Whether you’re here on vacation, own a second home or are a year-round resident, navigating a summer season chock-full with cultural events of every nature can be overwhelming. To make things easier, we’ve highlighted five summer shows in the Berkshires and five in Southern Vermont that shouldn’t be missed.
In Southern Vermont
“Always … Patsy Cline”
Weston Playhouse
Walker Farm, 705 Main St., Weston
Aug. 1-24
802-824-5288, westonplayhouse.org
When an unlikely encounter in a Texas honky-tonk lands Patsy Cline at her biggest fan’s kitchen table, the rising star finds a fast friend and a savvy business partner. Late-night conversations between Patsy and Louise, a Southern housewife, create a bond that lasts a lifetime. Listen in and hum along as Patsy and Louise belt their way through hits such as “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “Crazy” and “Back in Baby’s Arms.”
“Slow Food”
Dorset Theatre Festival
104 Cheney Road, Dorset
Aug. 22-31
802-867-2223, dorsettheatrefestival.org
Limited to 10 performances, “Slow Food” reunites two stars of the long-running, Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy “Frasier.” Peri Gilpin, who played Roz Doyle, and Dan Butler, who portrayed Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe on the show, will star as Irene and Peter, a couple who just want to have a nice meal out on their big anniversary. But their highly neurotic waiter, Stephen, will not bring them their food, and everything goes horribly, ridiculously wrong.
Ocean’s Edge
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
10 Vernon St., Brattleboro
Through Sept. 23
802-257-0124, brattleboromuseum.org
For many, the ocean is a spiritual and emotional touchstone; it is also a place of fun and frolic. Three artists — Graham Nickson, David Kapp and Isca Greenfield-Sanders — take markedly different approaches in representing the wonder of being at the ocean’s edge.
North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show
Various sites, North Bennington
Through Nov. 3
802-442-3328, nbossvt.org
The North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show, now in its 22nd year, brings together 40 international and emerging artists in an outdoor sculpture exhibit sited around North Bennington. Locations include 48-66 Main St. near the Vermont Arts Exchange, train station, post office, Welling Townhouse, Powers’ Market and 66 Main St. New to the show this year are sculptures designed and created by students of the Village School of North Bennington with support from Bennington College’s sculpture department.
Color Fields: 1960s Bennington Modernism
Bennington Museum, 75 Main St., Bennington
Through Dec. 30
802-447-1571, benningtonmuseum.org
During the 1960s, Bennington College served as a rural epicenter for a group of artists who were pushing the possibilities of abstraction in pared-down, color-based works that have come to be known collectively as Color Field. This exhibition looks at this crucial moment when artists connected to Bennington led the way in American art.
In the Berkshires
“Now I Let You Go …”
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams
On view through 2020
413-662-2111, massmoca.org
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Annie Lennox juxtaposes her public persona with more intimate aspects of her most personal self in her installation piece, “Now I Let You Go…” The exhibition — part material diary, part art installation — explores the impermanence of humans and the permanence of the objects we leave behind.
Into the Woods
Barrington Stage Company
Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, 30 Union St., Pittsfield
Through July 13
413-236-8888, barringtonstageco.org
Barrington Stage presents “Into the Woods,” the Tony Award-winning collaboration between Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) that takes an inventive look at a bunch of fairy tale characters — a baker and his wife; Rapunzel; Little Red Riding Hood; Jack, the giant and the beanstalk; and Cinderella, among others — as they each journey into the woods in search of “happily ever after;” reckoning, in the end, with the after.
“Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow”
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South St., Williamstown
July 4-Oct. 6
413-458-2303, clarkart.edu
“Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow” brings together 35 paintings, prints and photographs exploring the artist’s mastery of color and composition, as well as her complex relationship with her well-known sister, Georgia O’Keeffe, and the effect it had on her life and professional aspirations. Also on view: “Renoir: The Body, The Senses,” “The Forty Part Motet,” and “Art’s Biggest Stage: Collecting the Venice Biennale, 2007–2019.”
Ghosts
Williamstown Theatre Festival
Main Stage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, 1000 Main St. Williamstown
July 31-Aug. 18
413-458-3253, wtfestival.org
In a new translation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” Uma Thurman plays Mrs. Alving, whose painter son, Oswald, returns home after years abroad. But a dark explosive secret from the past threatens to be exposed when Oswald takes an interest in the family maid and his mother is forced to intercede.
“Woodstock to the Moon: 1969 Illustrated”
Norman Rockwell Museum
9 Glendale Road, Stockbridge
Through Oct. 27
413-298-4100, nrm.org
“Woodstock to the Moon: 1969 Illustrated” aims to show how Norman Rockwell and his contemporaries, as well as a new batch of up-and-coming illustrators, reflected the many changes in popular culture, as well as the shift in the realm of illustration, that took place in 1969. This exhibit is one of four celebrating the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding. Also on view are “For the People: Memories of the Old Corner House,” “Norman Rockwell: Private Moments for the Masses,” and “Inspired: Norman Rockwell and Erik Erikson.”
