A slant on Sondheim

AMHERST — The 1987 musical “Into the Woods,” with music written by Stephen Sondheim and a plot based on selections from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, won a number of awards and has had several successful revivals over the year.

Now the UMass Amherst Theater Department is having a crack at the production — their first first full-fledged musical in more than five years — which director Rudy Ramirez, an MFA student in directing, says is tailor-made for our societal moment, given the collective problems we face such as climate change.

The UMass take on “Into the Woods,” which opens April 28 and runs through May 6 at the Rand Theater, notes that Act 1 seems to resolve the problems of the characters, like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, such that they’re ready to live “happily after ever,” just as they do in the original fairy tales.

But in Act 2, Ramirez explains in publicity notes, the characters realize the consequences of having “transactional relationships” when they discover their behavior has led to a dangerous giant coming into their midst: “The people who are left after this disaster have to come together as a community to solve the problem.”

Music direction for “Into the Woods” is by actor/musician David Cavallin. The costumes and set design, according to publicity notes, are partly inspired by American forests in the cartoon “Over the Garden Wall” and partly by storybooks.

Tickets are available through the Fine Arts Center box office at (800) 999-8677 or by visiting fac.umass.edu/Online/default.asp and following the link for “Performing Arts.”

 

Noted poet and music critic to speak at Smith College

NORTHAMPTON — Hanif Abdurraqib, an acclaimed poet, music critic and essayist, will give a public reading at Smith College April 25 at 7 p.m., in a visit sponsored primarily by the school’s Boutelle-Day Poetry Center. 

Abdurraqib, from Columbus, Ohio, also won a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2021, with the MacArthur Foundation praising him for “using the lens of popular music to examine the broader culture that produces and consumes it.”

“With an intimate and welcoming writing style that establishes an immediate connection with readers, he blends autobiography, social history, and keen insights into specific technical and emotional aspects of a song, an album, or a performance,” the Foundation wrote.

Abdurraqib is the author of several books, including 2021’s “A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance,” a finalist for a National Book Award. His first collection of essays, “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” was named Book of the Year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, and The Los Angeles Review.

Abdurraqib will read at Leo Weinstein Auditorium in Wright Hall at Smith. Livestreams will be available on BDPC Facebook and YouTube pages. He’ll also read to local high school students in Sweeney Concert Hall at 10:30 a.m. 

 

A benefit concert and kids’ movies

NORTHAMPTON — The city’s Arts Council is rolling out two more events in its Four Sundays program, beginning tonight (Friday, April 14), with the Bow Bow Ball, a fundraiser to help Northampton High School students take music lessons.

The Bow Bow Ball takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. at JJ’s Tavern in Florence and features performances by a mix of NHS student musicians, ensembles, and local performers. The show is free, with donations encouraged.

The event helps finance the J. Scott Brandon Grant Fund, created by the Arts Council to give financial assistance to eligible NHS students for music lessons at either Downtown Sounds or Northampton Community Music School. It’s named after the late Valley musician J. Scott “Bow Bow” Brandon.

And from April 17-21, the Arts Council is offering KidsBestFest, the annual movie festival for children and adults held at the Academy of Music during spring school break. All shows are free and begin at 11 a.m., with doors opening at 10:30 a.m.

On tap next week are “Frozen, “Babe,” “E.T.,” “Back to the Future,” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” All seats are first-come, first-served. 

Online art exhibit to highlight more accessible trails

NORTHAMPTON — Pastel painter Meg Bandarra is hosting a virtual exhibit of her work beginning April 19 that’s designed to raise awareness of the need for more accessible unpaved trails on state land and in other locations.

Bandarra, who studied at Hartford Art School, also started the advocacy group Unpaved Trails for All after grappling with mobility issues herself and finding trails on Northampton conservation land very difficult to navigate.

She has since helped lobby for a bill, co-sponsored by State Sen. Jo Comerford, that would create a working group of trail professionals, people living with disabling conditions, and others to review Massachusetts trails for possible improvements.

Bandarra’s exhibit, “Beyond The Pavement: Landscape Paintings From Massachusetts Accessible Trails,” can be viewed in a 3D virtual gallery through her website, megbandarra.com, through May 31. She will host a Zoom session/reception April 19 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. to discuss and showcase some of her work.

The artist is also donating 20% of all sales from the exhibit to All Out Adventures, the Northampton organization that leads a variety of outdoor trips for people of all ages. 

Busy lineup continues at Odyssey Bookshop

SOUTH HADLEY — With the worst of the pandemic behind us, the Odyssey Bookshop has been bringing a steady stream of writers to the store over the past several weeks, and the trend continues this coming week. The events all take place at 7 p.m.

On April 18, Williamsburg author Tracy Kidder will discuss his newest book, “Rough Sleepers,” a profile of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a Harvard Medical School graduate who oversees an extensive health care program for the homeless population in and around Boston.

As one critic writes, Kidder’s new book “paints a full, rich portrait of the plight of homelessness, putting a human face on an incredibly complex issue.”

On April 19, novelist Jess Row will talk about his newest book, “The New Earth,” a story of how an estranged New York family tries to overcome a collective past damaged by race, politics and personal strife. The New York Times calls the novel “richly imagined, reflexively neurotic and frequently quite dazzling.”

University of Massachusetts English professor and author Jordy Rosenberg will join Row in conversation.

And on April 20, Rachel Beanland will discuss her historical novel, “The House is on Fire,” a story based on a fire that destroyed a theater in Richmond, Virginia during a performance Dec. 26, 1811, killing 72 people, including Virginia’s governor.

Jennifer Acker, editor in chief of The Common, the literary journal published at Amherst College, will join Beanland in conversation.

— Compiled by Steve Pfarrer

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