This week, Jared Bowen discusses an exhibition of art from the women of Twenty-One in Truro. Plus, a review of a new, virtual production from Arlekin Players Theatre.
Allyn Burrows All you can do is dodge rocks and make it down the river, Burrows says in his answer to one of a series of questions posed to him about the year just ended and the one that s just begun.
As it did to all the cultural institutions in the Berkshires, COVID-19 forced some tough decisions on Burrows and his board â cutbacks; canceling the season; furloughing staff â and some thinking outside the box to survive.
Ironically, Shakespeare & Company was facing stiff challenges when Burrows returned to Shakespeare & Company in the fall of 2016, after a nearly 10-year absence, to replace interim co-artistic directors Ariel Bock and Jonathan Croy as artistic director.
After 27 years, Bella Luna & The Milky Way closed permanently in June. (Courtesy Bella Luna & The Milky Way)
Last December, in an end-of-year reflection on the Boston arts scene, the ARTery’s senior editor Maria Garcia declared 2019 a “year of convening.” “I thought a lot about the way people come together in a space, claim or reclaim it for themselves and the fellowship or tension that may arise,” she wrote.
Twelve months later, assigned the unenviable task of making sense of… whatever this was, I’ve struggled to come up with a pithy slogan for 2020. A Year Of Convening If You Dare! A Year Of Avoiding Each Other, But Feeling Sad About It. A Year Of Definitely Not Convening.
Theater critics Jacquinn Sinclair and Ed Siegel selected their favorite theater productions from the year, including David Byrne s American Utopia, Ma Rainey s Black Bottom on Netflix, Mala from the Huntington Theatre Company and Hamilton, which is available to stream on Disney+. (Courtesy)
Theater gave up what many consider its essence in 2020 the communality of gathering together to experience the benediction of artistic expression along with the challenge of confronting our inner demons and social transgressions together.
That didn’t, however, stop artists from bringing us together in unique digitally-enhanced groupings, often through Zoom. ARTery critic at large Ed Siegel found himself sitting on a jury with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht in “State vs. Natasha Banina” from the Arlekin Players while ARTery theater critic Jacquinn Sinclair had a one-on-one telephone experience curled under her dining room table in the dark in “Baby Jessica’s Well-Made P