Taconic Stage Company, founded
by its Artistic Director Carl Ritchie, is Columbia
County’s
newest theatre. The company’s inaugural production, “I Know I Came in Here
for Something…”was such a hit last summer – held over numerous times - that
its creators have written a new musical for the 2010 season, “Senior
Moments”, starring Diedre Devere Bollinger.
Also this year is Noel Coward’s timeless comedy, “Private Lives” starring
Carl Ritchie and Canadian Actress Susan Fullerton. Following that is Alan
Bennett’s humorous, “A Lady of Letters” starring the talented Leda Hodgson,
returning from London. The first two will be dinner theatre presentations at
Lighthouse Marina on Copake Lake and the third at St John’s in the
Wilderness Church in Copake Falls. Details will be noted in the Events
Calendar on this website. Come laugh with us!
Ancram Opera
House
was originally the Ancram Grange Hall built in 1929. It was
transformed in 1972
by
two opera lovers into a lovely small theatre with excellent acoustics.
Joan Arnold purchased the building in 2002 and started offering yoga
classes, Alexander Technique workshops and theatrical events. With the
addition of Jim Paul as house manager in 2005, reading, workshops and dance
have been offered. 518-329-7393.
For more information,
including yoga and dance classes, visit
The Ancram Opera House
Website
Stage Works Theatre
is in Hudson close to the Amtrak Train Station. The theatre opened
in 1994 and offers
plays throughout its May-October season, including a one-act play festival.
Mac-Haydn Theatre
in Chatham features classic and contemporary American musicals in
a 350 seat theatre
in-the-round. During their May through Labor Day season, musicals for
children are performed also.
Berkshire Theatre Festival
is 78 years old, one of the first regional theatres in the United
States and
the longest running cultural organization in Berkshire County,
Massachusetts. Both the Main Stage and the Unicorn Theatre present quality
productions, witnessed by the number of plays that moved to Broadway, the
international list of playwrights and actors from Eve Le Gallienne and
Buster Keaton to Calista Flockhart and Gene Hackman. Located in Stockbridge,
MA, the Festival will more than repay your attention in the midst of 40,000
others present annually. During your visit look for the symmetry and lines
of the Festival's 1888 Stanford White building listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Shakespeare & Company
was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer, its current artistic
director and
President, and is one of the larger Shakespeare Festivals in the country.
The company purchased its 63-acre home with 23 buildings, one mile from
Edith Wharton's The Mount, in Lenox in the early 1970s. Plans are under way
to build a copy of the Rose Playhouse, Shakespeare's first theatre. During
their 28 year history the company has produced almost all of Shakespeare's
plays and, in addition, a host of contemporary plays. Its more than 50000
annual patrons also have enjoyed world premiers of William Gibson' Golda's
Balcony and Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage. The Boston Globe has
observed that the company "...continues to be one of the best troupes in
Massachusetts".
Clarion Concerts in Columbia County resulted from the founding of the
Clarion Music Society in 1957 by Thomas N. Morgan, philanthropist, and
Newell Jenkins, conductor and musicologist. The Society was the first period
instrument orchestra with regular performances in New York City. In 1981
Jenkins founded the Clarion Concerts which annually presents in the fall a
series of Leaf Peeper Concerts. Sanford Allen, the current Music Director,
continues to present early chamber music but also commissions a new work for
each season.
Tannery Pond Concerts
were founded in 1991 by Christian Steiner, one of the world's
foremost
photographers of musicians and a concert pianist. Six to seven chamber
concerts are presented each season May and October in the 290 seat Tannery
built by the Shakers in 1834. Tannery Hall is in Mount Lebanon Shaker
Village, about 1.5 miles east of New Lebanon at Route 20 and Darrow
Road. In previous years, concerts have featured Ben Heppner, Susan Graham,
Jessye Norman, Richard Goode, Alicia de Larrocha, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the
Emerson String Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Berlin Philharmonic
Octet.
Music Mountain
founded by Jacques Gordon in 1930, seeks to provide excellent
teaching and
performance of chamber music, especially the string quartet literature. Its
past programs have included the best new and established chamber musicians
in the world. Performances are Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons in
Gordon Hall throughout the summer just outside Lakeville, Connecticut.
Richard B. Fisher Center for
the Performing Arts at Bard College, designed by Frank
Gehry,
presents outstanding music, dance, theatre, cinema and lectures year round.
Especially noteworthy are Summerscape, the Bard Music Festival (focusing on
Edward Elgar in 2007) and the American Symphony Orchestra concerts under the
direction of Leon Botstein.
Tanqlewood Music
Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts was
initiated from the Boston
Symphony Orchestra's first performance in the
Berkshires in 1936 and is the BSO's summer home. With the opening of The
Shed two years later this summer festival has been continuous except for
1942-1945. The festival includes performance by and teaching for orchestra,
composers, conductors and singers for ten weeks initiated annually by all
singing Randall Thompson's Alleluia and concluded by Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony. In between the world's best make chamber, symphonic, film,
operatic, contemporary and jazz music of the highest quality.
Spencertown Academy Arts
Center is located in Spencertown, a small village just north
of
Copake in Columbia County. The Academy presents concerts, film, performance
art and readings in its 110 seat auditorium. Fine art and crafts are
exhibited in two galleries. All is housed in a Greek revival building
constructed in 1847 and is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. Be sure to check the Academy's Calendar of Events.
Grey Fox Blue
Grass Festival ...
celebrates thirty-five years
of Bluegrass for four days in the middle of July on the Walsh Farm in Oak
Hill, New York. It has been nominated three times for the IBMA Event of the
year. A full-length documentary about the festival entitled Bluegrass
Journey has been shown on public television. Grey Fox introduces the best in
Bluegrass on four stages: Main Stage, Masters Stage - top artists in an
intimate setting, Family Stage and Dance Stage. Tent and RV camping are
available on site. Motels, B&Bs and campgrounds are in the area.
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival