Created during the pandemic as a safe activity, the outdoors light and sound installation has become a tradition at Edith Wharton's home.
LENOX, Mass. — Lights and sounds are bringing The Mount's property alive after hours during the fourth year of Nightwood.
Executive Director Susan Wissler said the show feels like an expanded experience, as there are many new components. The event opened on Friday and will run through Jan. 6.
"Front and center still are the stars, the trees," she said. "But the light and the musical score that accompany them just transformed into a completely different world."
The immersive winter exhibition stretches across about 3/4 of a mile through the historic property and includes four new installations: The Hollow, The Woods Revisited, The Crossroads and The Stream. Nightwood combines scenic elements, theatrical lighting, and a dramatic score surrounding author Edith Wharton's elegant estate.
"Everything that we've built is very much inspired by the natural and the built elements that we find here, and each area is so unique. Some are very rustic," said designer Chris Bocchario of Clerestory Light.
"Some are very classically elegant, some are deep and dark, some are bright and airy so we really start just by trying to listen to what the environment is saying and draw inspiration from that."
The finale of the tour, "The Stream," is in an actual stream bed, "pulling the feel of that stream bed and the way that we experienced it in the day in the summer and sort of transforming it into something new that can be experienced at night that sort of speaks to the spirit of the stream," Bocchario said.
Rather than being a traditional holiday show, Wissler describes it as a "celebration of the vast splendor and mystery of our natural world."
Last year, Nightwood generated around 14,000 attendees over 27 dates. While it began as a way of embracing the possibilities of the outdoors at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, it has become a tradition for many.
"People have been coming and this is their third or fourth time coming and they love it," Wissler said. "They love the fact that it's so respectful of nature and not just sort of garishly driven, I mean, it really is something in harmony with nature as opposed to imposed on nature."
Bocchario said many don't think to do things in outdoors at night in the wintertime.
"At this point, it's really become just a celebration of that," he said. "I think we found that people want to spend time outdoors and want to experience this property in this way. It's not a COVID thing anymore, it's just kind of a positive thing to kind of come out of that experience."
NightWood runs from Nov. 17 through Jan. 6 with timed entries starting at 5 p.m.
Admission is limited each night so reservations are strongly recommended and can be made at NightWoodLenox.org. Golf cart tours are available on select days for those requiring accessibility accommodations and advance registration is required by calling 413-551-5100.
Warm beverages and light refreshments are available for purchase in the walled courtyard each night and the bookstore will be open for holiday shopping. New this year, small plates from Brook Farm Inn's new food truck will be available on select nights, and Berkshire Pulse will be on hand for special pop-up dance performances.
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