by C.B. Wismar
When Jake Hunker hung out his shingle for Jake’s Barber Shop at 87 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, it was, in many ways, a leap of faith. The shop where he had served customers for several years had closed abruptly. Jake had to make a career decision. “I could have rented a chair […]
“There’s such and incredible pool of talent up here… from Connecticut through Massachusetts into Vermont and throughout New York.” Jim Frangione is very expressive when talking about regional theater in the Litchfield Hills, the Berkshires, and the Hudson Valley. “We’ve got great theater here that draws incredible talent from New York and Boston. It’s the […]
Perhaps Oscar Wilde was correct. “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Should one be in need a living example, please welcome Richard Griggs. An artist who finds elegance and beauty where others see pieces that should be consigned to the local transfer station, Griggs creates pieces that take on new and whimsical […]
Berkshire Theatre Company presents Holiday Memories by Truman Capote
CB Wismar
Just when the year seemed to be ending, as T.S. Eliot observed “… not with a bang, but a whimper,” Holiday Memories appears in the courtyard of Berkshire Theatre Group’s (BTG) Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA, and the entire game changes.
For fifteen performances scattered […]
It was a gift, created out of love, respect and the spirit of the community. After 133 years, the gift endures and continues to honor the man whose name it bears – Orville Dewey.
Dewey Memorial Hall in Sheffield, MA, is no common effort at celebrating the life of a stalwart community resident. It is not […]
It’s unclear whether Eric Martin was channeling his inner Thoreau when he returned to the United States from an intense year of graduate study at the University of Limerick in Ireland. After long hours of practice on his instrument of choice, the viola, he sought to recapture some of the simplicity and innocence of summers […]
The era of silent films ushered in the evolutionary landslide that has led us to digital streaming, spectacular visual effects, panoramic sound and the fully immersive world that is film today. Even in the era of COVID-19 when visiting the neighborhood cinema has been replaced by streaming services and parking lot ad hoc theaters, the […]
It was inevitable. As soon as one or more of the pundits coined the phrase “life in the time of the pandemic,” we reached onto the bookshelf of memory and pulled down the copy of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s life-changing volume Love in the Time of Cholera.
This is the moment in which we […]
We feel it only fair to offer this gentle warning before you invest a few moments reading what follows. This piece is a bit different than others we have written. It draws heavily on history, reflects on those historical references and, with no subtlety intended, holds a mirror to what has become almost a cliché […]
It was one of those moments beyond logic … or control. The title of Alison Larkin’s wonderful, best-selling novel is The English American. At its very mention, in the recesses of the mind, where one’s personal “Spotify” play list lies in wait, the mention of the title evoked the plaintive lyrics of Sting’s An Englishman […]