Will Call #55: 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival hits Pittsfield for its sixth year!

February 16, 2017
by

The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival Explodes into Its 6th Year.

The 6th Annual 10×10 Festival is February 16-26, 2017. Participants and locations include Barrington Stage Company, the Beacon Cinema, Berkshire Athenaeum & Berkshire Historical Society, Berkshire Art Association, Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Running Center, Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Word X Word.

*note

You may begin with young poets curating an evening of spoken word — or with a rising comedian from New York — or with Brazilian jazz, bossa nova and blues.

The sixth annual 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival in Pittsfield is reason to celebrate! Photo by Keith Perry, courtesy of Jen Glockner, director of the Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development.
The sixth annual 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival in Pittsfield is reason to celebrate! Photo by Keith Perry, courtesy of Jen Glockner, director of the Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development.

You may begin with young poets curating an evening of spoken word — or with a rising comedian from New York — or with Brazilian jazz, bossa nova and blues.

The 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival festival keeps growing. This year, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival has joined in with a free workshop and performance by the Boston company Danza Orgánica.

Peggy Pharr Wilson, pictured in "The Still Point Of The Turning World" from the 20016 10 x 10 plays at Barrington Stage, will perform in this year's new plays festival; photo by Scott Barrow.
Peggy Pharr Wilson, pictured in “The Still Point Of The Turning World” from the 20016 10 x 10 plays at Barrington Stage, will perform in this year’s new plays festival; photo by Scott Barrow.
Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director of Barrington Stage Company; photo courtest Barrington State Company
Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director of Barrington Stage Company; photo courtest Barrington State Company

And the 10 Spot art exhibit at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts and at the Sohn Fine Art Gallery has drawn in photographers from New York to the West Coast.

 

The sixth annual festival will return from Feb. 16 to Feb. 26, with more than 50 events in downtown Pittsfield.

In this podcast, we have talked with directors and curators, a playwright, photographer and dancers about this year’s festival.

To hear more, listen during the festival for a new short podcast from the Greylock Glass, each day.

Barrington Stage Company

According to Jen Glockner, director of Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development, the festival began in 2012 with an idea from Julianne Boyd, artistic director at Barrington Stage Company — to create an evening of short plays.

Matthew Penn, producer, director, and cofounder of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, will be directing five of the short plays presented by Barrington Stage Company for this year's 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival; photo courtesy the Berkshire Playwrights Lab.
Matthew Penn, producer, director, and cofounder of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, will be directing five of the short plays presented by Barrington Stage Company for this year’s 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival; photo courtesy the Berkshire Playwrights Lab.

Barrington Stage’s New Play Festival has become central to 10×10. This year, Boyd says, six actors will perform 10 new plays in one evening.

They range from comic sketches about blanket forts and sand boxes to one-acts that touch deeply on the experiences of the the partner of someone with dementia, or Irish workers in the 1920s, or a young woman who wears a hijab in New York City today.

Matt Penn

This year, for the first time, she is co-directing the New Play festival with Matt Penn, the co-artistic director of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab.

 

 

Tom Coash

Tom Coash, author of "Veils," running 10/4–10/18 at Barrington Stage Company
Tom Coash, author of “Veils” and “Rag Head”

Tom Coash’s full-length play, “Veils,” set in Cairo at the beginning of the Arab Spring, played at Barrington Stage in the fall of 2015. He says an experience from “Veils” inspired him to write the shorter work that appears in this year’s 10×10 Festival.

To hear more about Tom Coash’s work, listen for a new short podcast from the Greylock Glass each day of the 10 X 10 Festival.

Danza Orgánica

 

On Feb. 24 at the Boys and Girls Club, Jacobs Pillow will bring Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based Contemporary Dance Theater Company.

Boston-based Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based Contemporary Dance Theater Company directed by choreographer Marsha Parrilla, will stage a free performance based on their project, "Running in Stillness," on February 24 at the Boys and Girls Club; photo courtesy Jacob's Pillow.
Boston-based Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based Contemporary Dance Theater Company directed by choreographer Marsha Parrilla, will stage a free performance based on their project, “Running in Stillness,” on February 24 at the Boys and Girls Club; photo courtesy Jacob’s Pillow.

Director and choreographer Marsha Parrilla will lead a free Dance for Social Justice Movement Workshop, and her company will perform from her work, “Running in Stillness,” to music composed and performed by Shane Shanahan and Ricardo Gallo.

 

10 Spot

An image by Robert Falk appears at the Sohn Gallery as part of 10 Spot, a joint exhibit with the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts.
An image by Robert Falk appears at the Sohn Gallery as part of 10 Spot, a joint exhibit with the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts.

The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts and the Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox are collaborating this year on 10 Spot, a group exhibit of 10 photographers showing 10 images each. Cassandra Sohn finds their work wide-ranging and timely.

 

 

Photographer Ken Dreyfack takes his camera around the world and into city streets at night.

"Selfie," by Ken Dreyfack
“Selfie,” by Ken Dreyfack

To hear more about the 10 Spot photographers, listen for a new short podcast later during the festival.

To hear more about WordxWord poetry, jazz, theater, comedy and more, listen during the festival for a new short podcast from the Greylock Glass, each day.

“Beaux Reves,” by Susan Evans Grove


Note
The score to Danza Orgánica’s “Running in Stillness,” which opened this episode, was composed and performed by Shane Shanahan and Ricardo Gallo. Atla and Matt DeChamplain’s “I Sent For You Yesterday” which played about halfway into the episode, is from their release, Pause.

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