Halloween-themed show in Easthampton
CitySpace in Easthampton will host a Halloween-themed show on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m., featuring Doctor Gasp and Tender Spot.
Doctor Gasp – who, according to the event description, “rises from the shadows delivering an earful of eerie for the young, old and immortal!” – is the stage name of folk musician Dan Blakeslee. He’ll be performing a set of all original Halloween-themed songs, inspired by Bobby Pickett (of “Monster Mash”), Alfred Hitchcock, John Zacherle, and Paul Frees.
Tender Spot, the music project of Marie “Murry” Echo and Tom Matherly, involves both music and theater, inspired by the duo’s loves of mythology, magic, “compassionate loving awareness,” and “shredding it.”
Tickets, not including fees, are $10 to $20, sliding scale, via cityspaceeasthampton.org.
Spelling bee for adults
The Northampton Education Foundation will host its annual Adult Spelling Bee at Bombyx in Florence on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m.
The event features up to 40 teams of three adults each, many of whom compete in themed costumes (e.g. “The Bar-Bees,” “Mad Bee Party,” etc.) to get awards for their spelling, costumes, and humor.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Northampton Education Foundation’s Small Grants for Teachers program. Sponsorship is $300 per team.
Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Register via bombyx.live. The event will also be broadcast live by WHMP and recorded and shared for replay by Northampton Open Media.
For more information about the Adult Spelling Bee, including how to take part or sponsor a team, visit northamptoneducation.org/community-events/adult-spelling-bee.
‘Wicked’ sing-along and ‘cOZplay’ event
This year, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center’s annual Halloween event will be themed around the musical “Wicked” and will take place on Friday, Oct. 24. It will include a “cOZplay” contest starting at 6:30 p.m. and a sing-along film screening at 8 p.m.
The Fine Arts Center will be “transformed into a scene out of Oz itself,” according to the event description, and the event will have music, games, prizes and treats.
“The Fabulous 413” co-host Monte Belmonte will host the costume contest. UMass vocal groups will help with the sing-along.
Tickets are $20 for the general public and $15 for Five College students via arts.umass.edu.
White Reaper in Amherst
The band White Reaper will perform at The Drake in Amherst on Friday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m.
White Reaper is an export of Louisville, Kentucky, and the garage punk/pop punk group is one of the most well-known bands from the city’s local music scene. A 2017 Pitchfork review said their sophomore album, “The World’s Best American Band,” is “smart, well-polished, and cheeky – loaded with more riffs than you can fit into the trunk of a Camaro.”
Lip Critic and Worlds Worst will open.
General admission (standing) tickets are $25 advance and $30 day-of via thedrakeamherst.org.
Benefit concert for The Scarlet Sock Foundation
The band The Happy Accidents will perform at Marigold Theater in Easthampton on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. as a benefit for The Scarlet Sock Foundation.
The Happy Accidents describe their music as “a fun mix of tunes leaning into danceable classic rock.”
The Scarlet Sock Foundation provides grants to support access to social justice theater. The foundation was established in memory of the late Laura DiPillo, who loved theater and whose siblings compared her to “a red sock that ends up in a load of white laundry and turns everything pink,” according to the foundation’s website. “Laura personified the ideals of inclusion, acceptance, and unconditional love. You can be a scarlet sock, too.”
Tickets are $20 via givebutter.com/thehappyaccidents. For more information about the Scarlet Sock Foundation, visit scarletsock.org.
Documentary screening at Yiddish Book Center
The Yiddish Book Center will host a screening of the documentary “Eva’s Promise” on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 2 p.m.
Here’s the synopsis: “On a train to Auschwitz, 17-year-old Heinz Geiringer told his sister Eva that he hid the paintings and poetry he had created beneath the floorboards of their attic hiding place. Heinz made Eva promise that if he should die in the camps, she would retrieve the artwork. Today, his story lives in the shadow of the Diary of Anne Frank — and in a twist of fate, Eva became Anne’s posthumous stepsister when after the war her mother married Anne’s father. While the world knows Anne’s story, this film introduces Heinz, his artistry, and his sister’s efforts to find and share his remarkable legacy.”
The movie is in English and is 57 minutes long.
Tickets are $10 general admission or $8 for students and members via yiddishbookcenter.org/events.
