Will Call: Recent Episodes
The Greylock Glass
This weekly exploration into the Berkshires arts world offers behind-the-scenes insights with news, exclusive interviews, and analysis of the ever-fluid state of our cultural organizations.
Norma Dream is the songwriting project of Norma Jean Haynes: folksinger, banjo player, and wandering musician. Based in western Massachusetts, Norma Jean has followed a love of traditional song to Corsica, Bosnia, England, South Africa, and Appalachia, and her original songs are inflected by these experiences. Her debut album, Mothers & Daughters, embarks on an exploration of nature and relationship as she strives to define a tradition of her own.
Norma Dream’s forthcoming album, entitled Mercy Drops: une catalogue des brûlages, seeks to capture the experience of a summer spent in Corsican with songs in English and French. At once timeless and timely, Norma Dream’s original material uses traditional idioms to explore contemporary life.
With a feather-light voice and a backbone of New England grit, Norma Dream is where Emily Dickinson meets Pete Seeger, where Robert Frost meets Anne Briggs, and where Edith Piaf meets the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts.
Accompanied by her father Christopher Haynes—celebrated local pianist and accordionist whose credits include Claudia Schmidt and the Young at Heart Chorus— along with fiddler Ben Wetherbee, Norma Dream promises to win your heart with her originality, simplicity, and sense of wonder.
Norma Dream’s Upcoming DatesSeptember 23October 8November 117:30 p.m.
Norma DreamThe Foundry
2 Harris Street, West Stockbridge, Mass.
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Ashfield Fall FestivalAshfield Town Common
Main Street, Ashfield, Mass.
7:00 p.m.
Bridget St John with Norma DreamThe Institute for the Musical Arts
165 Cape Street, Goshen, Mass.
Find Norma Dream on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp
NTRVW: Norma Dream(VERY rough transcript)
Will Call: Norma. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Norma Dream: Thanks for having me, Mongrel. Excited to be here.
Will Call: Well, we’re very excited to have you live and in person at the Foundry West Stockbridge on September 23rd. And I think when we were talking in the digital green room, there were some reasons that that I especially wanted to to, you know, sort of praise your you’re showing up here in the Berkshires. Number one, you are sort of local, right? I mean, you went to Smith College, correct?
Norma Dream: I did. I just graduated as an ADA Comstock scholar last May.
Will Call: Sweet. So North Northampton is a very cool, very cool town. I really wish that we could just drag the whole city into the Berkshires, to be honest. But, you know. You know. Go ahead.
Norma Dream: I also lived for a number of years in Cummington, Massachusetts. Right. They call it the Gateway to the Berkshires.
Will Call: Yeah. The exceedingly severe weather gateway to the Berkshires. I love Cummington. In fact, when we my family was looking to to settle in Western Mass, that was very high on our list of places that we wanted to to consider. We ended up in Franklin County, but that that is a beautiful and sometimes severe landscape, isn’t it?
Norma Dream: I would say it can be. They get a good deal of snow sometimes there sudden storms it happens.
Will Call: But that’s I would say that the the hills and Cummington I think they they they shoot up the rise of a run I think is most severe in Cummington. There’s just they just jut right up out of the out of the earth there. And you also have the Cummington Creamery which I would also love to drag into the Berkshires because the creamery is I’m sure that you probably made that at home, right?
Norma Dream: Well, I worked there.
Will Call: Oh, you did?
Norma Dream: I played there many times. Yeah. No, I lived in Cummington. Most of the songs off my first record. Mothers and Daughters were written in Cummington and about Cummington.
Will Call: Okay, Well, it’s and we talked about that in the Digital Green Room. I love that album, and we’re going to talk about that. Smith That was a that’s not the choice for everybody. It’s a it’s a women only school. If I well, more or less, except for the fact that you’ve got that five colleges agreement, what is it like in the 21st century to go to a women only school?
Norma Dream: Well, you know, there are things about it that are really special. I think it gives women and also non-binary people and trans people the opportunity to experience real leadership in a sort of a in a protected environment before going out into fields that can be dominated by men, for example, in music or in engineering. That’s a big one. It gives, you know, young women the opportunity to experience what real leadership feels like before entering into an environment where they’re faced with more challenges related to sexism.
Will Call: That’s an excellent point that I had not actually considered. Yeah, I mean, before you have to deal with the sometimes really sleazy tactics of men in business and in other areas. It is good to be able to find yourself, to be able to be grounded. I’m guessing to be to to get to know yourself and to to recognize your own strengths and to hone them before you have to hit that that that. Mostly binary world. At least it’s a world that kind of wants to stay. It’s. It’s clinging desperately to 20th century binary values. It’s good to hear that that Smith is also a safe place for LGBTQ and yes, people. Is it because I had not I had never spoken to anybody about that. But but it’s pretty cool. It’s safe there.
Norma Dream: I mean, I can’t speak on behalf of on behalf of LGBTQ people as I’m a straight person, but I know a lot of queer people who are happy there. I’m sure there are some who are unhappy there. It’s, you know, it’s a it’s a it’s an institution. It’s a large institution. And every institution will serve some people and and others will struggle. I think they do try. I think they do try.
Will Call: Well, that’s more than some colleges do. So I think I think that’s great. And you are a a scholar of French and education, correct?
Norma Dream: Yeah. So those were my those were my two majors when I was at Smith.
Will Call: And if I am correct, you spent some time as you were writing your upcoming album in Corsica, correct?
Norma Dream: Yeah, I was actually through Smith. I had the incredible opportunity to live in Paris for six months, and then that following summer I received a grant to and I studied art education in France, and that took me to Corsica, where I was studying traditional song with Corsican song masters and that landscape and the experiences I had there were the inspiration for my next album.
Will Call: Well, let’s talk a little bit about let’s talk a little bit about your entrance into music before we get to talking about that album. You are a. A brilliant lyricist. I just want to say that their your music, your lyrics are I was trying to categorize them in some way or at least describe them. They’re difficult because the thing that impresses me the most or sticks with me the most is that I feel like the details that you drop into your songs make you feel very present. The things that they’re details that are in the moment in a way that, you know, it’s not vague, it’s not abstract. There are a lot of very concrete, small but concrete details that really pull you into the story that you often tell. What what is your what is your inspiration or your some of the the artists that have maybe been your your musical mentors?
Norma Dream: Oh, wow. Well, thank you for saying that. That is not something I’ve heard before. But I feel like those are we’ve we’ve got two questions there. Um, so I when I read a song, I often think of a song as sort of like a spilling over of emotion. Like if I have a really big feeling, it’s almost like a cup that’s filling all the way up and then a little bit spills over the top and that’s Spill Over is sort of the song. So what I’m trying to do when I write a song is to capture images and experiences that get at what that feeling is. Um, so a lot of my songs are sort of collections of images and experiences that, um, that encapsulate a feeling for me. Um, in terms of artists who have been really inspiring to me, both locally and more broadly. Um, there are traditional ballad singers like Anne Briggs and songwriters who, who I love, um, Anne Briggs, Lisa O’Neill from Ireland. Locally, Cloud Belly is a friend and a hero of mine. Um, Bridget Saint John, the songwriter out of New York. Um. People who, um, whose music has a strong sense of place, um, and is also sort of rooted in a certain kind of tradition.
Will Call: So when we’re talking about your, your album Mothers and Daughters, you say that it is inspired by Cummington. How do you translate the sense of place? How do you find the the elements of of coordinates on a map and humanize them and emotionalize them? Yes.
Norma Dream: Well, there’s something really special in Cummington. And I don’t know if you experienced this in the Berkshires at large about sort of the way that. That human lives correspond to the seasons. Like the way that that patterns change in our lives over the course of the year. Um, and, and when I was living there as a young woman around 19 to 22, um, I was really, I found something almost alchemical about the relationship between, like, about between people and nature and how, how the relationships I was having with people were developing in this landscape over time. Like walks I took with people, specific people. Um, like on the bank of a specific river and the way that the leaves looked on that day, or to have the geese flying overhead or the apples ripening or the first real like skateable ice of the winter. Those experiences were made richer by the relationships that I was having with people I met there. And, um, and so a sense of place is also a sense of people is what I’m getting at, I think.
Will Call: And I like the, the use of the word alchemical in, in this description because it really is transforming one form of, of matter or energy into another, isn’t it?
Norma Dream: That’s right.
Will Call: Mm hmm. Um, when you when you chose your, your majors going into into Smith, you chose education in French? Yes. Why? Why not music?
Norma Dream: Well, I started doing Covid. Smith was online when I started there. Um, and for me, studying music on the Internet was not going to be compatible with what music is in my life. Um, it’s not true for everyone. A lot of really phenomenal musicians and technicians have have found ways to continue their studies online, and I really admire that. But, um, personally. It wasn’t going to be the thing. And and for me, music and community are really intertwined. So studying education sort of felt like a no brainer because education is a study of how people learn in community.
Will Call: Got it. Got it.
Norma Dream: Yeah. And friendships makes sense because I love language and I’ve studied for a long time.
Will Call: Yeah, a French soap commercial actually can sound sexier than most English poems. So I get you there. I would say the same with Spanish and Italian as well. Yeah. It’s like.
Norma Dream: Um. Being myself, being a musician, I have managed to spin both French and education in the service of music.
Will Call: Hmm.
Norma Dream: Now I am a music teacher and I am. My second album will be bilingual in French and English.
Will Call: This is. You’re going to have to let me butcher the title here. It is Mercy Drops.
Norma Dream: You can just call it Mercy Drops, but the subtitle is UN Catalog de Privilege.
Will Call: That’s what I was going to try and butcher. And but I would have said it perfectly. I promise you, if I had not heard you just say it. So un catalog de boulange. What is Boulange?
Norma Dream: It’s sort of like, um, it it just means burnings or fires. But also there’s, it’s an art form that has to do with like with, with burnings on paper, but it really just means fires. Hmm.
Will Call: Well, let’s see here. So you, you are. You’re a complicated person to interview. You’ve got so many, so many directions. I could go here.
Norma Dream: I’ve had a lot of lives.
Will Call: Oh, I hear you sound like a kindred spirit. Um, well, let’s start. Let’s. Let’s stay with mercy drops here, because that’s where we’re. That’s the. The the plate we’re standing on. Um. Corsica. It is a it’s a nearly mythical place. Yeah. What? What would you say would be the if we’re using the same alchemy that we used in sort of trans transcribing cummington the place into into cummington the the song, the music, How would we how would you describe Corsica in that along those lines?
Norma Dream: Well, I was in Corsica for about a month and it is it is a land of extreme contrast. And I was there in peak summer. The, the, um, the um, motto, sort of an unofficial motto of Corsica is from like, from the mountain to the sea. Like the mountain slope directly to the ocean. There’s nothing in between. It’s just like mountain sea. And in the summer it is dry, but it is surrounded by this glittering, perfect ocean. But the land, it is just so, so dry. And it’s hot and the ocean is just glittering, like some kind of mirage. And then all of a sudden there’ll be this epic hailstorm like we were there. It was the middle of July, and these hailstones fell down and they were huge, the size of golf balls. And it was just, um, that’s where actually the title of the album came from because I was there with some singers. We were singing in this shape note hymn that talked about Mercy Drops falling from the Sky. And and then these hailstones fell from the sky and everyone was calling them mercy drops because it has so dry. And so for me, this album is about. About extreme contrast and also in love in the absence of love. Extreme contrast.
Will Call: Interesting. You know, Corsica is an interesting place. Have you been? No, no, no, I have not been. But I have sort of an interest in the roots of civilization and. And the roots of the human experience. And Corsica is one of those places that has been occupied in Europe for a long, long time and have had and has had, you know, settlement human settlement there for a long time. Yes. And, of course, it has changed hands many, many times. Oh, sometimes through. Bloodshed sometimes through just sort of the amalgamation of cultures depending on the century. What can you say about the people that you met? What what? Because you said that very often the sense of place is also the sense of people. What did you experience there?
Norma Dream: Well, I met a lot of different kinds of people, so I did meet Corsicans, as one does. Um. Um, who are exceptionally kind to me. But actually, um, a lot of the songs on that album are, are love songs for a young man I met on a Mountain and he’s actually Swiss. He’s Swiss. He was, um, he was I was hiking there in the mountains and I met this Swiss man, and a lot of the songs on the record are for him.
Will Call: Well, that’s fantastic. It’s not every young man that gets to be immortalized in song.
Norma Dream: He’s a very special and strange one. He was a sculptor.
Will Call: Fantastic. Well, how did a Swiss sculptor end up in Corsica? I guess. How did an.
Norma Dream: American banjo player end up in Corsica?
Will Call: Excellent point. Excellent point. So you mentioned shape note. Are you familiar with Alice Parker? Yeah, of course. Okay.
Norma Dream: She was a mentor of my mentor.
Will Call: Yeah, she was one of my neighbors in Franklin County.
Norma Dream: Oh, wow. What a phenomenal woman.
Will Call: Right, Right. I mean, and the energy that she has at I don’t even know. I don’t even know how old she was when she was still touring. Um, but yeah, like 92, 93. And she’s still like, getting on planes going across the world. Yeah.
Norma Dream: So, yeah, yeah. She’s a very special person. We’ve only met once or twice.
Will Call: Tell us about Shape Note. What is it?
Norma Dream: Well, shape note is a New England tradition. A New England tradition of choral singing. Um, basically there was this movement in the churches to sort of to make New England churchgoers better singers and more consistent singers. And someone decided to that the way to do that would be to assign shapes to the notes on the page, to make the relationships between the notes easier to follow, to make the music easier to read. Um, so you have a whole, a really enormous tradition of these hymns that were written with, with shape notes, with the notes in the form of different shapes. There’s four shapes. Um, and I am drawn to shape note because, because it is a, it’s a New England tradition. And as a banjo player, I’ve grown up studying different musical traditions and sort of a tradition based approach to thinking about music. So I’m always curious about the traditions that surround me and the ones that I might have learned from without maybe even realizing it.
Will Call: Um.
Norma Dream: And I did grow up singing shape note So there’s that.
Will Call: There is that. Well, you know, I this is why I love this show. I get to to I knew a little bit about that, but that was the most concise explanation that I have heard. Oh, thank you.
Norma Dream: It’s very popular in Northampton.
Will Call: Yeah. I mean, and. And it is popular. All over the world in pockets. There are people that come to visit Allah that come to visit Alice from all over the world to sort of study under her. So it’s it’s one of those, you know, those one of the things that we can take from the Puritans and accept them and with with thanks. Yes. Can accept everything that the Puritans did with thanks. But the shape note system, I think we can we can be pretty happy with. Let’s go backward and talk a little bit about education. You said that education to you is a very community centered thing, and I love that you you say that because I don’t know that everybody feels that way. At least not in the sense that it belongs to everybody. But your song, your book, rather making Make Music a Kid’s Guide to Creating rhythm. And is a it is as basically everybody can make music.
Norma Dream: Yes, that is a philosophy to which I subscribe wholeheartedly as a music educator.
Will Call: Go ahead.
Norma Dream: Yeah. No, no.
Will Call: Well, I was going to ask what what do you think the evidence is? Because I just I was just interviewing somebody who said I can’t sing, but which I thought was really strange because he had this very melodic, sonorous voice. And I thought, I bet you can sing. You just for whatever reason somebody told you you couldn’t and you believed them. What what do you think about this notion that everybody can make music? Where does it come from?
Norma Dream: Well, I can I have not I have yet to sleuth my way to the bottom of of why people say that they can’t sing. I’ll have to get back to you in 5 or 10 years on that one. But I do think that everyone can make music, and I just think I think it’s because my idea of music is rooted in the sounds of the natural world. Like everything makes sound and and birds sing naturally. It’s just like an expression of what’s inside of them. And I do feel like singing is sort of just an extension of speaking at the base. And then there are levels and levels of discipline that you can put on top of that to become a great concert singer or a great folk singer of any style. But. At the base. Rhythm. Like melodic sound. Melody like melody and rhythm and timbre and pitch. These are just parts of our lives. These are just how we communicate. And also, it’s all just vibration. So it just feels like if you are capable of making sound, you’re capable of making music and anything else in there is just a mental block.
Will Call: I’m going to go with that. I’m going to agree with that. A mental block is is why we say we can’t do math or mental block is why we say we can’t dance. Right? I mean, it’s typically something. And I think that well, you know, I’m guilty of saying I’m math is is is a language I don’t understand. I think that probably if I were to dance more and play more instruments, math would probably come easier because math is is music is is mathematical, as is dance. I mean.
Norma Dream: Music will will come easier to some people than to others. And also people have more exposure. People have more resources. Like it’s not fair. But but it also. I think this idea, you know, have you been to see the Gunnar Schoenbeck exhibition at Mass MoCA?
Will Call: No.
Norma Dream: So there’s this musical instrument inventor who taught at Bennington College, and his collection is at Mass MoCA, and they on the wall there. It says, Music is for everyone. Um, and I don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean like. Everyone is already a musician. I think it’s more like music belongs to everyone. And sometimes in this era of recorded music and music as an industry, we forget that music belongs to everyone.
Will Call: I agree. I agree. I think that music I mean, everyone can make music, but as you said it, it’s a matter of discipline and a matter of of time and sometimes a matter of opportunity. But but I think everybody certainly should be able to internalize the music of their lives, whether it is, you know, humming as you’re doing tedious work. Housework, for example, is is a I think probably if you ask people when do they get to listen to the most music, it’s probably when they’ve got, you know, earpods in as they’re doing laundry or vacuuming. And so like you don’t have to make it a special thing. It already is, no matter when you’re doing it.
Norma Dream: And also one of the things we get at in my book, Make Music a Kid’s Guide is like. Well, what if you take out the headphones and is are the sounds of your laundry a kind of music.
Will Call: Mhm.
Norma Dream: It’s sort of like that’s the inquiry, that’s the line of inquiry that I like to take kids down sometimes.
Will Call: No that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Um, I think there’s all sorts of different work that lends itself. I find that chopping wood, yes. Has a wonderful rhythm to it. And actually there’s a, there’s a minister over in your neck of the woods who wrote an entire book. What was his last name?
Norma Dream: Philbrick. He’s a good friend.
Will Call: Yeah, he. He and his father wrote a book about splitting wood. I don’t agree. I don’t agree with everything. But I do say I will give them credit for convincing me that the mall should be your first line of attack. And rather than an ax. I grew up I grew up using an ax. That was my father’s tool. But but then again, we had acres and acres of straight oak, you know, it was like, you know, 80ft before you hit a branch so you could cut that with an ax easily a maul. However, you have to sometimes, you know, if you’ve got these curly maple things or whatever, you’ve got to really whack it and whack it. And that’s where the music comes in, because you can choose to to create a rhythm of your own. You can choose to. To allow whatever grunts and groans and sometimes profanity to enter that song. And that’s not even a joke. I think that there’s a, you know, work of all kinds sometimes is even the most tedious or difficult or painful work can be made better with allowing the mind to to sort of, again, alchemize it into.
Norma Dream: Yes. And also especially with the example of something like chopping wood. You are inserting yourself into a rhythm that people have been practicing before you for hundreds of years. And that’s special too. And that is the same sort of experience I have when I sing a folk song is like inserting myself into a musical or a rhythmic and melodic structure that people before me have been inhabiting for hundreds of years.
Will Call: Hundreds. Thousands, sometimes. Yeah. Excellent point.
Norma Dream: Are you like, are you? It’s the same as when you do something like chop wood in that way. I mean, it’s a big metaphor, but I love metaphors. Yeah, but it connects you to not only to your environment, but also to the past.
Will Call: Yeah, there is a there’s a place in Maine that sells the size that we used to use before the Civil War. They were hand hammered. They weren’t drop forged. And there’s a whole story behind that. Basically, after the Civil War, we needed to do something with all these factories that we that we had to make guns. So we literally turned our swords into farm equipment because the factories had all this capacity and it was good for a lot of things, but it was terrible for the the PSI, which is a precision instrument, not this big, clunky cast iron or drop forge thing. But so you can still order a European PSI, which is what we used to use. And they are they are razor sharp and they are very lightweight. And when you get going down the field, when you’re cutting hay with a PSI, if you don’t hear the music, I don’t know what to tell you. I just don’t know what to tell you.
Norma Dream: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Will Call: And rural life. I don’t think I have to convince you either, because, you know, you’re sort of a folklorist here. Rural life does not, I think lays claim to so much of our musical tradition. Before before it was sort of taken over by, you know, big city interests. I shall say.
Norma Dream: Yeah, absolutely. Well, one thing I think a musical life requires is time. You have to have time. And when you have a lot of repetitive chores to do. You have time.
Will Call: That’s true. That is true. And I grew up on a farm, so I can attest to that. And time to think of things. Time to write lyrics in your head. Time to do all sorts of things. Um, let me ask you this last before we leave the children’s book. Did the the children’s book, did that come out of your, um, your studying education or was it before that?
Norma Dream: That book was published. I was approached about work, so I didn’t go back to college till I was 24. Um, that book, the Story publishing, approached me about working on that book when I was 19.
Will Call: Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. The story is great right here in North Adams.
Norma Dream: Yeah, I love story. They’ve been really good to me.
Will Call: Yeah, Yeah. A lot of writers get their start. My wife worked for Story for a number of years. Oh, wow. In fact. So, yeah. Small world all around. Um, yeah. One of the things that’s great about stories is that they are not always looking for multi book published authors. They’re looking for people who know, know what they’re talking about, whether it’s raising raising sheep or whether it’s doing some sort of weaving. They will work with people who may not necessarily be authors initially, but they they take experts in their fields and and help them distill their knowledge onto the page.
Norma Dream: Yeah, absolutely. Well, they took a they took a risk on me. And I’m really grateful that having that opportunity really opened up my world and helped me really see myself as a music educator.
Will Call: We’re definitely going to put a link to that book in the show notes for this episode. So that’s that’s great. Um, and now let’s talk a little bit. About. About mercy drops and that’s that’s your most recent and well it’s upcoming. When is when are when is mercy Drops going to drop.
Norma Dream: It actually won’t drop until the spring time.
Will Call: What.
Norma Dream: Sorry. Yeah it’s I’m just gathering sort of momentum for it now.
Will Call: Okay.
Norma Dream: All right. Getting my hand together. Yeah.
Will Call: That. That kind of really. Gosh, that just. That just shook me. How could you do that, Norma? I got so excited to hear this. This all this romance just spilling over.
Norma Dream: If you come to the Stockbridge West Stockbridge show on the 23rd, you’ll hear a good number of those songs.
Will Call: Oh, okay. So, ladies and gentlemen.
Norma Dream: Playing that material and I’m working it up with a band at West Stockbridge. I’ll be playing with a trio and and we will be recording it in Goshen, Massachusetts this winter and then releasing it in the spring for a summer of touring.
Will Call: Um. Okay. My heart has settled down a little bit. I can. I can live with that. Now that I know that I can hear the music. Not all of our listeners can. I mean, they can if they want to catch a flight. We have we have listeners all over the world. So.
Norma Dream: Fabulous. Well, you know, I will have, um, little teasers coming out, um, all throughout, probably beginning in November. December. Okay. Yeah. You can follow me on socials and, and get on my mailing list and things will get out there.
Will Call: Things will begin to, to sort of leak. Well, I’m, I’m glad to hear that. So let’s. Let’s just sort of wrap it up here. The only thing that we haven’t talked about is banjo. Yeah. Why Banjo?
Norma Dream: I ask myself every day. I just fell in love with it. I mean, I didn’t. It turns out the woman who was my babysitter as a toddler ended up being my banjo teacher for about a decade when I was a teenager. Um, and I mostly learned in her basement. But since then, I’ve been. I’ve been really involved in the old time music scene. Um, that is like banjos, fiddles, guitars, basses. Um, yeah, it’s. And I’ve learned a lot from that. It’s. I never was interested in guitar. Now I play guitar, but the banjo is just it.
Will Call: Mm.
Will Call: Well, this is exciting. Very exciting. Well, it fits very well. You know, the original idea that I had was to was I’ve got a number of different podcasts. One of them is Will call and that is a performing arts as you, as you guess performing arts podcast. Another one is the top left corner which is. Notrillioneally. Appropriate since Stockbridge is definitely not the top left corner of Massachusetts, but the one that is probably most has the biggest audience is the Cornbread Cafe. And it is all about American roots music, old time music, gospel, blues, you name it. And it goes up to and inclusive of rock and roll that is heavily flavored by folk or gospel or, or blues. Yeah. So and it even will, you know, I’ll even dabble in some alt country from time to time if it’s not too tear in my beer. And you know, my wife stole my dog and my truck and that sort of thing. But I think that you’ve got a an absolutely solid, a solid place on the Cornbread Cafe. So you’re going to be probably in two different places, probably locally for the Berkshires you’ll be on will call and then elsewise. I’ll have at least a portion of this interview on the Cornbread Cafe, and I would love to feature a song, if you will, if you’ll grant me permission to to play a song from your most recent album on that episode from Mothers and Daughters. I loved a couple of different tunes I really loved. Um. A blot on the flag. That was. Oh, yeah, a very. There was a surprise. I like that. It was, you know, I it, I was listening to so many in major in major keys and then blend the flag starts and it drops into minor and I said ooh I better get ready for this. I have a feeling it’s going to be good. And and of course it was. But you know, like Clay was, you’ve got a video out on that. So that’s obviously a loved one. What what would you what would you recommend that I. A feature on that episode.
Norma Dream: Well, you know, I would encourage you to go with whichever one seems like it would be a good fit for you and for your audience. I love Blood on the Flag. It is the only song I have written of that kind that actually the melody from that is a traditional British ballad. Um, that song has a whole story. Um, and like, Clay was written for a potter in Windsor, Massachusetts, named Constance Talbot. Um, both of those are. Yeah, like. Like would be a good one. Especially since the video is out there.
Will Call: Could do that. Well I’ll see. I’ll see which. What other tunes. Sometimes it has everything to do with, you know, the collection of the eight songs or so that I’m playing and what sounds best with, you know, altogether. Sure. You said that you’re going to be recording in Goshen. Yeah. Is that at the The Institute for Musical Arts?
Norma Dream: Yeah, they’re major collaborators of mine now.
Will Call: Do you want to tell us a little bit about about the Ima?
Norma Dream: Sure. So the Institute for the Musical Arts or the Ima for short is a nonprofit founded by Ann Hackler and June Millington. They were founded in California, but then they moved out here. June is is a is a founding member of one of the first. All female rock and roll bands signed to a major label in the United States called Fanny, and Anne ran the women’s center at Hampshire College for a number of years. Basically, the Ima is a nonprofit, um, committed to supporting women in the music industry. Um, I have worked as an intern and then as a faculty member at their summer camps for pre-teen and teenage girls and non-binary youth. I also recorded mothers and daughters there and am planning a concert series there this fall, so they offer a lot of opportunities for women in music to to network, to expand their careers, to come for retreats. Um, they have an incredible network of music professionals to tap into highly recommend.
Will Call: And they’ve had some, some some big names actually show up as, as as instructors. And one of the things that I love you’re never going to get another interviewer who’s going to know as much about like this stuff as I do. I’m just going I’m going to say that I love the fact that they don’t just focus on the the the music. They also focus on the business side of music careers because that’s one of the place where probably women have been most exploited. Yeah. So being able to teach women how to manage their careers and how to keep from getting ripped off or exploited is is a super important thing even today.
Norma Dream: Huge. I was just there a few weeks ago with the pre-teen girls watching a professional drummer teach these ten year olds how to run a soundboard, how to adjust their own sound, and set up their amps and get their microphones the way they need them. And just thinking like these young people are going to know are going to be literate around their own technology because that music tech side is a place where I have certainly felt sort of helpless as a woman in music. Nobody taught me about how to run a soundboard, about how to what to ask for when I’m working with a sound person. Um.
Will Call: Yeah. And you have to you have to advocate for your, for your own sound. I mean, as a lead singer and, and although I do play guitar badly and I play piano even worse. Um, but, but generally as a lead singer, they don’t let you touch the soundboard. They don’t let you touch anything unless you happen to own the equipment. And so I went many years feeling like my vocals were, were mushy or were were sort of cloudy. And I always I always suspected that it was it was the guitarist who owned all the gear that was, was, was keeping me down. That’s what I was suspected that they were jealous of my my razor sharp vocals and they were trying to try to crush me. No, I’m kidding. You have to you have to be able to to know what to you have to be able to to know the language, to know the vocabulary of of of the technical side of music. And you have to be able to to advocate for yourself and kind of like I would say it’s probably a little bit like Smith College in that when you learn these things as a young woman in an environment where you don’t have to compete with pushy male lead guitarists or whatnot, you get to sort of. You get to sort of find yourself first and find your place in music first.
Norma Dream: Yeah, I would say that that is true. And also to know that no matter how much frustration you have experienced in your career that you have somewhere you can go to process that with people who want to support you.
Will Call: Awesome. Awesome. Well, we’ll put a link to the Ima in the show notes as well.
Norma Dream: They have lots of opportunities for women of all ages.
Will Call: Cool. All right, well, so let’s just say one more time. Where can people other than other than what did we say was September?
Norma Dream: September 23rd.
Will Call: And third.
Norma Dream: At the foundry at 7:30 p.m.. I’m also playing the Ashfield Fall Festival on October 8th, and I will be a little further down the line at the Ima in Goshen on November 11th with the incredible and celebrated British songwriter Bridget Saint John. That is one not to be missed.
Will Call: Okay, well, we’ll put a little mini mini calendar in the episode. You’ve given me a lot to sort of pack into the show notes here. Sorry. No, that’s great. That’s great. I don’t always have that from from just one artist. But this is fantastic.
Norma Dream: And graduated from college. And I’m I’m I’m getting the ball rolling, as they say.
Will Call: Well, you know, like like you said, the so much was inaccessible, undoable during the pandemic. And it’s sort of like you’re emerging from a chrysalis at just the right time in your sort of musical journey. Um, what where can people go to find out more about Norma Dream?
Norma Dream: Well, I’m very active for for Instagram users. That is a great place. I am at Norma Dream, Jean. I’m also I have a Facebook page. Norma Jean. Norma dream. Um, and I have a Bandcamp which is Bandcamp.com. Norma Dream Dot Bandcamp.com.
Speaker3: All right.
Will Call: Well, we’ll put links to all of those in there. Thank you for such a lovely almost hour here. I’m not sure where we’re going to. I’m not sure where we’re going to fit any music in this episode, but. All right. No, thank you so much for that. It’s been a really enjoyable I feel like I’ve been talking to an old friend since we know so many of the same stuff and we will see you at the foundry in West Stockbridge. And until then, safe travels and keep us in your your thoughts as you as you share more stuff out there.
Norma Dream: I will. Thank you so much and thank you for the time and the platform. It’s been nice talking to you. Great.
Will Call: Take care. Bye bye.
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Born out of the multiethnic influences of Boston's academic and artistic scene, Floating Tower thrives on blending diverse musical traditions into a singular soundscape.
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Above: Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.
And this is Episode Number 75 of Will Call here on the Greylock Glass. I’m your host Jay Velazquez, and I’m so pleased to have you with us for this show, which first aired Thursday, January 12, 2023. I’m excited, because we’re going to be talking about an extremely exciting show from the internationally beloved Cirque du Soleil.
TicketsOpening at the DCU Center in Worcester Massachusetts January 12 and running through the 15th the magical performance, Corteo, is sure to bring gasps of amazement in disbelief from audience members young and old.
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.And, we are very grateful to have, as our guest, Frederick Umali, California native and internationally respected gymnast before he joined the original cast of Corteo at its inception in 2005. Mr. Umali performs in the gravity defying act Tournik, in which a group of artists cross paths in an act which marries horizontal bar techniques with circus arts. The artists perform at a central cube shaped structure with two additional bars on each side of the cube. The complexity of the fright pattern and the defiance of gravity will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Among other acts are the “Artist Marionette,” “Acrobatic Ladder,” “Chandeliers,” ” “Cyr Wheel,” and many more, some familiar, some so unique they challenge the imagination.
In traditional Cirque du Soleil fashion, the entire extravaganza is an explosion of color and light as well with elaborate stage features, mind blowing set creations, and lush costumes and make up.
Corteo, created and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, first premiered in Montreal in 2005 and has visited more than 60 cities in 19 different countries as a big top show before transforming into an arena show in 2016. More than 9 million people have been enthralled by the world of Corteo.
And now joining me by Skype I am pleased to welcome Frederick Umali.
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.NTRVW: Frederic Umaliwill_call_jan2023.wav
Will Call: And with me on the line is Frederick Umali, who has been with the Cirque du Soleil’s quartet since the very beginning. Frederick, it is such a pleasure. Thank you.
Frederic Umali: Thank you. Nice to be here.
Will Call: Now, you have been with the Cirque du Soleil for a long time now. And it’s my understanding that you were in you’re an actor in acrobatics, as in a sport before that. How long ago did you get into into that?
Frederic Umali: So with the show currently in its form, the act that I’ve been doing called Tunic, I specifically learned this act for this show that was created back in Montreal back in 2004, 2005, I believe. I started gymnastics when I was about six years old, and I was competitive nationally and internationally for the United States up until I retired back in 2004. And pretty much as soon as I finished my gymnastics career, I went right into some disarray.
Will Call: Now, you have said in other interviews that you’ve borrowed a lot, obviously from gymnastics, but that they’re not the same. What do you mean by that? What’s what’s different than the you know, when we see that you’re you’re doing this, the tourniquet act, it’s very gymnastic. A lot of things that you would see at the Olympics, for example, you know, feats that you’d see on the uneven bars or something. What’s different between the acrobatics you do with Cirque du Soleil and gymnastics?
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.Frederic Umali: So the biggest difference that I’ve learned over the years of performing in professionally in shows for such a play is in sport. We are very competitive. We we train for years and years and years for very, very specific competitions. But a lot of the acrobatics and discipline and strength and flexibility are things that I’ve learned are directly related to what I needed in terms of basic skills and discipline to be able to to recreate my acrobatic movements specifically for this show. And they’ve all helped all the things that I’ve done before have helped me to build that for what I do now.
Will Call: Well, that makes sense. That makes perfect sense. Although it seems that to do the number of shows that you do and travel around the world to do it while you did compete internationally, would you say that doing acrobatics today is more or less rigorous, more or less demanding than your life as a gymnast?
Frederic Umali: It’s a little difficult to compare the two because obviously in sport we train for a long period of time for very specific competitions in the Cirque du Soleil theatrical, acrobatic kind of arena. We have to maintain a high level very, very consistently to stay healthy and be able to perform at a level that is that will entertain the audience. So I would say vigorously now, the physical demand is is high, but not as high as sport. But the consistency level is is something that is more of a challenge to keep.
Will Call: Interesting. And you’ve been doing this well, it’ll be 19 years pretty soon.
Frederic Umali: You were? Yeah, just about.
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.Will Call: Yeah. You said that you had retired from gymnastics, which is interesting to think that that was almost 20 years ago. I would think that it’s it’s. I can’t even imagine doing it. 20 years ago myself, I was, you know, 30 something. Do you feel or do you have to be more mindful at this stage in your career to do some of the amazing, astounding feats that you do every night with Cirque du Soleil as as somebody who’s as an adult well into adulthood?
Frederic Umali: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, as you mature and you do this type of work, it is a profession. And we do take steps to take care of our our health and our bodies and to be able to maintain the type of physicality that we need to perform at the level that we do. Obviously, as we get older, our body ages and we need to modify and do things sort of differently. But the mindset is always very similar and as long as you’re keeping consistent with the things that you do to take care of yourself, your mind, body and health, you know, you’d be surprised with what the human body is actually capable of. But I love what I do and it is my profession for the past eight years or so, and I don’t think that I would have it any other way.
Will Call: All right. Well, I think a lot of people give, you know, Tom Brady of football fame, a lot of credit for doing what he has to do, but he doesn’t have to do with you what you have to do. He doesn’t have to literally fly through the air for about 20 minutes or so. And, you know, if he can snap that football, you know, to receiver, he’s done for the for the for that little bit. Of course, you don’t have people £250 piling up on you either if you if you miss. So there may be a difference there. But you mentioned that it’s amazing what the human body can do. I have heard it said that. And seeing actually comparisons of gymnastics from the 1960s and today and the things that sport has pushed the human body to be able to do just in the last 30 years would have seemed almost impossible. In our grandparents time, the things that that you can you can do. Do you find that it is always reaching? I mean, how do you find it to be always reaching for that next amazing pinnacle of performance?
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo comes to Worcester’s DCU Center January 12 – 15, 2023; photo by Maja Prgomet.Frederic Umali: Hmm. That’s an interesting question. But, you know, like going through my career and and having to evolve constantly and and grow and push myself, you realize that, you know, obviously, technology has a lot to do with the improvement of sports in general. We have better we have better technology to analyze what we do. Coaching gets better. Things evolve on technique, coaching practices and things like this that make that that we gain the knowledge to push the body to a more efficient state and and to understand how we move and how we develop to really go to another level. Because even as I’ve grown as an acrobat and an artist, I see the new generation coming up, the strength and things that they’ve had to go through and learn to be able to accomplish the level of acrobatics and, you know, the the risk and rivers you need to to overcome to to perform at this level. So and I think that that that is a pretty good general statement for most professional sports like we push ourselves to to extreme levels to perform and to be better than the previous generations and learn from that also. That’s my little take on that.
Will Call: Well, I mean, it looks like magic. I mean, it looks like the stuff of of superhero comics sometimes. And, you know, I think one of the parallels, or least similarities I see in the sport of the street, sport of parkour, which is sort of a cousin of of acrobatics and the things that people do there and just and even just rock climbing it, it boggles the mind. But at the same time, your art art has always been. As long as history has been recorded, and I’m sure far before that coming out of the east along the Silk Road. Performers, acrobats, circuses. I mean, these go back to into folk history and to folk tales. Do you ever consider the fact that what you’re doing, what Cirque du Soleil is doing, is part of a tradition that literally winds back into the mists of time?
Frederic Umali: Oh, absolutely. I mean, circus has been a long, long, long tradition throughout human history. And performing the arts is something that has a fundamental root, I think, in that encompasses physical art as opposed to like sculptures or painting or anything like that. But what we do is physical, physical arts, and we try to tell stories in that physical arena. I guess you would say that. Yeah, I mean, we are I think we are still a part of that history.
Will Call: Yeah. And it’s one of the few things that people actually still think about running away to. People still think about running away to join the circus when they’re kids. I don’t know that there are two too many careers that kids still think about running away to do. But I still think I have to worry that my kids are going to are going to run away. Well, not worry, actually, because now I know that there’s so much professional sophistication involved. You have a child, at least in the interview that I’d read, you had a daughter. Is that is that the case or do you have more children?
Frederic Umali: No, I just have the one daughter.
Will Call: Would you would you be happy if she chose a life of of of the circus and acrobatics?
Frederic Umali: Yeah, absolutely. The things that you learn from this, this lifestyle are very unique. And working for a company like Cirque du Soleil. We are an international company and we have we meet people from all over the world. It’s it’s a very unique environment. And I have experienced so many things from working with this company, seeing the world, you know, traveling here and there, getting a taste of different cultures and really, really growing as a person just from being exposed to all those those differences and that I wouldn’t have experienced, like living and working and having a career, you know, back home where I grew up.
Will Call: And that was out in California. Was that was it in San Jose or. No. Not San Jose. Where was it?
Frederic Umali: Oh, I grew up in yeah, I was born and raised in San Jose.
Will Call: San Jose. Okay.
Frederic Umali: I was about 20 years old.
Will Call: Yeah. I lived just south of you for a while. And in Santa Cruz, just over the mountain, I used to take the Highway nine on my motorcycle to San Jose pretty frequently. So, yeah, I love it. I love it. And I don’t always miss California, but I sure miss Highway nine between Santa Cruz and San Jose. But it’s a great drive. It’s a great drive. In fact, my favorite time is when the moon is full and it’s been foggy. If you’re on Highway nine at just just the right night, it’s often in the autumn when you’ve had warm days and cool nights and you’re above the clouds and so you’re driving higher and higher on Highway nine until you get to this point where the clouds are silver, it looks like you’re above just looking down on an ocean of silver with islands. My favorite. I should have taken pictures that when I when I was there. But if you happen to go say hello for me. The the the thing about you said something about telling stories and Cirque du Soleil tells a lot of stories. Criteo is a very unique story because it’s literally about well, it’s it has circus as a theme and its central character as a clown. Tell us about this, this story.
Frederic Umali: So the story, of course, revolves around the life of a clown and famous novelist. And throughout his life, he’s had it’s a story about his life and the people that he’s experiences that he’s had. It is like kind of dream, like a live dream of people coming through, celebrating different moments of lives, of the women that he’s met, the friends that he’s had, childhood memories and things like this. And each of the acts kind of represents these these moments in his life and. That we’re really here to celebrate that.
Will Call: Hmm. Because he’s thinking. Dreaming of his own. His own funeral. Correct.
Frederic Umali: Yeah. Basically, this is this is the basis of on the show. And it’s his imagination on what would happen. And. And his looking back and reflection on on all of those, the loved ones that he’s had throughout his life.
Will Call: Now, originally, this show was conceived and staged as a big top. Performance. And now it’s it’s an arena performance. What’s the difference?
Frederic Umali: Well, I mean, the difference main difference between an arena and a big office with a big top. We travel with all of our obviously a large tent and we have the whole logistics to create this basically a small city. And we stay in in markets much longer. With the marina, we we basically moved with like a very, very condensed version of that show because we don’t need the big top. We have, you know, the physical structures of other arenas and are able to move much quicker, put up the stage and everything much quicker because we don’t have all this logistics around it. But and we can get to more markets that we wouldn’t readily be able to accommodate us because it’s much more more mobile and fast moving paced show.
Will Call: I can understand that not every city has a great open space that you can, like you said, just create a little village out of that that’s accessible to the to the public. Is there anything about being in a big top for this particular show that that felt really sort of right on on the money?
Frederic Umali: I mean, the biggest difference was obviously with the big top we set up in a city and we were there for much longer. So we can experience the cities longer and get a feel of the people more. And but with with an arena, we don’t really get that so much. It’s really we do our shows and we move quite quickly. Obviously, we’re in the city for maybe about a week or so.
Will Call: Right. I guess I wonder if from the public’s point of view there was something kind of neat about going to see a show. That revolves around the life of a clown in a big top, in a sort of traditional venue. Of that a circus would be in. But I suppose there’s a lot of reasons why those have been harder and harder to stage. I know that I was fortunate when I was very, very young to see. A Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in a tent. And they did away with that not too long afterward. And I took my children to see Barnum and Bailey the year before they decided to go out of business permanently. And that was in an arena in Albany. And it’s the same magical it’s magic, but it’s a slightly different feeling. I mean, between the big top and in an arena. Have you been to Worcester before? Have you toured through central Massachusetts?
Frederic Umali: Yes, I have. I’ve been to I’ve been to Massachusetts a few times. Boston And actually I was in Worcester before and I think I believe was back in 2000, 18 or 19. Exactly. Yeah, I have that passed through there.
Will Call: Is this the first? Is this the first staging of this show since the pandemic, or has it been.
Frederic Umali: No, we’ve actually been to for quite a while.
Will Call: Oh, no kidding.
Frederic Umali: The courtyard came back. Yeah, it’s been quite a while. We just finished our marketing in Europe, and we’re beginning our North American leg just at this moment. So we’re about our second city in at the moment and will continue here for quite some time.
Will Call: Do you have any do you know if you have any requirements? No. There’s no masking or anything like that. Has to has to go on, is there?
Frederic Umali: I believe the show abides by whatever local laws and regulations that they have, but currently we don’t have any national policies put in place right now.
Will Call: Well, I don’t have too many other questions because I don’t want to actually give too much away. I will say that the Spotify playlist includes music from the show, and I’m addicted to that. It’s a very sensuous, very visceral sound. I’ve seen some of the videos of some of the performance. It’s just it’s dreamlike. It’s it’s very rich. It’s a very visual show, very colorful as as Cirque du Soleil usually is. But it’s especially so and it’s it’s it’s very fun. Tell me something. When you were a child and you imagined the circus or maybe you had a chance to go to the circus. Do you look at, say, videos of your work and compare them to the sort of dreamlike quality that you might have had in your imagination as a child and say, Yeah, yeah, I pretty much hit the mark on that. Or or do you think that there are yet greater, more wild productions that you’d like to to see yourself in?
Frederic Umali: Speaking directly about Kyoto itself. The yes, like all the things that you said about it being a rich environment, very colorful, very joyous, we we we are trying to portray this on stage as artists and as actors and acrobats. And we we really try to give something unique. And what makes Cocktail very unique is for me personally, is the humanity of the show. We are in very natural makeup, even though our costumes are absolutely amazing. And yeah, we try to make like a very unique experience for for the for the public. And we have, I believe, something very special in the show. And it’s very soulful and heartfelt and enjoyable for all ages of people. And I think it’s it’s a very strong representation of capabilities of what this company proposes and can give to the public. So if you get a chance to see it, amazing.
Will Call: Oh, I, I am delighted that I’m going to get to see it and I will tell you that. I see what you do, and I think maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I could lose a bunch of weight and and start training right now. And maybe it’s not too late to run away and join the circus. Do you have any advice for people?
Frederic Umali: You’d be surprised.
Will Call: Oh, yeah. Do you have some people that.
Frederic Umali: Are looking to pursue this? Oh, we have. We have people of all ages. People are actors from from young to old, from all different backgrounds, gymnasts, dancers, actors, actresses, singers. Live musicians, for sure. Which makes the music amazing. If you if you like, of music always, always love music. And yeah, we have we have a whole catering staff and an audience and 28 different nationalities that are just represented in this show.
Will Call: And I’m sure you have communications people and who knows, maybe you could use an old podcaster to come by. Well, you never know.
Frederic Umali: Yeah.
Will Call: Maybe I will. It’s not too late to run away and join the circus. Frederick, I want to thank you so much for your time, your generosity, and for the commitment to the art that you clearly have have manifested in a way that makes me still, even at the tender young age of 54. Believe in magic. Stay safe. Enjoy the snowstorm that we’ve got coming up this week weekend. And I can’t wait to see you on stage.
Frederic Umali: Great. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate being here.
The spectacular Corteo runs plays at the Worcester DCU center until January 15 tickets are available at cirquedusoleil.com. Look for the link in the show notes to this episode. Thanks again for tuning in and I hope to see you in the audience.
In this episode, we speak with filmmaker Julia Mintz, who is the writer, producer, and director of the award winning documentary, "Four Winters," showing at the Mahaiwe Tuesday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.
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In this episode, we'll be speaking with Michael Bobbitt, new Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, about the MCC's new Racial Equity Plan, which seeks to address a goodly amount of the continuing harm to all the Commonwealth caused by the lack of diversity in the Arts.
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In this episode, we speak with the talented and inspiring Robert Miller, band leader of Project Grand Slam.
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NTRVW: Robert Miller
of Project Grand Slam appeared first on The Greylock Glass.
We speak with two artists who keep alive a musical pursuit born during the nascent sensation of cinema.
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Museum Town tells the story of MASS MoCA, arguably the United States’ most expansive contemporary art space, but it does a lot more besides. This flick situates the museum within the various contexts of history, culture, and economic development.
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Aerial view of the MASS MoCA campus; still from Museum Town; image courtesy the filmmaker.
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This week’s show takes us to The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, in Lenox Massachusetts. Weather permitting, Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost under the open sky at The Dell.
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The Williams Theatre Department will present Purple Valley Plays, original works for the stage written, directed, designed, and performed by Williams students, April 26–28.
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David Eppel shares thoughts on apartheid, creativity in the shadow of oppression, and his 35 years as a professor of theatre at Williams College
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EXPLICIT. Named one of the top ten theatre experiences of 2016 by the New York Times, "Underground Railroad Game" is a vivid, piercing piece of experimental performance from Philadelphia-based company Lightning Rod Special. Recommended for mature audiences only.
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We’re coming up this week on the first anniversary of the Women’s March, the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, with half a million attendees showing up for the flagship event in Washington D.C.
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We speak with Paula Hatch, executive director of the Berkshire Bach Society, about this New Year’s event and look forward to 2018. Also on is Travis Daly to talk about "A Christmas Carol," staged by Berkshire Theatre Group.
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The MCLA Allegrettos, now in their 15th season, are going strong, belting out spot-on harmonies in both their a cappella and gospel sections of the vocal group.
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PLUS a sneak peek (well, more of a sneak listen) to our 1st place storyteller Jennifer Holey telling her tale about “Little Creatures” at the inaugural batch of the new Berkshire Yarn Mill’s live story event! Today is Friday, December 1st, 2017, and you’re listening to Episode 64 of Will Call, here at the Greylock Glass. I’m your host, Jason Velazquez, and I have to say welcome to all our listeners, and thanks for tuning in. I am so pleased to announce that this episode is sponsored by the newest supporter of the Greylock Glass, The Spirit Shop of
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5th Annual Whimsy at the Whitney Center for the Arts, with afterparty tunes provided by the Dust Bowl Faeries; AND a costumed, elaborately staged reading of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley at Shakespeare & Company. Today is Tuesday, November 21st, 2017, and you’re listening to Episode 63 of Will Call, here at the Greylock Glass. I’m your host, Jason Velazquez, and I have to say welcome to all our listeners, and thanks for tuning in. I am so pleased to announce that this episode is sponsored by the newest supporter of the Greylock Glass, The Spirit Shop of Williamstown, located
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This is Will Call, #62—We travel this episode to somewhere in the Midwest to meet high school women’s soccer team The Wolves. Rather we’ll speak with Misha Chowdhury, who directs this Williams Theatre Department staging of Sarah DeLappe’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist play, The Wolves, which runs Nov 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 on the CenterStage. The Wolves Nov 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18; 7:30 p.m. CenterStage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance 1000 Main St, Williamstown, Mass. Get Tickets: $3 We also chatted, separately, with cast members Caroline Fairweather and Isabel Ouweleen who discuss the process of
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Amy Holzapfel Chair, Associate Professor of Theatre at Williams College, moderates a discussion about the politics of participatory performance, and the lessons and practices it can share with democratic assembly in public space. She is joined by panelists, Bryan Doerries, Director, Antigone in Ferguson; Taibi Magar, Director, Underground Railroad Game, Rebecca Schneider, Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University. The hook is to connect theatre with the contemporary wave of engaged social activism. Joining In: Participatory Performance and Social Activism Panel Discussion Thursday, September 28, 2017; 5:00 p.m. Directing Studio, ’62 Center for
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Tony Trischka and Territory brings some legendary American Roots cred to the Barn Music Summer Series at Hancock Shaker Village. This is Will Call, #60—I’m your host, Jason Velazquez, and I thank you for tuning in. This episode is sponsored by Headwater Cider, who believes that cider is best when you grow what you press and press what you grow. Tony Trischka and Territory Saturday, August 19, doors—6:00 / show—7:00 p.m. Final concert of the Barn Music, Summer Series Hancock Shaker Village 1843 West Housatonic Street Pittsfield MA, 01201 (413) 443-0188 | (800) 817-1137 Tickets: $20 I have to
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Story Event at The Bennington Center for the Arts focus on “Stories About Us.” What is Story Night Review? The biggest Story Night yet at the beautiful Bennington Center for the Arts! Five storytellers put their lives on the line as we listen through the laughs and the tears. You’ve loved hearing intimate tales at Two Brews—now experience the playhouse edition. The Review brings together some favorite tellers and puts them on the stage for a night. Who knows, stories may ruffle some feathers, make us laugh or cringe but these are the stories of our neighbors, friends and perfect
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Spirit and Song tie both this episode and much of the creative community. This is Will Call, #58—I’m your host, Jason Velazquez, and I thank you for tuning in. This episode is sponsored by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, which presents the brand new musical, “A Legendary Romance,” August 3rd through the 20th on the Main Stage. Tickets available at wtfestival.org. I don’t always know what thread that runs through each episode will be when I start planning, but by the time I start weaving together story, song, images, and information, the pattern always emerges. Art and Soul This week,
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(from released information) HANCOCK, Mass.—A native of Adams who majored in art history at Williams College, Stacy Schiff is a best-selling Pulitzer-prize winning author – most recently of The Witches: Salem 1692 – who will discuss the intersection of politics and hysteria at Hancock Shaker Village on Friday, July 14, 2017. ”The hottest biographer on the block,” according to Vanity Fair, Schiff is the author of numerous biographies, as well as essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books. Schiff won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Vera, a biography of Vera Nabokov,
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(from supplied release) HANCOCK, Mass.—Blend a country band with early R&B, throw in a hefty amount of vocal harmonies and witty one-liners, and rock out like The Band. That’s what you’ll get Thursday, July 13, when roots music maverick Western Centuries takes the 1910 hayloft stage at Hancock Shaker Village. With upbeat, bar room dance numbers, lilting, soulful tunes of heartbreak, and everything in between, the band is as tight they come. Comprised of Seattle-based country musician Cahalen Morrison, jam band veteran Jim Miller (co-founder of Donna the Buffalo), R&B and bluegrass-by-the-way-of-punk rock songwriter Ethan Lawton, pedal steel player Rusty Blake,
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until / UNTIL WordXWord and Lift Ev’ry Voice collaborate in a poetic response to Nick Cave’s UNTIL Pittsfield, MA – WordXWord and the Lift Ev’ry Voice Festival have collaborated to invite poets to participate in a performance response to artist Nick Cave’s massive installation – UNTIL – at MASS MoCA on July 14 at 7:30P. The performance is free (does not require Museum admission fee) and is open to all. “When Nick Cave conceived UNTIL, he intended it to be more than an exhibition; his vision was a space that would serve as a platform for dialogue and expression.”
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Breaking the Glass Grid: Gender and Transgender Bias Across the Performing Arts Industry This is Episode #56 of Will Call, here at the Greylock Glass, released Tuesday, February 28, 2017. I’m your host, Jason Velazquez, and I hope you’ve been enjoying our opening music, “Dark Sky Day,” by pianist and composer Lisa Hilton. We’ll play more from Ms. Hilton later in the show. Well, we had a grand time covering the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival, with our unauthorized submission of 10 Micro-casts over the course of the event, didn’t we? Now, though, it’s time to focus our attention on North
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This episode is number 55.10, which means that it concludes our special coverage of the 10 X 10 Upstreet Arts Festival going on in Pittsfield lo these many days. We have had such a wonderful time, talking with great artists of all stripes. From Kate Abbott’s insightful and at times emotion-filled conversations to images we’ve been able to share to music contributed by performers in the festival, our scandalous and highly unauthorized entry into the event has been one of our finest projects here at the Greylock Glass. Thank you so much for tuning in. We focus in this episode
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The 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to Dottie’s in 2017! You’re listening to micro-episode 55.9, in which I have speak with very special guest Tom Attila Lewis about the 10X10 Comedy Show. Are you anxious to find out if I managed to keep this episode to ten minutes? Spoiler alert: I missed it by 200 percent. Oh well. Tom was such an awesome guest with so many great insights on the event, comedy in the Berkshires, and the artform itself, that I had a feeling this would end up almost being a full-length show. So I won’t add any more
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We speak in this micro-cast with Danielle Steinmann, president of the Berkshire Art Association, and Sara Clement, a photographer who is one of the many artists who have contributed to this much anticipated tradition of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival. “Winter’s Wings,” by Julie Street; photo courtesy Berkshire Art Association.Berkshire Art Association is at it again! Artists from the Berkshires and beyond are contributing 10×10 inch original works of art to be given away for just $25 each during the 10×10 RAP (Real Art Party) at the Berkshire Museum on Thursday, February 23, 2017. A $25 ARTtix guarantees the buyer
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This is a special bonus episode connected with our coverage of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival taking place in Pittsfield now through February 26. We’ll be airing 10 episodes running 10 minutes each throughout the duration of the Festival. To hear Kate Abbott’s overview of the events and interviews with a selection of this year’s participants, listen to Episode #55 of Will Call, which you can find right on our homepage at greylockglass.com Danny Dollar, Millionaire Extraordinaire, a presentation of the Berkshire Theatre Group Education Program, has been delighting audiences of all ages with its intensely original story, upbeat message,
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This is a special bonus episode connected with our coverage of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival taking place in Pittsfield now through February 26. We’ll be airing 10 episodes running 10 minutes each throughout the duration of the Festival. To hear Kate Abbott’s overview of the events and interviews with a selection of this year’s participants, listen to Episode #55 of Will Call, which you can find right on our homepage at greylockglass.com This micro-cast features Jazz duo Atla and Matt DeChamplain. Through a 10X10 presentation of Berkshire Jazz, the two will perform a collection of “10 Flavours of Jazz.”
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Running In Stillness On February 24, Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based Contemporary Dance Theater Company, will lead a free Dance for Social Justice Movement Workshop at the Boys and Girls Club and perform excerpts from their work, Running in Stillness. To create this piece, director and choreographer Marsha Parrilla, who is a current Jacob’s Pillow Dance Creative Development Residency Artist, talked with women who have been incarcerated, or have had close family members incarcerated. We talked with her about creating the work. The score to “Running in Stillness,” featured in this episode, was composed and performed by Shane Shanahan and Ricardo Gallo.
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Tom Coash’s full-length play, “Veils,” set in Cairo at the beginning of the Arab Spring, played at Barrington Stage in the fall of 2015. He says an experience from “Veils” inspired him to write the shorter work that appears in this year’s 10×10 Festival. He talked with us about both plays and what he has learned in writing them. You should definitely also check out our conversation in Will Call, #18, with playwright Tom Coash and director by Leah C. Gardiner,” from the play’s 2015 run at Barrington Stage Company. Save Save Save Save
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This is a special bonus episode connected with our coverage of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival taking place in Pittsfield now through February 26. We’ll be airing 10 episodes running 10 minutes each throughout the duration of the Festival. 10 New Voices February 20, at 7:00 p.m. Berkshire Museum 39 South Street, Pittsfield, Mass. Cost: FREE To hear Kate Abbott’s overview of the events and interviews with a selection of this year’s participants, listen to Episode #55 of Will Call, which you can find right on our homepage. On Monday, February 20, at 7:00 p.m., WordxWord will present 10 New
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Bacon & God’s Wrath – excerpt from sol friedman on Vimeo. This is a special bonus episode connected with our coverage of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival taking place in Pittsfield now through February 26. We’ll be airing 10 episodes running 10 minutes each throughout the duration of the Festival. To hear Kate Abbott’s overview of the events and interviews with a selection of this year’s participants, listen to Episode #55 of Will Call, which you can find right on our homepage. Best of Shorts at the 6th Annual 10×10 February 19, 2017; 2:30 p.m.–11:00 p.m. Beacon Cinema, 57 North
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The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival Explodes into Its 6th Year. The 6th Annual 10×10 Festival is February 16-26, 2017. Participants and locations include Barrington Stage Company, the Beacon Cinema, Berkshire Athenaeum & Berkshire Historical Society, Berkshire Art Association, Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Running Center, Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Word X Word. *note You may begin with young poets curating an evening of spoken word — or with a rising comedian from New York — or with Brazilian jazz, bossa nova and blues. You may begin with young poets curating
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We speak with artist and activist Diane Firtell about the “CHAIRity” exhibition and silent auction taking place at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge as part of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival. Proceeds will benefit the Pittsfield Education Foundation. From CHAIRity release “This year we invited 17 local artists and 2 organizations, to use their creative genius and recycle chairs no longer being used in the Lounge. The only instruction was to take the chairs and bring them back in another form. Working in all mediums these artists have produced a fantastic and diversified show with wall hangings, table sculpture, planters, a toy
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In the wake of the November election, people across the country have seen fear and anger and exclusion become part of a national public conversation. Many people are sharing the experience of feeling that they do not belong in their familiar places. It’s called othering — making someone feel pushed to the edges, unwanted or different. It can happen in daily meetings and conversations, at work, at school, even at home. In the Berkshires, movements are growing in response, art and lectures and performances and rallies, to explain what othering means and what it looks like — and to draw people together instead. People
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Ensemble of five proves that It’s a Wonderful Life (yes, still!) Today is Tuesday, December 13, and this is Episode #53 of Will Call. I’m your host and pretender to the Will Call throne, Jason Velázquez, and I thank you for joining us! On this edition of Will Call, we’re excited to be able to share a conversation that I had with two of the creative talents behind Shakespeare & Company’s production of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” director Jenna Ware and actor Ryan Winkles. The show is playing for just one weekend in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at
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A Talk with Beryl Jolly You’re listening to 52 of Will Call, released on a brilliant and beautiful Saturday, November 19, 2016. I’m your host, Jason Velázquez, and I thank you so much for joining us. We just heard a snippet of Ghost Town Girl from the eponymous new release from California-based Roots band, Echo Sparks. Not because we’re featuring them on this show, but because I recently recorded a video interview with them and I’ve got that tune stuck in my head. Go to greylockglass.com and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when that
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Pittsfield, Mass.—The Board of Trustees of Hancock Shaker Village announced Wednesday, September 14 the appointment of Jennifer Trainer Thompson as president and chief executive officer. Ms. Thompson will assume her new role at the end of the year from her current post as senior vice president of partnerships and external affairs at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Ms. Thompson has over 28 years of experience in arts administration and culture in the Berkshires. One of a small team that developed MASS MoCA beginning in 1988, she has been integral to the evolution of the museum, having organized
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LENOX, Mass. — If you’ve ever wanted to see Hillary Clinton belt a show tune, Donald Trump sing a rock song, or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie perform a classical ballet, The Capitol Steps might just be the show for you. We were lucky enough to catch up with Capitol Steps (website, Facebook) writer and performer Bari Biern, who revealed the origins of the Capitol Steps , yet somehow managed to keep her own party affiliation a mystery (even off mic!). Turns out, Biern is a woman of many, many talents who’s voice you have probably heard before, even if you’ve
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William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” brings together some very talented local flotsam. In this episode, we were lucky enough to catch Enrico Spada, founder and artistic director of Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park, with a little time to to talk about the 2016 presentation of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Considering that today is the opening of the run, that’s no mean feat. Now in its third season, Shakespeare in the Park, is expected to draw an audience of 5,000 before it closes on August 7. I hope you enjoy this great conversation about one of the Berkshires’ newest great traditions. “The
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Governor Charlie Baker issued a budget veto on July 8 that would slash funding for the arts, humanities, and sciences through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) by more than half. The cut would exceed the value of MCC’s two largest grant programs, reducing state cultural funding to levels not seen since 1994. In this episode, we speak with Van Shields, executive director of the Berkshire Museum, about some of the ways that programs supported by the MCC have had an impact on the lives of residents across the county and state. Shields points out the now universally understood link between
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Governor Charlie Baker issued a budget veto on July 8 that would slash funding for the arts, humanities, and sciences through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) by more than half. The cut would exceed the value of MCC’s two largest grant programs, reducing state cultural funding to levels not seen since 1994. In this episode, we speak with Matt Wilson, exectuive director of MASSCreative, about the precarious fate of arts, culture, science, and humanities programs across the state. Wilson points out impacts of the arts on communities way beyond the aesthetic. Programs supported by the MCC have been shown to
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Like Summer itself, “Orpheus in the Berkshires” enters the scene with a flourish. A wildflower bouquet of textures and colors, the piece immediately charms, providing just the right touch at this season’s picnic of theatre offerings. In its creation, the production of “Orpheus,” from the Williamstown Theatre Festival, redefines the phrase, “community theatre.” Reframing the concept as an artistic mission to embrace an entire community as both inspiration and raw material, playwright Lucy Thurber and director Laura Savia create a fantastical world that is as familiar in its faces, strengths, and problems as the whole of the Berkshires itself. We
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A Whimsical Fantasy Celebrating the Arts The Berkshire Mountain Faerie Festival makes its debut in Adams, June 25, with activities, music, arts, and magic for believers of all ages. aaa When: June 25th, 2016 10:00am to 10:00pm Where:Bowe Field, Adams, Mass. (Adams Aggie Fair Grounds) Cost: $5 admission, children under 12 FREE Visit their Facebook page for more details. Presented by: The Adams Arts Advisory Board with the Adams Agricultural Fair (non-profit 501c) being their fiscal agent Proceeds to: Public Art and Community Based Art within our region, including schools and libraries Activities Performances throughout the day on the
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We celebrate the Summer Solstice with one of the Summery-est passages we know. Enjoy! The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Full text available at Project Gutenberg) VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN The Willow-Wren was twittering his thin little song, hidden himself in the dark selvedge of the river bank. Though it was past ten o’clock at night, the sky still clung to and retained some lingering skirts of light from the departed day; and the sullen heats of the torrid afternoon broke up and rolled away at the dispersing touch of the cool fingers
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FIGMENT, a free, family-friendly participatory arts event held in multiple cities and attracting tens of thousands of participants each year, has announced their inaugural North Adams event. FIGMENT is an explosion of creative energy, a celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible. For one day, attendees will transform Windsor Lake into a large-scale collaborative artwork — and then it’s gone. Visit their website to learn about it’s mission, principals, and to check out great photos and videos of past events. FIGMENT North Adams Windsor Lake April 30, 2016; 3:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. FREE In this episode, we speak
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Berkshire Cultural Resource Center Program Manager Michelle Daly joins us for our first show after our Winter hiatus. And somehow she’s the perfect guest to have on this episode in which we celebrate Spring while we look forward to the Summer-long extravaganza that is DownStreet Art! She’ll be at MCLA Gallery 51 on Monday March 28 from 6-8pm to meet artists, answer your questions and introduce the THREE opportunities available this year. Here’s your chance to network, ask questions and learn about opportunities for artists and creative entrepreneurs or to sign up to volunteer. Full details and requirements for each
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Deirdre Flynn Sullivan joins us again for a Young Adult and Children’s Literature episode of “Will Call,” and she chooses the “Hero’s Journey” as our topic, which seems an appropriate, if less than obvious, direction to take this holiday season. The hero’s journey, or monomyth, is a common pattern followed by tales from all manner of genre, whether epic fantasy, science fiction, or drama. A hero sets off on an adventure, and, during a decisive crisis, wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed. Learn more by reading the complete explanation at Wikipedia, or a slightly pared down
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A special “Home for the Holidays”concert on Friday, December 18 at 6 pm at The Williams Inn will benefit Higher Ground of Northern Berkshire, the non-profit that supports community members displaced by Tropical Storm Irene and advocates for affordable housing. Home for the Holidays December 18, 6:00 p.m. The Williams Inn 1090 Main St, Williamstown, MA 01267 Admission $15-$20 on a sliding scale Gail talks with Deb Burns and Karl Mullen about the concert and Higher Ground’s work, which is culminating in the soon to be completed Highland Woods complex at the corner of Southworth and Church
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Award-winning New York cabaret singer Elaine St. George talks about her new CD of songs by Steve Goodman – one of the best songwriters no one has ever heard of (although you know his music.) Elaine St. George started singing as a teenager and has returned to pursue this early love professionally with great success. Her cabaret performances have earned her a 2013 MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs) Hanson Award for Continued Excellence in Cabaret and the 2014 Bistro Award for Outstanding Vocalist. Now she has recorded a new CD of the songs by the late Steve Goodman (1948-1984) containing thirteen
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It’s a grand celebration of the American West with the Festival of Trees 2015: Westward Ho Ho Ho! on view to the public from Saturday, November 14, 2015, through Sunday, January 3, 2016. Berkshire Museum Director of Development Nina Garlington, and Director of Communications Lesley Ann Beck talk with Gail about this annual holiday event, which this year features more than 100 twinkling, tantalizing holiday trees decorated to evoke the adventure and romance of the American West. Festival of Trees 2015: Westward Ho Ho Ho! is proudly sponsored by Hill Engineers, Architects, Planners Inc.; Pittsfield Cooperative Bank; RBC Wealth
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We speak again with our ever-generous guest Michelle Daly of the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Michelle discusses some of the exceptional events coming up in December, including Anais Mitchell, Unsilent Night, and Spectacle 99, and hints at what’s to come in 2016.
Definitely consider subscribing to the “North Adams Happenings” newsletter put out by the BCRC—a great resource for anyone looking to find out what’s going on around town.…
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