Filming for two upcoming HBO series – “The Gilded Age,” and “The White House Plumbers” – will set their sights in the Capital Region over the next few months, and a New York City based casting company is looking for locals to portray various roles as extras.   

“The Gilded Age” will site filming locations in Troy in May and June. For this production, Grant Wilfley Casting is seeking men, women, and children from Troy, Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs to portray various roles as extras in the series.

The story of “The Gilded Age” begins in 1882 against a backdrop of change, during a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new.

“The Gilded Age,” comes from the creator of Downton Abbey.

Actors Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City), Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire), Denée Benton, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, Simon Jones, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin and Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love) have all signed on to the series.  

Requirements for locals interested in working as extras in the series: must be OK working around smoke and have natural-colored hair.

Interested? Email your name, union status (SAG-AFTRA or NonUnion), phone number, height, weight, clothing sizes, and current photos to gildedage@gwcnyc.com. This casting is for paid background/extra work. Visit www.gwciol.com or call 212-685-3168 for more information.

In order to be considered or booked, you must be registered with Grant Wilfey Casting. To register, go to: https://gwci.app/talent/

A second upcoming HBO series, “The White House Plumbers,” will be filming in Hudson Valley starting in May and in Albany in late Summer / early Fall.

Based in part on public records and the book “Integrity,” by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh, the five-part limited series “The White House Plumbers” will tell the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, accidentally toppled the presidency they were trying to protect.

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux will star as Hunt and Liddy, respectively.

For this production, Grant Wilfley Casting is seeking Albany locals to portray various roles as extras in the HBO limited series, which takes place in the early 1970s.

Requirements: Anyone interested in working on either project should note the following extra (aka Background) work is PAID; adults must be OK working around atmospheric smoke; men must be ok growing hair out and/or getting a period appropriate hair cut; everyone must attend a costume fitting prior to filming, and mandatory COVID testing will be provided by production.

To be considered, anyone can register for free at https://www.gwci.app/talent/. When registering, be sure to: Select Hudson Valley and/ or Albany as your employment area (you may select multiple employment areas); Upload at least two recent photos (a close up and a full body shot); Fill out ALL required fields and press save; Fill out as many non-required fields as possible.

Grant Wilfley Casting: We strongly encourage people to register. However, anyone who doesn’t want to register can submit via email to locations@gwcnyc.com. When emailing submissions, include: your name, union status (SAG-AFTRA or NonUnion), phone number, age range (actual age for minors), current height, clothing and shoe sizes and current photos. Photos should be recent and please do not submit photos where you are wearing a hat or dark glasses. Please include one that clearly shows your face and a full body photo. Write “Albany Local” in the subject line of your email.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Rochmon Record Club will meet Tuesday, April 20 at Caffe Lena to listen and learn about Hall and Oates – Greatest Hits Part 1 “All Killer, No Filler.” 

There are a limited number of tickets for the in-person event, which will also be livestreamed. 

A Rochmon Record Club Listening Party is meant to inform and deepen our understanding of the history of the individual performers, songs and the stories that went into the making of this classic album. By listening together, we get to hear the music again for the first time.

Daryl Hall and John Oates are one of the most successful writing duos in music history. Rochmon will play, show pictures, and tell stories about 11 Hall & Oates Top 40 Hits staring from 1973’s “She’s Gone.”

The duo arrived in New York City in the early 1970s and hung around the infamous Max’s Kansas City. “Always interesting people, always good music, decent food; it was a very cool place to hang out. We actually played there a bunch of times as well. We even opened for Bruce Springsteen there in 1973,” Oates told journalist Chris Epting, co-writer of Oates’ memoir, in a piece published last week by the website Please Kill Me. 

“Andy (Warhol) would still be there once in a while and we would get to know him really well later on. But it also became another home away from home for the New York Dolls.” Oates recalled “one frigid December late night,” waiting for his date to show up. “She said she would come over and meet me, so I settled in on the sofa and began strumming my acoustic guitar to pass the time. 9 o’clock became 10 o’clock became 11 o’clock. No girl. I had been stood up.” 

He kept strumming. And adding words. “I started singing this folky little refrain: ‘She’s Gone…Oh I better learn how to face it…She’s Gone Oh I…” The disappointment of getting stood up didn’t last long but that simple melody and chord progression was about go on forever.” The very next day, Oates got together with John Hall and his Wurlitzer electric piano. “The song almost wrote itself through our hands. In less than an hour, ‘She’s Gone’ was born and in a way, so were we.” 

For information about how to attend the event or to watch live online, go to: caffelena.org. 

CAMBRIDGE — With a career spanning decades and a dozen albums with Lowen & Navarro, Dan Navarro gets back to touring and performing LIVE shows with a Washington County appearance in Cambridge. 

Navarro’s career started as a songwriter, most often with Eric Lowen, for artists as diverse as Pat Benatar (the Grammy-nominated “We Belong”) The Bangles, Jackson Browne, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick, and others.

In the 1990s and 2000s, he and Lowen recorded and toured as the acclaimed acoustic duo Lowen & Navarro until Lowen’s retirement in 2009. Navarro’s first true studio-recorded album, “Shed My Skin” was released in 2019.

His local show takes place 7 p.m. on May 4 at Argyle Brewing, 6 Broad St., Cambridge.  Tickets $25.  Limited seating | Socially Distanced | Food Truck. Call 518-692-2585, email info@argylebrewing.com or visit: www.argylebrewing.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — An eight-week course of classes in mindfulness meditation and stress reduction will take place – in person – at Caffe Lena, starting Saturday, April 10. 

The Saturday Morning Sessions are held 8:30 to 10 a.m. and run April 10 through May 29 and provide instruction in formal mindfulness meditation methods including a body scan, gentle yoga, sitting meditation and walking meditation. 

“We know from research that the eight weeks works well for major changes in people’s mental health and well-being. And we do know it creates lasting traits like tolerance, patience, loving kindness, compassion,” says Pierre Zimmerman, of One Roof holistic health center in Saratoga Springs.   

The practices offer students a means of self-regulation and encourage the cultivation of greater awareness. Students learn to reduce their particular symptoms of psychological and somatic distress as well as to respond to challenges with less reactivity and greater clarity. The course also provides instruction in informal mindfulness meditation practices such as being in nature and eating with awareness.

Midway through the course, students learn about the physiology of stress and how it relates to their individual stress reactivity patterns. Using the latest scientific research, we explore how the act of mindful noticing activates innate internal resources that can change our perception of daily events, including stressful ones. This altered appraisal allows students to use a broader range of both internal and external responses so that they need not remain locked in stress patterns.

The Stress Relief & Management program takes place at Caffe Lena, 47 Phila St. Pre-registration is required. Masks must be worn at all times, and coronavirus safety measures, including distancing, will be practiced.

The complete schedule and fee information are available at: www.oneroofsaratoga.com/saratoga-stress-reduction. To register or for more information, call 518-581-3180 and contact the administrative director at ext. 300 or Dr. Selma Nemer at ext. 307.

LAKE GEORGE — Are you a local artist who would love to show your work in Lake George Village? The Lake George Arts Project is partnering with the Caldwell-Lake George Library to present the work of local artists in their beautiful historic building on Canada Street!

Guidelines: Artists must live and/or work within a 50 mile radius of the Library. Artwork must be two-dimensional and ready to hang. Artwork must be appropriate for viewers of all ages

Easy Call for Artist’s Process: Go to docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHCZj1jAlgL4LbEewh_3UJgfwZrhYAFZPTbc8ky54_YtRghQ/viewform. Read the requirements. Fill out the application (general information and an artist statement). Email three images of your work to tanya@lakegeorgearts.org

Deadline to Submit: May 1, 2021. Artist Notifications: May 15, 2021

The first exhibition in the partnership will begin on June 1 and will be up for the start of the Lake George summer season. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Proctors new Collaborative Studio, and Tango Fusion Dance Company of Saratoga have worked together on a new dance show that will be broadcast on Thursday nights. 

Tango Fusion Ballroom Dance Show will feature eight episodes at 7 p.m. on Thursday nights through the months of April and May. 

The eight-part series starts with four beginner Salsa Lessons and will be followed by four beginner Swing Lessons.  Each week, Tango Fusion instructors Diane Lachtrupp Martinez and Johnny Martinez will lead a warm-up, review what was taught the week before and add on new steps and techniques. The program will also include some improvisational social dancing as well as a featured fun fact of the day about the dance. 

Viewers do not need to have a partner or experience.  The series would also be a good review for dancers who have danced Salsa and Swing before.  The series is free to viewers but there is an opportunity to donate to the project.

In addition to the lead instructors, Johnny and Diane, the show features additional professional instructors Juan Soler and Jen Cornell, as well as two college students Lucas Martinez and Alanah Cohen-Tigor. 

The goal of the show is to provide entertaining, quality instruction to a new audience of dancers of all ages.

The series will broadcast on the following platforms: Spectrum Cable Channel 1302, Verizon Fios Channel 37, Any Smart TV (just download the Collaborative Studios App), and Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC-2mrbG7kelNj3XOG-ltC9A. 

Diane Lachtrupp Martinez and Johnny Martinez are award-winning Tango, Salsa and Swing dancers. They are co-directors of Tango Fusion Dance Studio in Saratoga that offers group classes and private lessons to both adults and children. They have worked with area organizations such as Capitol Repertory Theater, Park Playhouse, Opera Saratoga, Proctors, UPH, Charles Wood, HMT, SLOC, Fort Salem Theater, Nacre Dance Company and the National Museum of Dance. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The National Museum of Dance will begin Session 3 of the Ageless Dancer series the week of April 12. This six-week session, designed for participants ages 55+, will include a new offering, “Swingin’ Ballroom,” taught by Johnny Martinez. Martinez’s class will teach ballroom and Latin dance moves to the music of swing and salsa. No partner is necessary. Fitness attire, sneakers or soft soled dance shoes are recommended. The class will be held 1-2 p.m. Wednesday, April 14 to May 19. The cost is $36 for six classes.

Mary Anne Fantauzzi will teach Ballet Barre & Balance on Mondays from 1-2 p.m. from April 12 – May 17. Classical ballet technique designed for all level participants will develop core stabilization, fluidity of movement and balance. Fitness attire and ballet slippers are recommended. Participants will need a sturdy high back chair or barre. The cost is $36 for six classes.

The registration form may be accessed at nationalmuseumofdance.org/calendar.

Questions may be directed to Fantauzzi at tours@dancemuseum.org beginning April 5.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The work continues at the Oklahoma Training Track where an approximate-$1 million project is underway. 

The New York Racing Association received approval from the New York State Franchise Oversight Board in January to proceed with improvements of the training track in advance of the anticipated 2021 racing season. 

The upgrades will include a new base, improved drainage, a width expansion of the track where possible, and a plan for new safety railings – which specifically accounts for about $350,000 of that estimated $1 million cost. 

Members of the Franchise Oversight Board said in January they were working with Saratoga preservationists related to the width expansion of the track, as the project will likely impact existing pine trees that were planted alongside the track in the mid-1980s. The training track has not had any significant renovation in 40 years. 

The Oklahoma Training Track signals the start of “spring training,” in advance of the summer racing meet at the main track located across the street at Union Avenue. It typically opens in April, although in the pandemic-affected year of 2020, a delayed opening pushed the opening to the first week of June. Last year’s summer meet was held without fans in attendance.   

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Skidmore College Men’s Ice Hockey Team had their first and only games this past weekend on Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27 against Hobart College. 

All of the games prior for the Thoroughbreds had been cancelled due to other colleges’ COVID protocols, or their own COVID protocols – varying reasons every game. 

“It’s great to be back on the ice in a game setting, after many trials and tribulations,” said Rob Hutchison, Head Men’s Ice Hockey Coach. “We just couldn’t get over the hurdles to get to a game until Hobart.” 

The home/away weekend series were exhibition games. Skidmore lost 1-0 on Friday. Hobart’s Zach Tyson scored the lone goal in the first period of the game, with assists from Travis Schneider and Aaron Maguyan. Skidmore’s goalie Brian Kowalski had 42 saves, 19 of them in the third period. 

They lost again on Saturday at Hobart, the final score being 4-1. Tyler Hall scored the only goal for the Thoroughbreds in the third period, with assists from Everett Wardle and Mike Gelatt. Danny Lassman had 18 saves in goal for Skidmore. Kowalski had 14, and Tate Brandon had 20. 

 The team had been practicing like it was a regular season right along. After about eight weeks of practice in the fall, they had a two-month break from Thanksgiving until January, instead of their usual 10-day rest. Although there were no spectators allowed at the games this past weekend, they still honored their five seniors – Danny Lassman, Matt Muzyka, Misha Mrotchek, Tyler Hall, and Brian Kowalski. 

“They are awesome people on and off the ice,” said Coach Hutchison. “In terms, of leadership, they kept the team motivated and excited to get out on the rink. They put a positive spin on things.”

Next season, the team is looking forward to a fresh start after an exhausting season this year. Coach Hutchison is hopeful that they will be able to go into summer training with some sense of normalcy. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Hyde Collection, Ellsworth Kelly Studio, National Museum of Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Arts, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Shaker Museum, and Yaddo have partnered with the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College for a regional collections sharing project called All Together Now.    

The project is supported by a $275,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Each of the All Together Now partner institutions will offer special public visiting hours during the course of the exhibitions, which begins May 1 and continues through the fall.

 All Together Now exhibitions of artwork from the Tang collection at partner institutions: 

•The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls: Summer Bomb Pop: Collections in Dialogue, May 1 through October, brings together sixteen works of contemporary abstract painting from the Tang collection by artists such as Sarah Braman, Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Mindy Shapero, and Chuck Webster with several twentieth-century works from The Hyde’s renowned Feibes & Schmitt Collection by artists such as Grace Hartigan, Alfred Jensen, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition is organized by the Tang in collaboration with Jonathan Canning, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programming at The Hyde Collection. 

•Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs: Chromatic Scales: Psychedelic Design from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection, June 26 through October, features more than thirty recently acquired 1960s San Francisco psychedelic rock concert posters designed by artists such as Jim Blashfield, Lee Conklin, and Bonnie MacLean, and the Big Five’s Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso. The collection, which will be on view in SPAC’s new “The Pines” facility lobby, features major bands such as The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Van Morrison, and the era’s legendary venues The Matrix, Avalon Ballroom, and Fillmore Auditorium. Chromatic Scales is curated by the Tang in coordination with Christopher Shiley, Senior Director of Artistic Planning at SPAC. 

•Saratoga County History Center, Ballston Spa: The Social Lives of Hats, June 26 through October, pairs more than twenty-five hats in wide-ranging styles from the SCHC collection with several of Alfred Z. Solomon’s wood hat forms, which are part of the Tang collection. The exhibition is organized in conjunction with a Skidmore College class, The Social Lives of Hats, taught by Professor and Chair of the History Department Tillman Nechtman and Associate Professor Erica Bastress-Dukehart, in collaboration with Field Horne, Vice President and Chair of the Museum Committee at SCHC, and the Tang. 

•Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Springs: Brighten the Corners: Art of the 1990s from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection, July 1 through Aug. 14, features more than fifteen works of contemporary art including painting, sculpture, and photography from the Tang collection with a focus on identity and storytelling, by artists such as Nayland Blake, Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler, Wendy Ewald, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Frank Moore, Lorna Simpson, and Tim Rollins and K.O.S. The exhibition is curated by the Tang in collaboration with Louise Kerr, Executive Director of Saratoga Arts. 

•National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs: Muybridge and Motion: Selections from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection, July 1 through Jan. 2, 2022, features a series of groundbreaking animal locomotion photographic studies from the late nineteenth century by Eadweard Muybridge (1830 –1904) exhibited with equestrian paintings by American artist Henry Stull (1851 – 1913) from the National Museum of Racing collection. The exhibition is organized by Victoria Reisman, Curator, National Museum of Racing. 

•Yaddo, Saratoga Springs: Carl Van Vechten On Dance: Photographs from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection, August through October 1, features more than eighty photographs of dancers and choreographers such as Alvin Ailey, Carol Channing, Carmen de Lavallade, Melissa Hayden, Geoffrey Holder, Alicia Markova, Arthur Mitchell, and Paul Taylor by the prolific photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten (1880 – 1964). The exhibition is curated by Lisa Kolosek in coordination with Elaina Richardson, President of the Corporation of Yaddo. 

All Together Now exhibitions at the Tang showcase hidden gems from the Shaker Museum, the Tang collection, and Ellsworth Kelly Studio: 

•Energy in All Directions, on view now through June 13, and Ellsworth Kelly: Postcards, July 10 through Nov. 28: the Tang presents a comprehensive survey of postcard collages by American artist Ellsworth Kelly. The exhibition marks the first time Kelly’s lifelong practice of collaged postcards will be the focus of a major museum exhibition. tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions/275-ellsworth-kelly-postcards.

Details about each exhibition, special public hours and related events will be announced in an All Together Now section of the Tang website at tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions/356-all-together-now.