Daily Hampshire Gazette - 03/05/2020 Page : C01

Copyright � 2020 Newspapers of New England 03/05/2020March 5, 2020 8:37 am (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

C1Thur sday, Mar ch 5, 2020

gazet tenet.comARTS & CULTURE

WEEKLYPLANNER

Loundon Wainwrightat the Iron Horse

SAT URDAYThere are few songwriters who have

raided their family history as much asLoudon Wainwright — and even fewerwho have done it as successfully. Like aguy on the proverbial psychiatrist’scouch, the veteran performer has spilledhis guts about a whole range of personalproblems and emotions over the years:broken marriages and adultery, strainedrelationships with the kids, anger andregret, self-recrimination and love. Buth e’s done it all with lots of style andacerbic wit, something he showed off aswell in the very funny memoir he wrote afew years ago, “Liner Notes.” H e’s longbeen a favorite performer at Northamp-t on’s Iron Horse Music Hall, where he’llplay at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25;iheg .com. — Steve Pfarrer

Valley Voices Story Slamat Hawks and Reed

WEDNE SDAY“Sweet & Salty” is the theme of the

night. Ten storytellers from the Valley willhave five minutes to share a personal

tale for audience members to judge andfor the chance to perform at theAcademy of Music in the fall. The topthree storytellers will also be featured ina podcast through New England PublicRadio. The story slam series is in itssixth season. Future themes include“Nailed It,” and “Around the Block.” St o-ries are told in the first person and fromreal life experiences. Stories range fromoutrageous to heartwarming. Show is onMarch 5, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.289 Main Street, Greenfield. — L uisF ieldman

Ham County Roller Girls,Karate Steve, Neon Fauna,

and Ecce Shnak at13th Floor Music Lounge

SAT URDAYThis Saturday at the 13th Floor Music

Lounge in Florence will feature a diverselineup of electric rock music on the fourband billing. There’s “histrionic sludger ock” band Ham County Rollergirls,which is described on the band’s Face-book page as “Clut ch’s stomp meetsQ ueen’s pomp.” Brooklyn, NY-basedEcce Shnak will bring its 7-piece artrock music that’s part pop, part classi-cal, and park punk to the Valley. There’salso progressive rock/ metal groupNeon Fauna as well as Karate Steve,which is described as “loud guitar mu-sic for fans of stoner rock, Thin Lizzy,mustaches, and manual labor.” 13t hFloor Music Lounge, 99 Main St.,(Above J.J.’s Tavern), Florence. 9 p.m.

$10. This show is 18+ only. — Chr isGoudr eau

Community Potluck and IrishMusic at the LAVA Center

S U N DAYThe recently opened community arts

organization in Greenfield, the LAVACenter, hosts its second Sunday potluckalongside traditional Irish music. Thepotluck features homemade dishes, butthose who are attending should bring alist of ingredients to indicate whetherthe meals are vegetarian, vegan, glutenfree, etc. The LAVA Center, 324 Main St.,Greenfield, 5 p.m. — Dave Eisenstadter

This week in area theaters:Cinemark in Hadley features “On-

war d,” “E m m a,” “The Way Back,” “T heInvisible Man,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,”“The Call of the Wild,” “Harley Quinn:Birds of Prey,” “My Hero Academia:Heroes Rising,” “Impractical Jokers: TheMov ie,” “Bad Boys for Life,” “Brahms :The Boy II,” “1 9 1 7,” “The Lodge,”“Dow n h i l l,” “The Photograph” and “Lit tleWo m e n.”

Amherst Cinema features “O ly mp i cDr eams,” “Par asite,” “Once Were Broth-ers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,”“The Assistant,” “Portrait of a Lady onF ire,” “R i ng u,” “CatVideoFest 2020,” and“The Destruction of Memory.”

The Tower Theaters in South Hadleyfeatures “Onwar d,” “Sonic the Hedge-hog ,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”and “The Call of the Wild.”

By STEVE PFARRERStaff Writer

Back in 2012, New York actor CecilBaldwin got together with a friendand fellow actor, Joseph Fink, over anidea Fink had after hearing Baldwinvoice a particular character in a play.

What did Baldwin think, his friend said, aboutbecoming the narrator of a podcast he wasthinking of launching?

Baldwin, an experienced actor who had per-formed Shakespeare, Molière and experimen-tal theater to boot, says he had never listened

to podcasts before. But when he read the pro-posed script that Fink had developed with an-other writer, Jeffrey Cranor, he was intrigued:Here was an unusual story, as he said in an in-terview some years later, about a fictionalsmall desert town “where every conspiracyyou’ve heard is not only true, but it’s part of ev-eryday life.”

Fast forward to 2020, where “Welcome toNight Vale” has become one of the most popu-lar podcasts in the business, the inspiration fortwo bestselling novels co-written by Fink andCranor (with a third soon to be published), andthe subject of a stage show, “Welcome to NightVale Live,” that has made multiple tours in the

U.S. and overseas.Now the show that’s been called “hypnotic

and darkly funny,” with gothic and absurdtwists alike that recall the work of David Lynchand HP Lovecraft, among others, is opening anew worldwide live tour, with its kickoff perfor-mance at Northampton’s Academy of MusicTheatre on March 12 at 8 p.m.

That tour, which will encompass over 50shows across the U.S. and in several countriesin Europe, will also be the last for Baldwin. In arecent phone interview from New York, Bald-win, the lead character and narrator of “NightVa l e ” — he plays an announcer (of the samename) at the town’s community radio station —said he’s loved being part of the live perfor-mances but is ready to take a break (thoughhe’ll continue with the podcast, which airstwice monthly).

“Living my life on the road for up to sixmonths of the year in definitely a challenge,”Baldwin said. “Sometimes I’d just like to be athome and have a pet or a boyfriend or a plant.

“In fact, I’d settle for a plant,” he added witha laugh.

Yet Baldwin said performing “Night Vale”live, in which he and a few other actors/voicesfrom the podcast are backed by a sound effectsteam and guest musicians, has been a welcomecounterpoint to the podcast, for which he typi-cally has recorded his parts by himself in hisapartment.

“There’s no substitute to being in front of anaudience,” said Baldwin, who’s active in a num-ber of other theatrical projects. “When you’redoing a podcast, all your concentration is cen-tered on the microphone. When you’re onstage, there’s much more emotion involved,you’re playing off the other performers, you’reresponding to the audience — it’s a very differ-ent experience, and it’s one that we’re consis-tently refining.

“Not the script — that’s set,” he added. “Buthow our characters present themselves, basedon where we’re performing that night and theenergy we’re feeling, that can change…. We’vealways said we never do the same show twice.”

Live version of popular podcast ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ opens new tour in Northampton

By STEVE PFARRERStaff Writer

A dark expanse of oceanstretching to the horizon.Seabirds clustered on jagged

and tumbled boulders near a shore-line. Piles of down from eider duckspiled in a corner of a Spartan roomwith a scuffed wooden floor and amottled ceiling, from which danglesa single light bulb.

The color photographs of RoniHorn, now on display at the Univer-sity of Massachusetts Amherst, offera snapshot of the remote landscapeof northern Iceland, a place that haslong served as an artistic muse forthe New York-based artist.

But Horn’s new exhibit, “P i,” atthe University Museum of Contem-porary Art (UMCA), doesn’t offer a

Two UMass Amherst exhibitsoffer meditations on Iceland and India

Canvases large and small

PHOTO BY STEPHEN PETEGORSKY/IMAGE COURTESY UMCAUMCA Director Loretta Yarlow calls Roni Horn’s “Pi ” a “sculp turalins t allation,” one that embraces photography and architecture.

Poster by Jessica Hayworth/image courtesy Welcome to Night ValeThe main storyline of the 2020 live show of “Welcome to Night Vale” c onc erns ahouse that seems to be haunted while it’s still under construction.

A strange town comes to town

PHOTO BY WHITNEY BROWNE/COURTESY WELCOME TO NIGHT VALESymphony Sanders voices the character of Tamika Flynn, abook lover who hates librarians and leads a child militia inNight Vale.

PHOTO BY WHITNEY BROWNE/COURTESY WELCOME TO NIGHT VALEMeg Bashwiner, a longtime contributor to “Welcome toNight Vale,” and the emcee of the live show, is a 2008graduate of UMass Amherst.

PHOTO BY WHITNEY BROWNE/COURTESY WELCOME TO NIGHT VALECecil Baldwin is the longtime narrator of “Welcome toNight Vale,” playing a character of the same name on thepodcast and in the live shows.

SEE ’WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE’ C2

“When you’re doing a podcast,all your concentration is cen-tered on the microphone. Whenyo u ’re on stage, there’s muchmore emotion involved, you’replaying off the other performers,yo u ’re responding to the audi-ence — it’s a very different ex-perience, and it’s one that we’reconsistently refining.”

CECIL BALDWIN

SEE UMASS AMHERST C2

Daily Hampshire Gazette - 03/05/2020 Page : C02

Copyright � 2020 Newspapers of New England 03/05/2020March 5, 2020 8:37 am (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

Copy Reduced to 72% from original to fit letter page

ARTS & CULTUREC2 DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE | Thur sday, Mar ch 5, 2020 gazet tenet.com

Matt Stamell atSong & Story Swap

Matt Stamell, owner ofStamell Stringed Instrumentsshops in Amherst and Pough-keepsie, New York, is wellknown in these parts for mak-ing and restoring instruments.But he’s also a longtime gui-tarist and songwriter, and he’llbe the featured performer onSaturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. atthe monthly Song & StorySwap at the Nacul Center inAmherst.

Stamell recently released anew CD, “Hello Old Friend,”consisting of mostly originalmaterial that spans his life-time. He recorded it in Los An-geles with his old friend andformer Valley resident CraigEastman, the veteran fiddlerand mandolinist.

The Song & Story Swap,jointly sponsored by the Pio-neer Valley Folklore Societyand the Nacul Center, is opento performers and listeners ofall ages. The event is free, witha suggested minimum dona-tion of $7.50 to the featuredartist. At The Nacul Center, 592Main St. in Amherst. More infoat filbert.com/pvfs/.

AFROmation Festivalat Northampton

Center for the ArtsA dance festival and exhibit

that aims to explore “the in-tersection between affirma-tion, feminism and the rhythmand movements of the AfricanDiaspora,” as press notes putit, opens Friday, March 6, at 7p.m. at the Northampton Cen-ter for the Arts at 33 HawleyStreet.

The AFROmation Festivalis a collaboration betweenproject creators Jamila Jack-

son and Shakia Johnson, theCenter for the Arts, Five Col-lege Dance and Northamp-t o n’s School for ContemporaryDance and Thought.

An opening reception forthe accompanying exhibit,which also opens March 6,takes place Friday, March 13,from 5-8 p.m. at the Center forthe Arts. Additional events arescheduled for April 11 and 21.For more information, includ-ing tickets prices, visit no-hoarts.org/events.

A comedy scavenger huntA new start-up comedy and

website in the Valley wantsyou to check out more comedyshows in the area and is offer-ing an incentive to do so. Wan-derjest.com, based in SouthHadley, is offering $400 in cashprizes, with a grand prize of$200, in a “scavenger hunt”that people can take part in byattending shows throughMarch.

The website, which lists in-formation and reviews aboutcomedy shows in the region,says you can enter the contestby attending any of thoselisted shows in March andthen posting a photo of theperformances to Facebook,Instagram, or Twitter, with thetag @WanderJest.

Fans can increase theirodds of winning the top prizeby attending more shows,says Wanderjest founderMichael Lynch. “Few Valleyresidents are aware of theamazing comedy perfor-mances happening in WesternMass every night of theweek,” Lynch said in a state-ment, who added that hehoped the contest wouldprompt people to explore thescene.

ARTS PREVIEWS

conventional tour of Iceland’sgeologic wonders: the hotsprings, geysers, volcanoes andlava beds seen in touristbrochures. UMCA DirectorLoretta Yarlow says Horn, amultidisciplinary artist whosework includes drawing, writing,sculpture and more, has cre-ated a “sculptural installation”at the museum.

“It’s basically a continuousnar rative,” said Yarlow, whonotes that the 45 Iris-printedphotographs have no specificbeginning or end and are all po-sitioned at exactly the samelevel — about eight feet high, sothat viewing is not blocked byother visitors — and have nocaptions, either.

The title of “P i,” Ya r l o wadds, also implies a sense ofcontinuity and a sense of thenatural cycles of life. “Roni’sidea is that you can look at allthese photographs from thecenter of the gallery — youd o n’t have to start at a certainpoint.”

Amanda Herman, UMCA’seducation coordinator, has an-other way of describing the in-stallation: “I think it reads like avisual poem.”

Hor n’s work has been exhib-ited in or is part of the perma-nent collections of numerousmuseums, including the TateMuseum in London and theMuseum of Modern Art in NewYork. She first began visitingIceland in 1975, and her photosin the UMCA exhibit weretaken over a six-year period,culminating in the first presen-tation of “P i” in 1998. The artistreconfigures the exhibit foreach separate show in which itappears, Yarlow noted.

In “P i,” she’s built a friezethat focuses on repeating im-ages, such as an elderly hus-band and wife in northern Ice-land who harvest down fromthe nests of eider ducks. Thecouple’s weathered faces speakto the passage of time and Ice-land’s rugged climate, as doHor n’s photographs of theducks’ nests, some with eggsand some with just a few ten-drils of down clinging to them.

Included as well are imagesthat complete the life cycle ofbirds: from the clusters ofseabirds by piles of shorelineboulders to a pair of photos offlat, desiccated land — onemight show an old lava bed —that are strewn with what ap-pears to be carcasses andfeathers of birds.

Horn has also used thehome of the unnamed elderlycouple — Yarlow says the artistmet them years ago and devel-oped a good relationship withthem — as a reference point forsome other photographs. Intwo of her most haunting im-ages, she’s photographed theocean through two worn win-dow frames, creating colorfulrectangles of sky, cloud and seaamid the otherwise darktableau of the room’s unlit inte-r i o r.

In addition, Horn has cap-tured stills from the couple’stelevision of a long-runningAmerican soap opera, “GuidingLight,” which in years pastaired in the afternoon on Ice-land’s only TV station in thattime. The photos, of a womanwith teased blond hair and aman with a chiseled jaw, help“mark the passage of time withthe soothing recurrence of thesame,” as exhibit notes put it.

Yarlow says she’s longwanted to showcase some ofHor n’s work, in part becauseshe learned the artist was a bigfan of Emily Dickinson and hadtaken photographs from thewindows of the poet’s home inAmherst. Once she got Horn toagree to an exhibit at UMCA ,she left the invitation open-ended: “I told her she could dowhatever she wanted,” Ya r l o wsaid with a laugh.

After visiting UMCA, Hornopted for the photography ex-hibit but with some additionalmodifications to the maingallery space: two of the wallshave been painted to produce auniform color, and some pas-sageways to other rooms andspaces have been narrowedwith temporary extensions, theidea being to keep the distancebetween the photographs asuniform as possible.

Yarlow says she sees a linkbetween Horn’s interest inEmily Dickinson and Iceland.“Solitude, but a comfortablesolitude, is a theme — there’sEmily alone in her room butvery active in her mind, andthen there’s Roni movingacross this really remote,thinly populated island andfinding herself very much athome.”

The smaller side of thingsAlso on exhibit at UMCA is

“Pa l i m p s e s t ” by ProchetaMukherjee Olson, a collectionof miniature oil paintings onwood panels that reflect boththe artist’s experience growingup in India and the residue of

colonialism in her native land.Olson, who grew up in Cal-

cutta and received her MFA inStudio Arts at UMassAmherst, is the interim direc-tor of Herter Art Gallery at theuniversity and previously wasa curatorial fellow at UMCA.Her paintings are part of themuseum’s long running “Dia -logue with the Collection” se -ries, in which artists createnew work in response to spe-

cific pieces from UMCA’svaults.

In her exhibit, Olson hascreated a paint-based versionof a palimpsest, a manuscriptfrom which the original writinghas been largely but not com-pletely erased to make roomfor new writing. In her highlydetailed oils, she has mergedimages from India’s past andpresent, often in surrealtableaus, that look at architec-

ture, colonial rule and India’s“haphazard modernization,”as exhibit notes put it.

For instance, in “Alas, Capi-tal!” — perhaps a play on KarlMar x’s “Das Kapital” — a box-like structure with two“rooms” features one roomwith two colorfully dressedpeople, who stand amid a pileof fruit, toys and other goods.The other room or space iscrammed with naked and half-clothed people, all of whomseem desperate to get into theroom of plenty.

“Train to/from Pakistan” of -fers an image that wouldn’tlook out of place in a children’sstory: two old-fashioned steamtrains, one upside down be-neath the other. But look moreclosely at the ornate, colorfulborder of the painting and yousee images of bloodshed andwar, with fires burning, tiny fig-ures seeming to brandishguns, and two stick-likecorpses hanging from a tree.

The artist explains that thepainting’s border recalls thehorrendous violence thaterupted in 1947 when, follow-ing the end of British rule, thepartition of India and the cre-ation of Pakistan saw Hindus,

Sikhs and Muslims turn on oneanother — and trainloads ofpeople, desperate to get acrossone border or the other, weremassacred.

Olson has used Mughalminiature painting traditionsin her work, and she’s alsobeen inspired by “ThreeGorges Dam Migration,” a 32-foot-long hand scroll that Chi-nese artist Yun Fei Ji madefrom 500 hand-carved wood-blocks. The 2012 scroll, on dis-play at the exhibit and part ofU M C A’s permanent collection,depicts many rural Chinesewho were displaced when thehuge Three Gorges Dam wasbuilt on the Yangtze River dur-ing the past two decades.

“Pa l i m p s e s t ” makes for astriking visual and thematiccontrast with “P i” (and magni-fying glasses are included inthe latter show to get a close-up look at the details of Olson’spaintings).

Steve Pfarrer can bereached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.

Both “Pi” and “Pa l i m p s e s t ”are on view at the UniversityMuseum of Contemporary Artat UMass Amherst throughApril 26.

Joining Baldwin at theAcademy of Music next weekwill be another longtime per-former in the podcast and liveshow, Meg Bashwiner, whovoices the character of Deb.Bashwiner, the emcee andtour manager of “Night ValeLive,” is also a 2008 graduateof the University of Mas-sachusetts Amherst. Along-side her and Baldwin will beSymphony Sanders, whoplays Tamika Flynn, a book-loving character who’s some-thing of a teenage super-hero-ine who destroys librarians.Also on board: guest musi-cian/composer Eliza Rick-man.

Funny, absurdand unsettling

If a book lover seems anunlikely person to target li-brarians, that’s par for thecourse in Night Vale, a weirdplace where, as the NewYork Times wrote a fewyears ago, “aliens, angelsand ghostly apparitions areas commonplace as P.T.A.meetings and yard sales.”

“Something is definitelyoff in Night Vale,” said Bald-win. “Things happen thatcan be very funny, that canbe absurd, and then thereare things that can be trulyand deeply unsettling.”

For instance, one recur-ring “character ” is the GlowCloud, a sort of hovering de-ity of noxious gas that hyp-notizes the townspeople —they ’re driven to chant “AllHail the Glow Cloud!” — andwhich eventually becomespresident of Night Vale’sschool board. Then there’s a

blogger, Hiram McDaniels, afive-headed dragon that atone point runs unsuccess-fully for mayor. Four of Mc-Daniels’ five heads are puton trial for attempting to as-sassinate the winning candi-date (the fifth dragon headtries to prevent the mur-der).

One of the early episodesof the podcast, “A StoryAbout You,” offers a good ex-ample of the mix of off-beathumor and weirdness, inwhich Baldwin describeshow an unnamed person —you — one day walks awayfrom a direct-mail market-ing job and a fiancé and, af-ter a long, aimless drive, ar-rives in Night Vale.

With keyboards soundingominous notes in the back-ground, Baldwin intones“You have a new job now. Ev-

ery day except Sunday, youdrive out into the sandwastes, and there you findtwo trucks. You movewooden crates from onetruck to the other while aman in a suit silentlywatches. It is a differentman each time. Sometimes,the crates tick. Mostly, theydo not.”

Over the course of morethan 160 podcasts, manyregular and guest actors,and both Cranor and Fink,have voiced roles. The liveshows use a more limitedcast and are built aroundnew, self-contained story-lines. The 2020 tour is called“The Haunting of NightVa l e ”; the plot involves thenew house that Cecil and hishusband, Carlos, are build-ing for themselves. “Strangeoccurrences and ghostly en-counters are plaguing theconstruction process,” aspublicity notes put it. “[But]how could a house behaunted before it’s evendone being built?”

The 2020 tour will haveanother local connectionlater this year when ErinMcKeown, the Valley singer-songwriter who also co-wrote the 2018 Off-Broadwaymusical “Miss You LikeHell,” joins the lineup as aguest musician for severaldates. In an email, McKeownsaid she’d met Joseph Finkand Meg Bashwiner aftershe performed with the indiefolk-rock group The Moun-tain Goats some years back“and it turns out Joseph hadbeen a fan of mine for years… I had never heard of NightVale, but he invited me tocome on the road and [I]

thought it sounded like agood adventure.”

She estimates she’s sinceplayed about 75 Night ValeLive shows across the U.S.and in Europe, New Zealandand Australia. Guest musi-cians such as herself per-form their own music as aninterlude to the stage show’sown background music andsound effects.

“I adore WTNV, the podbut most especially gettingto be on the road with them,”McKeown said. “It’s by farthe most fun I’ve had withaudiences and touring inyears. A real privilege.”

Indeed, added Baldwin.“One of the best thingsabout these tours, asidefrom interacting with the au-dience, is that it feels likesyou’re with family — wehave a lot of fun working to-g e t h e r. ”

And once the 2020 “We l-come to Night Vale Live”wraps up in October, Bald-win figures he’ll still be goodfor an occasional live perfor-mance of the show — justnot an extended tour — andof course the podcast. “Thestory goes on, and NightVale Live goes on,” he said.“It will just be a little differ-ent.”

Steve Pfarrer can bereached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.

Tickets for “Welcome toNight Vale Live,” atN o r t h a m p t o n’s Academy ofMusic on March 12 at 8 p.m.,are available at aomthe-atre.com. Tickets and addi-tional information about theshow and podcast can alsobe found at welcometonight-vale.com.

FROM C1

‘Welcome to Night Vale’ opens new tour

PHOTO BY NINA SUBIN/COURTESYWELCOME TO NIGH VALE

Writers Jeffrey Cranor, left,and Joseph Fink are thecreators of “Welcome toNight Vale.”

FROM C1

Umass Amherst exhibit offers meditations on Iceland and India

IMAGE COURTESY UMCARoni Horn’s photos capture the remoteness of Iceland,including this look at the North Atlantic Ocean from inside acottage of an elderly couple.

A monthly book review column by and for readers in grade 1 through 8

ATTENTION: HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

STUDENTS IN GRADES 1 THROUGH 8*

Send your book review to nie@gazettenet.com for possible

publication in the Daily Hampshire Gazette!

*You are also eligible if living or attending

school in Ashfield, Conway, Whately,

Sunderland, Leverett, or Shutesbury.

For more information,

visit https://nie.gazettenet.com

A play by Rick Elice

Smith College Department of Theatre presents

theandPeter

starcatcher

Directed byCathy Kennedy ’20

Mus i c b yWayne BarkerBased on the novel byDave Barry &Ridley Pearson

Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, 122 Green St. Northamptonwww.Smith.edu/SmithArts

Originally produced on Broadway by Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Greg Schaffert, Eva Price, Rome Smedes, and DisneyTheatrical Productions. Peter and the Starcatcher is presented through special arrangement with Music TheatreInternational (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com

February 28 & 29, March 5 & 6 at 7:30pmSaturday, March 7 at 2pm

Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatregeneral admission: $10 Students/Seniors $5 Smith Students Free!

NE-321096