The Urmetazoan
Barrington Stage, Pittsfield
Playing through Sunday, Oct. 25
The Urmetazoan, is a tender play that reunites two sisters as one of them prepares for a mission to become the first human to live on Mars. The siblings, who are long estranged, are polar opposites in many ways. They use their final weeks together as a chance to reconnect and rediscover the bond that once kept them orbiting only each other. The obscure title (at least to me) refers to the hypothetical common ancestor of all animals — a fitting idea for a play about two very different sisters rediscovering what connects them.
Plus, also at Barrington Stage, Vanya, a one-man show in which Mark H. Dold reimagines Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, bringing eight characters to life all by himself, with the audience seated on stage. Vanya plays through Saturday, Oct. 24.
Beyond the Floating World: Viewing Japanese Prints with Smith Faculty
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
On View Friday, Oct. 9 – Sunday, April 4, 2027
Plus! October Second Friday: Ghost Stories Friday, Oct. 9 from 4 – 8 p.m.
Beyond the Floating World: Viewing Japanese Prints with Smith Faculty is a new exhibit of 35 Japanese woodblock prints selected by eight Smith College faculty members across multiple disciplines — art history, East Asian studies, history, even chemistry! The Second Friday event combines hand-on artmaking, ghost stories with Muriel Monik Johnson and the chance to see the 35 Japanese woodblock prints on the exhibit’s opening day.
Paradise City Arts Festival
Three County Fairgrounds, Northampton
Friday, Oct. 9 – Sunday, Oct. 11
The Paradise City Arts Festival returns for a three-day celebration of creativity, featuring 200+ world-class artists and makers traveling from every corner of the country to showcase their craft. Expect to find a beautiful selection of handmade home decor, museum-quality sculpture, avant-garde fashion, shimmering jewelry, fine art, and functional ceramics. Plus, delicious local food and lots of live music.
Thriller Parade
Academy of Music, Northampton
Registration closes Friday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m.
Full Cast Rehearsal Sunday, Oct. 25 at 10 a.m.
Performance Friday, Oct. 30 at 5 p.m.
Here’s your chance to join a flash-mob-style “Thriller” dance in front of the Academy of Music. Participants will use a video to learn the dance in advance, attend the full-cast rehearsal on Sunday, Oct. 25, and show up on parade day, Oct. 30, dressed as zombies. Registration closes Friday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. The parade takes place just before Academy Youth Productions presents Beetlejuice Jr., based on the movie and Broadway musical.
VOCES8
The Mahaiwe, Great Barrington
Friday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m.
Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is the world’s top-streaming classical vocal group. Versatility and diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s ethos. Their Mahaiwe performance will feature the group’s “Let’s Fly Away” program, a celebration of the extraordinary breadth and versatility of the human voice. Spanning over five centuries of music, the program moves freely between sacred polyphony, romantic choral writing, contemporary song, jazz standards, folk melodies and pop classics.
In Nature’s Studio: Two Centuries of American Landscape Painting
Springfield Museums
On View Saturday, Oct. 10 – Sunday, Jan. 24, 2027
In Nature’s Studio spotlights the beauty of the American landscape from the early nineteenth century through the late twentieth century. Starting with the emergence of the Hudson River School of painting in the 1830s and 40s, the exhibition explores the progression from naturalistic depictions of pastoral landscapes to the stylized and individual impressions of time and place that reflect the sensibilities of visual culture in the United States through two centuries.
The Ashfield Fall Festival
Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
This is one of my favorite town festivals. I love the low-tech vibe of the lawn games, the local music, and the arts and crafts tents. And, of course, the food! This year you’ll find the iconic St. John’s blueberry cobbler, the Boy Scouts’ apple cider donuts, the Hilltown Snowmobile Club’s Kielbasa grinders, corn chowder and sandwiches in the Congregational Church, Ashfield Rod and Gun Club chili, fried dough by Elmer’s Community Center, apple pie with cheese at Town Hall, and more.
Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield
On View Saturday, Oct. 10 – Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2027
On loan from the Brooklyn Museum, this exhibition explores the fascinating practice of animal mummification and the central role animals played in ancient Egyptian religion and daily life. Featuring remarkably preserved mummies alongside related artifacts, the exhibition combines archaeology with modern scientific imaging to uncover the beliefs, rituals, and mysteries surrounding these extraordinary objects.
Berkshire Botanical Garden Harvest Festival
Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge
Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Harvest Festival celebrates the season with live music, regional food, and artisan vendors. Activities include pony rides, a haunted house, hay maze and hay jump, face painting, hayrides, a petting zoo and square dancing. More than 90 vendors will offer food and beverages, crafts, art, jewelry, farm products, plants and more, and the weekend also includes gardening demonstrations, workshops, a plant sale and the Scarecrow Walk and Design Contest.
Valley Classical Season Premiere: Boston Chamber Music Society
Chapin Hall, Mount Holyoke College
Saturday, Oct. 10 at 3 p.m.
Valley Classical's 2026 – 2027 season opens this weekend with the Boston Chamber Music Society, an ensemble of superb musicians who come together in different combinations to prepare and perform chamber music. They are known for monthly concerts at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre. Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams are on their Valley Classical program. Plan to arrive at 2 p.m. for a pre-concert discussion.
Literary Monsters: EP Release Performance
Blackbird, 27 Pleasant Street, Northampton
Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Part concert, part shadow puppet show, and part ghost story, Literary Monsters combines original live music, shadow puppetry, video, and storytelling to reimagine familiar literary worlds from Poe, Shelley, Stoker, Dickinson, Irving, and more. The songs at the heart of the show were originally written by local songwriter Jess Martin as a way of exploring queer identity through literary monsters and outsiders. The project grew into a multimedia collaboration with visual storyteller and puppeteer Amy West and performer/musician Abby Hanna.
Chamber @ The Drake: Apple Hill String Quartet
The Drake, Amherst
Sunday, Oct. 11 at 4 p.m.
This relaxed and welcoming chamber music series continues with its second concert of the season. The Apple Hill String Quartet are the Artistic Directors and resident musicians at New Hampshire’s Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. The Quartet’s concert programs reflect the diversity of Apple Hill: pieces amplifying new voices, views, and backgrounds in classical music; compositions from places representing the Quartet’s global travels and the summer workshop community; and music from the historic canon and new commissions, especially from renowned alumni.
Bywater Call
Iron Horse, Northampton
Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.
Bywater Call is a seven-piece Southern soul and roots rock band from Toronto, led by vocalist Meghan Parnell and guitarist Dave Barnes, with drums, bass, keyboards, trumpet and tenor sax. Their music draws on blues, soul, Americana and roots rock, with influences including The Band, The Wood Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Otis Redding, Little Feat and Sly and the Family Stone. The band was nominated for a 2025 UK Blues Award for International Blues Artist of the Year. Their fourth studio album, Broken Souvenirs, was released this year.
Springfield College Arts & Humanities Speaker Series: Ruth E. Carter
Springfield College Field House
Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Springfield native Ruth E. Carter returns to her hometown for an evening devoted to her groundbreaking career in costume design. Carter made history as the first Black person to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Black Panther, then won again for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Most recently, her work on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners earned her a fifth Academy Award nomination, making her the most nominated Black woman in Oscar history. Carter, was awarded the key to the City of Springfield in 2021, and a mural celebrating her life and career is displayed at the Rebecca Johnson Elementary School. The event is free and open to the public; registration is requested.
Culomba Polyphony Festival
Bombyx, Florence
Opening Concert: Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.
Singing Workshop: Friday, Oct. 16 and Saturday, Oct. 17
Closing Concert: Sunday, Oct. 18 at 3 p.m.
Culomba is a fabulous vocal sextet specializing in close harmony singing from many different global styles, including American folk traditions, music from Georgia, Corsica, and the Balkans, renaissance polyphony, and original compositions. For ten years, Culomba’s singers have toured together internationally, studied with masters of traditional music across Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, and provided engaging educational experiences to high school, college, and community choirs. They’re celebrating their ten-year anniversary with a participatory singing weekend at Bombyx. I’m all in for this one, but you can go to the festival “à la carte.”
COMING SOON
K and E Theater Group: The Rocky Horror Show
Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley
Friday, Oct. 16 – Saturday, Oct. 24
"The Rocky Horror Show" follows newly engaged Brad and Janet after a flat tire leads them to the mysterious home of Dr. Frank N. Furter. What follows is a wildly theatrical journey filled with rock and roll, outrageous characters, sexual liberation, and a celebration of individuality and self expression. Note: no outside props including rice, toast, confetti, water guns, toilet paper, etc. Some dates are sold out, so nab your tickets now.
Four Roads to Freedom
Bombyx, Florence
Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.
"Four Roads to Freedom" explores how music has given voice to movements for justice and equality across cultures and history. The concert brings together Black Civil Rights anthems, Irish rebel music, South American Nueva Canción and Yiddish labor songs. Related partner events include a Spanish-language family concert at the Hispanic American Library in Springfield on Oct. 17; a guided tour at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst on Oct. 18; “Supporting Trans and Gender Inclusive Community Members” with Translate Gender at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence on Oct. 18; and an Underground Railroad tour of Northampton led by the David Ruggles Center on Oct. 18.
Write Angles: Straw Dog Writers Guild Conference
Bay Path University, Longmeadow
Saturday, Oct. 24 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The largest writing conference in western Massachusetts returns for its 39th year. Participants can choose from 20 workshops on topics such as ghost stories in modern fiction, memoir, speculative fiction, and poetry, as well as three panels on the role of independent presses in the publishing world, book promotion, and a conversation with working literary agents. Authors can schedule meetings with five literary agents who will critique authors’ query letters and first five pages. The conference will feature keynote speaker Essie Chambers, award-winning local author best known for her debut novel, "Swift River."
Eastworks Open Studios
Eastworks, Easthampton
Saturday Nov. 7 and Sunday Nov. 8, from 10 a.m – 5 p.m.
Every year, Eastworks’ artists, makers, performers, nonprofits, small businesses and entrepreneurs open their doors to the public. Participants showcase everything from fine arts, pottery and stained glass, to jewelry, textiles, instruments, and more. Meet celebrated creators, learn about your favorite artist’s process, view works in progress, participate in hands-on workshops, purchase one-of-a-kind items. Free and open to the public.