August 20, 2026: Staged spectacles

We once again enter THE THEATER.In Great Barrington, The Berkshire Opera Festival is launching its main-stage production of Lucia di Lammermoor, a difficult bel canto classic, on the stage of the Mahaiwe. But the festival does much more than present incredible works as it hones the craft of young singers in the summer months. We speak with festival founder Jonathan Loy, and the tragic romantic interest from Lucia Terrence Chin-Loy about the importance of this work and moreIn the north Berkshires is a wholly different take on theater and our connections with it. The Songbook is a theatrical experiment and expansion, one woman’s curious exploration on where script ends and drama and comedy begin to weave those threads in real time in front of an audience. We speak with the show’s creator and actor Williams College visiting professor Erica Terpening-Romeo about this work and the upcoming performance at 62 Center this weekend. And our weekly chat with Jim McGovern sees the congressman exploring Maine, and navigating his recent impromptu visit to a detention center in Plymouth, the local connections to the ongoing federal problems and shortfalls of SNAP, and answering listener questions on legislative AI Slop, presidential runs and more.