HUBBARD HALL THANK YOU!

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Artists-in-Residence Update #3

Pedro Jimenez/Eric Conroe




One day of rehearsal left! We'll be in the studio and working around town all day tomorrow. More footage to come! Come enjoy the performances Saturday at 8 p.m. and also stay for the post-show discussion, moderated by series curator Tess Meyer.

Artist-in-Residence Update #2

We :: With eachother
With everyone

hello hello! HAPPY NEWYEARs!, come experience your experience!

We make it happen, ERIClapton.

- Pedro Jiménez

Artist-in-Residence Update

Eric Conroe
I graduated from Bennington College in 2008 and since then have been living and dancing in New York City. For the next week, I'll be in residence in the Beacon Feed Studio, culminating in a performance on January 9th at 8, and a class on January 10th from 10-12.

It's been 3 days since I started my residency at Hubbard Hall in the Beacon Feed Studio. It began on the first day of 2010 and has been the perfect start to the new year. I'll be updating this blog with some pictures and thoughts about how the residency is going. Hope to see you at the show or in my class!

Gail’s Most Memorable Shows of the Decade 2000-2009

Written by Gail M. Burns - December 2009

NOTE: These are the listings and blurbs as they will appear in the North Adams Transcript. I will elaborate on them between now and New Year’s Day 2010, so keep checking back! Although the lists are numbered, the shows are listed in random order, not in order of preference. These are NOT “Best of…” lists, they are lists of the most memorable productions I saw and/or reviewed between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009.

Most Memorable Comedies

All of these were just hilarious. Shakespeare & Company is the clear winner in this category, and two of their four shows were free outdoor offerings on the tented Rose Footprint Theatre.

1. “The Imaginary Invalid” (2007) Bakerloo Theatre Project
2. “The Servant of Two Masters” (2006) Shakespeare & Company
3. “Scapin” (2007) Shakespeare & Company
4. “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” (2000, 2001 & 2003) Shakespeare & Company
5. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (2009) Shakespeare & Company
6. “The Mystery of Irma Vep” (2000) Weston Playhouse Theatre Company
7. “Rumors” (2002) Ghent Playhouse (formerly the Columbia Civic Players)
8. “The Importance of Being Earnest” (2003) The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall
9. “The Miser” (2007) The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall
10. “Beyond Therapy” (2000) Victory Street Productions (sadly now defunct)

Most Memorable Dramas

Eight of my picks in this category were staged by community theatres or non-equity companies, most utilizing local talent. The professional companies stage fine productions of meaningful dramas, but that’s what you expect them to do. When you see your next door neighbor get up on the stage and move you to tears, that’s special.

1. “Molly Sweeney” (2006) Originally produced the Town Players of Pittsfield. Subsequently presented by Homespun Productions
2. “All My Sons” (2009) Main Street Stage
3. “The Elephant Man” (2007) The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall
4. “Uncle Vanya” (2007) The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall
5. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (2003) Ghent Playhouse (formerly the Columbia Civic Players)
6. “Hamlet: What Dreams May Come” (2009) Bakerloo Theatre Project
7. “The Tempest” (2008) Cap & Bells (Not reviewed)
8. “Waiting for Godot” (2008) Berkshire Theatre Festival
9. “A Body of Water” (2007) Oldcastle Theatre Company
10. “The Retreat from Moscow” (2005) Chester Theatre Company (then the Miniature Theatre of Chester)

Most Memorable Musicals

1. “La Cage Aux Folles” (2006 & 2008) C-R Productions at the Cohoes Music Hall
2. “Urinetown” (2006) Theater Barn
The Barn routinely stages a couple of smart, small musicals each August.
3. “Pippin” (2007) Mill City Productions
4. “She Loves Me” (2008) Williamstown Theatre Festival
5. “Henry’s House” (2002) The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall
Weird, wild and wonderful! The book was incoherent, but the rock music was exciting and the cast, almost all over whom were under 20, were amazing.
6. “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2004 & 2008) Barrington Stage Company
What fun to see a musical in the making! I slithered through February slush from Williamstown to Sheffield to see the workshop production in 2004 which was unforgettable.
7. “Ragtime” (2003) Weston Playhouse Theatre Company
8. “Falsettos” (2002) Barrington Stage Company
“Follies” was a close runner-up for BSC, but this smaller, quieter musical really moved me.
9. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (2006) C-R Productions at the Cohoes Music Hall
C-R Productions is one of the few companies in the region to regularly present shows with large numbers of African-American performers. This was my favorite, but “Ragtime” (2006) and “Dreamgirls” (2009) were also excellent showcases for an underutilized pool of regional talent.
10. The Mac-Haydn Theatre, which produces nothing but musicals, routinely mounts one or two really excellent productions each summer. I found it impossible to choose a favorite!

Happy Holidays from Everyone at Hubbard Hall!

Hi all! Just a quick reminder that The Hall is closed from Dec. 23 - Dec. 28! Please feel free to leave voice or email messages that we'll return starting on Monday the 28th.
Everyone have a very very Merry, warm and safe Christmas!

A Doll’s House At Hubbard Hall

a review by Alex Brooks of The Eastwick Press

The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall has opened its 2009-20010 season with a production of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, A Doll’s House. As this play was written at about the same time that Hubbard Hall was built, the original proscenium stage is used, looking glorious in something like its original configuration. This arrangement also serves to accentuate the idea of Nora’s life being “in a doll’s house,” or as Director Laura Heidinger puts it in her notes, her “life behind glass.” The set, beautifully constructed by Alley Morse and the actor who plays Dr. Rank, Richard Howe, complements this idea nicely.
The play was shockingly modern when it was first performed, challenging the smug verities of Victorian life and challenging people to look deeper at marriage and relationships in general. Some have called it the first feminist play, and indeed it raises many of the same issues that have been brought up by the feminist movement over the last 50 years. But more generally, it probes the masks we wear, the roles we play and how these come into conflict with who we really are and how we really feel.
The most difficult thing about this play is to bridge the enormous gap between the happy, flighty Nora of the first act, and the serious mature Nora who emerges at the end when she confronts her husband and goes her own way. Likewise, Torvald is a difficult character because, although he is conventional, controlling and shallow, his delight in his wife is genuine and his devastation at the prospect of losing her is real. For the play to work emotionally we have to see the deceptive way they treat each other and see at the same time their genuine love for each other.
For the most part the leading couple here is able to pull this off. Stephanie Moffett-Hynds’ breathless, coquettish Nora is fascinating in the first act, and she has real gravitas in the final confrontation. One wonders a bit at the rapid transformation, but perhaps that is more a reflection on the play than the performance. And Jason Dolmetsch’s Torvald, though rather contemptible right to the end, being ready to throw Nora overboard when his career is in danger then suddenly forgiving and magnanimous when it no longer is, managed to retain my sympathy. His love is believable even if he is a prisoner of his conventional attitudes.
This production brings out the timeless themes of the play as well as any I’ve seen and leaves the viewer with much food for thought. The show will be offered on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 and Sunday afternoons at 2 for the next three weekends – November 20, 21, 27, 28 and December 4 and 5, at 8 pm, and November 22 and 29 and December 6 at 2 pm. Call the box office at 677-2495 for tickets or information or visit www.hubbardhall.org.

Posted in Hoosick, Local News