Valley Voices Story Slam: Elementary
Shea Theater, Turners Falls
Thursday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Valley Voices Story Slams are a production of NEPM and the Academy of Music Theatre. They feature outrageous, funny and heartwarming stories from western New England-based storytellers all told in under five minutes in intimate venues around the region. For our next slam we’re heading to Franklin County to the lovely Shea Theater in Turners Falls. See how our storytellers weave their imagination around this slam’s theme — Elementary.
The Cost of Inheritance Screening + Discussion with Kaliis Smith
Amherst Cinema
TONIGHT! Wednesday, March 12 at 7 p.m.
Starting with one family’s startling discovery, the film documents how communities can start working together to address the racial wealth gap in America that is the direct legacy of slavery. It presents a nuanced view of the key issues, scope, and rationale of the reparations debate from a number of perspectives. After the screening, The Fabulous 413 co-host Kaliis Smith will moderate a panel discussion. This is a free Community Foundation EVOLVE Philanthropy series event. Register here.
Hadestown The Musical
Northampton High School
Thursday, March 13 – Saturday, March 15 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m.
Northampton High School presents the full-length teen edition of Anaïs Mitchell’s haunting, jazz-inflected folk opera follows Orpheus’ mythical quest to overcome Hades and regain the favor of his one true love, Eurydice. Its Broadway version won a Tony for best musical in 2019. The production features a live pit band and a cast of 41 NHS students.
Camille Thurman with The Darrell Green Quartet
Bowker Auditorium
Thursday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Camille Thurman is fluid and powerful on the tenor saxophone and highly inventive as a vocalist. Her rich sax sound has garnered comparisons to Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon, while her vocals — including an impressive scatting ability — evoke Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter. Thurman toured as a member of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra from 2018 to 2020, and has shared the stage with such luminaries as George Coleman, Roy Haynes, and Dianne Reeves.
Little Hopkins and the Big Scribble
New England Visionary Artists Museum, Northampton
Reception Friday, March 14 from 5 – 8 p.m.
Exhibit open Wednesdays – Saturdays through March 28
Little Hopkins and the Big Scribble by Cairn O'Heep is the story of two rabbits who love to play together. Bonnie Bun and Hopkins are never far apart. But when a lightning bolt separates them, Hopkins finds himself on an unexpected adventure. With notes, sketches, and storyboards, this exhibit reveals the author’s creative journey.
Celtic Music with Jeff Snow
East Forest Park Library, Springfield
Saturday, March 15 at 12 p.m.
Jeff Snow grew up as the son of a drummer in a bagpipe band and in a home where older Celtic songs were the everyday sounds. No surprise that he developed a love for the music of Scotland, England and Ireland, and became talented multi-instrumentalist. His concerts have been described as “quiet and relaxing” but sometimes he'll break out and the foot stomping begins.
Met Live in HD: Fidelio
The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Hampshire Mall in Hadley, Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, Memorial Hall Theater in Shelburne Falls, West Springfield 15
Saturday, March 15 at 1 p.m.
Choose your local cinema, grab a comfy seat and escape into Beethoven’s Fidelio, an inspiring hymn to freedom, and his only opera. Following a string of awe-inspiring Met performances, soprano Lise Davidsen stars as Leonore, who risks everything to save her husband from the clutches of tyranny. Tenor David Butt Philip is the political prisoner Florestan. Another option: Listen to the live performance on Classical NEPM.
Springfield Symphony Orchestra: Eternal Echoes
Springfield Symphony Hall
Saturday, March 15 at 3 p.m.
This matinée concert opens with “Gabriel’s Oboe,” known for its stunning simplicity and emotional power. Next, the SSO Chorus and soprano soloist Jamie-Rose Guarrine join the orchestra to present the rich, spiritual tapestry of John Rutter’s Requiem. The program culminates with the electrifying drama of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Cailin Marcel Manson, artistic director of the New England Repertory Orchestra, conducts. (You may have heard him on The Fabulous 413.)
The Big Bad Bollocks St. Patrick's Day Celebration
Iron Horse, Northampton
Saturday, March 15 at 7 p.m.
Fueled by Guinness, Bushmills and an irrepressible desire to have fun, Big Bad Bollocks have been endearing themselves to punks, rockers, mods and pub rockers alike since 1989. Big Bad Bollocks are John Allen on vocals, squeezebox & whistle, Pino on lead guitar, Bob Richards on drums; Ernie Wilson on bass.
Portraits in RED: Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples Project
Springfield Museums
Opens Saturday, March 15
In her powerful series of portraits, artist and activist Nayana Lafond sheds light on the crisis affecting Indigenous peoples, particularly women, who are eleven times more likely to go missing than the national average. Each portrait depicts a missing or murdered Indigenous person, a family member, or an advocate, rendered in shades of gray and marked by a vivid red handprint — the only color visible to spirits — to raise awareness, inspire action, and honor the lives and stories of those impacted by this crisis. Lafond, a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, lives in western Massachusetts.
Easthampton Theater Company: On Golden Pond
The Williston Theater, Easthampton
Saturday, March 15 – Sunday, March 23
The Easthampton Theater Company is a young theater company whose board members have a long history of involvement in theater at many levels. Their latest production is On Golden Pond, the beloved and warm-hearted meditation on aging and the long-term family wounds that drive us away from each other, but can also bring us together. Ultimately, the play shows us how we can confront and accept each other with wit, humor, and above all, love.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
Tillis Performance Hall, UMass
Sunday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
Treat your favorite little people to an afternoon of wonderful family entertainment based on the works of renowned illustrator and author Eric Carle, who made a home in Northampton for more than thirty years. This critically acclaimed production by Jonathan Rockefeller features a menagerie of seventy-five lovable puppets and faithfully adapts four stories by Carle — Brown Bear, Brown Bear; Mister Seahorse; The Very Lonely Firefly, and the star of the show, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Voices for Resistance presents: Good Trouble, a reading and conversation with Tolley Jones
Friends Meetinghouse, Northampton
Sunday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
The Straw Dog Writers Guild supports the writing community in western Massachusetts. This event marks the return of their “Voices for Resistance: Good Trouble” series. Since 2020, Tolley Jones has been writing a monthly, regionally syndicated column for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She will read selections from her monthly column about the realities of being a Black woman in western Massachusetts. Northampton Center for the Arts co-director Heather Geoffrey will then have a conversation and lead a Q&A with Tolley.
NOW Ensemble
The Drake, Amherst
Sunday, March 16 at 4 p.m.
NPR described them as “effervescent. genre-busting." With a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, the NOW Ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members. This event is presented in collaboration with Antenna Cloud Farm in Gill.
Cory Pesaturo and Natalie Tenenbaum
Click Work Space, Northampton
Tuesday, March 18 at 7 p.m.
Last year, I included a You Tube short featuring an amazing accordion player’s assertion that Chopin could have been the originator of jazz. That short was the most-viewed item in a year of Culture to Do issues. Now that accordion player, Cory Pesaturo, is returning to our region, with pianist Natalie Tenenbaum. Cory is the only person to ever win the trio of World Championships on Acoustic, Digital and Jazz Accordion. Plus, he will be in the Fabulous 413 studio this week for Live Music Friday.
Branching Out in Your Garden
The Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association
Frontier Regional High School, South Deerfield
Saturday, March 22 from 8:45 a.m. – 12 p.m.
We’re giving you advance notice about a symposium that’s happening next Saturday because the presenters want Culture to Do subscribers to have the chance to pick their sessions before they fill up. Session topics include “Pollinator Powerhouse Plants,” “Garden Tool Sharpening and Maintenance,” “The Fall Clean-up: Less is More,” and more. You can also bring soil samples for pH testing. My son recently became a master gardener in North Carolina, so I know that this is a fantastic association with chapters across the US. You can read about all the good work our local chapter does here.
Alison Pebworth Cultural Apothecary
MASS MoCA, North Adams
On view now
For more than a decade, Alison Pebworth has been inspired by a 19th-century neurological disorder called Americanitis. With symptoms ranging from abnormal fatigue to premature baldness, a diagnosis of Americanitis essentially pathologized the anxiety and ennui that plagued many Americans in the wake of industrialization and urbanization. Pebworth’s Cultural Apothecary asks us to consider the root causes of the cultural ills that contribute to our anxiety today, and to work together towards tools for healing. Her installation at MASS MoCA offers an experimental space for embodied, in-person connection, curiosity, and exploration as an antidote to division, loneliness, and isolation.