Open Rehearsal with Scholar/Playwright Cherríe Moraga Renowned scholar and playwright Cherríe Moraga will be participating in an open rehearsal with director Dora Arreola and the cast of her play The Hungry Woman (see Performances). The open rehearsal, with discussion following, will take place on April 5, 3:45–5:45 p.m. in UMass Amherst’s Rand Theater. Admission is free and open to the public. Moraga's visit is sponsored in part by the UMass Department of Theater, New WORLD Theater, the Five College Multicultural Theater Committee, the UMass Arts Council, and the UMass Alumni Association. Storytellers Abound at Hampshire College Join storytellers from Natalie Sowell’s “Storytelling as Performance” class for the Arnold Lobel Storytelling Festival as they bring the works of Arnold Lobel (author of the Frog and Toad series of children’s books and Mouse Soup) to life on stage. The festival will take place at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst April 22–24, 2008 at 1 & 3 p.m.  Tickets are $3 (not including museum admission). Appropriate for children of all ages. Later in the semester, the AGO: Annual Hampshire Storytelling Festival will take place Friday, May 2, 2008, 5–8 p.m., at various locations on the Hampshire College campus. Folktales, personal tales, urban myths, and more will be shared with audiences. Get Your Theater Career in Gear The UMass Amherst Department of Theater will be participating in the CHFA Career fair for the humanities and fine arts. Alumni who are working in theater and related fields will be participating in panels and will be available for one-on-one networking. This free Fair will take place Thursday, April 24, 3–6 p.m., in the Studio Arts Building at UMass Amherst. Renaissance Festival The Renaissance Center, the UMass Amherst Department of Theater and the Music Department have teamed up to present a Renaissance Festival on May 4, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. The festival's theatrical component will be a presentation of a series of scenes from Renaissance plays whose common theme is "The Trickster." All of the plays feature some manifestation of a a classic Renaissance type of trickster. Shakespeare will be represented, but there will also be a scene from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and a few scenes from Spanish Golden Age playwrights including a scene from a new translation by Harley Erdman of a play by a 17th century Spanish woman, Ana Caro. The Music Department's Madrigal Singers will perform as well as a Commedia del Arte troupe from the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School. There will be Renaissance dance demonstrations with audience participation, and appropriate-period food will be for sale. There will be no charge for attendees, but donations will be welcome. The Festival will take place in the Meadow at the Renaissance Center, 650 East Pleasant Street, Amherst, with entertainment varied throughout the day. People can call the Center for more information at (413) 577-3600 or by e-mailing renaissance@english.umass.edu. Julian Olf Benefit Production UMass Amherst Professor of Theater Julian Olf will find himself in such august company as Seamus Heaney, T.S. Eliot, and Wendy Wasserstein. One of his plays, People Almost Always Smell Good in the Art Museum, has been selected for publication in the fall 2008 issue of the Massachusetts Review, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. Performances of People Almost Always Smell Good in the Art Museum and another short play, Unaired Public Radio Segment, at UMass Amherst’s Curtain Theater on May 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. will represent the first time he has made his work available to the UMass Amherst community. The latter is an edgy satire on the voyeurism and packaging of violence by the media, while the former, for a solo performer, is set in a crowded tavern where, over the course of a few beers, a man attempts to communicate his perceptions of life, art, dogs and snails to a pal who sees things differently. In addition to marking the first production of People Almost Always Smell Good in the Art Museum, the spring production features Olf’s first public appearance as an actor since his work in New York City’s LaMama nearly forty years ago. Admission price is a suggested donation of $20, $10 for students/seniors. Proceeds of the May 16 event will benefit the Massachusetts Review and proceeds of the May 17 event will benefit the UMass Amherst Department of Theater. Audience members are invited to a post-show reception following each performance. Due to subject matter and language, these productions are intended for mature audiences. Please check back soon. When we receive news of an event happening within the Five College Theater Departments, we will post it here. If you are trying to find out what's happening within the Five Colleges each month, be sure to visit the Five College Calendar of Events.