Williamstown revel resists winter blues

WILLIAMSTOWN - Leave the bleak Berkshires winter behind and find your way to when the Tudors ruled, Hamlet trod the stage, and publicans served up tankards of mead.

On Friday, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opens its annual "Clark After Dark" series of unusual parties with "A Renaissance Revelry," designed to hold those seasonal blues at bay.

"With the Showtime series 'The Tudors,' there is a renewed interest in this period and the intrigue of life in the castle," said Danielle Steinmann, assistant curator of education at Clark.

Don your 16th-century best, and Clark will help you accessorize, with knightly shields and crowns. Themed food and drink are a series trademark, so the menu includes Cornish pastries, cheddar toast, and figgy pudding, and a cash bar features their signature cocktail, the Tudor Elixir.

The theater group Shakespeare & Co. of Lenox will offer lessons in how to "make mayhem" through the art of stage combat, and dance the gliding processional of the pavane, full of curtsies, retreats, and advances.

Too Elizabethan? The pace will quicken with Boston DJ Sound Choice, on hand to help you return to the 21st century.

"Clark After Dark: Renaissance Revelry," Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown, Jan. 16, 8 p.m.-midnight. 413-458-2303, www .clarkart.edu. Admission $10, members $8; must be 21 and over. Tickets available at the door.

KIMBERLY SHERMAN