The weekend’s cultural highlights in the region include several dance concerts; a Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble; a teenage blues sensation; a season-topping performance of Shakespeare; and a whole lot more.
The third annual Chatham Dance Festival, a month-long celebration of American dance at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y, continues this weekend with performances by The Chase Brock Experience, tonight and Saturday at 8pm. The program includes a dance set to music by Nellie McKay.
Pam Tanowitz Dance makes its debut at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket tonight through Sunday, in a program accompanied by FLUX Quartet, with music by composers Julia Wolfe, Dan Siegler, and ConlonNancarrow. Also at the Pillow this weekend is street-inspired dance by FLEXN.
Roomful of Teeth, the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble led by Williams College faculty member Brad Wells, returns to its summer home at MASS MoCA in North Adams to create new works and hone techniques, culminating in a performance of works by Nick Zammuto, Toby Twining, and Rinde Eckert among others, in the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA tonight at 8pm.
Blues guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan brings his electric blues sound to Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday at 8pm. Sullivan made his first TV appearance as a singer and guitarist on the Ellen DeGeneres show at age six, and went on to become a protégé of Buddy Guy. Now at the ripe old age of 17, Sullivan is noted as much for his singing and songwriting as he is for his blistering playing.
String quartet ETHEL will present a free work-in-progress concert at the Second Ward Foundation tonight at 8pm, where they will perform selections from “Circus!,” a new work in development inspired by the magic of the Big Top. Known worldwide for transcending the limits of tradition, ETHEL invigorates today’s indie-classical scene as cultural and musical “pollinators” via genre and culture-crossing initiatives and innovative community engagement activities, such as this 2016 Circus! residency at the Hudson Opera House. Ethel often makes use of amplification, video, and other multimedia techniques in their programs. I like to think of them as the children of Kronos Quartet, which paved the way for the likes of Ethel with their own tradition-blasting innovations.
This weekend is your last chance to catch this summer’s staging of “The Merchant of Venice,” at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. Directed by Tina Packer and starring Jonathan Epstein, who uncovers new and sympathetic depth in the character of Shylock, the production is Shakespeare & Company at its best, combining a skillful presentation of the text with an improvisatory spirit that is true to the history of Shakespearean theater, while signaling the timeless and contemporary nature of the work. It’s also darn funny and entertaining. And it’s the best thing I’ve seen all summer.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com
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