From a staging of a famous Tennessee Williams play to a lifesize puppet show, live music, and photo exhibits exploring the Native experience, there are many events in the Hudson Valley this week to draw you out of the house. Slide into April with these local cultural happenings.
Bread & Puppet Theater
April 3 at Time and Space Limited in Hudson
Founded by Peter Schumann in 1963, Bread & Puppet gained a national reputation when author and leftist goddess Grace Paley had the group enliven street protests against the Vietnam War. The troupe was soon traveling the world, exhorting people to rebel against false leaders and false ideas. Over 50 years later, Schumann (now 89) and his coconspirators are still at it. They return to Time and Space Limited with their latest production, “The Hope Principle Show: Citizens’ Shame and Hope in the Time of Genocide.” Fundraising dinner at 5:30pm, performance at 7pm. $20-$60.
“Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna”
Gallery tour April 4, exhibit up through June 2 at Lehman Loeb Art Center
Throughout the 20th century, Vassar alum Rosalie (Rollie) Thorne McKenna (1918-2003) made iconic portraits of the greatest artistic and writerly minds of the time, including W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, Alexander Calder, and Sylvia Plath. A new exhibit of 100+ gelatin silver prints show the arc of her career through the faces of some of the most iconic names of the last generation.
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“Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna”
Joshua Radin
April 4 at City Winery Hudson Valley
After the success of his 2021 album The Ghost and the Wall, Cleveland-born Joshua Radin ditched it all, selling his home and possessions and moving to Europe to lead a nomadic lifestyle. Radin, whose hushed, vulnerable style has been likened to those of Elliot Smith and Paul Simon, recorded the release virtually with fellow singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson during the Covid-19 lockdown; supposedly, the two artists have never met in person. A fave of Michelle Obama and Ellen DeGeneres (he played the latter’s wedding), he’s touring the US this month. (Dave Hause visits April 2; Trashy Annie trots in April 13.) 8pm. $40-$60. Montgomery.
“Glass Menagerie”
April 4-13 at Bridge Street Theatre
Tennesee Williams’ career-making play “Glass Menagerie,” perhaps most famously brought to life in the 1987 feature film starting John Malkovich, comes to a local stage in April. Catskill’s Bridge Street Theatre will mount a two-week production of the first memory play, which tells the story of a single mother and her adult kids, who each struggle to find purpose, belonging, connection, and economic stability in a shared apartment in industrial St. Louis. Directed by Steven Patterson, the Catskill production features Leigh Strimbeck, Brett Mack, and Sarah Jayne Rothkopf.
Richard Lloyd Group
April 5 at Park Theater
One of the two lethal founding guitarists of the immeasurably influential Television (the other being Tom Verlaine, who passed in early 2023), Richard Lloyd has made plenty of incredible music both inside and outside that band; his 1979 solo debut, Alchemy, and its 1985 followup, Field of Fire, are essential albums, and his early 1990s work with Matthew Sweet is likewise masterful. The punk legend’s incendiary style incorporates threads of psychedelia, jazz exotica, power pop, hard rock, Middle Eastern modalities, and more. He brings his band by for this rare small-room date. (Habbina Habbina returns April 12; Emily Jean Brown emotes April 20.) $20, $35 VIP. Hudson.
Passion Fruit Dance
April 6 at Kaatsbaan in Tivoli
Tatiana Desardouin, artistic director of Passion Fruit Dance, shares excerpts of her latest work, “Dimensions,” which explores the idea of dimensionality through the lens of street dance and club dance. The performance integrates multimedia elements, including body casting, motion capture, projection, animation, live music, and photography. Q&A to follow. 7pm. $5-$10 suggested donation.
The 43rd Asbury Short Film Concert
April 6 at the Rosendale Theater
Since 1980, this short film showcase has been presented at venues across the US, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany. Its mission: to screen world renowned, festival award-winning shorts—from all years—in cinemas, art museums, performing arts centers and cool outdoor locations. The program features a fast-paced and entertaining line-up of the best in short film comedy, drama, and animation. Screenings at 4pm and 7:30pm. The 7:30pm screening will be hosted by Chronogram editor Brian K. Mahoney. $14/$10.
Antonio Sanchez: “Birdman Live”
April 6 at Mass MoCA
Mexican drummer and composer Antonio Sanchez won a Grammy Award for his mesmerizing score and soundtrack of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 2014 film Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). The percussionist is also well regarded for his work with Paquito D’Rivera and his ongoing association with Pat Metheny. This special 10th anniversary Birdman celebration will feature Sanchez performing the haunting soundtrack live as accompaniment to a screening of the full movie. (Jacob’s Pillow copresents Siudy Garrido’s Intimate Flamenco April 27.) $32 advance, $45 week of show. North Adams, Massachusetts.
“Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition.”
April 6-7, April 10-12 at Montgomery Home
On April 6, Montgomery Home at Bard College will inaugurate the show “Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition,” with work from four photographers, plus a written commission, and archival records and artifacts provided by Forge Project. The show will be open April 6 and 7 from 1pm to 5pm and April 10-12 from 1:30pm to 4pm. Admission is free via Eventbrite registration.
“Close to Home” Photography Exhibition
April 6-12 at Shelter Upstate Studio
This inaugural exhibition at Shelter Upstate Studio in Woodstock, invites three local lens-based artists who share an affinity for space to explore the surfaces that surround and shape us. Through printing, cutting, framing, and re-photographing, Sam Margevicius, Gabriel Zimmer, and Chronogram’s own interiors photographer Winona Barton-Ballentine observe the ways that the tangential details of our natural and man-made environments tell subcutaneous stories, which we read and respond to, often without knowing it. The artists study the subtle qualities of these everyday details, magnifying experiences of location, and establishing worlds within worlds. Further consideration takes place in the artist’s resolution to place their images back into the relative environment from whence they came; a catch and release practice that glorifies the moment a fish slithers back into the depths of the lake. From here the viewer experiences both the actual space and the techniques implemented to make sense of the daily practices we all undertake to process the information around us. 39 A Tinker Street, Woodstock (Behind Sharkeys)
This article appears in April 2024.
