Williamstown Theatre Festival

The Williamstown Theatre Festival started its 2018 season with two new plays on June 26/27, both billed as World Premieres. 'The Closet,' a comedy or farce, is presented on the main stage and 'The Sound Inside,' a two person drama, fills Nikos Stage. Mary-Louise Parker plays the protagonist, Bella Baird, and Will Hochman is Christopher Dunn, her 'curious' student.

PC or not to be was the question in a world premiere comedy The Closet by Douglas Carter Beane at Williamstrown Theatre Festival. It stars Broadway's Matthew Broderick in his first WTF appearance. He is backed by renowned WTF veterans Jessica Hecht and Brooks Ashmanskas. There was also a breakout performance by Ann Harada.

With judicious tweaking, cuts, and color blind casting director/ adapter, Scott Edmiston, mounted a stunning producton of Anna Christie at Boston's Lyric Stage. The 1921 drama by Eugene O'Neill won a Pulitzer Prize. He would go on to earn three more Pulitzers including for a posthumous production of the autobiographical family epic A Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Congratulations to playwright, Martyna Majok, and Mandy Greenfield, artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, Her harrowing play, Cost of Living, had its world premiere in Williamstown in July, 2016. The production moved to New York's Manhattan Theatre Club in 2017. The play has won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. We have reposted the review in Berkshire Fine Arts.

In a star studded program yet again Williamstown Theatre Festival brings Broadway to the berkshires. The season starts on June 26 and runs through August 19. There are three Main Stage productions and four on Nikos Stage. There will be a Main Stage world premiere musical;, Lempicka, as well as a new play , Seared, by Therese Rebeck on the Nikos Stage. Casting includes Mary-Louise Parker, Steven Pasquale, Jessica Hecht, Brooks Ashmanskas and Matthew Broderick.

A decision on an appeal by Attorney General of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, to halt the sale of 40 key works of art at Sothebys on behalf of the Berkshire Museum will be decided by the end of January. Van Shields, now on medical leave as director of the museum, and board president, Elizabeth "Buzz" McGraw, announced their $60 million plans for a New Vision in July. What started as a local story has morphed into national and global coverage. The outcome of this unethical attempt at deaccessioning by a pariah museum may have a game changing impact on the mandate of all American museums' commitment to preserve and conserve collections for future generations.

In his final months theatre critic, Larry Murray, founded Berkshire Theatre Critics Association. In its first annual presenttation of awards "The Berkies" he rallied to enjoy the occasion and to present the first award in his name, for service to the community. We were packed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret last year but last night the event occured before a capacity, attentive audience in the Mark St. Germain Stage of the Pittsfield company. Many more regional companies were nominated and participated in the awards evening. Next year three more companies will be eligible.

For the first time in three decades there is an open race for Mayor of North Adams. On Tuesday, September 19, there will be a primary vote for Mayor. Five names will be on the ballot for Mayor- Tom Bernard, Rachel Branch, Robert Martelle, Robert Moulton Jr. and Peter Oleskiewicz. Of these Oleskiewicz has withdrawn from the race. Bernard was invited to the Eclipse Mill to speak with artists and members of the community.

In May the world's foremost architect, Frank Gehry, signed on to design The Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum in North Adams. It is one of 11 projects being developed by visionary museum director Thomas Krens. There is a daunting sticker price of some $300 miliion for construction anticipated to start as early as June, 2018.

At the end of a night of binge drinking the Princetown freshmen Tom (Joshua Boone) and Amber (Alexandre Socha) hook up. In the clear night of morning was she raped?. They were so drunk that neither can recall details. It is up to a review panel of faculty to hear both sides and decide on appropriate action. It is a poignant and timely issue as lives are in the balance on college campuses all over America.

This is the second producton of the musical A Legendary Romance with music and lyrics, Geoff Morrow, book by Timothy Prager. While it needs more work, the norm for musicals, starring Jeff McCarthy and Lora Lee Gayer it is the best work we have seen this season from Wiliamstown Theatre Festival. It is a tragic love story set to music about lives and careers ruined during the 1950s when Holywood was on trial for its alleged communism.

Over 62 years of Williamstown Theatre Festival there have been 18 productions of the four best known plays by Anton Chekov; The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, the Seagull and Three Sisters. There have been five prior versions of Three Sisters and this season we have yet another. Well, not exactly.

Mandy Greenfield, artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, has produced The Clean House, a 2005 Pulitzer nominee, by Sarah Ruhl. Ii is a play written by, about, and for women. It is directed by Tony winner, Rebecca Taichman, and pairs Tony nominees Jayne Atkinson and Jessice Hecht. There are two other women and a guy who Ruhl sends packiing in Alaska leaving his terminally ill mistress.

In its smaller Nikos Stage the Williamstown Theatre Festival features another, homegrown, world premiere. Last summer playwright Harrison David Rivers was a fellow at the renowned festival. The play that he was developing Where Storms Are Born is being produced this season. Again there is a focus on diversity and plot points hinged on gay characters, There is risk taking in this strategy wih bold and progressive but unresolved results.

Last summer at Williamstown Theatre Festival the director, Danny Sharron, collaborated with playwright, Jason Kim (HBOs' Girls) to develop a new play. The Model American is being given a hip and sleek world premiere at Nikos Stage. There is, however, nothing to like about its amoral anti hero and arguably the play itself. It is performing to sold out audiences with mostly positive reviews.

In the age of social media everyone is a critic., Some enthusiasts post their "reviews" and images to Twitter and Facebook before curtain calls.That was he elephant in the room as some 80 of the 250 members of American Theatre Critics Association gathered for an annual conference this time in San Francisco. In addition to several days of seeing theatre there were meetings and panel discussions focused on issues and ideas in the profession.

Since its debut at the Humana Festival in 2015 The Roommate by Jen Silverman has been widely produced. It has the advantage of being an intimate two-hander. But it is being given a lavish production and marquee players at Williamstown Theatre Festival. With Jane Kaczmarek (Robyn), S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon) selling tickets in the Berkshires is this a production that may be headed to New York? Significantly Silverman was in town tweaking the script.

The tight and compelling two-hander The Roommate by Jen Silverman premiered at the Humana Festival a couple of years ago. While attending an ATCA theatre conference we enjoyed a superb production at the San Francisco Playhouse. It is also scheduled for the Main Stage of the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

During a media tour of the final phase of build out for the 17 acre MASS MoCA campus artists, curators and installlers were working around the clock. While some of the works were not ready for prime time we caught an exciting glimpse of what visitors will encounter this summer in North Adams. The development of Building Six adds 130,000 square-feet of usable space. For renovations, programming and endowment the museum has raised $65 million.

Lauren Yee wins award for Emerging Female Playwrights. ATCA/ Primus Foundation recognizes playwright for her use of language. Yee was selected from 26 applicants by critics.

Two-time Tony Award-nominee Jayne Atkinson and Cote de Pablo will appear in Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House; Tony Award-nominee Micah Stock will appear in Jason Kim’s The Model American and Halley Feiffer’s Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow; Christopher Livingston, LeRoy McClain and Joniece Abbott-Pratt will perform in Harrison David Rivers’ Where Storms are Born; and Rebecca Henderson will perform in Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow.

The Berkshire-based professional theatre company celebrates its eighth year with two Main Stage productions, a thought-provoking series of play readings, and several exciting new collaborations and initiatives 2.017 season explores a broad range of perspectives around issues affecting women and girls.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival 2017 Summer Season, the 63rd Season for the Tony® Award-winning theatre company, will include four world premieres, a new musical, and the first production of a WTF commissioned artist.

The Berkshire theatre gilterrati crammed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret for a raucous evening celebrating The First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Seventeen arts journalists voted on 120 nominees in 25 categories chosen from artists in the 75 live theatre productions mounted in Berkshire County and adjacent areas between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.

There has been extensive media coverage of the First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. The winners of The Berkies have been announced. There will be an awards celebration 5 pm on November 13 at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret in Pittsfield. In this first round of awards Barrington Stage Company and Shakespeare & Company dominated in most categories. The smash hit Pirates of Penzance ran the table. The Larry Murray Award, named for the founder, will be the only suprise of the gathering of critics, media and theater mavens.