The annual summer residency of the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center continues with ‘An Evening with John Legend’ Saratoga Springs, N.Y.— On Wednesday, August 7th , annual summer residency of the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) continues with “An Evening With John Legend– A Night of Songs and Stories with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
” Other highlights include a celebration of brass on Thursday, August 8th as Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads Schumann’s “Konzertstuck” and Strauss’s “An Alpine Symphony,” something he’s always wanted to do at SPAC, given its natural setting in Saratoga Spa State Park. On August 10th , Fabio Luisi conducts Orff’s “Carmina Burana” with the Albany Pro Musica, chorus and soprano Audrey Luna, tenor Sunnyboy Dladla, and baritone Sean Michael Plumb. On August 16th , Berkshire favorite Yo-Yo Ma and Xian Zhang return to SPAC in a program featuring Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, as well as the premiere of Ngwenyama’s “Primal Message” and Kodály’s “Dances of Galánta.
” On August 17th , Damon Gupton conducts the orchestra performing Hans Zimmer’s Oscar®-winning Disney’s “The Lion King” musical score live in concert with the movie playing on the big screen. The concerts run through August 17th at SPAC is a unique setting for classical music, the bucolic amphitheater is nestled inside historic Saratoga Spa State Park adjacent to hiking trails, geysers, waterfalls, and natural mineral springs. SPAC is located at 108 Avenue of the Pines in Saratoga Springs, N.
Y. Tickets and more information can be found online . *** The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents ‘All Shook Up,’ a musical homage to Elvis Presley’s timeless songs and the pursuit of dreams Chatham, N.
Y.— Now through August 11th , The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents “All Shook Up,” a musical homage to Elvis Presley’s timeless songs and the pursuit of dreams. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” audiences are invited to immerse themselves in this hip-swiveling, lip-curling extravaganza.
Director David Alpert and Choreographer Andrew Turteltaub are making their Mac-Haydn debuts. Under the musical direction of Matt Levinstein, Elvis Presley’s greatest hits, such as “Hound Dog,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “All Shook Up,” and “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” will come to life for the two-week run. The cast features new talent with Mac-Haydn debuts Spencer Stanley as Chad, Katherine Pound as Mayor Matilda Hyde, and Jack Iovanella in the ensemble.
Reprising their roles from over a decade ago, Ashley D. Kelley returns as Sylvia and Gabe Belyeu as Jim Haller, highlighting their enduring talent and deep connection to the Mac-Haydn Theatre. (Kelley has since made her Broadway debut in “Shucked.
”) Also returning are Cydney Gleckner, acclaimed for her recent portrayal of Sister Mary Robert in “Sister Act,” in the role of Natalie, alongside Jacob Atkins as Dennis and Rachel Pantazis as Miss Sandra, recognized for their performances in “Jersey Boys” and “Xanadu,” respectively. The performances run now though August 11th at The Mac-Haydn Theatre at 1925 NY-203 in Chatham, N.Y.
Tickets and more information can be found online . *** Ventfort Hall presents ‘Artificial Women: from Mechanical Gilded-Age Dolls to Today’s Talking Female Robots,’ a tea and talk with Julie Wosk Lenox— On Thursday, August 8 at 4 p.m.
, Ventfort Hall presents “Artificial Women: from Mechanical Gilded-Age Dolls to Today’s Talking Female Robots,” a tea and talk with Julie Wosk, Author and Professor Emerita of English, Art History, and Studio Art at State University of New York, Maritime College. In America’s Gilded Age and in Europe, clockwork female dolls decorated fashionable parlors. These mechanical wonders came in many guises—from demure women with their parasols to a dying Cleopatra in her harem outfit.
Today there is a burst of fascination with simulated females, as seen in films, novels, art, and AI-enhanced dolls. They appear as companions, pleasure dolls, healthcare aides, artificial friends, and even fictional duplicates of deceased loved ones. Drawing on her new book “Artificial Women,” Berkshire author Julie Wosk highlights these lifelike copies of real human beings.
Julie Wosk is the author of several books including “Women and the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age,” “My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and Other Artificial Eves,” and her most recent book “Artificial Women.” She is also an artist, photographer, and an independent museum curator whose exhibit “Imaging Women in the Space Age,” first shown at the New York Hall of Science, is now on view at the Berkshire Museum. The tea and talk is on Thursday, August 8 at 4 p.
m. at Ventfort Hall on Walker Street in Lenox. Tickets and more information can be found online .
*** MASS MoCA presents the first exhibition from the Curatorial Exchange Initiative by artist Steve Locke North Adams— Now through November 2025 , MASS MoCA presents “the fire next time,” the first exhibition from the Curatorial Exchange Initiative by artist Steve Locke. Curated by CEI Fellow Evan Garza, “the fire next time” is a meditation on uniquely American forms of violence directed at Black and queer people. Locke’s interdisciplinary practice engages issues of identity, desire, race, violence, spectacle, and memory.
In the artist’s hands, these complexities reveal as much tenderness and humor as they do brutality. For most of his decades-long career, Locke has largely worked in portraiture, though recently he has pushed the discipline of painting to its material and conceptual limits through the creation of “freestanding paintings” and works of public art. This exhibition combines both new and recent works that introduce an increasingly personal, political, and critical engagement with histories of racism, anti-Blackness, modernism, and both the Western art historical canon and American society at large.
“I have never really been interested in trauma, to be completely honest with you,” explains Locke. “I have been interested in justice..
. the work of healing is not mine to do. My work is to make you look, and to make you unable to look away.
” “the fire next time” takes its title from the 1963 book by American author and civil rights activist James Baldwin, which galvanized the American public with its brutal honesty about racial inequality. The exhibit runs now through November 2025 at MASS MoCA on MASS MoCA Way in North Adams. More information can be found online .
*** Chesterwood presents ‘Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French’ Stockbridge— On Thursday, August 8th at 5:30 p.m. , Chesterwood presents a book signing event for an updated edition of “Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French,” the award-winning, definitive biography by acclaimed Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer which publishes today in a new, updated paperback edition.
The book signing event will follow a short Lincoln-themed program narrated by Harold Holzer and actor Rufus Collins. The program, “Mr. French takes on Mr.
Lincoln,” will explore the themes of democracy, freedom, sacrifice, and French’s gift for capturing all these attributes in art. Highlights of the new Paperback Edition include a geographical guide to more than 100 Daniel Chester French public sculptures and monuments throughout the United State, over 100 beautiful archival photographs of Daniel Chester French’s life and work, and a new foreword by Thayer Tolles, Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The event is on Thursday, August 8th at 5:30 p.m. at Chesterwood at 4 Williamsville Road in Stockbridge.
Tickets and more information can be found online . *** Mason Library presents open mic and poetry reading with Ed Meek and Don Barkin Great Barrington— On Friday, August 9th at 4:30 p.m.
, the Mason Library presents local poets Ed Meek and Don Barkin, who will be performing readings of their work. At the end of the performance, there will be an open mic available to any aspiring poets who may wish to share. The event is on Friday, August 9th at 4:30 p.
m. at the Mason Library at 231 Main StreetGreat Barrington. More information can be found online .
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