Search Results

Keyword search: theater

By CAROLYN BROWN

Fans of the Disney musical “Newsies” generally know the titular group of characters as boys, but a local theater company’s upcoming production is expanding the show to include female and nonbinary characters.

Rentheads, rejoice! Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp (who played Roger and Mark, respectively, in the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical) will perform together at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Bowker Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m.

Hear the heir to cumbiaThe Drake in Amherst will kick off its 2025 programming with an exciting show on Jan. 9, presenting cumbia accordionist Yeison Landero.Landero grew up in Colombia, immersed in cumbia music; his grandfather, Andrés Landero, was a...

UMass Libraries to honor founder of Black Feminist ArchiveAMHERST — The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries will celebrate Irma McClaurin, the founder of the university’s Black Feminist Archive (BFA), at its annual reception on Saturday,...

By CAROLYN BROWN

Valley Players, a local volunteer theater group formed earlier this year, will perform their first full production in Amherst this weekend.The show, “Constellations,” by playwright Nick Payne, opened at Munson Memorial Library in Amherst last Friday...

Turning trash containers into art BELCHERTOWN — If making visual art (rather than just appreciating it at gallery shows) is your thing, this call for artists may be for you. Artists are invited to submit proposals for designs to decorate three...

By STEVE PFARRER

In the early 1990s, I answered an ad for a reporting job at the Gazette. I had editorial experience — I’d worked as a copywriter, a copy editor, and a proofreader — and I liked writing, but I’d never worked for a newspaper, unless you counted a few...

By STEVE PFARRER

Time was when summer theater in the Valley was typically produced by a number of mainstays, including Chester Theatre Company, New Century Theatre, and the Ko Festival at Amherst College.But New Century Theatre shut down a few years ago, as did the Ko...

By STEVE PFARRER

April is shaping up to be a busy month for the University of Massachusetts Theater Department, beginning with a symposium that honors Latinx theater and closing with a fresh interpretation of a classic Shakespeare comedy.On April 8-9, theater...

Haydn and Hummel in Hadley (with Beethoven)HADLEY — Arcadia Players will give an early boost to spring, or least to the spirit of spring, on Feb. 18 with a performance of chamber works from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including Beethoven’s...

The poet Emily in the Paper CityHOLYOKE — MIFA Victory Theatre is combining forces with the Emily Dickinson Museum and a New York theater company for a fresh look at The Belle of Amherst and her poetic legacy.“Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter...

By STEVE PFARRER

Early January, just after the holidays and New Year’s Eve have run their course, can be a quiet time for a lot of music venues.But The Parlor Room in Northampton has put together a pretty jam-packed schedule right through this month, starting with a...

By STEVE PFARRER

He’s one of the most famous and beloved children’s book authors ever, and he grew about 20 miles south of here. So the work of Theodor Seuss Geisel — better known, or course, as Dr. Seuss — seemed like a natural fit for the new musical by Amherst...

By STEVE PFARRER

The holidays are nearly upon us and, no surprise, the Valley’s music calendar is chock full of holiday shows over the next week, with some featuring bands playing their versions of seasonal tunes and others focused more on spreading general good...

A community band jamSOUTH HADLEY— The Pioneer Valley Community Band Festival, hosted by the community bands of Amherst, Florence and South Hadley, will bring together up to 150 musicians from western Massachusetts and beyond at the Mount Holyoke...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Valley’s music scene lost a well-known and well-liked voice last July when Kate Lorenz unexpectedly died of heart failure. Lorenz, who lived in Belchertown, had originally been part of the Amherst folk-rock band Rusty Belle in the early 2000s with...

By STEVE PFARRER

Like millions of other Americans, Matthew King spent much of 2020-2021 in lockdown after COVID-19 arrived on the scene.But like other artists, King, of Amherst, also used that downtime to keep busy with his music, writing a number of new songs and...

AMHERST — The 1987 musical “Into the Woods,” with music by Stephen Sondheim and a plot based on selections from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, has won a number of awards and has had several successful revivals over the years.Now the UMass Amherst...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s been almost three years since Amherst Community Theater has presented its annual musical at Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, given a little problem called COVID-19 that prevented the group from returning to UMass in...