Home Posts tagged Adams Theater

Adams Theater and Specialty Minerals Inc. Present Photo Exhibit

By
Daily News

ADAMS — A special photographic exhibit highlighting Adams’ industrial heritage is coming to the Adams Theater’s lobby from May 28 to Sept. 5, with an opening reception on May 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., which is free and open to the public.

The show, titled Up Close at the Limestone Plant: Industrial Photography in Adams, MA, features fine art photography by Thaddeus Kubis and a 1990 archival series by Stephen Szoradi, both chronicling the history and legacy of the Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) plant and limestone quarry, which has operated in Adams since 1848.

The Adams Theater collaborated with SMI to present this powerful look at the industrial history of Adams and the people behind it. SMI has employed generations of local residents and contributed significantly to the regional economy, but its commercial activities sometimes overshadow the steady beauty of the plant and quarry.

Inspired  Charles Sheeler’s photographs of Ford’s River Rouge plant, Kubis’s work conveys the contrast between the complexity of modern industrial operations and the stark elegance of the site’s natural and manmade structures.

Also on display are a series of photographs and texts compiled in 1990 by photographer Stephen Szoradi, who profiled past SMI employees who had already retired by 1990. The series captures a unique moment in time that reflects the lived experience of the many employees who have kept the Adams mine running for over 175 years.

For more information, visit www.adamstheater.org/events.

Curious Festival of Unfinished Works to Present Puppet Theater Projects on Feb. 21

By
Daily News

ADAMS — On Saturday, Feb. 21, eight puppeteers and object performers will present work they’ve spent time developing at the Adams Theater.

The inaugural Curious Festival of Unfinished Works, created by New England Puppet Arts in collaboration with the Adams Theater, has artists in residency working with a team of mentors to develop their ideas for the stage. The final ingredient needed to test this creative soup is an audience, so the artists can demonstrate the fruits of their labor.

The show begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are available at www.adamstheater.org/events.

“I love this part of making theater,” said David Lane, a theater maker and artist working with the Adams Theater to present this festival, which will include textiles, shadow puppetry, and abstract work. “At the early stage, when things start to click, is when it can get really exciting.”

Lane, an old-guard puppet artist who has presented extensively across the U.S. and Canada, also teaches a puppetry intensive at MASS MoCA and said he frequently gets requests for a residency program focusing on unfinished work. Some artists will develop dramaturgy, some will be fabricating, and all will give and receive feedback on story, sets, props, and other elements. Artists are staying at the nearby Trail and Revival House hotels and walking to the Adams to work.

“This is how theater is made,” Lane said. “When you see a piece of theater in New York, it’s gone through years of readings, workshops, rewrites. It feels like it’s unfolding for the first time in front of your eyes, but there’s always a process behind it. Giving artists access to share their work in a venue and for an audience is an important part of the process.”

Artists include Pia Banzhaf, Karen Cantor, Guy Meilleur, Kimberly Cotter-Lemus, Madison Cripps, Genna Beth Davidson, Sarah McNair, and Junli Song. Their mentors will be Lane, Sandglass Theater’s Shoshana Bass, theater designer Sydney Maresca, and director, writer, performer, and Williams College Assistant Professor Erica Terpening-Romeo. The project is funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Lane said he appreciates the theater’s approach to showing new work and hosting artists developing it. “They’re super generous about supporting art that might otherwise not have a place to flourish. Residencies are complicated. In puppetry, it can be doubly complicated, because you need space to put the performance together and to fabricate. This is only possible through a partnership like what we have in Adams.”

The Adams Theater participates in the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Card to Culture program, in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance; the Women, Infants & Children Nutrition Program; and the Massachusetts Health Connector. EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders receive free admission to the theater’s shows and events by presenting their cards at the box office.

‘AV Club’ Brings Immersive Visuals, Dance Party to Adams Theater on Oct. 31

By
Daily News

ADAMS — Artists Joe Wheaton and musician Geoffrey Carter are collaborating at the Adams Theater this Halloween for a multi-sensory electronic dance experience, “AV Club,” with immersive visuals and DJs Glass Arrowhead, Jason Manatee, H2GO, and TruSounds.

The show will take place from 8 p.m. to midnight on Friday, Oct. 31, with 20% of profits going to the ACLU. Tickets cost $35 at the door or $25 in advance at adamstheater.org/events. Snacks and bar drinks will be available. Costumes are optional.

Wheaton is an artist who has lived in the Berkshires for decades and has done numerous visual installations for years, many at the Adams Theater (he’s also a board member). Carter is a musician and producer who grew up in the Berkshires and runs BeatNest, a popular local program that introduces kids in the Berkshires to electronic music.

They’ve worked together before, and both like the idea of the Adams Theater as a space for people to come dance. Wheaton will work from inside a giant birdcage as he runs his visual installation, which will combine disparate footage of costumed humans (“from Burning Man to ethnic tribal people of Burma”) to create a surreal feeling against dance music, niche hip hop, and drum and bass.

The theater “is a great, kind of open canvas for creating something interesting and multi-sensory,” he said. “Everyone needs distraction at this particular moment. Halloween is a great night for a party.”

The Adams Theater participates in Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Card to Culture program, in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Women, Infants & Children Nutrition Program, and the Massachusetts Health Connector. EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders receive free admission to shows and events by presenting their cards at the box office.