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Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Max Ardrey

Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor

Max Ardrey (he/him) is a second-year visual and media arts major from Westport, Connecticut. He currently serves as deputy living arts editor at the Beacon. He has worked as a writer for the EVVYs, and his short fiction can be read in Stork Magazine. When Max is not on the job for the Beacon, he can be found sipping hot chocolate and asking for directions.

Latest from Max Ardrey
Teddy Abrams conducts the BSO in Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story" (Courtesy Hilary Scott)

Boston Symphony Orchestra serves up Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, and Tilson Thomas

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / March 19, 2025

Let’s see if you’ve heard this one: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Leonard Bernstein all walk into a bar… The result, which...

Wendy Montero serves up a bread bowl on the dining hall's Mardi Gras night. (Max Ardrey / Beacon Staff)

Bourbon Street or Boylston Street? Mardi Gras makes its way to Emerson DH

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / March 6, 2025

Despite being 1,500 miles away from New Orleans, Emerson students could smell Mardi Gras on Boylston Street as the aroma from Cajun-inspired dishes wafted...

Jules Grace (center) and Berklee Valencia students jam out on a Spanish beach. (Courtesy Birdie Nelson)

Jules Grace bids farewell to adolescence with debut album ‘Diaries & Daydreams’

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / February 26, 2025

Before hitting the record button, there are a couple things Jules Grace has to do first.  “We have to turn the heater and the furnace off, so it’s...

Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the BSO at Symphony Hall. (Courtesy Robert Torres/BSO)

Nathalie Stutzmann has her Boston Symphony Orchestra conducting debut with ‘The Firebird’

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / February 12, 2025

Pristine classical music seeped into the brisk air through the window creases of Symphony Hall last weekend, as the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed...

Søren Lind (left) and Larissa Sansour (middle) discuss “Entire Nations Are Built on Fairy Tales” with Dr. Leonie Bradbury (right). (Nick Peace/ Beacon Staff)

‘Entire Nations Are Built on Fairy Tales’: Emerson Contemporary’s newest exhibition gives a voice to Palestine

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / February 5, 2025

On Feb. 4, Emerson’s Media Art Gallery opened a new multi-media exhibition: “Entire Nations are Built on Fairy Tales.” The exhibition features two...

A woman on the Public Garden Foot Bridge records people skating on the frozen Swan Pond below. (Nick Peace/ Beacon Staff)

Frozen over: Bostonians skate and scrimmage in the Public Garden

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / January 22, 2025

As the sky eases into perpetual gray and temperatures drop, Bostonians reclaim their favorite winter pastime: grabbing their skates and hitting the ice. While...

Students working on a set in a visual and media arts course.

Emerson’s VMA major becomes first ARRI-certified film program in New England

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / December 28, 2024

Emerson College earned an accreditation with the ARRI Certified Film School Program, a global leader in the development of film equipment and technologies,...

Jesse Eisenberg, left; Kieran Culkin, right. (Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)

‘A Real Pain’: How ignoring wounds can lead to scars

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / November 21, 2024

Jesse Eisenberg directs and stars in “A Real Pain,” a poignant and deeply Jewish exploration of grief wrapped in equal parts humor and heartache....

Hundreds of counterprotestors lock arms creating a blockade not allowing the Men's March to walk to their planned rally event in the the Boston Commons. (Arthur Mansavage/ Beacon Staff)

‘Men’s March’ clashes with counterprotesters in Boston

By Sam Shipman, Yogev Toby, Nick Peace and Max Ardrey / November 17, 2024

Hundreds of anti-abortion marchers escorted by Boston Police were met with hundreds of counterprotesters Saturday over several waves of their three-mile...

'Here': Three generations from a single perspective

‘Here’: Three generations from a single perspective

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / November 13, 2024

Time seems to happen all at once in director Robert Zemeckis’ latest film “Here,” which chronicles the generations of people that have lived in...

Courtesy Mike Mejia

The Boston Pops present ‘Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert’

By Max Ardrey, Dept. Living Arts Editor / November 4, 2024

“There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best,” boasts Jack Skellington, the spindly Pumpkin King of Halloween Town in “The Nightmare Before...

Courtesy of NEON

‘Anora’: A dream is a wish your heart breaks

By Bryan Hecht and Max Ardrey / October 30, 2024
We have been led to believe that if a woman’s garments are turned into a gown, a pumpkin into a carriage, and her raggedy shoes into glass slippers, she may be seen as royalty.