Arts Briefs: Poetry reading, pickleball, Mount Holyoke’s first musical in five years, and more

Later this month, Mount Holyoke College’s Department of Film Media Theater will present “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy,” their first show of the season — and their first musical in five years.

Later this month, Mount Holyoke College’s Department of Film Media Theater will present “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy,” their first show of the season — and their first musical in five years. CONTRIBUTED

Ashfield-based Double Edge Theatre will bring their production of “Leonora, la maga y la maestra,” a surreal show based on the works and life of the late artist Leonora Carrington, back to their Farm Center in Ashfield next month.

Ashfield-based Double Edge Theatre will bring their production of “Leonora, la maga y la maestra,” a surreal show based on the works and life of the late artist Leonora Carrington, back to their Farm Center in Ashfield next month. Photo by Maria Baranova-Suzuki

Valley-based nonprofit opera company Panopera recently announced their upcoming 2024-2025 season. Their first production, “Puccini & Beyond,” will take place Nov. 5 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield.

Valley-based nonprofit opera company Panopera recently announced their upcoming 2024-2025 season. Their first production, “Puccini & Beyond,” will take place Nov. 5 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield. CONTRIBUTED

The Friends of Jones Libraries will hold their first-ever pickleball tournament at Hampshire College’s Bay Road Multi-Sport Center on Sunday, Oct. 27. The tournament will raise money for programs at Jones Libraries in Amherst.

The Friends of Jones Libraries will hold their first-ever pickleball tournament at Hampshire College’s Bay Road Multi-Sport Center on Sunday, Oct. 27. The tournament will raise money for programs at Jones Libraries in Amherst. CONTRIBUTED

Joan Kwon Glass’ book “Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms” was awarded the Perugia Press Prize. Perugia Press will host a free poetry reading at Click Workspace in Northampton on Friday, Oct. 18, featuring Glass and local poets Yasotha Sriharan and Kirun Kapur.

Joan Kwon Glass’ book “Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms” was awarded the Perugia Press Prize. Perugia Press will host a free poetry reading at Click Workspace in Northampton on Friday, Oct. 18, featuring Glass and local poets Yasotha Sriharan and Kirun Kapur. CONTRIBUTED

Published: 10-09-2024 12:54 PM

Perugia Press Prize winner

Perugia Press, a Florence-based feminist poetry micro press, recently announced that the book “Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms” by Joan Kwon Glass is the winner of their Perugia Press Prize, which honors poetry books written by women.

The book features poems about family, racism, grief, and shame, among other themes.

Perugia Press will host a free poetry reading at Click Workspace in Northampton on Friday, Oct. 18, from 7 to 8:30 p.m, featuring Glass and local poets YasothaSriharan and Kirun Kapur.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky

Later this month, Mount Holyoke College’s Department of Film Media Theater will present “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy,” their first show of the season — and their first musical in five years.

The show runs from Thursday, Oct. 24, to Sunday, Nov. 3. Tickets are $15 for students and seniors and $20 for everyone else.

This musical follows the famously spooky family in their attempt to make Wednesday’s new (and “normal”) boyfriend and his parents feel welcome at a dinner.

Director and department chair Noah Ilya-Alexis Tuleja said in a statement, “We are proud to welcome you to our first musical back at Mount Holyoke College in five years. Full of catchy tunes, sharp choreography, and lots of heart, we hope you’ll join the family and learn how to shoot a crossbow, tango, and fall in love with the darkness of the Addams.”

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Tickets can be purchased at events.mtholyoke.edu/event/the-addams-family-musical.

Pickleball for a good cause

The Friends of Jones Libraries will hold their first-ever pickleball tournament at Hampshire College’s Bay Road Multi-Sport Center on Sunday, Oct. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The tournament, created to raise money for programs at Jones Libraries in Amherst, is a round robin tournament with up to 32 players, each of whom will play at least seven rounds.

The first-place prize is a pickleball racquet from Carrington Tennis Academy; the second-place prize is a $50 gift certificate for pickleball equipment.

For more information, visit joneslibrary.org/pickleball.

Panopera’s upcoming season

Valley-based nonprofit opera company Panopera recently announced their upcoming 2024-2025 season.

Their first production, “Puccini & Beyond,” at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield, will feature a 30-minute selection of works by Puccini and other composers from his era.

The second production, their mainstage show, will be at the Flex Room at 33 Hawley in Northampton on Saturday, Jan. 2, at 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 26, at 3 p.m. Rather than a single straightforward show, the performance “explores the theme of heartbreak from two drastically different storytelling styles,” according to the season announcement, and will include Act III of “La Bohème” and Act III of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”

The third production, which will be at an as-yet-undetermined date next spring, will feature Russian art songs and arias.

Tickets and more info can be found at www.panopera.us/season.

A surreal play

Ashfield-based Double Edge Theatre will bring their production of “Leonora, la maga y la maestra,” a surreal show based on the works and life of the late artist Leonora Carrington, back to their Farm Center in Ashfield next month.

There will be a preview performance on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m.; the show runs from Wednesday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 17. Every performance is at 7:30 p.m.

The show “unfolds an encounter between Leonora and Adán (everyman) and portrays the magic, mystery, and humanity found in Carrington’s work,” according to a press release.

The New York Times reviewed the show in 2018, when it premiered at Montclair University in New Jersey, and named it a Critic’s Pick, though writer Elisabeth Vincentelli said that after the first five minutes of the show, “trying to make sense of the story would be like trying to find documentary naturalism in Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks.”

Former Valley Advocate theater critic Chris Rohmann wrote about the show in early 2020, when it went by a different name, and said that it “blends the look and feel of Carrington’s magical-realist dreamscapes with Double Edge’s unique brand of physical theater. Structured around a memory of the pair’s first wary encounter, it’s as unmoored from realism as the artists’ own malleable view of existence.”

Tickets are $25 to $40. To purchase tickets or for more info, visit doubleedgetheatre.org.