‘And there was distant music, simple and somehow sublime’ … and getting closer. This weekend, Ragtime takes Barrington Stage Company back to the turn of the 20th century, as a stifled housewife, an immigrant father and a musician from Harlem fight for their own real American dreams. It’s July in the Berkshires, and music and performance are rocketing high.
Children of a Lesser God takes the stage at Berkshire Theatre Group as Sarah, a woman deaf from birth, loves and teaches the buoyant depth of her language. The Room-mate and The Model American open the season at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and musicians tune at Tanglewood and Hancock Shaker Village.
At Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the 85th season is brimming over with Tireless: A Tap Dance Experience at Jacob’s Pillow. I’ve been looking forward to this since Michelle Dorrance announced it on an early March night after a performance at Williams College with her own company and tap legends Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Derik K. Grant. They were dancing to original music by Toshi Reagon — sounding the beat with their bodies to music she created and performed that night, blues laments and spiritual harmonies and swing and triumph all wound together.
This week, Dorrance is back at Jacob’s pillow with an evening of tap she has curated, with dancers from across the country and across the world — tap dancer and bassist couple Reona and Takashi Seo of Japan, Chicago-based choreographer and performer Jumaane Taylor’s ensemble work, Joe Orrach of San Francisco and tap dancing brother and sister Joseph and Josette Wiggan of Los Angeles. And NW Dance Project from Portland, Ore. is performing in the Doris Duke Theatre. Welcome to high summer!
