Williamstown Theatre Festival

The new Williamstown Theatre Festival artistic director, Mandy Greenfield, has launched her tenure with a double header of world premieres. In the smaller Nikos Stage a fine cast is performing Legacy by Daniel Goldfarb. There are tons of laughs and then it gets very grim and dark.

Among works in the estate of the Tony and Pulitzer winning playwright, William Inge, was a 1966 teleplay now reconfigured for stage and having its world premiere as Off the Main Road at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Directed by Evan Cabnet it stars Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick as Faye the battered, alcoholic wife of Manny (Jeremy Davidson) a now abusive, alcoholic former baseball star.

Meeting for Happy Hour we discussed the strong, star studded first season for Mandy Greenfield the artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. We explored an overview of the elements that must mesh under the pressure of a tight festival format to result in richly compelling theatre.

Now in his final weeks as director of the Clark Art Institute Michael Conforti hosted a media event promoting a blockbuster season for Northern Berkshire County. There were presentations by Joe Thompson for Mass MoCA, Tina Olsen for the Williams College Museum of Art, and Mandy Greenfield for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Notably absent from the media event were North Adams based arts presenters Downstreet, The Eclipse Mill Gallery, The Rudd Museum of Art and the fall annual Williamstown Film Festival.

In the third and final installment of an interview with Tony Simotes he describes the epiphany and divine intervention that resulted with leaving Shakespeare & Company and beginning what he calls act two with Berkshire Theatre Group. Having overcome personal and family adversity he views each day as a gift and the opportunity to have a positive impact in theatre and the cultural community of the Berkshires.

Three productions developed in the Berkshires are among the nominees for the 2015 Tony Awards. Williamstown Theatre Festival is represented by two production Elephant Man and The Visit which were presented on the watch of former artistic director Jenny Gersten. Barrington Stage Company is recognized for its musical On the Town,

The contract with Milliken University was due to arrive when Kate Maguire called and asked Tony Simotes to meet for breakfast. Racing against the clock and making phone calls she offered him a job as second in commend at Berkshire Theatre Group. Then Tony and Lucy faced the tough decision of turning down tenure, benefits and security to take another challenging but risky job in theatre.

Tony Simotes was summarily ousted from Shakespeare & Company when he got on the wrong side with a micro managing now former board president Sarah Hancock. Significantly, she is a close friend of founding artistic director, Tina Packer, whose vision of the company was very different from Simotes who replaced her. Rick Dildine who was brought in with a mandate for change soon realized the chain of command and hastily departed. In a matter of months the company went from plan B to plan C. When we met with Simotes for a long lunch he was not inclined to sort out those loose ends. He is upbeat about new possibilities as second in command to Kate Maguire and the richly enhanced Berkshire Theatre Group.

Actors Theatre of Louisville's Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein announce the lineup for the 39th Humana Festival of New American Plays. A highlight of the cultural calendar for theatergoers, playwrights and industry professionals across the country, the Humana Festival runs March 4 through April 12, 2015.

Berkshire Theatre Group announces 2015 Summer Season Musical, the 10th Annual Community Theatre Production, The Fitzpatrick Main Stage productions and a medley of lively acts scheduled to perform at The Colonial Theatre and The Unicorn Theatre. BTG will be announcing a second round of programming, including The Unicorn Theatre's Summer Season, in the next several weeks.

The stars return to Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer for the first season of artistic director Mandy Greenfield. These include newcomers Kyra Sedgwick, Audra McDonald , Cynthia Nixon as well as the return of Jessica Hecht. The festival runs from June 30 – August 23, 2015.

From rodeo rider in Texas to sniper Bradley Cooper is superb in depicting the nuances of Chris Kyle who holds the record with 160 confirmed kills as an American Sniper. After 9/11 there was a rush to take the battle to the terrorists who attacked America. As the war dragged on with staggering cost and loss of life it grew ever less acceptable to the American people. Director Clint Eastwood again polarizes a nation divided into hawks and doves. Was Kyle a hero and defender of freedom or, as Michael Moore has stated, a "coward" and sanctioned serial killer?

On a miserable January day the media gathered for lunch on stage at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. Artistic director Julianne Boyd announced programming for the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. There are still slots to fill on the Mark St. Germain second stage. Once that is complete Boyd will move on to schedule the cabaret largely based on who is available for the 99 seat basement venue. The company will again collaborate with the Berkshire Museum to present a youth oriented production.

In what was widely reviewed as a potential career move last summer artistic director Jenny Gersten enticed opera diva Renee Fleming to appear as an opera diva in a comedy for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Living on Love, starring Fleming, will open on Broadway in April. It will join another WTF production of Elepant Man with Fool for Love to follow. Gersten also exported the musicals Far from Heaven and Bridges of Madison County. She is currently on a hiatus from theatre.

In 2013 Shakespeare & Company produced a star studded gala Broadway in the Berkshires. With On the Town from Barrngton Stage and Williamstown Theater Festival's Elephant Man both currently enjoying rave reviews it seems more like The Berkshires on Broadway. Now WTF's Fool For Love is headed for the Great White Way next year.

During the recent Williamstown Film Festival Diane Pearlman and Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative hosted a lunch at the Williams Inn. It featured independent film star, Lilli Taylor, and her husband, Nick Flynn, a poet, essayist and author of three books of memoirs. Williams College professor, Jim Shepard, led the dialogue.

At this time last year Jenny Gersten did not renew a three year contract as artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She took a job as director of NY's High Line. For the interim she programmed the recently concluded 2014 WTF season. In a recent e mail exchange I told Gersten that her return to theatre was inevitable. It's in her genes. She corrects me that she hopes to return to "the arts."

From the first of May through the end of August we posted 86 theatre articles by a diverse staff of contributors. This overview is limited to the four major Berkshire companies: Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Shakespeare & Company, and Williamstown Theatre Group. Our summary is based on reviewing most but not all of the 2014 Berkshire Summer Season.

With Governor Deval Patrick's signing of H.3933, an omnibus capital infrastructure bill which included $25,420,000 for MASS MoCA's Phase III development, the museum announces that it has begun work on the third phase of its multi-decade effort to renovate its 26-building, 600,000 square foot, 16-acre factory campus, an internationally recognized, mixed-use destination arts institution in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. A representative from the Governor's press office confirmed the news, saying, "Governor Patrick is very, very supportive of the project and is excited to work with MASS MoCA to finance the expansion."

The original production of The Old Man and the Old Moon by PigPen Theatre Company ran for 100 performances Off Broadway. The company which was formed in 2008 twice won first prize for a new play during the annual NYC Fringe Festival. It arrives to end the Williamstown Theatre Festival's season on its Nikos Stage. This fairy tale for kids of all ages will primarily appeal to those under thirty.

When it opened at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago the Kander and Ebb Broadway bound musical The Visit got nipped in the bud by 9/11. After mixed reviews for a 2008 production, also starring Chita Rivera, it gathered dust. With a revised book by Terrence McNally and judicious cuts to one act by director John Doyle it is enjoying a strong run and mostly favorable reviews at the Williamstown Theatre Festival through August 17.

Now 70 Sam Shepard has created a riveting existential American theatre through a cowboy chic deconstuction of the mythology of the American West. In the manner of Beckett's theatre of the absurd the tense and tight drama of Fool for Love is confined to a motel room. There is a death struggle between Tony winner, the formidable Nina Arainda, and the desperate cowboy played by Sam Rockwell. Since 1970 it is the sixth Shepard production for Williamstown Theatre Festival.

The theatrical debut of Renée Fleming in the comedy Living On Love is a delight and triumph. The renowned opera diva plays, what else, a renowned opera diva. That would seem to be easy and obvious but Fleming underplays the role with a naturalism that parallels her real life persona. She is just charming and enchanting. Especially when intereacting with a superb cast directed by Tony winner Kathleen Marshall. Based on marquee bankability and an enthusiastic reception this Williamstown production has a shot of making it to Broadway.

In a mountaintop retreat in Samuel D. Hunter's, A Great Wilderness, through prayer, scripture and intent listening Walt counsels young men struggling with identity, confusion and the "sin" of homosexuality. This intense and thought provoking drama opens the Nikos Stage season for the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Over the Fourth of July weekend Renée Fleming was the featured soloist for the opening night performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer season in Tanglewood. On July 16, for the first time in her career, Fleming will appear in a play Living on Love at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Depending upon its success at WTF the production may be bound for Broadway.