Art in Paradise: Detroit, Lodz, Holyoke
After the Factory brings a boatload of ideas to post-industrial Holyoke.
- James Heflin, The Valley Advocate, Tuesday, January 8, 2013.
Arts Factory - James Heflin, The Valley Advocate, Tuesday, January 8, 2013. Photo By @ValérieArcheno
Holyoke's Victory Theater becomes canvas for local artists
- Sandra Dias, The Republican , The Republican January 02, 2013. Artist Chris Nelson stands in front of his work "Touching the Void." Photo by Sandra Dias
click here to see photo gallery
Holyoke high school students rave about Russian movie 'Alexander Nevsky' accompanied by choir, organist, soprano
- Mike Plaisance, The Republican November 15, 2012. Photo by Mark M.Murray
Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts showing of silent film "Alexander Nevsky" to benefit renovation of Victory Theater in Holyoke
- Sandra Dias Thrusday Republican November 14, 2012 photo from Corinth Films Inc.
Sound and Fury
- Chris Rohmann The Valley Advocate Thursday, November 08, 2012. Still from Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky
The Pioneers, The Victory, The Spoils
-Samuel Rowlett www.bigredandshiny.com, Thursday, October 18, 2012
Actor Hal Holbrook keeps Mark Twain alive for generations
-Barbara Bernard The Springfield Republican, Friday, April 06, 2012
Actor Hal Holbrook gives Holyoke students doses of Mark Twain, Robert Redford and the craft of acting
-Mike Plaisance The Springfield Republican, November 18, 2011
Hal Holbrook to perform 'Mark Twain Tonight!' on Saturday in Holyoke
-Debbie Gardner The Chicopee Herald, November 16, 2011
Hal Holbrook to perform 'Mark Twain Tonight!' on Saturday in Holyoke
-Keith O'Connor masslive.com The Springfield Republican, November 13, 2011
Hal Holbrook to perform 'Mark Twain Tonight!' on Saturday in Holyoke
-Cori Urban The Springfield Republican, October 12, 2011
ERC/ENSEMBLE FOR THE ROMANTIC CENTURY'S PRODUCTION OF SEDUCTION, SMOKE AND MUSIC STARRING JEREMY IRONS AND SINEAD CUSACK DIRECTED BY ERC DIRECTOR OF THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS & MIFA EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DONALD T. SANDERS RECEIVES CRITICAL ACCLAIM AT THE TUSCAN SUN FESTIVAL CORTONA ITALY
“A triumph.” - La Repubblica "A brilliant performance..." - Mymovies.it
Seduction, Smoke, and Music, a theatrical concert written and conceived by ERC/Ensemble for the Romantic Century (Eve Wolf and Max Barros, Artistic Directors) and Barrett Wissman, Executive Producer, and IMG Artists. ERC’s musicologist in residence, James Melo, scriptwriter. Directed by Donald T. Sanders, Production Design by Vanessa James. Julian Sachs, Stage Manager.
Superstars Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack shone in the roles of Frédédric Chopin and George Sand, and cellist Nina Kotova and pianist Simon Trpčeski garnered praise for their evocative playing as did Principal American Ballet Theater dancers Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belaserkovsky magnificently sharing the stage with actors and musicians and Don Sanders for his direction. Vanessa James’s set, costumes and lights were brilliant. Cortona’s gorgeous, historic Teatro Signorelli was sold out, and the audience roared ovations at the end of the performance.
- LA REPUBBLICA AUGUST 8TH, 2011
A much-awaited event at the star-studded Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, “Seduction, Smoke, and Music” is a production that combines music, dance, and theater to tell the story (with words drawn from letters, deftly selected by James Melo) of the dangerous liaison between Chopin and George Sand. It brings Jeremy Irons and his wife Sinéad Cusack onto an Italian stage for the first time. He is an anguished Chopin, hypersensitive to his torments: only his voice – the burnished voice of a compulsive smoker – and his gripping presence even during the long silences allow him to patch together romantic platitudes with a very British touch of irony, playing things down when necessary and bringing an insolently selfish nuance to Chopin. Cusack is a willful George Sand who, with a cigar always dangling from her lips, observes their tormented relationship from a distance, almost as if she weren’t part of it; she is more the dismissive mother than the passionate lover. The real surprise was the pianist Simon Trpceski, who coolly dominated the virtuosic passages and the pitfalls of Chopin’s sentimentalism. A triumph, also for the cellist Nina Kotova, for the dancers Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky, and for the director Donald Sanders.
- fulvio paloscia translated by Harvey Sachs
Canal Winter Ice Festival held next weekend
-Dennis P. Hohenberger The Holyoke Sun, February 11 – 18, 2011
StageStruck: Indomitable Spirit, This play, like its subject, aims to shake every place it goes to.
-Chris Rohmann The Valley Advocate, December 2, 2010
2009
London's Globe Theatre presented Shakespeare's "Love's, Labour's Lost" Its open space curtained into an intimate arena, Holyoke's War Memorial auditorium - on loan to the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts - turns out to be a suitably Globe-like setting.
-Sandy MacDonald,"Imported Shakespeare,as you'll like it" article THE BOSTON GLOBE, December 5, 2009
2005
”Macbeth” came to Holyoke courtesy of England’s fine Out of Joint troupe and the Mass. International Festival of the Arts, which brings great international companies from all artistic disciplines to the Pioneer Valley. Everything I’ve seen there has been worth the trip…The rather amazing thing about MIFA’s “Macbeth” was the diversity of the Holyoke audience white and black, high school and college, intelligentsia and working class. MIFA’s attempts at finding an artistic home in an old mill town is a story in itself.
-Ed Siegel,“Inviting Audiences In” article, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 23, 2005
This is not your average production of Shakespeare…The company makes “Macbeth” seem as if it were written yesterday…It also provides a most estimable blueprint for a theater of the future. There are very few audiences these days where blacks and whites, young and old, mesh so well. This is pure theater—you can’t get this kind of excitement anywhere else…Out of Joint is out of this world.
-Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 14, 2005
A fascinating time capsule – a triumph of logistics. Entertaining, informative and thoroughly delightful.
-Chris Rohmannon “The Skinner Servants’ Tour”, WFCR, 2005
2004
Friday night in Holyoke, dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov gave a program of contemporary solos in the most ordinary of venues…his presence was so commanding and his pieces were danced with such perfection that by the end of the night the humble setting was easily forgotten.
-Theodore Bale, THE BOSTON HERALD, January 26, 2004
A thrilling evening of dance and music featuring Baryshnikov accompanied (or not) by pianist Pedja Muzijevic.
-Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT, January 22, 2004
2003
The bobbing heads, and people dancing in the balcony showed Omar Sosa had infected the audience with the joys and rhythms of his international Jazz.
-Elizabeth O’Grady, COLLEGE STREET JOURNAL, September 8, 2003
2001
Some of the most exciting theatrical work of the past few years in Massachusetts has been imported by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, primarily to the Pioneer Valley. MIFA has pulled off another coup as it brings the groundbreaking collaboration of the Emerson String Quartet and England’s Complicite theater company, “The Noise of Time,” to the Academy of Music in Northampton for three performances this weekend.
-Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 26, 2001
One of the most discussed music-theater events of the London season earlier this year is coming to Massachusetts--but not to Boston. The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts will present four performances of “The Noise of Time,” a collaboration between the Emerson String Quartet and the cutting-edge London theater company Complicite that can also be seen in New York and Berlin.
-Richard Dyer, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 19, 2001
For the past eight years, Sanders and his board have persuaded some of the world’s most innovative artists in theater, dance and music to bring their work to Western Massachusetts. Satisfied patrons of past shows have no doubt come to trust that if Sanders books a piece, it must be special.
-Larry Parnass, THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, October 25, 2001
Alicia Alonso’s dancers have always exuded the joy of performing and here it was enhanced by an artful virtuosity. (The National Ballet of Cuba)
-Anna Kisselgoff, THE NEW YORK TIMES, November 13, 2001
This new work (Wire Monkey Dance) is beautifully conceived, vividly imaginative, and superbly performed. It is both visually riveting and viscerally thrilling.
-Karen Campbell, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 22, 2001
From the moment her (Samie’s) hands emerge from backstage, you know you’re in for the kind of acting from which legends are born. It isn’t every day that a company like la Comedie-Francaise comes to the Boston area, and we have two of the more daring and exciting theater organizations in the state to thank for it--the newly christened Market Theater and the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
-Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE, June 8, 2001.
(Samie)...gives a rapturous performance. Every shadow, every fluttering of the hand, every intonation has been planned for its power. This is acting with a capital A. Ms. Samie is so powerful, so commanding...(“The Last Letter”)
-Sarah Boxer, THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 8, 2001
The lyrical and persuasive Catherine Samie, quietly throbbing with poignancy as she delivered “The Last Letter,” profoundly moved audiences at Springfield’s CityStage. Donald T. Sanders, executive artistic director of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, brought the one-woman piece de resistance to Springfield.
-Fred Sokol, THE SPRINGFIELD UNION NEWS, June 18, 2001
The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts has imported another daring and extraordinary work of theater. (“The Last Letter”)
-Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT, JUNE 18, 2001
Samie is startling and extreme. The heroine’s thirst for memory forbids her to linger over her own sadness and sense of waste: they must emerge through an account that is hard, sculptural, and swarming with detail. The Last Letter remains something almost monument-like, pure, dark, and hard.
-Chris Fujiwara, THE BOSTON PHOENIX, June 14, 2001
Samie is an actress of extraordinary poise...the performance is one of a kind. (“The Last Letter”)
-Terry Byrne, THE BOSTON HERALD, June 8, 2001
Here was ageless music which all at once could open the ears, close the eyes, fill the mind, and numb the senses...A most giving and unusual and magnetic talent. (Kartik Seshadri)
-THE HERALD TIMES
2000
By bringing “Requiem pour Srebrenica”... Sanders again demonstrates the seriousness of his group’s commitment to the arts.
-Betty Falkenberg, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, November 2000
French director Olivier Py has created a stark, stylized, brilliant production of his “Requiem pour Srebrenica”... It is an experience to be gotten through, and one you will never forget.
-Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT, November 2000
“Requiem pour Srebrenica” is a visual and acoustic feat... Mr. Py has created a powerful and chilling work of theater that is both an artistic achievement and a valuable political statement.
-David Rohde, THE NEW YORK TIMES, November 2000
Living legend status...a virtuoso of keyboard Jazz whose huge hands pursue a rift through seemingly inexhaustible variations over an entire set. (Dave McKenna)
-DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, June 16, 2000
Many of his familiar public paintings (George Tooker), including “The Subway” and “Government Bureau” are now owned by major museums throughout the country...The artist’s private works, by contrast, are lyrical, romantic and mysterious fantasies often of human interaction. Several of these recent egg tempura works are now on display at the Hart Gallery as part of the spring season of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
-Mary Bagg, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, June 1, 2000
Max Stafford-Clark’s taut production draws striking performances from its cast all of whom deftly explore the strife-torn no-man’s land that exists between human ideals and human behavior.
-Robert Brustein, THE NEW REPUBLIC, November 22, 1999
...”Some Explicit Polaroids” by English playwright Mark Ravenhill which has been given its U.S. premiere by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts in its original production by London’s Out of Joint theater company...comes across as a powerful and universal, if profoundly sad, cry for love, friendship, companionship and fair play in an England (and World) that Ravenhill sees as a terminally unhappy, fearful, angry, violent and tacky.
-Markland Taylor, VARIETY, June 28, 2000
Mark Ravenhill, “Polaroids” author, manages to make an uncomfortable and provocative comedy from such material. Uncomfortable because you laugh just when you think, “how could you? how could you make a joke of that?” Provocative because, well, dammit, not only the laughter and its release, but also the discomfort makes you think.
-Bronwyn Mills, THE GREENFIELD RECORDER, June 15, 2000
That the play is coming to town is a tribute to the tenacity of Donald Sanders, the executive director of MIFA...Founded in 1993, Out of Joint has quickly established itself as one of the most vital theatrical companies in the world, with a tradition of generating new writing for the stage. “Some Explicit Polaroids,” directed by Max Stafford-Clark, made its world debut in London last fall to generally strong reviews, and is currently on an international tour.
-Amy Kroin, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, June 1,2000
London’s Out of Joint theater company’s brilliantly crafted, cannily performed production of Mark Ravenhill’s lacerating, rueful black comedy “Some Explicit Polaroids,” which finished an all-too-brief engagement over the weekend at Smith College as part of this year’s edition of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE, June 19,2000
Mark Ravenhill has written a brilliant play. And Max Stafford-Clark has fleshed it out with the help of six extraordinarily gifted and intelligent players. It would be a pity to miss this short run in Northampton. (“Some Explicit Polaroids”)
-Betty Falkenberg, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, June 17, 2000
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...thanks to those ever engaging folks in the Pioneer Valley, the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, theatergoers in this state can see the energizingly intelligent world premiere production by London’s Out of Joint theater company...Without ever being boring, “Some Explicit Polaroids” is nothing less than a search for meaning in contemporary times...Once again MIFA has delivered a theatrical jewel at our doorstep.
-Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE, June 16, 2000
“Some Explicit Polaroids,” making its American premiere thanks to the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA), is fascinating, intoxicating theater...It runs for 100 minutes, without an intermission, frequently zapping the audience...It is ever pulsating and multi-dimensional. One is afforded the opportunity to react viscerally- or to consider the play’s social implications. With its inter and intra generational implications, “Some Explicit Polaroids” attacks one’s senses and sensibilities throughout.
-Fred Sokol, UNION NEWS/SUNDAY REPUBLICAN, June 17, 2000
“Polaroids,” which has already played to rave reviews in Britain, is a jolting, impassioned, savagely witty examination of contemporary life and its illusions. By turns funny and harrowing, it finds what may be peerless expression in the production staged by Britain’s Out of Joint theatre company and director Max Stafford-Clark...Max Stafford-Clark’s cast is uniformly excellent.
-Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT, June 17, 2000
You don’t always have to go to London for the best in British theatre, though, you do have to get out of Boston...Last week’s visit to Northampton by the Out of Joint company was...memorable. Brought here by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, which is smaller than New Haven’s but no less important, Out of Joint is edgier than England’s more traditional companies. The Mass. International Festival of the Arts is set up to serve the Pioneer Valley, but it imports some of the best theater anywhere in Massachusetts (both festivals also bring intriguing music, dance, and film events as well.) ...splendid performances and cinematically enhanced set design, it’s obvious that there’s much more to Ravenhill than glib nihilism.
-Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE, June 21, 2000
What Lopez brings to the table is her ability to use humor and intelligence in equal doses to get past the pain and anger; the damning stereotypes and clichés and into the heart of what is both unique and universal about her life. (“Midnight Sandwich”)
-Tzivia Gover, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, February 24, 2000.
The play (“Midnight Sandwich” or “God Smells Like a Roast Pig”) is most resonant and moving...As the evening evolves, it becomes apparent that the performer is seasoning a symbolic stew and the resultant ingredients provide rich, evocative glimpses of her childhood and adult years.
-Fred Sokol, UNION NEWS, February 25, 2000.
Lopez is an engaging performer with an infectious grin, a stand-up comic’s sense of timing (she riffs off the ‘Latina spitfire’ stereotype) and a knack for the subtle shift that brings pain out of laughter. Indeed, “Midnight Sandwich” or “God Smells Like a Roast Pig” is, in the end, a poignant reflection on loss, nestled in a celebration of being a native-born American with a strongly rooted ethnic heritage.
-Chris Rohmann, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, February 17, 2000.
1999
“It isn’t often I get a part that enables me to play someone from the age of 13 up to 81, “ Dame Prunella Scales says about her appearance at the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts presentation of “An Evening with Queen Victoria”...The program glimpses Victoria through the varied experiences of her remarkable 64-year reign.
-Bruce McCabe, THE BOSTON GLOBE, December 10, 1999.
So far this year, MIFA has brought tastes of England, France and Russia to the Valley. Cuba arrived just in time last night, bringing music that pulsed in waves of orange and red, from a land that surely knows many hardships... Indeed, if MIFA’s putting it on, whether or not you can pronounce the name of the performing group or the country of its origin, they’ll be top-notch.
-Tzivia Gover, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, November 1999.
Irakere sports a sound that is as revolutionary as anything that Fidel Castro has cooked up. Irakere will rock the house this Sunday in a show presented by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
-Amy Kroin, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, November 4, 1999.
Irakere, a 12-piece jazz ensemble from Havana, has had a reputation as a world class band for more than 30 years. The performance in South Hadley is courtesy of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
-Ronnie Gordon, UNION NEWS, November 4, 1999.
The voice of Waldemar Bastos, an Angolan-born musician now living in Portugal, has been dubbed by the Village Voice as “almost impossibly stunning.” He seems to be blessed with what in Portuguese is called dadiva, a profound gift or natural talent for music.
-Mary Bagg, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, October, 1999.
Since its inception, MIFA has provided a forum for the very best in British theater: Just last winter, the Out of Joint production of Caryl Churchill’s “Blue Heart” provided Valley patrons with some of the most mind-blowing theater they may ever see in their lives. This fall, MIFA will continue its tradition of Anglophilic excellence...
-Amy Kroin, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, October 7, 1999.
Since its inception, MIFA has provided a forum for the very best in British theater: Just last winter, the Out of Joint production of Caryl Churchill’s “Blue Heart” provided Valley patrons with some of the most mind-blowing theater they may ever see in their lives. This fall, MIFA will continue its tradition of Anglophilic excellence...
-Amy Kroin, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE, October 7, 1999.
The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts is a modest organization with an audacious aim, to present world-class artistic attractions to audiences of Central Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley...Helikon’s production of Tchaikovsky’s opera was ambitious and interesting, and the work of the company deserves to be more widely known-- particularly because there hasn’t been an American equivalent since the early days of the New York City Opera or the Minnesota Opera.
-Richard Dyer, THE BOSTON GLOBE, October 8, 1999.
Once again, Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts Executive Artistic Director Donald Sanders’ eye for top-notch theater has brought to Western Massachusetts a one-of-a-kind production. The Helikon Opera of the Moscow State Theater made its American debut under MIFA’s auspices at the Academy of Music in Northampton, Massachusetts...a gripping performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”. This young company gives standard repertoire a new and imaginative face, bolstered by top-notch musical integrity and dramatic punch.
-Clifton J. Noble Jr., UNION NEWS, October 9, 1999.
Open your ears and your eyes to the magic of this production. You will never forget it.
-Betty Falkenberg, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, October 10, 1999. (“Queen of Spades”)
Harold Pinter’s “A Kind of Alaska”, presented by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, is exquisite theater.
-Fred Sokol, UNION NEWS, October 14, 1999.
This expertly performed, shrewdly directed play is about language, about communication, about truth, about relationships, about connections, about the nature of meaning.
“A Kind of Alaska” is a compact, economical, richly layered play.
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE, October 15, 1999.
1994 to 1998
Waramba is a startling musical extravaganza which features several artistic forms in virtuoso performance. The production introduced 36 thrilling musical and movement artists to Western Massachusetts. The company’s presence will remain enduring and even indelible for those in attendance.
Fred Sokol on L’Ensemble Koteba D’Abidjan, SPRINGFIELD UNION NEWS
After such a performance I can say: Here is why getting to the bottom of all those stacks of press releases is worthwhile. Here is why I do this.
Tzivia Gover, Arts Editor, reviewing Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, starring Corin Redgrave, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.
I’d drive a lot more than a couple of hours to see Out of Joint do anything...and festival executive director Donald T. Sanders deserves all the credit in the world for bringing them to Massachusetts.
Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE
It has not taken long-- six years-- for the Northampton based MIFA to establish itself as legitimate welcome player on the region’s art scene.
Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
(MIFA) is presenting another splendid treat for theatregoers...the festival has imported from Britain the award winning “Blue Heart”...Theatre-lovers: do not miss this one.
Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT
Bravo to MIFA for its vision...We in Western Massachusetts are fortunate that MIFA and its (staff) have made it their mission to bring such artistry to our area and to our attention.
Clifton Noble, Jr. THE UNION NEWS
There was a sense among the people that had put it together as well as the musicians that history had been made...Continous standing ovations; aisles filled with people dancing.
...Peter Watrous about Fiesta Cubana, MIFA ‘98 THE NEW YORK TIMES.
The Masschusetts International Festival of the Arts, now in its fourth year, specializes in bringing attractions to central Massachusetts that you would be more likely to encounter in a small, high class European festival than in even a major American cultural center like Boston.
Richard Dyer, THE BOSTON GLOBE, Handel’s ALCINA, MIFA ‘97.
Sexy, rich, and rewarding...a cutting edge production that would be rare even in the major cities of this country...It was worth the two hour drive from Boston.
Ellen Pfeifer, THE BOSTON HERALD, Monteverdi’s “The Coronationa of Poppea”, MIFA ‘96
The audience stood, cheered and screamed its approval. Some cried. The creators, hand in hand, were greeted by a frenzied ovation.
Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES, “Patience and Sarah” MIFA ‘98
Vanessa Redgrave’s depiction of Nina approaches perfection. Through her concentration, she totally inhabits the character. Her performance, relaxed yet specific...simply transported this theatregoer. The grandeur of Vanessa’s gift through her inner and recognizable outer voice, cannot be understated.
Fred Sokol, SPRINGFIELD UNION NEWS in “Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town”
A theatregoer from Brookline pulled into a downtown parking lot here Saturday night and asked the attendant if he knew where Vanessa Redgrave was performing. “Oh no,” he said. “She’s here tomorrow. Sarah Bernhardt is in town tonite.” One can forgive him, because it seems as unlikely that Redgrave would come to Springfield for the Premiere of a performance of “new” Anton Chekhov stories “Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town” as it would be for the ghost of the late legend to appear at StageWest, the city’s struggling theatre space. Chalk it up to the pluck of the Northampton-based Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts and its artistic director, Donald T. Sanders...Sarah Bernhardt never really appears, in the story or on stage. It doesn’t matter. Vanessa Redgrave proves you don’t have to be a ghost to be out of this world.
Ed Siegel, THE BOSTON GLOBE
Mother, daughter prove unforgettable...an enchanting, intimate and memorable event. For its rehearsed and spontaneous intimacies, the evening the Redgraves camed to town shall not soon be forgotten.
Deborah Hornblow, THE HARTFORD COURANT on “Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town”
Faustus in Africa...one of the most original and rewarding entertainments to be seen, not just in the Valley but on any turf at the moment.
Betty Falkenberg, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE on the Hanspring Puppet Company of South Africa.
...in bringing the Handspring Puppet Company here, MIFA’s organizers demonstrate the kind of artistic risk that indicate the potential this annual festival has for making a name for itself.
Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE on Faustus in Africa.
...sparkles with the same freshness, the same adventuresome, passionate and livening spirit that made the opera’s so exciting and controversial when they were first performed. We were treated to some of the finest Baroque orchestra performance imaginable. Bravo to MIFA for its vision.
Clifton Noble on Handel’s “Alcina”, THE UNION NEWS.
The entire program is a marvelous tribute to the art of the theatre. La Comédie Française’s style is bright, alert, and extraordinarily contemporary...a marvelous way to introduce American audiences to one of western theatres grandest institutions, demonstrating at the same time the vitality of an art form that looses very little without translation.
Jeffrey Borak on La Comédie Française, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE.
Outstanding international companies put the “I” in MIFA. These companies are operated at the highest level of contemporary arts practice...exquisite subtleties of meaning and emotion.
Chris Rohmann on La Comédie Française, THE VALLEY ADVOCATE.
By the second song of the night, Puente knew he was in command “I’m getting to you.” he shouted, as he watched the audience dance before him.
Donnie Moorhouse on Tito Puente, THE UNION NEWS.
...changing them just enough to fit the tenor of new times, the original compositions were imaginative and richly configured in keeping with the textural complexities. The setting of “Of Swimming in Lakes and Rivers” was goose-pimple eerie.
Betty Falkenberg on the Berliner Ensemble, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.
MIFA proves that this regional artist has earned his place among the international stars of contemporary art. Because he paints so beautifully, and because he succeeds in reconciling the unmentionable with the acceptable.
Gloria Russell on Gregory Gillespie, THE UNION NEWS.
As part of MIFA, we are once again treated to some surprising local talent.
Darlene Smith-Asch on Road to Heaven, HOLYOKE JOURNAL ENQUIRER.
In fact, an awe-filled gasp seemed an altogether appropriate response to this altogether astounding evening.
Betty Falkenberg on Voices of Light, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.
This was a simultaneously wrenching and beautiful evening at the theatre (Academy of Music)... I say thank you to you on my own behalf and for others.
Shera Cohen, BRAVO.
Corronation of Poppea proves a flawless jewel.
Clifton J. Noble, Jr., UNION NEWS.
Not a single listener could have remained untouched...superb vocal instrument with engaging dramatic sense and emotional sincerity.
Clifton J. Noble, Jr. on Angelina Reuax in concert, UNION NEWS.
Latin jazz great Hilton Ruiz puts on a stellar performance, the Hilton Ruiz quartet was a fireball of creativity and stamina.
Mark Baszak, UNION NEWS.
Outstanding Rossini Concert!
Clifton J. Noble Jr., UNION NEWS.
McGovern’s control and precision along with a terrific lighting and set design made Becket’s prose as stunning to look at as his plays.
Brett Martin on the Gate Theater- Samuel Beckett’s I’ll Go On”, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
