Seeing the light

CHESTER – The summer season at the Chester Theatre Company (CTC) continues through this weekend with the final performances of Loy A. Webb’s “The Light,” a production that looks at how a young African-American couple navigate complicated issues raised by the #MeToo movement.

“The Light,” which was nominated in 2019 for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle, runs Aug. 3 through 6, with tickets available at chestertheater.org.

In the play, set in Chicago, Rashad and Genesis, who have just gotten engaged, are looking to celebrate. Among Rashad’s gifts to his fiancée are tickets to see a show by a popular rapper, Kashif, who Rashad sees as a champion of Black men. But Genesis refuses to go: Kashif, she says, once raped one of her friends.

The couple’s “celebration” soon breaks down into a heated argument, exposing more secrets that threaten to overshadow their future in what Stage Left calls “a story of revelation, redress, and hopeful reconciliation cued at the intersection of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.”

The CTC Production stars Kayodé Soyemi as Rashad and Kala Ross as Genesis; Ross previously made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated production of “For Colored Girls…” directed by Camille A. Brown. Direction of “The Light” is by Christina Franklin.

Show times are 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 3, 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, and 2 p.m. on Aug. 6.

CTC’s final production of the season, “Circle Mirror Transformation,” runs Aug. 10 through 20.

 

A strange oil slick

EASTHAMPTON — Real Live Theater (RLT) will stage its first full, live production following the pandemic, with “Pussy Sludge,” a work by playwright Gracie Gardner that opens Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at The Blue Room in CitySpace, with additional performances Aug. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13.

The play, which is for audiences 18 years and older, won a 2017 Relentless Award, an honor named after the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and previously has been staged in New York, London and Berlin.

The story, with a cast of eight, follows a woman who calls herself Pussy Sludge because she is menstruating crude oil. She moves to a state park to deal with the problem, where various characters, including park rangers, offer suggestions and commentary, some of it designed to be helpful – or not.

Producer Ellen Morbyrne, a co-founder of Real Live Theater, says the play offers dark humor and considers adult topics like masturbation and sex, as well as patriarchal systems and power structures.

Or, as the RLT website puts it, “Pussy Sludge is a fever-dream Queer love story/adventure about how we deal with trauma; how we heal and how we do not. It’s about bodily autonomy and bodily functions… (and) the power of the erotic, pleasure, and shame.”

Show times are 7:30 p.m. for all dates, as well as 2 p.m. on Aug. 5 and 12. Visit cityspaceeasthampton.org or reallivetheatre.net for tickets and additional information.

 

From the private collection

EASTHAMPTON – The Oxbow Gallery has opened an unusual show this month, one that’s being staged as a tribute to a longtime volunteer with the art collective, Kathy Service, who is also an avid art collector.

“Celebrating Connections: The Collection of Kathy Service” will feature a range of paintings and sculpture, presented salon style, that Service, a lifelong Northampton resident, has acquired over the years. Among the regional artists whose work is part of the exhibit are Martha Armstrong, Liz Chalfin, Barry Moser, Scott Prior, Nanny Vonnegut and Richard Yarde.

Curator and artist Deborra Stewart-Pettengill says Oxbow Gallery members have long wanted to celebrate Service’s “generous volunteerism,” from creating monthly exhibit announcements to answering the phone.

“The obvious element that ties the pieces together is their connection to the Pioneer Valley art community,” Stewart-Pettengill said in a statement. “With so much to choose from, this format offers us the best chance of showing the depth of this connection.”

Service, a nurse practitioner, has been active in the arts community in other ways, from supporting a letterpress printing studio to serving on the Mass Cultural Council and the Northampton Council for the Arts.

An opening reception for her show takes place Aug. 4 at the gallery from 5 to 8 p.m., and artist and historian Cathy Osman will speak with Service about her collection Aug. 6 at 3 p.m.

The exhibit runs through Aug. 27. Oxbow’s smaller gallery space this month will feature “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” an exhibit by Margaret Humbert-Droz.

 

Hosmer Gallery calling

NORTHAMPTON – Work from three photographers, ranging from street portraits to dramatic images from nature, is featured this month at Hosmer Gallery at Forbes Library.

Meantime, the gallery has opened its application process to artists for exhibits in 2024 and early 2025.

The current exhibit, which runs through Aug. 30, features the work of Richard Getler, Sally Greenbaum and Rob Weir. Getler, who says he comes from “a family of people-watchers,” says he’s drawn to photographing strangers to capture their emotions, expressions and body language.

Greenbaum, who’s also a cellist, says she finds inspiration for her photos in unexpected patterns and reflections in everyday life; her interest in those patterns, she notes, is also spurred by her experience with musical forms and motifs.

Weir, a longtime writer and a former college and high school history teacher, says his first teaching experience was actually in darkroom techniques. His photography is inspired by “nature, travel, and the moods that images and places induce,” according to exhibit notes.

For Hosmer exhibits running from February 2024 through February 2025, artists are invited to make proposals through Sept. 8, 2023. Artists who live or work in Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin and Berkshire counties are eligible to apply, and first-time exhibitors, individuals and groups are welcome.

Applications can be made at forbeslibrary.org/gallery/info-for-artists.

 

Celebrating Native American art and cultures

TURNERS FALLS – The Pocumtuck Homelands Festival, held at Unity Park Aug. 5 and 6, will offer two days of Indigenous music and drumming, storytelling and history, dancing, children’s activities and more.

Presenters include artist Justin Beatty, musicians Hawk Henries and the Black Hawk Singers, dance instructor Annawon Weeden, and Hartman Deetz, who teaches eastern woodland skills.

The festival, presented by The Nolumbeka Project and Riverculture, is free and takes place 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 5 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 6.

—Compiled by Steve Pfarrer

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