The season for Close Encounters With Music begins on October 18 at 6:00 PM.  This wonderful Berkshires music organization will present “Crown Jewels:  A  Musical Tour through Europe’s Princely Courts.” Featured artists are the Camerata San Marco string orchestra and Aya Hamada playing harpsichord. The performance is at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  Brook Farm Inn is a member of Berkshire Elegant Country Inns.  Contact Close Encounters With Music for tickets, and when you mention Berkshire Elegant Country Inns, you’ll receive a discount.  800-843-0778

Shakespeare and Company is performing “The Canterville Ghost” at the new Elayne Bernstein Theater in Lenox Massachusetts.  We attended last night’s preview and loved it.  Michael Hammond is brilliant as Sir Simon the Spellbinder.  The supporting cast was talented and versatile.  The play runs about 90 minutes without intermission. 

This was our first trip to the Elayne Bernstein Theater and we were very impressed.  The facility is beautiful and we look forward to future visits.  The theater is in a large wide room but the audience is very close to the performers, which makes for an intimate experience.  The staging and quality of the performance overcome the modern and minimalist decor.  The one drawback is the seats.  Although padded they are not very comfortable for larger people. 

The play runs through November 9th, so book your room at Brook Farm Inn,  order your tickets from Shakespeare and Company, and enjoy the fall foliage in the Berkshires.

You can view–and purchase – new works by Marguerite Bride at Museum Facsimiles in Pittsfield. Ms. Bride’s solo exhibit displays her Local Color series.  She captures the beauty of the Berkshires in her watercolors, which feature well-known scenes and also unusual and out-of-the-way views.  Plus, Museum Facsimiles is a wonderful and unique store, where you’ll be beguiled by art for your home, wearable gifts, and special stationery and cards.  We at Brook Farm Inn in Lenox have been customers for a long time.

Come see the stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird! It’s at the Barrington Stage Co. in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from October 8th through the 26th.  The famous novel was written by Harper Lee.  This production promises to be worthwhile.  Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox, is only a few minutes away.

Four of the Berkshires’ most visited attractions have combined under the name “American Icons” to make your visit to the area more convenient and affordable.  Now through the end of October you can visit The Hancock Shaker Villiage, the largest working farm from the Shaker era; The Mount Estate and Gardens, the home of the great American author Edith Wharton; Chesterwood Museum, the home and the studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French (Lincoln Memorial and Minute Man statues); and The Norman Rockwell Museum.  Buy an American Icon pass for $46.00 and visit all four or buy a Pick Two pass for $25.00.  The passes are valid for four days including the date of purchase.  Passes may be purchased at any of the four sites.

Book your room at Brook Farm Inn in Lenox Massachusetts and you will be centrally located to all Berkshire attractions during the Fall Foliage Season.

Poetry is here at Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox Massachusetts.  We enjoy sharing the many poetry volumes in our library, and showcasing a poem every day for our guests to read.  Here’s a seasonal poem that we like, because it describes the Berkshires! It’s titled “September Hills.”

Have you seen the hills in September–

The aspens dripping their gold?

It’s a picture no artist has painted,

A beauty no poet has told.

You must see for yourself the splendor

The glory that fills and thrills–

THe gold of the sun on the aspens,

September high in the hills.

Shakespeare & Co. is presenting “The Canterville Ghost” from Sept. 19th through November 9th.  Adapted from the story by Oscar Wilde, it sounds like the perfect play for the autumn season.  Featured is Michael Hammond as Sir Simon the Spellbinder.  Hammond received rave reviews for his recent portrayal of Iago.  We have our tickets, and will encourage our guests, at Brook Farm Inn in Lenox Massaachusetts, to see it.

This weekend see the critically acclaimed SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY production of Hamlet.  When SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY staged their stunning new production of Hamlet in 2006, The New York Times praised the “invaluable and indefatigable” 28 year old company for “…speak[ing] the speech so clearly and comprehendingly that even theater goers new to Shakespeare grasp the plot and characters.”

Now, America’s foremost center for Shakespeare performance and studies will offer Hamlet as their first national tour in the fall of 2008, bringing a “pared-down, revved-up version” of Shakespeare’s uncontested masterpiece to audiences across the country.

Curtain times are at 2:00pm and 8:00pm on Saturday and Sunday September 13 and 14.  Contact boxoffice@shakespeare.org or visit their website http://shakespeare.org.  The performances are at the Founders Theater on Kemble Street in Lenox Massachusetts, around the block from Brook Farm Inn.  Call us to reserve your room this week end.

The South Mountain Concert Hall is a magical place, situated on a wooded slope in the midst of the Berkshire Hills.  Its intimate atmosphere and ideal acounstics provide a unique setting for the performance of chamber music.  Internationally reknowned artists have appeared there, and this season promises to be a great one. It starts this Sunday, Sept. 7th, with the Kalichstein, Laredo, Robinson Trio.  Brook Farm Inn hosts a number of guests who come to Lenox just for these concerts, which will be held the next five Sunday afternoons.  For information phone 413-442-2106.

Callers to Brook Farm Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts are asking about fall foliage — they want to know if the leaves are changing yet.  The answer is, a little bit.  You can see a few maples with orange leaves at the end of some branches, and even though the days are beautiful and warm, the evenings get cool. So that will bring on more changing colors.  Come see the Berkshires for yourself in this beautiful season!