Please note: Performances are in process of being updated for the spring, 2010 semester. Please check back frequently for complete listings.

1/22-24/10: 1905 by The Misa Table in collaboration with Gina Kaufmann, UMass Amherst professor of theater. 1905 is a haunting and energetic combination of theater, live music, and original silent film that explores the unlikely sense of community that developed among immigrants from Russia, Germany and Mexico in rural Nebraska in 1905. The play offers a detailed and compelling portrait of a community torn between old-world traditions and more modern concerns—a community that is strikingly similar to our own. Stay for a free Q&A period with the artists following the performance. $15, $7 for students/seniors, (413) 545-2511; 1/22-23, 8 p.m., and 1/24, 2 p.m.,The Curtain Theater, UMass Amherst.

1/28-31/10: WHARPED: How to Build a Bomb by Diana Fenves, directed by Al Futty. At 9:02 tomorrow morning in Oklahoma City an angry young man, scarred from the 1995 bombing will destroy the world. This new-wave domestic terrorist has built a homemade WHARP (Wretcheed Hydrophilic Atomic Radioactive Plastification) machine and he's using it to make the most terrible weapons of our time. Put on your armored lab coat, chill with the silent chorus of ghosts, and contribute to the apocalypse. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

2/3-5/10: WHARPED: How to Build a Bomb by Diana Fenves, directed by Al Futty. See 1/28-31. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

2/11/10: Waiting for the Sun by Jeffrey Stingerstein (Smith College Theatre New Play Reading Series). The story of Angel, a young woman who commits suicide upon her return from Iraq in 2005. The play reveals moments in the lives of Angel and her family in 1991, 2001 and 2005 and poses the question, "Who is resposible for Angel's death?" (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 7:30 p.m., Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College.

2/18-20/10: Cloud Tectonics by Jose Rivera, directed by Patricia McGregor. A meditation on life's inexplicable mysteries including chance and love, where a bizarre Los Angeles downpour brings together two strangers, both searching for dreams they lost in the shuffle of life's miles and years. Just as Anibal and Celestina seem to reach an equilibrium, in bursts Nelson, Anibal's reckless missing brother on leave from his army base. Quickly the sand beneath all their feet begins to shift. In a world where the rules of time and logic fail, where do we find truth? Perhaps, as Rivera puts it, "What better way to respond to a miracle than falling in
love with it." Reservations recommended, (413) 542-2277; 8 p.m., Holden Theater, Amherst College.

2/25-27/10: Smith College Festival of One-Act Plays. Short works by nationally and internationally renowned authors and talented, emerging playwrights:

Board of Review, a monologue by Darren Harned, Smith College M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate, cirected by Roger Gordon, Smith College M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate. A corporate worker is made to account for his personal and professional record by a panel of his superiors.

Detour by Roger Gordon, Smith College M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate, directed by Hillary Bucs
A young couple get away on their first vacation in five years of marriage. A secret from the husband's past that will test the marriage is revealed.

Scarlet P by Kendra Arimoto, Smith College M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate, directed by Jeffrey Stingerstein, Smith College M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate. An Iraq War veteran reunites with a widower in the aftermath of a woman’s death. Together they search for consolation while tiptoeing around landmines of memory.

$8 general, $5 students/seniors, $3 Smith College students (3/3 is dollar night for all students), (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 8 p.m., Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith College.

2/25-27/10: Spring Awakening: A Sin of Omission by Frank Wedekind, adaptation by Toby Bercovici and Emily Denison. A devastating yet magical play, full of unexpected surprises. Based on the groundbreaking work by Frank Wedekind, this adaptation highlights the shocking modernity of the 1890 script. It follows a group of schoolchildren on their search, often unsuccessful, for the truth about love, sex, and the meaning of their lives. Incorporating dance and masks to tell the story, this production rivetingly lays out the life-and-death struggles of child versus adult, authority versus freedom, and sexuality versus morality. 8 p.m. and 2/27 also at 2 p.m., The Curtain Theater, UMass Amherst.

3/2-6/10: Spring Awakening: A Sin of Omission by Frank Wedekind, adaptation by Toby Bercovici and Emily Denison. See 2/25-27. 8 p.m. and 3/6 also at 2 p.m., The Curtain Theater, UMass Amherst.

3/3-6/10: Smith College Festival of One-Act Plays. See 2/25-27. $8 general, $5 students/seniors, $3 Smith College students (3/3 is dollar night for all students), (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 8 p.m., Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith College.

3/4-7/10: The Ridiculous Précieuses by Molière, directed by Roger Babb. (1659) Molière’s first success as a writer employing the stock resources of French farce and  Italian Commedia delle’arte and  his own maturing talents of observation, witty dialog and mimicry. It is a farce about preciosity, an exaggeration of 17th-century France’s quest for elegance and refinement.  Pretence was a frequent target for Molière, he enjoyed blowing it up with the earthy humor and exaggerated rhetoric often exhibited in his early short farces. $5 general, $3 students and senior citizens, (413) 538-2406 or rookeboxoffice@gmail.com (box office is staffed beginning Mon, March 1, 3-6 pm Monday through Friday and one hour prior to each performance) ; 3/4-6, 8 p.m. and 3/6-7, 2 p.m., Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College.

3/10-11/10: A Number by Caryl Churchill, directed by Andrea Hairston. Chrysalis Theatre in conjunction with the New Play Reading Series will present the staged reading of A Number by Caryl Churchill. Caryl Churchill, hailed by Tony Kushner as the greatest living English language playwright, has turned her extraordinary dramatic gifts to the subject of human cloning -- how might a man feel to learn that he is only one in a number of identical copies. And which one of him is the original? Ms Hairston is Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith. Free, (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 7:30 p.m., Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith College.

3/26-28/10: Baba Yaga, by Eva Claycomb, Skye Landgraf, Ashur Rayis, Rachel Schapira and Audrey Weber. Don't go into the woods! (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

4/1-3/10: In Wonderland, Harold Aarons’ Senor Project in choreography. The story of a boy going through, around and inside of things. The rabbit grabs his attention and starts him on his journey. He will meet colorful people along the way. He might die. Others might die. Prepare to be intrigued by the world Harold Aarons has created. Open seating, no reservations required; 8 p.m., Kirby Theater, Amherst College.

4/1-3/10: Look Who's Playing in the Playground, Teana White's Senior Project. Teana sees the world very simply. It is in fact, one HUGE playground. Most children encounter differences at the playground where they play with other children. A place where boys and girls learn social etiquette and the fundamentals of functioning as a social being, the playground is the place where one discovers intricacies about the self and others. Look Who's Playing in the Playground reveals the subtle messages of life's ups and downs reflected in the larger world, the world children occupy without even knowing it. Open seating, no reservations required; 8 p.m., Kirby Theater, Amherst College.

4/3-6/10: Baba Yaga, by Eva Claycomb, Skye Landgraf, Ashur Rayis, Rachel Schapira and Audrey Weber. See 3/26-28. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

4/8/10: Smith College Theatre New Play Reading Series: The Newton Arvin Play by Dinitia Smith, former reporter for The New York Times and a Smith College alumna. The historically-based play centers around three members of the Smith College faculty who were prosecuted for receiving male pornography in the U.S. mail. Play is being readied for an NYC performance with Austin Pendleton playing Newton Arvin. Free, (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 7:30 p.m., Earle Recital Hall, Smith College.

4/15-17/10: Paradise Street by Constance Congdon, directed by Michael Birtwistle. New comic drama looking at issues of class privilege by examining the aftermath of a random attack on a college professor. Paradise Street traces the widely divergent paths taken by the victim and her attacker as they struggle to cope with the effects of their encounter. Reservations recommended, (413) 542-2277; 8 p.m., Holden Theater, Amherst College.

4/15-17/10: Henry V by William Shakespeare, directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer. Shakespeare's deepest exploration of the experience of warfare. What does it cost to transform yourself into a soldier? How do you convince others, or yourself, to return to a killing field? How must soldiers transform themselves again when they return to civilian life? Produced countless times on stage and in film, Henry V has been interpreted alternatively as pro-war and anti-war. Director Daniel Elihu Kramer's production features an all-female cast, and focuses on the experience of battle, the image of the soldier as the masculine ideal, and the growing role of women in our fighting forces. $8 general, $5 students/seniors (4/21 is dollar night for all students), (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 8 p.m., Theatre 14, Smith College.

4/15-17/10: Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Mencken and Howard Ashman, musical director guest-artist Andrew Lichtenberg. One of the most enduringly popular musicals in the American theater repertoire: a score that is simple, edgy, and often touching, a book that is scathingly funny, and a bloom unlike any other. A story about people trapped by finances and circumstances who are forced, whether in their careers or love lives, to make difficult decisions and live with them. However, as so often happens, these choices come back to bite them -- literally, in this case, thanks to the ravenous appetite of one very large houseplant. 8 p.m. and 4/17 at 2 p.m., The Rand Theater, UMass Amherst.

4/22-24/10: Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Mencken and Howard Ashman, musical director guest-artist Andrew Lichtenberg. See 4/15-17. 8 p.m. and 4/24 at 2 p.m., The Rand Theater, UMass Amherst.

4/22-25/10: Drawn to Water by Rachel Schapira, directed by Kathy Kaity. A new work which explores one young person's experiences with the tidal nature of change. It is about his interactions with his world and his separation from it. This is a play about solitude and avoidance and, in a way, it is about community; the kinds of connections we all make with one another; the things we hold back. Everyone is brave for doing and saying anything. This is a play about surface tension. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

4/22-25/10: Hello Failure by Kristen Kosmas, directed by Brooke O’Harra. The play opens quietly, more or less, on the Eastern Seaboard and then closes, more or less miraculously, somewhere else altogether, achieving on its happy and troublous way all the things a reader or audience member could hope for -- distance, speed, heart, submersion, emergence, truth, mystery, and more.  By the end, in a plain and simple and fairly sad way, everything stands for everything else, nothing is not filled with mystery, and to be a living human being is seen to be -- despite the drawbacks -- the most enviable thing of all. Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College.

4/29/10:Drawn to Water by Rachel Schapira, directed by Kathy Kaity. See 4/22-25. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

5/1/10: 4/22-25/10: Drawn to Water by Rachel Schapira, directed by Kathy Kaity. See 4/22-25. (413) 559-5351; Hampshire College.

5/8/01: UMass Amherst Play-In-A-Day '10. The best in fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants productions! We give a halfdozen writers the night to create brand-new works. Come morning, we hand the pages off to the directors, actors, and stagehands who have until 8 p.m. to figure out a way to bring those works to life on the stage. It’s nerve-wracking, it’s exhausting, it’s hard -- and it’s an absolute blast! Join us as we re-inaugurate this popular benefit event for the UMass Department of Theater with a crew of artists including talented students, loyal community supporters, and a familiar name or two from among our alumni. 8 p.m., The Rand Theater, UMass Amherst.

5/12-13/10: Video and Performance. Original works by students in ThDa 96 Production Seminar: Moving Image. 8 p.m., Holden Theater, Amherst College.

5/13-15/10: Tricky Wicked Bitch by Lisa Meyers SC'11, directed by Sarah Thompson SC'10. Award-winning young playwright Lisa Meyers describes her play as "a quest for identity and family, told in poetry and vignette, music, dance, and time travel. Rose is a young girl searching for her father and the secrets of her dead mother. She embarks on a time-bending journey to a 1920's blues club where she falls in love with an enigmatic singer, Wiley Booker, and struggles with history and destiny. $8 general, $5 students/seniors, $3 Smith College students, (413) 585-ARTS (2787) or boxoffice@smith.edu; 8:30 p.m., Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith College.

Last updated: 2/8/10