Awards Season: Ali Louis Bourzgui, the Pittsfield actor in the title role of “The Who’s Tommy,” will receive the 2024 Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut. The tour of “Beetlejuice,” which just played The Bushnell, won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for best tour, and Barrington Stage Artistic Associate Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer won “best diva performance” for “Spamalot.”
Great Barrington Public Theater hosts a benefit for Berkshire Voices on June 7, at Simon’s Rock. Patrons can get a sneak preview of “Night at the Speakeasy” cabaret starring Janelle Farias Sando, premiering this summer in the McConnell Theater. The stage program also spotlights Leigh Strimbeck and the two-person cast of “Dog People.” For details: www.greatbarringtonpublictheater.org.
“The Thin Place,” Lucas Hnath’s portrait of a woman who can communicate with the dead, opens Chester Theatre’s season, June 20-30. Gabrielle Farrah directs the play by the author of the critically acclaimed “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” and Tara Franklin stars. The cast also includes Diane Prusha, Jordan Bellow and Tabitha McKown. For details: www.chestertheatre.org.
David Sedaris, author and humorist, returns to The Bushnell on Oct. 8. For details: www.bushnell.org.
The Springfield Chamber Players return to the Longmeadow Adult Center with a free outdoor (rain or shine) performance by Quartetto Mosso on June 13. Violinists Ronald Gorevic and Beth Welty, violist Delores Thayer and cellist Yoonhee Ko.perform two works by African American composers, William Grant Still and Florence Price; “Lullaby” by Broadway’s George Gershwin; Antonin Dvořák’s “American” Quartet; and Henry Mancini’s film music for “Charade.” For details: www.springfieldsymphonymusicians.com.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley has reopened for the season. Guided tours are given 1-4 p.m., Saturdays through Wednesdays, for $5 for adults and $1 for children. The Wednesday Folk Traditions concerts, featuring some of the region’s finest glocal folk music performers and ensembles, kick off on June 12. For details: www.pphmuseum.org/
“Tanglewood on Parade,” the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s annual extravaganza, will be dedicated to Seiji Ozawa. The Aug. 6 performance also features conductors Alan Gilbert, Keith Lockhart, John Williams and Anna Rakitina, soprano Christine Goerke, and the Marcus Roberts Trio. For details: www.tanglewood.org.
Art with Pride 2024, an ArtWorks Westfield initiative, brings LGBTQ+ artists and allies to downtown Westfield on June 8 on the Park Square Green and School Street. It’s an outdoor exhibition, and it’s canceled if it rains. For details: www.artworkswestfield.com.
Shakespeare & Company, in response to the Massachusetts law banning the disposal of textiles, has launched a new program designed to help both the company and the community at large more easily recycle clothing, footwear, bedding, curtains and other fabrics. The initiative was spearheaded by costume shop manager Michelle Hathaway and builds on Shakespeare & Company’s existing policy to accept clothing donations year-round. The Apparel Impact bin is located outdoors at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St., Lenox, on the Shakespeare & Company campus. For details: 413-637-1199, ext. 376, or email costumes@shakespeare.org.
Steve Perry, Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s principal tuba player, has retired after 43 years with the SSO. Best of luck in your next chapter.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theater at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He has worked for arts organizations nationwide and reported on the arts for print and broadcast. Mark produces and hosts “ArtsBeat,” “Athenaeum Spotlight” and “On the Mark” for WCPC, Channel 15 in Westfield, and WSKB 89.5 FM. His “Arts Beat” column appears Mondays in The Westfield News. He’s a regular contributor to Pioneer Valley Radio and a member of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association.
