HOLYOKE – Northampton based Serious Play Theatre Ensemble tackles Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play world in which child-like games are saturated with the searing texture of adult experience in the “Engame Project” at Gateway City Arts, 92 Race St., March 31 to April 2, 7:30 p.m.

Directed by Sheryl Stoodley, Endgame Project is about the tension between a desire for the end, for silence and stillness, and a desire to prolong the end by talking – repeating the same old jokes and stories, the same old questions and answers, in order to feel alive. The show fuses acting and puppetry with the help of Ines Zeller Bass and Eric Bass of Sandglass Theater, Kermit Dunkelberg and Kim Mancuso of Pilgrim Theatre, and David Regan, a puppeteer and designer who is an associate of Sandglass – and supported in part by a NET/TEN Travel grant from the Network of Ensemble Theaters.

Serious Play Theatre Ensemble was founded over 20 years ago engaging in lively, ensemble-created scripts that are informed by contemporary issues. Their productions have toured to Athens, London, Greece, and Edinburgh. They were the first American company to perform at the JoakimInterFest in Kragujevac, Serbia, where their production of the politically charged “Milosevic at the Hague” won an award for “dramatic innovation and theatrical boldness.”

Serious Play is a member of NET and an Artist Associate of A.P.E. Their work is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. The Endgame Project is supported in part by grants from the Northampton Arts Council and the Holyoke Local Cultural Council.

Reservations are suggested as seating is limited. Tickets are $20 general admission and $18 for students and can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2502523.

Gateway City Arts serves food/drink before and during the show. For details please visit www.gatewaycityarts.com or contact Gateway City Arts at 650-2670 or hello@gatewaycityarts.com.

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Now in its third year at Holyoke’s Gateway City Arts, 92 Race St., the Alchemy Artisan Fair packs a weekend full of entertainment, live music, eclectic food, creative workshops, a vendors’ market with art, crafts and artisan goods, and its newest addition, a room dedicated to healing arts, April 15 to 17.

The fair opens April 15, 8:30 p.m., with a live show featuring Les Rhinoceros, Hot Dirt, 23 Ensemble, and Eyes. Hot Dirt is a popular Holyoke-based band heavily influenced by jazz and progressive rock. 23 Ensemble creates high caliber free jazz, and Eyes, also a local band, produce transient soundscapes.

On April 16, the Vendors Market and Healing Room opens to shoppers 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Twenty-four vendors be offering hand-made wares from jewelry and clothing to soaps, beauty products, artisan olive oils, infused honey, glass art, paintings, collages, repurposed sculpture, sewn crafts, and more.

Inside the Healing Room attendees will find reiki, massage, and other healing arts. Attendees can also take workshops on creating gemstone wire sculptures and making their own dream-catchers. That evening from 8 to 10 p.m. CactusHead Puppets present “The Paper City Puppet Slam,” an introduction to the slightly strange but always entertaining world of short form puppetry for adults.

The Vendors Market and Healing Room reopen 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 16. From 1 to 3 p.m. Eric Lee plays his original music, an ever-evolving world of sonic exploration with stand-alone melodies always at its core. Professor Emeritus, Dean Nimmer, (and author of the successful book, “Art from Intuition” and the former Chair of Fine Arts at the Massachusetts College of Art) offers his famous “Stop Whining and Draw” workshop from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a non-stop, no time to think or whine, drawing/painting session that emphasizes passion, process and pleasure over fussy picture making.

Throughout the festivities Gateway City Arts’ “Tiny Kitchen” will serve locally sourced “New American” food and drink with a lunch and dinner menu on Friday and Saturday and classic brunch on Sunday.

The Alchemy Fair is hosted by Gateway City Arts. Details can be found at www.alchemyartisanfair.com or by contacting Vitek Kruta at 650-2670 or vitek@gatewaycityarts.com.

Admission to the Vendors’ Market is free of charge. Show and workshop prices are listed online. Food and drink for purchase.