Wednesday, August 8: The Brooklyn-based duo present the odd and offbeat in storytelling and music. “We read a lot, and our music is as influenced by books as it is by other music. We’re working on a song cycle around Marie Curie and her work.”
July 27, 29, August 1, 3 & 5: Though wildly popular in its native Russia, Anton Rubinstein’s 1871 opera is rarely mounted in the West. So it naturally falls to Bard SummerScape, with its ongoing mission to revive at least one unjustly neglected operatic work at the Fisher Center each summer, to right this wrong.
Sunday, July 29: New Jersey’s Centenary Stage Company will mount a new production of the “tribal love/rock musical” at the bluestone sculpture park in Saugerties.
Saturday, July 28: Rivera has been nominated for Tonys ten times (a record equaled only by Julie Harris) and won twice. That’s not counting the Lifetime Achievement Tony that she just received, or her Kennedy Center Honors award or her Presidential Medal of Freedom. We’re talking about the original Anita in West Side Story, the original Rose in Bye Bye Birdie, the original Velma in Chicago.
Saturday-Sunday, July 28-29: This troupe dedicates itself to reviving the stageworks of Horton Foote, a 20th-century Texan popularly known for his Oscar-winning screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. The venue is Carver’s Barn Outdoor Stage so picnics, blankets and folding chairs are welcome.
Director Debra Granik has been noted for her knack in discovering incredible, hitherto-unknown actresses (Vera Farmiga, Jennifer Lawrence) and setting them on the path to Oscar nomination, and it looks like the gifted young New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie will be the next to burst out of the gate.
To anyone who loves sociopolitical satire, dystopian science fiction and transgressive humor, check out the invigorating directorial debut of Boots Riley, heretofore best-known as the lead rapper of the politically active Oakland band the Coup.
Saturday, July 14: The Lumberyard hosts a “night under the stars” featuring light bites, local brews and Truck: a movement performance inside a 17-foot U-Haul by Bridgman|Packer Dance.
Sunday, July 15: The tireless comedian, actor, best-selling author and preferred pitchman of whoever can afford him leaves the film sets behind and is currently back on the road doing standup with his newest hour of material, titled the “Irresponsible Tour.”
For culture fans, it isn’t really summer without live theater, whether it’s performed under the stars, in a tent or a shed or a converted barn or an air-conditioned former vaudeville house.