Prize-winning musical
“In the Heights,” a show about a love triangle in Washington Heights, a largely Dominican-American neighborhood in New York City, will be presented Thursday through Saturday and May 5-7, at 7:30 p.m., by the theater department at the Williston Northampton School. The music and lyrics for “In the Heights” were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of the current Broadway hit and Pulitzer Prize winner, “Hamilton.”
“In the Heights” was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning four: Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography (Andy Blankenbuehler), and Best Orchestrations (Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman). It won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, and was nominated for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The students involved in the Williston production traveled to New York, where they visited the City University of New York’s Dominican Studies Institute and learned about the play’s development from members of the original Broadway cast of the musical. Later the theater department held a panel of Dominican and Puerto Rican community leaders in Holyoke who spoke about their experiences. They also welcomed a grafitti artist who spoke about the relevance of that form of street art.
Tickets cost $10; $7 for students and seniors. To reserve, visit wnsboxoffice.tixato.com/buy. The school is at 19 Payson Avenue in Easthampton.
Jazz classics
“Spring Jazz, Swing Jazz” a performance by Valley Jazz Voices, will be presented Thursday at 7 and 10 p.m. at the 121 Club at Eastworks, 116 Pleasant St. in Easthampton.
The concert of jazz classics will include both small and large ensemble numbers, accompanied by Andy Jaffe on the piano, Forest Loomis-Dulong on the bass and Joel Turcotte on the drums.
Following the performances, there will be an open mic for singers and instrumentalists.
There will be a $5 cover charge. For information, visit www.facebook.com/valleyjazzvoices.
Ghosts and a dance
“New,” a collaborative work in progress by local choreographer Aretha Aoki and visual artist Ryan MacDonald, will be presented Friday at 7 p.m. by the The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (SCDT) in Northampton, in partnership with the Vermont Performance Lab (VLP), at SCDT, 25 Main St., fourth floor, Northampton.
Drawing on family stories, memories and her Japanese heritage, Aoki is collaboratin with MacDonald, integrating movement, visual imagery and spoken word, to create what she calls “a medium for the residue of family history.”
The impulse for “New” comes from an ongoing practice, started in 2014, that the artists describe as “letting the ghosts come in the space of performance.”
Aoki’s choreography, which has been performed at venues in New York City and New England, has been described by The New York Times as “contemplative and probing.” MacDonald is an award-winning short-fiction writer, animator and composer.
The project was selected for development through VLP’s SEED Program, which provides support and visibility for choreographers.
Tickets cost 10. To reserve, call SCDT at 695-1799.
At Amherst Cinema
“House” (“Hausu”) will be shown Friday at 9:30 p.m. at Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St. in Amherst.
In the hallucinatory film, a school girl travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s country home, where she comes face to face with evil spirits, a denomic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano and other ghoulish visions.
The film is being shown as part of the cinema’s tribute to contemporary and classic Japanese cinema.
Regular admission. Not rated, Japanese with English subtitles
“Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” will be presented Tuesday at 7 p.m.
After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of food that is tossed each year in North America, filmmakers Jen Rustemeyer and Grant Baldwin pledge to quit grocery shopping, cold turky, and survive only on discarded food.
The film brings together farmers, retailers, organizations and consumers to examine why nearly 50 percent of our food ends up in the trash. It is equal parts education and entertainment.
Congressman Jim McGovern, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts executive director Andrew Morehouse and Gideon Porth of Atlas Farm will be at the screening to discuss food waste and food rescue.
To reserve tickets for either film, visit www.amherstcinema.org.
‘Community Fest’
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Fine Art Center will present “Community Fest,” a free party with entertainment, games, food and activities, Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. on the Fine Arts Center plaza (Haigis Mall) on the UMass campus.
On the main stage, beginning at 12:50 p.m., there will be performances by Amherst Ballet, The Primate Fiasco, the UMass Belly Dance Club, the UMass Dynamics, Mountain River Taiko Drumming, as well as a “Mary Poppins” theatrical sing-along, and more.
Other activities include hula hooping performances and lessons by Hoop Joy, interactive songs and games for children by Renee Coro, yo-yo lessons and demonstrations by Yo-Yo Experts, free face painting and balloons and dance lessons (ballroom, hip-hop, Bollywood and contact improvisation) in the lobby.
There will be chalk art, lawn games (gian jenga, kerplunk, corn hole toss) and other activities. Wood on the Plaza, an interdisciplinary architecture and engineering project, will erect a large timber grid shell for visitors to explore.
Local galleries and artists will display visual arts in the FAC lobby and on the plaza, and the three current exhibits at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, on the lower level of the FAC, will be open for viewing.
There will be themed food trucks from UMass Catering on the plaza, as well as fried dough, ice cream, cupcakes, and free popcorn.
The event is free; tickets are not required. For more information, including a main-stage performance schedule, visit fineartscenter.com/CommunityFest.
Raising the Renaissance
The 14th annual “Community Renaissance Festival” will take place Sunday, rain or shine, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Massachusetts Renaissance Center grounds at 650 East Pleasant St. in Amherst. Numerous concerts will take place throughout the day, with performances by AyreCraft, Zoe Vandermeer, Erik Sion Vuoritie and the Pioneer Valley Wind Band and Recorder Quartets.
Other activities include woodworking, pottery demonstrations, jewelry making, loom work, Renaissance games and hair braiding. Watch for the Renaissance Buffoons as they stroll the grounds, providing comedy and merriment.
Also, there will be swordsmanship and falconry flight demonstrations and impromptu juggling lessons. Learn how to make music on tambourines, drums and even bones. Explore the gardens, get a tarot card reading or play Cribbage.
Food will be for sale by University of Massachusetts Amherst concessions; bring a picnic if you like (alcoholic beverages prohibited). Bringing well-behaved, leashed pups is also OK.
There is plenty of free parking and overflow parking will be provided by UMass, with shuttles every 15 minutes.
For a schedule and parking information visit www.umass.edu/renaissance.
At A.P.E.
“Magnetic Circuitries,” an exhibit of paintings by David Brewster, will be on view through May 15 at A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St. in Northampton. There will be an artist’s receptin May 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. and Brewster will offer a lecture, “Art is a Habit of Being,” May 5 at 7 p.m. at the gallery.
“I am in the process of creating a dynamic suite of interrelated oil paintings that provide exposure to rarely seen views of the spectacular visual realities implicit within various types of power generation plants operating in Massachusetts,” Breewter writes in an artist statement. “The often monstrous and bizarre forms of nuclear silos, hydroelectric structures, wind turbines and solar farms speak to vast movements of resources and energy and to unique and significant impacts on the surrounding landscape and communities.”
Brewster’s main tool is the foam paint roller, which he says, “is the perfect match for the exuberance I bring to my work, the energy and velocity of how I move paint increasingly becoming a subject in itself.”
Brewster will also lead a three-day, outdoor painting workshop in the streets of Holyoke May 6, 7 and 8.
For information, visit www.bluewayartalliance.org.
Collage cafe
“Pioneer Valley’s Penultimate Pasha of Paste-Ups,” an exhibit of 30 new collages by Chesterfield artist Mike Metzger, will be on view Saturday through June 30 at the Cushman Market & Café, 491 North Pine St. in North Amherst. In his collages, Metzger places pictures of iconic cultural icons in unlikely places. For information, visit cushmanmarket.com.
At the JCA
An exhibit of work by Sarah Belchetz-Swenson will be on view Monday through Aug. 16 in the Hall Gallery at the Jewish Community of Amherst, 742 Main Street, Amherst. There will be an artist’s reception May 5 from 5-8 p.m.
Belchetz-Swenson’s paintings, drawings and prints in the show record her ongong examination of the world around her. She is a figurative painter and portraitist, whose work, including portraits of Richard Wilbur, Rose Olver and William Henry Hastie, hangs in Johnson Chapel at Amherst College. Other works are in collections of Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges, as well as in the collection of the Jewish Museum in New York City.
For information, call 256-0160.