The Phoenix

Autumn garden

Fall on Boston boards
It's freshman and sophomore year on the Boston rialto, with American Repertory Theater artistic director Diane Paulus introducing her first season and Huntington Theatre Company honcho Peter DuBois endeavoring to survive his second.

By CAROLYN CLAY | September 14, 2009

Taking care of business

Digging for gold in the roots and world-music scene
Boston is one of the healthiest markets for live roots music in the country. Here are the 10 roots shows we don't want to miss this fall.

By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 14, 2009

Teachers and students

NEC and Berklee set the jazz stage
Several of this fall's promising jazz performances are clustered around the week of October 18. That marks the 40th-anniversary celebration of the jazz-studies program at New England Conservatory, which, created by Gunther Schuller, established NEC as one of the international twin beacons of jazz education in Boston along with Berklee College of Music.

By JON GARELICK | September 14, 2009

Delay of game

With some big names shelved, 10 releases to watch for this fall
Splinter Cell: Conviction , BioShock 2 , Heavy Rain — these are just some of the eagerly awaited titles that won't be coming to your video-game console this fall.

By MITCH KRPATA | September 15, 2009

Terpsichore's delight

A season of foot (and body) work
There's no end to variety to the fall's dance season, from a Boston Ballet classic to Hawaiian hula and "extreme action" acrobatics.

By DEBRA CASH | September 14, 2009

Tall tales

Novelists and poets set fancies flying
This fall brings fiction and poetry lovers new treats from old friends.

By BARBARA HOFFERT | September 14, 2009

October lite

The outlook is still gloomy, but film finds time for childish things
We expected the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the homicidal maniacs. Same thing with the android doubles, the alien abductors, the sexually abused pregnant teenager, the Apocalypse, and the post-Apocalypse. But kids' movies?

By PETER KEOUGH | September 14, 2009

Off the record?

Ten albums to get . . . while we still have albums
Pity the album. After a half-century of embarrassingly public body issues, our essential rock unit has not entered the new millennium looking very healthy. EPs are way more in vogue, MP3s have intangibility on their side, and 12-inches just sound impressive.

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 14, 2009

Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'

Museums and galleries gather their objets d'art
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.

By GREG COOK | September 15, 2009

Baroque and beyond

Betting on the best this fall
Ten-best lists usually come at the end of the season, but this year the Phoenix has asked its critics to provide a calendar of 10 events that, at least on paper, might wind up on an end-of-season Top 10. Boston, in case you didn't know it, is a great city for classical music, so it's not easy to keep the list short. But here goes.

By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 14, 2009