Dave Read

Tanglewood in the Berkshires

Tanglewood is the summer home in the Berkshires of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is located on 250 acres in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The campus combines the former Tanglewood and Highwood estates, which originally served as summer cottages for the Tappan and Ward families of Boston.

We have posted a brief overview of the 2014 Tanglewood schedule.

The name comes from Tappan family friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote Tanglewood Tales during his brief residence (1850-51) in a little red cottage overlooking Stockbridge Bowl on the Tappan estate. The 210 acre estate was given to the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the Tappan famiy in 1937; the BSO acquired the adjacent Highwood estate in 1986, where it built Seiji Ozawa Hall, and renamed the property after Leonard Bernstein.

297 West Street (Rt. 183)
Lenox, MA 01240
Box Office: 617-266-1200; 888-266-1200
Website: tanglewood.org

2013 Tanglewood concert reviews

Map of the Tanglewood Music Center grounds

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Nov. 8, 2012 Article by Dave Read

The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is the primary cultural venue in the Berkshires’ “south county” region, located on Castle St. in downtown Great Barrington, MA. Opened in 1905 and restored in 2005, Mahaiwe PAC is a 681-seat venue that schedules a variety of programs throughout the year, including music, dance, theater, classic films, “Live in HD” broadcasts, and arts education programs.

2014 schedule at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

March 2014 schedule

Met Opera Live in HD: Prince Igor Saturday, March 1st – 12:00 pm (lecture at 10am)
Monument Mountain Regional High School Pops Concert with special guest Livingston Taylor – March 7 at 8:00pm
Cowboy Junkies Saturday, March 8th – 8:00 pm
Met Opera Live in HD: Prince Igor Encore Wednesday, March 12th – 12:00 pm
Met Opera Live in HD: Werther Saturday, March 15th – 1:00 pm (lecture at 11am)
London’s National Theatre in HD War Horse (Encore) March 19 at 1:00pm
Close Encounters With Music – Linden String Quartet – Saturday, March 22nd – 6:00 pm
Met Opera Live in HD Massenet’s Werther (Encore) March 26 at 1:00pm
Project Native Film Festival Presents Revolution (2013) March 29 at 7:00pm

April 2014 schedule schedule

Met Opera Live in HD Puccini’s La Bohème – April 5 at 1:00pm
Martha Redbone Roots Project – April 11 at 10:00am
Funny Girl (1968) – April 12 at 7:00pm
Met Opera Live in HD Puccini’s La Bohème (Encore) April 16 at 1:00pm
Vacation Week Camp: Circus Theatricks – April 21 through Friday, April 25 from 9:00am to 3:30pm
Met Opera Live in HD Mozart’s Così fan tutte – April 26 at 1:00pm
Close Encounters With Music – Magyar! April 27th – 3:00 pm

May 2014 events schedule

London’s National Theatre in HD King Lear – Thursday, May 1 at 7:00pm
Dallas Children’s Theater’s Stuart Little – Friday, May 2 at 10:00am and 12:30pm
Ani DiFranco, Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 8PM
Met Opera Live in HD Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Encore) – Wednesday, May 7 at 1:00pm
Met Opera Live in HD Rossini’s La Cenerentola – Saturday, May 10 at 1:00pm
50 Shades! The Musical – May 11 at 3:00pm
London’s National Theatre in HD King Lear (Encore) – Wednesday, May 14 at 2:00pm
CEWM – Beethoven and the Dawn of Romanticism Saturday, May 17th – 6:00 pm
Met Opera Live in HD Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Encore) -Sunday, May 18 at 1:00pm
Berkshire International Film Festival – Thursday, May 29 through Sunday, June 1

June 2014 events schedule

Berkshire Playwrights Lab Gala Benefit – Saturday, June 7 at 7:30pm
ETHEL: Grace – Saturday, June 21 at 8:00pm

July 2014 events schedule

Natalie Merchant and her Band – Saturday, July 5 at 8pm
Buddy Guy – Friday, July 11 at 8pm
Aston Magna – Vice Squad: Baroque Skirmishes with Alcohol, Tobacco, Coffee and Love – Saturday, July 12 at 8:00pm
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Thursday, July 24 at 8:00pm
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Friday, July 25 at 8:00pm
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Saturday, July 26 at 3:00pm
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Saturday, July 26 at 8pm

August 2014 events schedule

The Four Tops – Sunday, August 3 at 7:00pm
Joshua Redman and the Bad Plus – Friday, August 8 at 8pm
A Conversation with Fran Lebowitz – Saturday, August 9 at 8:00pm

September 2014 events schedule

Fairview Hospital Gala – Saturday, September 20 at TBA

October 2014 events schedule

David Sedaris – Friday, October 10 at 8:00pm
Black Violin – Friday, October 17 at 7:00pm

November 2014 schedule schedule

Wizard of Oz (1939) – Saturday, November 29 at 4:00pm and 7:00pm

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center info. and directions

14 Castle Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Box Office: 413-528-0100
Mahaiwe.org

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Berkshires await hurricane Sandy

It’s getting windy now in the Berkshires, Monday morning Oct.29, 2012, and before it gets dark, we expect hurricane Sandy to further help in our recovery from a very dry summer, to say the least. the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers shelter from the storm: search for open shelters by texting: SHELTER and a Zip Code to 43362 (4FEMA). Ex: Shelter 01234 (std rates apply). The American Red Cross has posted an interactive map where you can locate your nearest shelter options, or contact your local Red Cross chapter.

Berkshires screening of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Nov. 3, 2012 at MPAC, Gt. Barrington, MA.

An autism-friendly screening of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will be presented Saturday, November 3rd at 2:00pm, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Gt. Barrington, MA. Tickets are $10 for the event, which is designed to connect people in the autism community, and includes a Q&A. This will be an encore broadcast of London’s National Theatre “Live in HD” broadcast of Simon Stephens’s adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel, directed by Marianne Elliott.

The play tells the story of Christopher, a fifteen-year-old who stands beside Mrs Shears’ dead dog, Wellington. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in his book to solve the mystery. He has an extraordinary brain, exceptional at math but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.

The Mahaiwe is located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington, Mass. Box Office Hours: Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 6pm and three hours before show times. For tickets and information, see www.mahaiwe.org or call 413.528.0100.

Survive Hurricane Sandy in the Berkshires

When we need to hunker down in the Berkshires (or anywhere else) during inclement weather, whether it is a named system like Hurricane Sandy or just a run of wind and rain or snow, we like to take advantage resources on the Internet, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetPublications. It gives you access to the Met’s renowned print and online publications published from 1964 to the present. Eventually it will offer access to nearly all books, bulletins, and journals published by the Metropolitan Museum since its founding in 1870, as well as online publications.

There is a Berkshires link to one of the latest books available because of the Silk Road Ensemble, founded at Tanglewood by Yo-Yo Ma. Available for free through Google books is Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road, which was published this year. Additionally, 140 out of print books can be bought through a high-quality print-on-demand service administered by Yale University Press. Of course, recent publications are available at book stores and at amazon.com.

So, bring it on Hurricane Sandy, and please stay on western Massachusetts electric and other utilities because we’re looking forward to a virtual journey along the Silk Road, with detours as they undoubtedly will arise thanks to tabs reading “additional resources,” and “related titles.”

Trick or Treat, poem by Nancy Price

Column 396; by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate
I’m not alone in noticing how time accelerates as we grow older, and as the seasons grow ever more brief the holidays are gone in a wink. This poem by Nancy Price about Halloween catches a little of that. She’s an Iowan whose poems are so heartfelt, clear and useful that we could run them every week and none of you would complain.

Trick or Treat, poem by Nancy Price

The ghost is a torn sheet,
the skeleton’s suit came from a rack in a store
the witch is flameproof, but who knows
what dark streets they have taken here?
Brother Death, here is a candy bar.
For the lady wearing the hat from Salem: gum.
And a penny for each eye, Lost Soul.
They fade away with their heavy sacks.
Thanks! I yell just in time.
                             Thanks for another year!

about American Life in Poetry

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2007 by Nancy Price from her book of poetry Two Voices and a Moon, Malmarie Press, 2007. Reprinted by permission of Nancy Price and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.