Barrington Stage Company

The sexual predators Madame la Marquise de Merteuil (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) and Le Vicomte de Valmont (Josh Aaron McCabe) are involved in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Shakespeare & Company through March 21. While all is fair in love and war this drama deftly conflates those extremes.

In the dead of winter The Clark Art Institute collaborated with its neighbor The Williamstown Theatre Festival with a reading of the hilarious Yasmina Reza play ART. This summer, when the Clark mounts Picasso Looks at Degas, they will again join forces with a reading of Steve Martin's comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

The Clark and the Williamstown Theatre Festival present a staged reading of Yasmina Reza's international hit Art February 5 at 7 pm at the Clark. Hailed as "a remarkably wise, witty and intelligent comedy" by The London Times, Art is sure to tickle your funny bone and brain. Reservations are required for this free event.

In addition to its large foundation contributions, Berkshire Bank has launched a "Join the excitement Grant" program. It intends to award four $5,000 grants to area non-profits in February, 2010. The recipients will be based on votes made by the general public.

The Barrington Stage Company season will start on May 27 with a Stage 2 production of "The Whipping Man" and run through December with "A Christmas Story." Not for the squeamish that arch villain "Sweeney Todd" will be serving up gory meat pies to the delight of one and all starting June 17.

The hot stove is glowing in the off season. This week Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield will announce its schedule which opens with the musical Sweeney Todd. We will learn other details. Artistic director Julianne Boyd is also announcing a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

David Esbjornson was Arthur Miller's director of choice late in life, staging the premieres of his last two plays. He will bring Miller's classic "All My Sons" to the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston through February 7.

Julianne Boyd, the artistic director of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield likes to start the season with a popular musical. For the third time, marking his 80th birthday, Boyd will direct a Stephen Sondheim production, this time, the ghoulishly delicious Sweeney Todd. It will run from June 17 through July 17 to the delight of one and all.

The Berkshires will be booked solid for the Fourth of July weekend. On Friday night Keith Lockhart will lead the Pops in its 125th anniversary concert. On Saturday and Sunday the legendary song writers James Taylor and Carole King will bring their world tour to Tanglewood.

Last summer Amanda McBroom played two memorable SRO evenings at Barrington Stage 2. She was a sensation. This weekend she returns to meet the apparently insatiable thirst for genuine cabaret singers that exists in the Berkshires and surrounding hills. We talk to her about her two great talents, songwriting and singing powerful songs straight from the heart.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, six days after being assaulted by Aaron James McKinney and Russel Arthur Henderson, there were 120 productions all across America of "The Laramie Project Ten Years Later: An Epilogue." The Barrington Stage production occured during the first "Out in the Berkshires" three day Holiday weekend. It included an all star cast of actors and community leaders.

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt opened their musical "The Fantasticks" in 1960. It closed in 2002 and has had more than 20,000 global productions since then. Jones dropped by after a matinee to discuss the longest running musical with Barrington's artistic director, Julianne Boyd. The Pittsfield production may be the shortest running ever of the beloved musical.

The Fantasticks tells an age-old tale of a boy, a girl, two fathers, and a wall. Its stage is a wooden platform, its scenery a tattered cardboard moon. Using only these bare essentials, it has become the most performed musical in history. Its creator Tom Jones tells us why.

Pittsfield becomes the first city in the Berkshires to openly welcome LGBT visitors. On Columbus Day weekend, October 10-12, it kicks off an "Out in the Berkshires" weekend full of music, theatre and dance performances for the gay community and its friends. It's great to see the region openly welcome this segment of our population.

Barrington Stage Company is but one of 120 theaters in all 50 states and 7 countries who will create an original Epilogue to Tectonic Theater Project's The Laramie Project. Many Berkshire residents have been working for weeks with the company's actors to make this a memorable and searing theatrical event.

Freud's Last Session has proved to be a popular and entertaining play that sheds light on the eternally debatable subjects of God, war and love. It discusses these issues with passion, insight and the sort of respect for differing ideas that is refreshing and uplifting. No wonder this fabulous treatment of controversial ideas has been extended yet again, to October 4.

Shorter days bring brighter nighttime events. With a cornucopia of choices, Fall 2009 promises to be the most entertaining in years. Check over our picks and previews which cover events from now until late November, and you're sure to find something to spice up your cider.

Summer may seem to be drawing to a close, but you can't tell by the busy schedule in the next few weeks. In fact, more new shows are opening, fresh dance companies are unpacking and the jazz musicians are waiting in the wings for a festive climax to Summer in the Berkshires. To make sure you don't miss anything, here is another handy roundup of the best events for late summer through the big Labor Day weekend.

Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield has been red hot this summer with a string of boffo hits. The summer season winds down with the 1947 Tennessee Williams classic, one of the great American plays of the 20th Century "Street Car Named Desire." Marin Mazzie is stunning as the delusional Blanche DuBois.

composers, cutting edge dance or perhaps an absorbing evening of great theatre? Take time to indulge your senses and treat yourself to some of the Berkshire's legendary performing arts attractions. They all have great deals for residents and visitors alike. Use our handy Picks and Previews guide to help decide.

Each summer, the Youth Theater at Barrington Stage presents a polished musical for some 40+ performances. These productions never fail to amaze and delight sold out audiences. They are full of energy and vitality that are a credit to both director Christine O'Grady and her young performers, and to Music Director Brian Usifer who is at the helm each night setting the tempo and intense pace that are their trademark.

Barrington Stage Company racks up another hit in its strong 15th season, with the chestnut "Sleuth." a 1970 play by Anthony Shaffer which won a Tony Award as Best Play during its 1,222 performances on Broadway. Charles Shaughnessy and Jeremy Bobb are perfectly matched in a deadly game.

Summer's abundance is all around us, and so is the Berkshire's annual bounty of music, theatre and dance choices. Here's another of our detailed guides to help you choose.

With all the cold and wet weather we are still waiting for summer to arrive in the Berkshires. It is amazing to realize that we are sliding into the third weekend at Tanglewood. On Friday night James Levine will conduct Mahler. And on Saturday one of the annual highlights of the season will feature John Williama in a Film Night tribute to Warner Brothers.

After a lapse of more than a hundred years a badly battered book is slipped through a slot in the door into the overnight return bin of a Dutch library. This launches a quest by The Librarian to track down the identity of the mysterious borrower known only as A. What follows is brilliantly acted by Glynis Bell in an over the top play by Glen Berger.