Community Calendar

Dates: May 9-11 and 15-18

Where: Beacon Performing Arts Center, Studio B: 327B Main Street, Beacon, NY

Times vary:
Friday May 9 and Saturday May 10: 8pm
Sunday May 11: 4:30pm,
Thursday May 15: 7:30pm
Friday May 16 and Saturday May 17: 8pm
Sunday May 18: 2:30pm.

Summary: Liturgy for Longing is a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience created and performed by multidisciplinary performing artist Emily Clare Zempel. In Liturgy, audiences of 10 are invited to contemplate longing through collective experiences and solo performance.

Expand: Liturgy: a set of prompts created to encourage communal interaction with deep questions. Longing: that endless tug towards the I-don’t-know.

Why do we long? For what? In Liturgy for Longing, Emily has created a deeply personal, radically honest performance that aims to foster connection and engage audiences in unique and meaningful ways. Each audience member begins by entering a hallway to find a note written for them. After reading, Emily guides them into the theatre space to complete simple tasks (such as setting up a place to sit) to make that space their own. In the invitations that follow, each person is encouraged to engage in ways that feel right to them: there is always a choice, including the choice to observe. These communal elements are woven seamlessly into Emily’s performance of her own story, which unfolds through movement, dance, sound, and music. The audience is an integral part of the experience, making each performance a unique, unrepeatable event.

Funded in part by an Individual Artist Commission from Arts Mid-Hudson and Supported by Beacon Performing Arts Center. Work is self-created and produced.

Sandglass presents a series of special appearances by stellar artists working in exciting interdisciplinary performance techniques, all of which are somehow related to Puppet Theater. This series celebrates the crossroads of art forms and the connection between puppetry and other art forms like clowning, magic and music.

Illusion, Music, and Theater show
By Phina Pipia

A tuba lights the way, beds make music, paintings come to life, and a radio delivers a message from the past in a whimsical production that combines elements of illusion, music, and theater. When a young grad student discovers that Leonardo da Vinci and his collaborator, magician and mathematician Luca Pacioli, invented a time machine, she is zapped back to the Renaissance. It’s up to her to decode their notes and solve a 15th-century mystery so that she can return to the present.

Winner of the San Diego International Fringe Festival’s Outstanding Solo Performance Award, the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s Joanna Maratta Award, the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Solo Show - Musical at Orlando Fringe, Artist Pick and Venue Pick Awards at the Minnesota Fringe, and named a Top Pick at the San Diego Fringe by PBS, Ha Ha Da Vinci invites audiences of all ages into a world where they can safely expect the delightfully unexpected.

The Colonial Theatre 111 South Street · Pittsfield · MA 01201
Rachmaninoff and the Tsar

Step into the extraordinary world of Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, a mesmerizing theatrical journey that intertwines music, history, and memory. This poignant play breathes life into the legendary pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (Hershey Felder) as he navigates the twilight of his life in 1940s Beverly Hills. Haunted by memories of his homeland and a fateful encounter with Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, (Jonathan Silvestri) and the Grand Duchess Anastasia, Rachmaninoff’s story explores themes of exile, identity and legacy. Featuring Rachmaninoff’s most iconic compositions—his C# minor Prelude, the Second Piano Concerto and the Paganini Variations—this production is both a tribute to his genius and a meditation on the enduring bond between an artist and his homeland.

Conceived by theatre and film artist and pianist Hershey Felder, Rachmaninoff and the Tsar is a masterwork of storytelling and music. Felder, renowned for his one-of-a-kind performances, portrays Rachmaninoff with unparalleled depth and virtuosity, earning rave reviews for his “Heartbreaking masterful performance” (San Diego Union Tribune) and “astonishing piano prowess” (HoustonPress). With visually stunning design, evocative projections and a world-class creative team, the play has captivated audiences from its world premiere at The Broad Stage to its acclaimed run at the Balboa Theatre and its recent record breaking run a Theatreworks Silicon Valley, breaking the 54-year box office record previously held by Felder for his Beethoven. Don’t miss this unforgettable theatrical experience that celebrates the life and music of one of history’s greatest composers.

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar features the music of Sergei V. Rachmaninoff with a book by Hershey Felder. The production is directed by Trevor Hay. Dramaturgy by Jerry Patch. Concept design is by Hershey Felder. Lighting is by Erik S. Barry, sound and production management is by Erik Carstensen, sound operation by Jeremy Kalke, projections are by Stefano Decarli, costumes are by Marysol Gabriel and wigs are by Judi Lewin.

Production
The Music of Sergei V. Rachmaninoff
book by Hershey Felder

directed by Trevor Hay

Sandglass presents a series of special appearances by stellar artists working in exciting interdisciplinary performance techniques, all of which are somehow related to Puppet Theater. This series celebrates the crossroads of art forms and the connection between puppetry and other art forms like clowning, magic and music.

A newly written folktale told through magic lantern performance and original music
By Georgia Beatty

THE BOOK OF STARS is the folktale of the Light Queen, written and performed by fiddler and folk artist Georgia Beatty. The show combines original music with the old projector technology known as a “magic lantern” to tell the story of the cosmic queen who is reborn every 3,000 years to learn the songs of Light, and use them to heal Earth from oppressive powers.

Exploring resonance as both a musical and ancestral concept, visuals, song and story guide the audience through a grounding ritual to discover the present body as a living archive; capable of healing a broken world.

Sandglass presents a series of special appearances by stellar artists working in exciting interdisciplinary performance techniques, all of which are somehow related to Puppet Theater. This series celebrates the crossroads of art forms and the connection between puppetry and other art forms like clowning, magic and music.

A light-hearted homage to the style and spirit of the Great Age of Vaudeville
By Happenstance Theater

Happenstance Theater brings old Vaudeville back - an immensely popular theatre from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries made up of specialty acts, song, and dance. Happenstance Theater's five versatile players breathe new life into classic old routines from a ventriloquist’s dummy to a magic act that goes awry, from novelty songs and a musical saw to waiters juggling meatballs, all with full live “foley” sound effects. This show is teeming with hijinks, harmonies, nostalgic beauty, and physical comedy. Something for everyone and family friendly!

Featuring Happenstance Theater’s Ensemble:
Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, and Alex Vernon

Sandglass presents a series of special appearances by stellar artists working in exciting interdisciplinary performance techniques, all of which are somehow related to Puppet Theater. This series celebrates the crossroads of art forms and the connection between puppetry and other art forms like clowning, magic and music.

A light-hearted homage to the style and spirit of the Great Age of Vaudeville
By Happenstance Theater

Happenstance Theater brings old Vaudeville back - an immensely popular theatre from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries made up of specialty acts, song, and dance. Happenstance Theater's five versatile players breathe new life into classic old routines from a ventriloquist’s dummy to a magic act that goes awry, from novelty songs and a musical saw to waiters juggling meatballs, all with full live “foley” sound effects. This show is teeming with hijinks, harmonies, nostalgic beauty, and physical comedy. Something for everyone and family friendly!

Featuring Happenstance Theater’s Ensemble:
Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, and Alex Vernon