The Berkshires Are Calling—And They Say Come Out and Play The region’s vaunted cultural entities are all open for business, as are the inns, the hotels, the restaurants, the golf courses, the whitewater rafting, the museums and all the other activities that make the Berkshires lovely and unique. BY MICHAEL LEVIN
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he Berkshires, those gently nestled hills in Western Massachusetts, have a message for post-pandemic America: Come out and play. The region’s vaunted cultural entities are all open for business, as are the inns, the hotels, the restaurants, the golf courses, the whitewater rafting, the museums and all the other activities that make the Berkshires lovely and unique. Audiences for places like Jacob’s Pillow, America’s oldest summer dance festival, and Tanglewood, for generations the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, are back in full force. The masks are off and the smiles are on, as great performers take to the stages and happy audiences get essential parts of their lives back.
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For true culture vultures, you can stack one outstanding aesthetic experience on top of the next, if you so desire, or you can enjoy a more leisurely stroll through the music, dance and art that the towns of Lenox, Lee, Becket and Stockbridge offer. My wife and I took a more aggressive approach on a recent Thursday night and did Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood back-to-back. Here are some of the highlights. Jacob’s Pillow offers indoor and outdoor performances. The indoor performance space is currently undergoing renovations, but no worries, because the outdoor stage is about as spectacular a setting for the performing arts as exists on earth. Audiences sit on comfortable, socially distanced benches for two or four in an intimate setting with perfect sightlines to the stage. The stage itself is a large, mounted platform with a backdrop consisting of the Berkshire hills in all their afternoon or early evening glory. It must be just as much of a thrill for the perform-
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