

True West, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard, is an explosive exploration of family rivalry, as two very different brothers attempt to sell Hollywood their version of the great American Western. Call for times. Main Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA (413) 597-3400, www.wtfestival.org

June 17–21

Your Theatre presents the world premiere of Hugh Aaron’s Doctor Banner’s Garden. A retired elderly professor and her woman colleague are rejuvenated when three young college students enter their lives, seeking their counsel. It’s a touching story about aging and the significance of a human life. 136 Rivet Street, New Bedford, MA. (508) 993-0772, www.yourtheatre.org 

Music

June 6

Westport Arts Center presents the Shanghai Quartet at the Saugatuck Congregational Church. 8 p.m. Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT. (203) 222-7070, www.westportartscenter.org

June 12

Branford Marsalis has continued to exercise and expand his skills as an instrumentalist, a composer and the head of Marsalis Music, the label he founded in 2002, which has allowed him to produce both his own projects and those of the jazz world’s most promising new and established artists. Known for his innovative spirit and broad musical scope, Marsalis is equally at home on the stages of the world’s greatest clubs and concert halls, where he has performed jazz with his Quartet, one of the leading small ensembles of the past two decades. 7:30 p.m. Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, 153 Main Street, Burlington, VT. (802) 863-5966, www.flynncenter.org

June 14

Award-winning pianist and singer Diana Krall will play a one-night only performance in celebration of her latest album, Quiet Nights, a Brazilian bossa nova-influenced jazz collection. A recording artist for over sixteen years, Krall has released such hit albums as The Look of Love, The Girl in the Other Room, and From This Moment On. 7:30 p.m. Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset Street, Providence, RI. (401)-421-2997, www.ppacri.org

June 14

Boston Landmarks Orchestra will perform at the Peabody Essex Museum to celebrate the opening weekend of the Museum's The Golden Age of Dutch Seascapes exhibition. The program will include Water Music by Handel and Speak, Sing, Whale by Stephen Feigenbaum, commissioned for Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2008. Also being performed is Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.” 3 p.m. Peabody Essex Museum, East India Marine Hall, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA. (978) 745-9500, www.pem.org

July 30

PORTopera, the professional opera company of Maine, will end the celebration of its fifteenth anniversary with a grand opera concert featuring a full orchestra and singers from its past productions. This grand opera concert, scheduled for one night only, will replace the company’s originally scheduled performances of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. The event will celebrate the company’s fifteen years of producing world-class opera for audiences in Maine. 7:30 p.m. at Merrill Auditorium Portland, ME. (207) 879-7678, www.portopera.org

Film

June 6–8

The Harvard Film Archive presents four of Pedro Almodóvar’s early films. This mini-restrospective examines the rarely-revisited stage of his career, tracing his progress from the deliberately rough hewn look of Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girl on the Heap and the breakneck comic gem Labyrinth of Passion, to the sophisticated, innuendo-rich satire of Dark Habits and What Have I Done to Deserve This?, the film that first brought him to international prominence. Call for times. Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. (617) 495-4700, hcl.harvard.edu/hfa

June 17–21

The Annual Provincetown International Film Festival, now in its eleventh year, screens more than fifty original, independent films. For more information about screenings and events, call (508) 487-FILM. www.ptownfilmfest.org

June 19

Young filmmakers from the award-winning Real to Reel Digital Film school at RAW Art Works in Lynn, MA, will screen their latest work. By learning about cinematography, scriptwriting, directing and editing, students begin to explore the relationships that “connect” them with their communities and the world. The filmmakers will answer questions afterward. 6:30 p.m. Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, Salem, MA. (978) 745-9500, www.pem.org

June 21

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), directed by Albert Lewin (not rated, 110 minutes). Based on the 1891 novel by Oscar Wilde, this film follows the story of a handsome but morally corrupt young London aristocrat, who trades his soul in order to retain his youth and beauty. Meanwhile, a painted portrait of the man changes to reflect every sin he commits, aging his image in the process. 2 p.m. Yale Center for British Art, Lecture Hall, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT. (203) 432-3800, www.yale.edu/ycba 

June 24–August 30

Jacob’s Pillow, America’s longest running dance festival, is an incomparable experience. Every year visitors, dancers, choreographers, composers, teachers, experts and novices mingle, discuss and explore the art of dance with fifty dance companies performing on three Festival stages and through more than 150 talks, photography exhibits, dance classes and more. Call or go online for full calendar of events. 358 George Carter Road Becket, MA. (413) 243-0745, www.jacobspillow.org

July 11–August 8

The Bates Dance Festival presents its twenty-seventh season, a five-week festival which will feature performances, panel discussions, films and lectures by more than thirty internationally recognized dance artists from throughout the United States and abroad. The season showcases compelling performances by Kate Weare Company, Battleworks Dance Company, Tania Isaac Dance and Bebe Miller Company. Bates College, Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College Street, Lewiston, ME. (207) 785-6255, www.batesdancefestival.org

July 17–19 & 22–26

Island Moving Company’s summer dance series, entitled Dance? Dance. Dance!!! will present new works by guest choreographers and selections from the company's eclectic repertoire. Call for times. Great Friends Meeting House at the corner of Marlborough and Farewell Street, Newport, RI. (401) 847-4470, www.islandmovingco.org  

June 10

The Artist in Exile: Jules Dalou in London. Opening lecture by Cassandra Albinson, Associate Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art. 5:30 p.m. Lecture Hall, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT. (203) 432-3800, www.yale.edu/ycba

June 20

Since the 1940s, the Cranberry Isles have nurtured a distinguished group of artists, from John Heliker and Gretna Campbell to Emily Nelligen and Ashley Bryan. In his slide talk entitled The Art Community of the Cranberry Isles, author Carl Little will offer island images by these and other artists active in the area. Little has written extensively on Maine art; he contributed an essay to the recently published Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner. 11 a.m. Portland Museum of Art Auditorium, 7 Congress Square Plaza, Portland, ME. (207) 775-6148, www.portlandmuseum.org 

June 7

In conjunction with the exhibition On and Off the Midway, curator Bruce Brown will present a gallery talk about the photographs in this exhibition, which features work by twenty-five photographers. The distinctive images celebrate Maine's fairs, festivals, parades, and many other special events. Photographers participating in the exhibition are invited to join Brown in the gallery talk. Bruce Brown was CMCA's curator for many years, now CMCA's Curator Emeritus. 2 p.m. The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 162 Russell Avenue, Rockport, ME. (207) 236-2875, www.cmcanow.org

June 16

Picturing Power: Controversial Victorian Paintings in the Royal Holloway Collection. A thirty-minute gallery talk led by Imogen Hart, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Yale Center for British Art. 12:30 p.m. Yale Center for British Art, Lecture Hall, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT. (203) 432-3800, www.yale.edu/ycba