Williamstown Theatre Festival

Julianne Boyd, the artistic director of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield called for a morning chin wag about the upcoming season. That led to a lively discussion of the current state of theatre and impact of criticism. Now in its 8th season the company has just completed raising $7 million. This is part one of an extended dialogue.

Last summer the musical based on a film with the same title Far From Heaven was developed by the Williamstown Theatre Festival. With the original cast leads Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale from Williamstown it opens at New York's Playwrights Horizons on June 2 with a limited run through June 30.

The 2013 Tony Award nominees were announced this morning and 32 members of the Williamstown Theatre Festival family have been nominated - including six that will visit this summer!

Williamstown Theatre Festival announces casting for the 2013 summer season’s slate of productions.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced that Festival veteran Steven Pasquale will play ‘Robert Kincaid’ in this summer’s World Premiere of The Bridges of Madison County. As previously announced, the new musical, which runs on the Main Stage from August 1 – 18, 2013, features a book by Marsha Norman, music & lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, and direction by Bartlett Sher.

During the 2010 season a musical that conflated Romeo and Juliet with the music of the gifted Jeff Buckley, who died tragically young, The Last Goodbye was workshopped at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Now it is slated to open the season for The Old Globe in San Diego. There are plans to move on from there. At WTF we interviewed the creative team and Buckely's Mom, Mary Guibert.

Outrageous stand-up comic Lewis Black loves the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He returns this summer July 22, with My Fair Lewis. The festival has also added another play to the Nikos stage. Blood Play will run August 7 to 18. It is Written by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen. Directed and developed by Oliver Butler and made by The Debate Society. Here is the final complete schedule for the 2013 season.

We return from an intensive visit of the American Theatre Critics Association in Indianapolis with more questions than answers. Mostly about the state of the arts in America's heartland. A busman's holiday evokes taking the pulse.

Claybourne Park, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award for Best Play is coming soon to a theatre near you. Here in the Berkshires from September 26 through October 13 at Barrington Stage in co production with Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival where it will run from August 15-31. It begs questions about regional theatre companies focused on a short list of recycled Broadway and Off Broadway plays.

On Monday, March 11 at 7 pm, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute welcomes friends from the Williamstown Theatre Festival as they present “Shorts in Winter,” a cozy winter evening of short stories read by Festival actors.

Highlights of the 2013 season include: Animal Crackers, Pygmalion, and a new musical adaption of Bridges of Madison Country on the Main Stage. The smaller Nikos Stage will feature American Hero, Hapgood, and Johnny Baseball. The Free Theatre will stage a version of Dracula by Steve Lawson.

The production which Jack Lyons reviewed is being restaged with some changes at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. “Pygmalion”, the sparkling comedy production on the Old Globe’s Shiley Stage, in San Diego stars Robert Sean Leonard of TV’s “House M.D.” as Henry Higgins. The production, steadfastly directed by Nicholas Martin, (former artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival) co-stars San Diego favorite, Paxton Whitehead as the redoubtable Colonel Pickering and Charlotte Parry as Eliza Doolittle. Parry’s Eliza is one of the best Eliza’s seen on any stage in a long time. At WTF she is played by Heather Lind.

Despite a fifteen year age gap, Jennifer Lawrence (22) and Bradley Cooper (37) sizzle as a romantic couple in the comedy "Silver Linings Playbook." That's true mostly because of the remarkable maturity and superb acting skills of Lawrence who is nominated for her second Oscar. The first was for "Winter Bone" and in between she starred in 'The Hunger Games." But Brad, also Oscar nominated, ain't just chopped liver.

For the second season in a row Williamstown Theatre Festival will premiere a film transformed into a musical. Last summer Kelli O'Hara starred in "Far From Heaven." She returns to the Berkshires in "The Bridges of Madison County." The film paired Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood,. A co star for O'Hara is yet to be announced.

With a diverse staff of contributors Berkshire Fine Arts strives for national theatre coverage. In this year end roundup we provide an overview with highlights rather than a top ten or best of list. There are numerous links to plays, features and interviews. Overal,l it was a great year that include a week in Chicago for the meeting of the American Theatre Critics Association as well as in depth coverage of the Berkshires and a taste of Broadway.

With her third Broadway production, Dead Accounts, Theresa Rebeck is running on vapors. Perhaps this half backed, ersatz sit-com is a part of the collateral damage of last season's struggles with the brilliant but embattled TV series Smash. She has departed from the show which she originated. Whatever the reason this new play entirely lacks focus. It is little more than a one liner and gag stretched out in two miserable acts. It does however have the star power of Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz and tabloid regular Katie Holmes to sell tickets.

For the brilliant young comic, Jenn Harris, the indy film, Gayby, which was screened at the recent Williamstown Film Festival may be her breakthrough. We spoke with her about the film and her work with the young company QWAN. She and Randy Harrison appeared for a one nighter with Qwan at the Colonial Theatre this past summer.

The second and final part of Williamstown Film Festival covers events on Saturday and Sunday. The five day festival drew some 1,200. With so much to absorb in a short time we offer some higlights and insights for the 14th annual WFF.

Williamstown Theatre Festival supported the Berkshires community by bringing nearly 41,000 audience members from 44 states and 6 countries while they attended the work of 401 members of the WTF Company including staff, apprentices, and artists!

During a film premiere in Bradley Cooper was heard to say “We’re going to try to do it on Broadway next fall. We’re going to try to nail it down and do a limited run.” That was told to someone who told someone. It went viral on Facebook. That was originally slated for 2013. Now it has been moved forward to Fall 2014. The play was produced by Williamstown Theatre Festival under artistic director Jenny Gersten who has resigned but has programmed the 2014 season.

In the second part of a dialogue with Jenny Gersten we compared and contrasted her uneven first season with the smooth sailing of her second one. While the first season drew mixed reviews and controversy its ambition proved to be a magnet for major artists wanting to work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The success of this star studded season is a sanguine harbinger of more to come.

During a post mortem of her second season as artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival we discussed producing as inheriting the family business. Her earliest memories go back to two when she saw Two Gentleman of Verona, at the Public Theatre where her father, Bernard, worked until he was fired by Joe Papp in 1978. As a toddler, her Mom brought her on stage while taking a bow at Jacob's Pillow. In the first of this two part report we discuss a portrait of the artist as a young producer.

There are about 60 documented cases of Foreign Language Syndrome. The first occurred in 1941 when a Norwegian woman, during the Nazi occupation, suddenly spoke with a German accent. One may imagine the complications. In Katori Hall's new comedy, as the result of a stroke, a New York society woman wakes up with a Jamaican accent. Oh my.

The mid 1850s play A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev influenced Chekhov, who convinced Stanislavsky to produce it. Literally, lost in translation, the masterpiece of modernism has rarely been produced. Not just for awkward scripts but for a misunderstanding of the main character Natalya. While mostly played by women in their fifties, as Richard Nelson discovered, Turgeney intended her as 29. A radical production with a new translation by Nelson, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is the third and final Main Stage presentation of the summer long Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper and Patricia Clarkson sold out its too brief run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Now, be still dear heart, the intact production transfers to Broadway and the Booth Theatre in October for a limited run of thirteen weeks. Not that long ago Cooper was declared the sexiest man on the planet. Here amazingly he portrays one of the most deformed of his era the renowned John Merrick. This is the WTF review.