Call me Melville

WHAT: Dedication of new interpretive plaque along the self-guided Melville trail in Berkshire County, featuring Pontoosuc Lake a poem by Herman Melville, funded through a grant from Housatonic Heritage.

WHEN: Rescheduled to raindate: Thursday, October 4th, 11:30am

WHERE: Pontoosuc Lake Park, Hancock Road, just off Route 7 in Pittsfield, Mass.

WHO: Pittsfield Mayor Daniel Bianchi, Dan Bolignani, Executive Director, Housatonic Heritage, Will Garrison, Curator at the Berkshire Historical Society at Arrowhead

WHY: The enhancement of the self-guided Melville trail with interpretive plaques at key locations and an online counterpart to the brochure is part of Call Me Melville, the ongoing celebration of Herman Melville in the Berkshires that culminates next week on Columbus Day weekend.  Press release to follow ceremony.

Call Me Melville ends on Columbus Day weekend. The last two weeks feature:

• A staged reading of Orson Welles' play, Moby Dick, Rehearsed, at the Colonial Theatre's Garage on Friday, September 28th;
• An evening of Civil War music and writings,  including poetry by Herman Melville, at the Berkshire Athenaeum on Tuesday, October 2^nd;
• A one man performance of Moby Dick by world renowned Irish actor Conor Levitt at MCLA on Thursday, October 4th and at the Berkshire Museum on Friday, October 5th;
• The play Melville, Haunted performed at Melville's historic Pittsfield homestead, Arrowhead, Thursday through Saturday evening, October 4-7th;
• The dedication of the Herman Melville Memorial Moby Dick Reciting Parkbench by artist and composer Evan Lurie on October 5th during Pittsfield's First Fridays Artswalk; 
• The creation of a crowd-scribed edition of Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts also during the First Fridays Artwalk.
• An interactive children's program at the Berkshire Athenaeum, "Acting Up with Melville's Characters" with the Voices Theatre Company on Saturday, October 6th.

In addition, four Melville related exhibitions continue to be featured in the Berkshires. They are:

• Melville Contemporary, a juried show of work inspired by Melville and his writings at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, through Saturday, October 6th;
• A Sea Feeling in the Mountains, a photography show inspired by Melville and the relationship between seascapes and the Berkshire landscape at Sohn Fine Art and Chesterwood in Stockbridge through October 29th and 14th, respectively;
• And The Confidence Man, a series of paintings by Douglas Paisley inspired by Melville's novel of the same name, and So Far From Home: Whalers and Whaler Art at Arrowhead through October 8th.