Great Barrington - Karen Allen will direct the upcoming production of Joan Ackermann’s The Batting Cage at Simon’s Rock College of Bard. The production will take place in the Studio Theater of the Daniel Arts Center from Thursday through Sunday, March 9-12.
Ackermann’s play shows us two estranged sisters staying at an inn in St. Augustine, Florida. They have traveled together to dispose of the ashes of their recently deceased sister, as she had requested. But the ashes are lost in the travel, and the two sisters are left to deal with each other. Complete opposites, they grieve in entirely different ways, each moving from one extreme reaction to the other. The results are poignant.
Karen Allen is teaching in the theater department and directing this production. She has starred in over 30 feature films, in including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Animal House, Starman, Scroodged, the Glass Managerie, and Falling Sky. She has also appeared in numerous stage productions both on and off Broadway, including The Glass Menagerie, Extremitires, The Country Girl, The Miracle Worker, and Speaking in Tongues.
She won a Theater World Award for her work on Broadway portraying Helen Keller in The Monday After the Miracle. She studied acting with Stella Adler, Warren Robertson, and at the Strasberg Institute in New York. She studied voice with Kristen Linklater. Ms. Allen is a member of the Actor's Studio and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She began her work in the theater as a student and company member of the Washington Theater Laboratory in Washington, D.C., an experimental theater company inspired by the work of Polish theater director Jerzy Greotowski. She attended George Washington University and was one of the creators and directors of the theater program at the Washington Project for the Arts, which brought theater companies from around the world to Washington, D.C.
Joan Ackermann, who adapted this play for the different age range of these actors, co-founded Mixed Company, a Great Barrington, Massachusetts-based theatre. In addition to The Batting Cage, Ackerman wrote the play Off the Map (she also wrote the screenplay); Zara Spook and Other Lures (1990 Humana Festival at Actor's Theatre of Louisville); Stanton's Garage (1993 Humana Festival); Don't Ride the Clutch; Bed and Breakfast; Rescuing Greenland; Isabella; A Knight at the Theatre and Back Story.
Ackermann's work has also been produced at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, Circle Rep, the George Street Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare & Company, The Berkshire Theatre Festival and the Mark Taper Forum. In addition to her stage work, she has written and produced for television. A special contributor to Sports Illustrated for six years, Ackermann freelanced for The Atlantic, Audubon, GQ, New York Magazine, Time, and other periodicals.
The productions will begin each evening at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday and Sunday. The play is not suitable for children. Donations will be accepted. For information, call 528-7293.
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Air Quality Alert Issued for Berkshire County
Staff reports
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The state's on an air quality alert through midnight Thursday because of the smoke from wildfires in Canada.
Berkshire residents woke up to smoky, hazy skies and a red glowing sun on Wednesday morning, but with less oppressive heat.
The Department of Environmental Protection issued an air quality alert for elevated levels of fine particles (PM2.5). This refers to microscopic airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter — about 30 times smaller than a human hair. These particles come in many sizes and shapes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the size of these particles can cause serious health problems because they can get deep into your lungs and even into bloodstreams. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest risk to health.
The air quality statewide is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. These include people with heart or lung disease such as asthma, older adults, children, teenagers, and people who are active outdoors. People with either lung disease or heart disease are at greater risk from exposure to air pollution.
MassDEP advises people in sensitive groups to reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion, take more breaks, do less intense activities, follow asthma action plans, and keep quick relief medicine handy. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath.
EPA's air quality index rates levels from "good" at 0-50 and "very unhealthy" from 201 to 300. Residents of Williamstown can track the AQI through PurpleAir, which displays results from monitors in five sections of town.
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