Transperformance 28: AmperBands! Benefit Music Festival for Arts

Come celebrate 28 years of bringing our community members together to support music and the arts!

Once again, on Tuesday, August 21st, 2018 it’s time to celebrate our community and the arts with Transperformance 28: AmperBands!, THE summer music festival at Pines Theater-Look Park. This year we will celebrate connection, collaboration and the power of performing together with Transperformance 28: Amperbands! Your favorite local acts will take the Pines Theater stage to perform material from dynamic duos to famous families to superstars and their trusty backing bands.

Featured AmperBands include: Colorway as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Mary Jane Jones as Ike & Tina Turner, Aloha Steamtrain as Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, Steve Westfield and the Lonesome Brothers as Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Soul Magnets as Sly & the Family Stone, Fancy Trash as Paul McCartney & Wings, Zip Cody & Friends as Adam & the Ants, Appalachian Still as Steve Earle & the Dukes, King Radio as Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Olsson and Free Range Cats as Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, Page Six as K.C & the Sunshine Band, Johnny Memphis Band as Toots & the Maytals, Wishbone Zoe as Siouxsie & the Banshees, Volstead Act as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Flathead Rodeo as Bill Haley & the Comets, Bruce Mandaro as Derek & the Dominos, Jerks on the Loose as Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris.

When: Tuesday, August 21, 2018 4:00-9:30pm

Where: Pines Theater-Look Park, 300 N Main Street Florence, MA 01062

How Much: Adults $10; Students/Seniors 65+ & Veterans $8; Kids 12 & under $5

Tickets: Available day of at the door, or in advance: ONLINE-transperformance.brownpapertickets.com, State Street Fruit Store-Northampton, Cooper's Corner-Florence, AJ Hastings-Amherst

More info:
Rain Date--Wednesday, August 22 at Pines Theater, Look Park
Rain Predicted Both Days--Tuesday, August 21 at John M Greene Hall, Smith College

Food will be available from La Veracruzana, Bart’s Homemade Ice Cream and other local pizza restaurants including Joe's, Sam's, Roberto's, Pizza Amore, and others.

Per request of Look Park: No Pets, No Coolers and No Beverages please. Look Park charges a $5 special events vehicle entry fee for all vehicles without season passes. A portion of the proceeds support arts enrichment programs in the Public Schools of Northampton, Leeds, and Florence.

History: Each year in August the Northampton Arts Council and the Parent Teacher Organizations of Northampton’s public school system join forces to raise funds for arts enrichment in the schools and for the ArtsEZ grant program. The original concept for Transperformance was for local bands to take on a persona of another established nationally recognized act and perform or “Transperform” their bands’ style. The acts that are chosen are done thematically, such as Transperformance 22 “Food Groups” (Heather Maloney as Amy Winehouse) or Transperformance 17 “Color By Numbers” (Primate Fiasco as Pink Floyd) or Transperformance 23 “Beyond Bob” (Rusty Belle as Bob Dylan). Over the years Transperformance has evolved and tribute style performances have become acceptable if not the norm.

Who Supports Transperformance 28?
Headline Sponsor: Smith College
Media Sponsors: NEPR, The Republican, 93.9 the River, Hits 94.3, WHMP, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Organizational Support: Massachusetts Cultural Council, City of Northampton, Northampton Arts Council

Artwork by Nate Duval

Screening of "The Gilded Cage" by Stan Sherer

WHAT: Film screening: The Gilded Cage: Northampton’s Last Water-Powered Elevator, a film by Stan Sherer
WHEN: Wednesday, August 22, 7 pm
WHERE: Forbes Library, Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library

Running time: 52 minutes
Color and black & white

In the late 1800s, Northampton's Freemasons borrowed $110,000 to construct the Masonic Block (25 Main Street) on Lower Main Street. This four-story building, which opened in 1898, featured an elevator powered by Northampton city water pressure. Although hydraulic elevators were not unusual at the time, this was no ordinary elevator. The walls and ceiling were made of oak and featured ornately carved panels, with stained glass windows at the top. The stairway wound its way around the open hoistway, which was framed by mesh wire. Until it was decommissioned in 2017, the operator-run elevator was in service Monday–Friday, 9–5 pm.

The elevator operators were an important part of the social fabric of the building from the start. In his new documentary film The Gilded Cage: Northampton’s Last Water Powered-Elevator, Stan Sherer interviewed former operators and the repair service person who maintained it from the mid-1980s until the end. Through these interviews, and interviews with building tenants, we see what this historic elevator, and its operators, meant to the people in the building, and to the City of Northampton.

In the 21st century, we take elevators for granted. Yet they have literally transformed our world. If not for Elisha Otis’s invention of elevator safety brakes in 1852, the cities of the world would not have developed vertically. Before Otis, five stories were the limit; by the early 1900s, buildings were rising 20, 30, 40 stories and more. The 47-story Singer Building in New York City, completed in 1908, was the tallest building in the world at the time. The Gilded Cage brings this lost history to life, showing how the safety brake works, how a hydraulic system pushes an elevator, how the elevator counter-weight works, and much more.

Instigating Hope and Change Through Theater: Workshop with Real Live Theatre

WHAT: Instigating Hope and Change Through Theater: Workshop with Ezekiel Baskin and Trenda Loftin
WHEN: Saturday August 25th 1-4 PM
WHERE: North Star Building, 45 Amherst Road (Route 116), Sunderland, MA 01375

A mirror and a window. This workshop will take participants through a range of exercises to explore not only their own personal truths (mirror), but envision all that could be (window). Employing storytelling, social change, and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, participants will create together and develop their understanding of how to use theatre techniques to bring about personal and social growth.

AWESOME! HOW DO I REGISTER?
Email reallivetheatre@gmail.com with your name, phone number, and which workshops you would like to attend. We'll respond with instructions for your nonrefundable deposit and remaining payment, and send you more information from your instructor!
How Much?
$100 for 1 workshop
A $25 nonrefundable deposit (per workshop) is required to register. Payment plans available. Scholarship may be available, please email reallivetheatre@gmail.com for more information.

EDUCATOR BIOS:
Ezekiel Baskin is an interdisciplinary artist and theatre educator, whose work includes direction, lighting and sound design, poetry, dramaturgy, stage management, box office and house management, and theatrical administration. Ezekiel has been a Governing Member of Real Live Theatre since November 2016, and has also worked with a variety of theatre ensembles and companies, including Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, PaintBox Theatre, and Silverthorne Theater Company. Recent projects include stage management and lighting design for RLT’s The Life & Death of Queen Margaret, dramaturgy and lighting design for Hampshire College’s Next to Normal, and stage management for Silverthorne’s Stupid Fucking Bird.

Trenda M. Loftin is a social justice educator, actor, playwright, and governing member of Real Live Theatre. Trenda M. Loftin has been committed to using theatre and storytelling techniques to explore political and social issues for more than a decade. Some of her storytelling based work includes acting in The Media Education Foundation Film Flirting With Danger, and the plays Legal Tender: Women and the Secret Life of Money, and The Lonely Soldier Project. In addition, she has led collaborative performance pieces with folks experiencing incarceration utilizing her play When the System Swallows You. With her B.A. from Smith College in Political and Social Theatre, Trenda continues to explore theater's ability to raise awareness, inspire action, question patterns, and build community.

Springfield College Theater hiring a Technical Direction/Scenic Designer

Springfield College Fuller Arts Center and scenic shop
Beginning Fall 2018

Provide technical direction and scenic design for Springfield College Theater, supervised and directed by Prof. Martin Shell.  We produce one play each semester.

Fee per show. Applicants with an MA or MFA may also apply to instruct a stage production course as an adjunct. TD does not require the grad degree, but please provide your resume of experience.

Contact mshell@springfieldcollege.edu

Auditions for Ghost Light's final show of 2018, "Sex With Strangers." by Laurie Eason

WHAT: Auditions for Ghost Light's final show of 2018, "Sex With Strangers." by Laurie Eason
WHEN: August 29 and 30 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: Gateway City Arts, 92-114 Race St. Holyoke, MA

How far will you go to get what you want? Will you be the same person if you do? When twenty-something star sex blogger and memoirist Ethan tracks down his idol, the gifted but obscure forty-ish novelist Olivia, he finds they each crave what the other possesses. As attraction turns to sex, and they inch closer to getting what they want, both must confront the dark side of ambition and the trouble of reinventing oneself when the past is only a click away.

Directed by Kevin Tracy

CHARACTERS:
OLIVIA: 39 and then 41. Smart, sexy, outwardly strong but covering some fragility. American but spent many years living abroad.

ETHAN: 28 and then 30. Very charismatic, sexy, a fast talker, used to being the center of attention. From Chicago but has little to no accent.

Performance dates: 11/9, 11/10, 11/15, 11/16, 11/17 @ 8pm
11/11 @ 2pm

A selection of the script can be found here:
https://www.dramatists.com/previews/5079.pdf

Auditions will consist of cold reads. There may be a callback date.

This play will not be appropriate for children.

For questions contact kevinrt@kevinrt.com
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HCC Music and Theater 2018 Fall Musical

"IN THE HEIGHTS"
Music by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Directed by Patricia Sandoval and Ellen Cogen

Auditions are Tuesday and Wednesday August 21 & 22, 2-5pm and 6-8pm with possible callbacks on Friday, August 24.
Holyoke Community College Fine & Performing Arts Building, Leslie Phillips Theater (the Forum)

Performance Dates: Thursday through Saturday, November 8, 9, and 10 and November 15, 16, and 17.

Auditions will consist of
-Readings from the script
-16 bars of a song from "In the Heights"
-Dancing. Wear clothing you can move around in.

Set around Fourth of July in the primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City, "In the Heights" tells the universal stories of three generations living in this vibrant community. Their neighborhood is on the brink of change, and the characters sing about their hopes and struggles. These songs tell audiences about the dreams of first-generation college student Nina Rosario; Abuela Claudia, who left her home country of Cuba as a child; Usnavi de la Vega and Daniela, who fight to keep their small businesses open as the neighborhood faces gentrification; and many others. Each character negotiates which traditions are important for them to keep and which ones they should leave behind.

This production is made possible, in part, by the support of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.

*You do not have to be an HCC student to audition*
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Smith College Department of Theatre is hiring Publicity Manager for the Arts

Position Summary:
Provide creative vision for audience development and publicity management in the Dance, Theatre, Music, and Film and Media Studies Departments. Plan and manage publicity efforts, and develop promotional ideas in conjunction with chairs and artistic directors.

Duties and Responsibilities:
Develop long-term strategies for publicity, marketing and on-line presence. Plan and manage new publicity efforts and promotional ideas in conjunction with chairs and artistic directors.

Responsible for the design, production, and distribution of all physical and digital publicity and marketing materials. Collect information, and create (writing and editing, and creating or supervising layout and design) all publicity materials for Dance, Music, Theatre, and Film and Media Studies public events. Write, edit, and disseminate press releases, PSAs, and associated material in timely fashion for regular performing arts season events and for additional events as assigned by supervisor.

Understand and follow Smith College general public relations protocols. Coordinate with College Relations as appropriate. Maintain media materials for press and websites. Plan and coordinate new publicity efforts and promotional ideas in conjunction with chairs and department objectives.

Hire, train, supervise, and maintain schedules and job assignment descriptions for student employees.

Plan and analyze annual budgets and submit to chairs for feedback and approval. Manage publicity budget. Work with departments to set audience and revenue goals, and consult on ticket pricing with attention to those goals. Coordinate with Budget and Provost’s offices about budget and additional needs.

May need to attend evening rehearsals, performances, concerts, screenings and/or other events. May advise or participate in committee work or planning in the four departments.

Qualifications:
Education/Experience: BA/BFA and 3 years job-related experience and/or the equivalent combination of education and/or experience. Professional experience in arts marketing and/or publicity.

Skills: Ability to solve problems; ability to take initiative; excellent communication (oral and written), organizational and interpersonal skills; strong project and budget management skills. Comfort and experience with social media and marketing. Graphic design skills are a plus but not required.

Additional Information:
This is a 44 week, academic year position.  Applications can be submitted until August 15, 2018 for priority consideration for this position.  The search committee will begin reviewing candidate profiles on August 16th, 2018.

More info and to apply.