SCHENECTADY — Touring Broadway will be on the road back to Proctors soon and in preparation, sales for season ticket packages have returned. 

Proctors’ schedule of touring Broadway shows includes some titles from the shortened 2019-20 season as well six from sidelined 20-21 season. Those six – as well as a show from Capital Repertory Theatre – compose the new KeyBank “Broadway is Back” at Proctors Series: The Prom (March 1-6, 2022); My Fair Lady (May 17-22, 2022); Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (June 14-19, 2022); Mean Girls (June 28-July 3, 2022); Hadestown (Feb. 28-March 5, 2023) ; Pretty Woman (dates to be announced).

And a choice of ANY one show from the upcoming Capital Repertory Theatre series (schedule to be announced soon).

The “Broadway is Back” at Proctors Series is now on sale; prices start at $188.50 for the seven-show subscription; subscribe at proctors.org or call the Box Office at 518-346-6204. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College has been named a Blue Star Museum. 

The Tang joins more than 2,000 museums across the United States to offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the Department of Defense.

The program runs through Labor Day, Sept. 6, 2021. The free admission program is available for those currently serving in the United States Military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard as well as members of the Reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and up to five family members. Qualified members must show a CAC card for entrance. For a full list of participating museums, visit arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

The Museum will be open by appointment from June 13 through July 9 to view the exhibition Nicole Cherubini: Shaking the Trees, as we prepare for new exhibitions and to reopen to the public on July 10. Summer hours will be in effect from July 10 through August 29 and will be Thursday through Sunday from Noon to 5 p.m. Public events will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information or to make an appointment, please call the Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit tang.skidmore.edu 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A dozen deep stood the queue to enter Saratoga Guitar on its final Sunday afternoon. 

Matt McCabe owned and operated multiple Saratoga Guitar stores in and around the city for a generation. In January, McCabe, who was 63, died from complications of COVID-19. 

“June 14, 1994. Flag Day. I started in a little 160 square-foot hole-in-the-wall space on Caroline Street,” he remembered, when I’d asked him on the occasion of his 25th anniversary in 2019, seated on the public bench outside his Broadway shop, where he’d sometimes carve a few moments from his busy day to dialogue with everyone from local musicians to elected officials. 

His first sale? “I don’t remember specifically. It was probably a couple of picks,” he had said, with a laugh. “I sold a couple of picks today too. So, pretty consistent!” 

McCabe served two 2-year terms as city Finance Commissioner, from 2004-2007, for more than 20 years hosted The Capital Region Guitar Show – drawing to the city a bevy of instrument dealers, musicians, and fans from across the northeast. Musicians Graham Nash and Stephen Stills, John Fogerty, Joe Bonamassa, and Dave Matthews and actor Sam Shepard were among those who visited his shops. 

On June 13, Saratoga Guitar held its final day closing sale. A line of people who showed up Sunday afternoon creeped up the stairs of the Collamer Building and spilled onto the Broadway sidewalk, where a pair of bronze lions guarded City Hall. Inside the store, violins and cellos dangled from hooks along the shop’s southern wall. The north wall provided safe harbor upon which clung acoustic wood and latter-day electric guitars, the perusing path in-between dotted by amplifiers and accordions awaiting the everything-must-go shoppers to take them home.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The following pop concerts are scheduled to take place at Saratoga Performing Arts Center this year. For ticket information, go to: spac.org. 

June 18, 19 & 20 – Trey Anastasio
July 18 – Chicago
Aug. 15 – Hall & Oates
Aug. 16 – Lindsey Stirling
Aug. 23 – King Crimson
Aug. 24 – James Taylor
Aug. 27 – Dead & Company
Aug. 28 – Lynyrd Skynyrd 
Sept. 5 – Alanis Morissette/Garbage/Liz Phair
Sept. 12 – Outlaw Music Fest w/Willie Nelson, Sturgill Simpson, Gov’t Mule, Margo Price
Sept. 13 – Maroon 5
Sept. 14 – The Black Crowes 
Sept. 17-18 – Dave Matthews Band 
Sept. 28 – Jonas Brothers
Oct. 3 – Zac Brown Band 

Scheduled for 2022 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center: Doobie Brothers (June 16); Steely Dan/Steve Winwood (June 21); Tedeschi Trucks Band (July 3); Rod Stewart/Cheap Trick (July 22);  Backstreet Boys (July 23); Matchbox Twenty (July 31); Goo Goo Dolls (TBA 2022). 

Outside the Region: 

Foo Fighters, Post Malone, Tyler the Creator, Miley Cyrus, Journey, Limp Bizkit, Jimmy Eat World, and others. Lolapalooza, Chicago, July 29 to Aug. 1.
Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer. North American Tour, July 24 – Sept. 6. Citi Field, Queens (Aug. 4), Fenway Park, Boston (Aug. 5). 
Guns N’ Roses, Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, others. Northern California music, food and wine festival, Napa Valley Expo Sept. 3-5.
Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, KORN, Judas Priest, Snoop Dogg, Jane’s Addiction, Staind, Anthrax, others.  Louder Than Life, Highland Festival Grounds, Louisville, Kentucky Sept. 23-26. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — James Taylor and his All-star Band, and special guest opener Jackson Browne will stage a show at SPAC on Aug. 24. 

NEW YORK — Actor/Singer Mandy Patinkin, Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Papp biographer Helen Epstein will be among the many celebrities and theater industry leaders confirmed for the 100th birthday commemoration of legendary theatre producer Joe Papp on June 22. 

Born “Yosl Papirofsky,” Papp will be the subject of Celebrating ‘Yosl’ – Joe Papp at 100, hosted by YI Love Jewish and featuring a full day of events, including virtual and in-person celebrity broadcasts. The schedule will include musical performances, plays, monologues, scenes, lectures and testimonials culminating in the celebrity-studded signature Gala event and Exclusive VIP Reception, celebrating the life of the renowned producer who created “Shakespeare in the Park” and The Public Theater in New York City. 

Papp’s vision led him in 1957 to establish free Shakespeare in Central Park. Ten years later, he created The Public Theater in the building that was formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a haven for newly arrived refugees. The building was saved from demolition through Mr. Papp’s efforts after a long negotiation with the City of New York. It became the permanent home of the New York Shakespeare Festival/Joseph Papp Public Theatre (The Public) and is currently designated as a New York City Historical Landmark. 

Papp’s widow, Gail Merrifield-Papp, and his daughter Susan Papp-Lippman will both serve as Honorary Chairs of the Centennial commemoration. 

At the Public, an innovative model was used for creating a new dynamic way of producing plays in a workshop-style manner that had never been tried before. The concept involved bringing writers, directors, designers and actors together in one place to brainstorm and create the foundations for new and groundbreaking productions.

The most famous Broadway shows to evolve from these workshops include the original productions of “Hair,” “A Chorus Line,” and “Runaways,” among the over 700 shows that Joe Papp produced and developed, as well as modern blockbusters like “Hamilton.”  He championed the cause of multi-ethinic casting and socially relevant topics. Papp was a social activist who also helped to develop other off-Broadway experimental theaters, worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District and was considered one of the most philanthropic providers of inner-city access to the arts, believing that “if public libraries were free, public theatre should be free as well. “

Celebrating ‘Yosl’: Joe Papp at 100 will feature live, virtual and pre-recorded performances starting at 11 a.m. and continuing into the evening. In the spirit of Papp’s visionary FREE Shakespeare in the Park, MOST of the day’s events will be free of charge with the exception of an exclusive, celebrity-filled LIVE and VIRTUAL Gala and Reception, starting at 7 p.m. 

Tickets are $36 for the Virtual Gala at 7 p.m.; $100 for the Virtual Gala at 7 p.m. and an Exclusive Celebrity Virtual VIP Reception at 9 p.m. (A very limited number of the $100 in-person tickets may be made available due to CDC Guidelines.)

For a full list of events, participants and tickets, go to: www.yilovejewish.org/papp100.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Lynyrd Skynyrd “Big Wheels Keep On Turnin’ Tour” kicks off June 13 in Iowa, and will stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Aug. 28. 

Original Lynyrd Skynyrd member Gary Rossington, lead singer Johnny Van Zant and lead guitarist Rickey Medlocke delivered a personal video message to their fans about the band’s touring plans: “We were two shows into the end of the three-year plan for the farewell tour, when the virus hit and everything was just gone,” said Van Zant. “Once something is taken away from you – music and touring in our case – you truly realize how important it is and such a part of your life. Music is a great healer, and that’s what we all turn to when things are good or bad. A Skynyrd show is a family affair, and we want these dates to help heal our fans as much as ourselves.”

SCHUYLERVILLE — Saratoga Clay Arts Center’s Schacht Gallery presents Reversal: RED a solo exhibition featuring sculptural and functional works by Mark Tarabula, SCAC’s 2020-21 Artist-in-Residence, which explore conditions of the human body, concepts of sexuality, and the connection between surface and form. 

The exhibition, which reflects the culmination of his year-long residency, opens Saturday, June 19 with a reception from 5-7 p.m. and runs through July 17. Details for the exhibition can be found online at www.saratogaclayarts.org. 

Saratoga Clay Arts Center’s Artist residency program offers emerging artists who have just received their BFA or MFA the time and space to develop their artistic voice in clay. While enhancing their knowledge and experience in a working studio environment, residents are expected to work to develop a strong and cohesive body of work, have a visible presence in the studio and interact with members of the clay community and the public. Each September, fresh talent enters the community and offers them their unique perspectives in clay while they learn the inner workings of running an arts business.

Mark Tarabula is currently an Artist in Residence at Saratoga Clay Arts Center in New York and will be staying on for a second year. He received his MFA in Ceramics at Edinboro University in Edinboro, PA and his BFA in Ceramics from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI. During the years in between degrees, he was a resident artist in several places including The Ceramic Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gallery-One in Ellensburg, Washington and with Justin Rothshank in Goshen, Indiana. Mark has shown work all over the country. 

Founded in 2010 by clay artist and educator Jill Kovachick, Saratoga Clay Arts Center is a ceramic art center located just a few miles outside of Saratoga Springs in Schuylerville, offering wheel throwing and handbuilding clay classes for youth and adults, studio space and residencies for artists, and exhibitions featuring emerging, mid-career and established clay artists. The Schacht Gallery is open Mon – Sat from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and by appointment.  Located at 167 Hayes Road, Schuylerville. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — King Crimson will stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Aug. 23, according to DGM – the band’s independent music company. 

The 2021 Music Is Our Friend tour of U.S. kicks-off July 22 in Florida and is slated to conclude Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C. Appearing as special guests is The Zappa Band. 

King Crimson famously performed in July 1969 at a free concert featuring the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park attended by an estimated crowd of a half-million people. Their debut studio album, “In the Court of the Crimson King,” was released three months later. 

King Crimson 2021 features: Robert Fripp – Guitar; Jakko Jakszyk – Guitar, Vocals; Mel Collins – Saxes, Flute; Tony Levin – Basses, Stick, Backing Vocals; Pat Mastelotto – Acoustic And Electronic Percussion; Gavin Harrison – Acoustic And Electronic Percussion; Jeremy Stacey – Acoustic And Electronic Percussion, Keyboards. 

LAKE GEORGE — Lake George Arts Project presents Pictures Within Pictures, an exhibition of collages and works on paper by Dan Cameron, running from June 16 – 26.

In place of an on-site gallery reception, LGAP will host a Live Online Talk with Dan Cameron at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 16. A direct link to the discussion will be posted at www.lakegeorgearts.org on the day of the event.

Although he is well-known in the contemporary art world as a curator, art writer and educator, Pictures Within Pictures will be Cameron’s debut exhibition as a fine artist. The works on view date from his return to art-making in late 2016, with increasing focus and attention on developing his studio work in the intervening years. Since late 2018, he has maintained a combination studio and office in Glens Falls, and all of the works on view were produced there.

Cameron links his collage-making to his curatorial practice, in part because they are connected through his process of acquiring art-related ephemera and fragments of visual culture for an ongoing art history archive, in the process accumulating images that aren’t archival material, but nonetheless possess a certain visual appeal.

Cameron was born in 1956 and grew up in Hudson Falls. This is his first exhibition as an artist. As a curator he has organized international exhibitions throughout the US, France, China, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Ecuador and Taiwan. 

The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets, Lake George, NY. Hours during exhibitions are Wednesday through Friday 12 – 5 p.m., Saturday 12 – 4 p.m., and all other times by appointment.

Regular Gallery hours may change due to COVID-19 public health concerns and protocols. For updates call 518-323-5499 or email laura@lakegeorgarts.org, or visit www.lakegeorgearts.org