What's On Now - Spring 2013

Events marked with an * are free of Charge and open to the public.

Now through May 24th Annual Book Sale. The Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies will continue to hold our annual book sale. There is a lot of good material for sale, particularly related to the Renaissance, Medieval, and Classical periods.  Stop by the Center anytime between 10 and 4 Monday throught Friday.  We have many great books that will be heavily discounted. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Upcoming Events - Summer 2013

Events marked with an * are free of Charge and open to the public.

June 22nd Gardener's Guild Luncheon and Talk. 12 noon to 2pm, Reading Room. Members Only- Join the Guild!

July 19th to 21st Hampshire Shakespeare's Young Company performs "Much Ado About Nothing." Directed by Toby Bercovici. Rehearsals July 8th to the 12th and July 15th to the 19th. All shows outdoors, 7pm curtain at the Renaissance Center's Great Meadow. Follow link for ticket information.

July 25th Blue Heron Renaissance Choir performing "Divine Songs", Music of Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420-1497). Scott Metcalfe, director. 8:00pm at Smith College's Sweeney Hall in Northampton, MA with a pre-concert "Informance" at 7:15pm. General admission tickets $25 and students/seniors are $15. Tickets are available at the door or online. Presented by Massachusetts ACDA with assistance from the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies.

July 31st to August 11th Hampshire Shakespeare Company presents: "Much Ado About Nothing". Wednesdays through Sundays, all shows outdoors. 7pm curtain at the Renaissance Center's Great Meadow. Follow link for ticket information. Also enter to win in the Great Shakespeare Picnic Contest!

August 14th to the 25th Hampshire Shakespeare Company presents: "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield.. Wednesdays through Sundays, all shows outdoors. 7pm curtain at the Renaissance Center's Great Meadow. Follow link for ticket information.

August Performance of Enchanted Circle, Acting Shakespeare. Date and time to be announced.

Ongoing Events

Renaissance Wednesdays

Resumes in the Fall. Discussions of the Renaissance roots of our culture, at 4:00 p.m. in the Reading Room with refreshments co-sponsered by The Amherst Woman’s Club. Free of charge and open to the public.

March 6th “Jonathan Edwards” with Ron Story.
March 13th “The Alchemist and Renaissance Theater” with Nate Leonard.
March 27th “Forging Poetic Authorship in Renaissance Spain” with Albert Lloret.
April 3rd “Renaissance Tapestries” with Tamar Shadur.
April 10th “Recent Advances in the Art of Violin Making” with Lloyd Craighill.
April 17th “Rare Book Show and Tell” with Curator David Katz.

Check back in September for the Fall 2013 schedule!

Renaissance Center Theatre Festival: The Festival of Madness and Mayhem!

April 7th Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. A staged reading of the text, as adapted by Alison Bowie. Sunday the 7th only, 2pm at the UMass Fine Art Center's Upper Rand Lobby. Free of charge and open to the public. Co-Sponsored by the UMass Deptartment of Theater.

April 18, 20, 21, 25 and 27th Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, directed by Dori Robinson. Adults $7, Students $5, cash only at the ticketbox on the day of the show please. 7pm for all shows except the 21st at 2pm. Please call 413-577-3600 for reservations due to limited seating. Co-Sponsored by UMass Hillel.

The Festival is made possible in part by a grant from the UMass Arts Council.

Community Classes for Adults

Classes resume in the Fall 2013, check back for offerings and schedule. Informal classes for the community. Free of charge and open to all. Registration is required by phone at 413-577-3600 or by email.

Spring 2013 Classes:

Shakespeare with Normand Berlin. Tuesdays, 7-9pm, April 2, 9, 16, 23. Cheney Room at the Center. We will discuss two Roman plays--the cool Julius Caesar and the hot Antony and Cleopatra. Please read the plays beforehand.

Italian literature with Nina Cannizzaro. Renaissance Forbidden Texts. Wednesdays 5-7pm, Cheney Room at the Center. 6 sessions, March 13th and 27th. April 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th. No familiarity with the Italian language or literature expected or needed.

Some of the topics to be broached include: Medieval condemnation of books and individuals vs. post-Reformation censorship;  competing claims (between church and state) to cultural supremacy; Latin as a forbidden language; Vernacular as a forbidden language; prohibition against pursuit of knowledge into sacred things or of Bible outside of papally sanctioned intermediaries; tacit cultural prohibition to interpret Aristotle independent of Thomistic commentary; the new intellectual access to occult secrets of ancient hermetic, alchemical and magical doctrines via 15th-c. Florentine Platonism [For which we will read Marlowe's Dr.Faustus]; the processes of cultural control pre- and post- printing press; authority, copywrite, print privileges; correctors, expurgators, inquisitors; prohibition of single title vs. an author's opera omnia; prohibitions (obliterato memoriae); the merging of the Inquisition in 1542 with the Holy Office/Sant'Uffizio, the new congregation whose mandate was the compilation of the Index of Forbidden Books (1559); the foundation of the Jesuits and crises of authority and cultural legitimacy; license and the Renaissance private academy and forbidden societies (Areopagitcal, Rosicrucian; Academies of Secrets, of Night, etc.).

Garden Design in the time of Shakespeare: Labyinths, Mazes and Grottos with Ellen Kosmer. Tuesdays, 3-5 p.m. April 2, 9, 16 and 30. This seminar will explore the influence of Italian gardens on those in France and England in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Shakespeare Under the Stars Summer 2013 Performance Dates:

Follow link for ticket information. All performances 7pm curtain, outdoors in The Great Meadow at the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies.

HSC Young Company's Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Toby Bercovici. Rehearsals July 8 - 12 and July 15 - 19. Performances July 19 to 21.

Much Ado About Nothing July 31st to August 11th, Wednesday through Sunday.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. August 14th to 25th, Wednesday through Sunday.

Hampshire Shakespeare Company is a community-based organization with part-time seasonal professional staff. The Company brings together professional, amateur and student performers, offering audiences and actors a range of theatrical experiences from the most profound to the most playful. For more information about this season, call Sean Landers at (413)297-0407.