Clark Art Presents Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute's Music at the Manton Concert spring series concludes with a performance by Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan on Sunday, May 5 at 5 pm.
 
The performance takes place in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release:
 
Constant Smiles began in 2009 in leader Ben Jones' home of Martha's Vineyard. Inspired by the island's now-defunct community record store Aboveground Records, the group made their live debut as a noise duo opening for Ralph White (Bad Livers). Fourteen indie-folk albums later, Constant Smiles returns to their electronic roots with their latest release Kenneth Anger, evoking the eponymous filmmaker with hypnotic, '80s-inspired synth classics that examine how rituals and community can heal feelings of isolation.
 
Ava Mirzadegan opens for Constant Smiles. Mirzadegan writes quiet songs about heartbreak, longing, letting go, and befriending the night sky. Accompanied most often by fingerpicked nylon string guitar, her work rings of unembellished honesty.
 
Tickets $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. Advance registration encouraged. For more information and to register, visit clarkart.edu/events.
 
Presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams.

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Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2027 Absence Said Not to Cause 'Panic'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — News this week that the Williamstown Theatre Festival will go dark again this summer has not yet engendered widespread concern in the town's business community.
 
"None of the members have reached out in panic," Williamstown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sue Briggs said on Wednesday afternoon. "I'm really pleased.
 
"The rumor on the street has been this is what they need in order to come back and be a viable festival. … With that said, I have not had any real one-on-one conversations with business owners about it yet."
 
"It" was the announcement Tuesday, in the form of interviews reported in the Washington Post and Berkshire Eagle, that the WTF would not be staging any theatrical events in Williamstown in the summer of 2026 — just the second time since the Tony Award-winning festival has been absent from the summer scene since it was founded in 1955.
 
The first time was the summer of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned for a scaled down 2021 season and staged four straight seasons that de-emphasized the kind of fully-staged productions of standards and new works that characterized the festival's first 65 years.
 
In 2021, the WTF's return from the COVID shutdown was marred by allegations of "dangerous working conditions."
 
Last summer, the festival hosted its most ambitious program since before the pandemic, including a Tennessee Williams play featuring Hollywood star Pamela Anderson, the world premiere of a drama written by a Tony-nominated playwright, and two events in North Adams, one of which was performed on the ice sheet at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.
 
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