Experience the heat, energy, and passion of flamenco without leaving New York State at the Hudson Valley Flamenco Festival. Now in its eighth year, the festival brings world-class dancers and musicians to the area for a celebration of this living art form.

New York singer and producer Jamie Krasner aka james K and Irish musician Maria Somerville bring their dreamy, ambient sounds to the Clark in Williamstown, Mass., tonight at 7pm.

To fully appreciate “A Beautiful Noise - the Neil Diamond Musical,” playing at Proctors through Sunday, you have to create a no-judgment zone.

If you want to experience a good play written by a potentially great playwright rush to Cohoes Music Hall before “The Comeuppance” closes on Sunday.

Paula Vogel’s newest work “Mother Play: a play in five evictions” confirms the theory that if American playwrights did not suffer childhood family dysfunction there would be no drama on our stages.

Directors Beatrice Minger, who also is the writer, and co-director Christoph Schaub share credits on the prize-winning feature E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea. Using an unusually low-emotion approach to storytelling, the film recounts several decades in the life of a special house in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the south of France.

As predicted, a lack of funding at the state and federal levels are hurting local not-for-profit organizations. Just as problematic are the increases for material needed for theatrical productions and the much higher costs for utilities.

Comedian Katherine Blanford brings her unique persona -- the Catholic Cowgirl -- and her stories of growing up in Kentucky to Adams Theater in Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 7:30pm. I

From the beginnings of the modern detective story, there have been eccentric detectives. For instance, Sherlock Holmes never would have fit in with the typical late Victorian or Edwardian London population. I can’t imagine him bellying up to the bar at the neighborhood pub, shooting the breeze about the latest rugby match.

The years between the end of World War I and the rise of Hitler were tough times for the German people as they were recovering from a monstrous defeat. Still, aspects of German life were humming. 1919-1933 was a golden age for the arts.