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Berkshires Summer 2002 Theater Schedules
INDEX OF THEATERS
Barrington Stage . . . Berkshire Opera . . . Berkshire Theatre Festival . . . 1/2 TIX-- Summer Events Discount Booth. . . . . . Mac-Haydn Theater. . . Miniature Theatre of Chester . . . Old Castle Theater. . . Shakespeare & Co . . . Sharon Playhouse. . . Stage Works. . . Theater Barn. . . Williamstown Theatre Festival. . . Check the schedules regularly for added information. Check CurtainUp's Berkshire News Page for breaking news of special events at these theaters and other Berkshire attractions. Check CurtainUp's Main Page for links to current reviews and Berkshire Review Archives for past reviews. Send feedback to esommer@curtainup.com |
1/2 TIX Berkshire residents and visitors will once again be able to enjoy summer cultural events at half price. The TIX booth will re-open for its second season on June 19th (through August 25th) at the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Information Center on Main Street and at a satellite booth in Pittsfield at the Crowne Plaza inside the Berkshire Visitor's Bureau office (concourse). The booth will be open from 2 to 6pm every day except Monday. Participating organizations: Barring Stage, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Berkshire Jazz Festival, Berkshire Opera, Institute of Piano, Jacob's Pillow, Mass MoCA, Shakespeare & Company and Tanglewood. In addition to tickets, purchers will also receive special discounts for Arrowhead, the Berkshire Museum, the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Chesterwood, the Edith Wharton Restoration, MassMoCA and the Norman Rockwell Museum.
July 8 Update. Beginning Friday, July 12 ½ TIX will offer matinee tickets on Fridays and Saturdays only. The new hours on those days will be from 11 am to 6 pm, with tickets to both evening and afternoon performances available. Purchases are for that day's performances, as available, on a first-come-first-served basis.
Barrington Stage Consolati Performing Arts Center, Sheffield, MA (413/528-8888 Website
MAINSTAGE
Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific -- June 19 - July 13. South Pacific. Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan -- adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener. The original stage production directed by Joshua Logan and winner of 9 Tonys will now be directed by Julianne Boyd and choreographed by Tony Parise. Gail Nelson ( remember Lady Day?) will play Bloody Mary, Christiana Tisdale is Nellie Forbush and Peter Samuel will portray Emile duBeque and Christopher Vettel will lend his rich baritone to the role of Luther Billis. Songs you'll hear: "Some Enchanted Evening", "There's Nothin' Like a Dame" and "Bali Ha'i . " Our Review
Lee Blessing's Black Sheep July 17 - August 3. New England premiere of a dark comedy about a prominent family's "black sheep" nephew (the son of an interracial marriage) who is released from prison. Our Review.
Falsettos -- From August 7 - 24. , Revival of he Tony Award winning musical, with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, music and Llrics by William Finn ad directed by Barrington Stage favorite Rob Ruggiero. Our Review
STAGE II
Brian Stewart's Castro's Beard -- July 3 - July 14 . The comedy about four CIA agents who meet to brainstorm ways to assassinate the charismatic Cuban leader on the eve of his visit to the UN will be directed by Andrew Volkoff . Blanche and Her Joy Boys by Chris Calloway and Sheryl B. Heath -- July 31 - August 11. This stars Calloway and will be directed by Barrington Stage's own Julianne Boyd. The show is Calloway's tribute to her Aunt Blanche Calloway, the first black female bandleader of an all-male band, in a one-woman musical. Famed jazz musician Cab Calloway's elder sister, Blanche was a star in her own right in the 1930s. It was Blanche's vision and talent that helped launch Cab Calloway's historic career.
SPECIAL EVENTS: August 12TH performance of Gregory Hines in TAP.
YOUTH THEATER
Little Shop of Horrors at the Consolati in Sheffield July 10-21; Springside Park in Pittsfield July 24 - August
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The Berkshire Opera Company. 40 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230 --Phone: (413) 644-9000. Fax: (413) 644-9030. Berkshire Opera web address . The little opera company that grew and grew is coming closer and closer to its grand plans in its new home at the b historic 700-seat Mahaiwe Theatre. Eventually, the plan is for three operas each season.
The key event this season is The Turn of the Screw with music by Benjamin Britten and a libretto by Myfanwy Piper based on the novella by Henry James. Conductor: Joel Revzen; Director: Ron Daniels. Performances by the 16 members of the Resident Artist Training Program. Performance dates are Thursday, August 1 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, August 3 at 8:00 p.m., Monday, August 5 at 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 7 at 2:00 p.m., Friday, August 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Also on the agenda by the Resident Artists: Programs of opera scenes. . . an American musical theater review. . . ,The Three Little Pigs, a children's opera featuring music from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte. Resident Artists will also join Artistic Director Joel Revzen and a renowned collaborative pianis, in a program of lied, Vienna in Song, through which BOC will participate in The Vienna Project, a collaboration among several arts organizations in the Berkshires that will focus on Viennese culture this summer and fall. Performance schedule of all the above TBA.
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The Berkshire Theatre Festival Berkshire Theatre Festival-- POBox 797, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (413/298-5536) web site
MAIN STAGE
June 19-July 16, Zorba, revival of the musical adaptation of the novel by Nicos Kasantzakis with a book by Joseph Stein of Fiddler on the Roof, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, the musical team that created Cabaret. BTF associate director James Warwick who directed last season's H. M. S. Pinafore will helm the production. Thom Christopher will play Zorba and Mark Edgar Stephens is Nico. Also in the cast: Gerianne Raphael as Hortense, Walter Hudson as Mavrodani, Melissa Hartas The Leader, Maree Johnson as The Widow. Our Review
July 9-July 27, Quartet, an American premiere by South African playwright Ronald Harwood (The Dresser and Taking Sides) It's about four opera singers whose life in an upscale managed care facility is riddled with sharps, flats and unexpected discord. When their ancient recording of Rigoletto is reissued the recently retired foursome are confronted with the remains of their vivid pasts. Directed by Vivian Matalon. The cast featuresKaye Ballard, Paul Hecht, Elizabeth Seal and Robert Vauhhn. Our Review
July 30-August 10, A Saint She Ain't on Moliere's Le Cocu Imaginaire is "freely based". The ambience is Hollywood during WWII. Directed by Eric Hill . Kate Levering (the energetic tapper from Forty-Second Street), and Joel Blum will headline the co-produced with Westport Country Playhouse. Other cast members include dP.J. Benjamin,Lovette George, Jason Gilman, Jay Russell and Roland Rusinek. Editor's Note: A last-minute casting change means no Levering. Her replacement: TChristina Marie Norrup, a former member of the Joffrey Ballet with Broadway credits that include The Producers, Putting It Together and The Red Shoes. ballerina Anna Bagalucci. Our Review
August 13-31, The Foreigner is a substitution for the originally scheduled Agatha Christie mystery, And Then There Were None. Written by Obie Award winner Larry Shue, whose promisting career tragically and prematurely ended in an airplane accident and directed by Scott Schwartz. The farce revolves around a pathologically shy young man who finds the thought of conversation with strangers overwhelmingly frightening. When his friend tells everyone at a training seession that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and doesn't speak English, sinister plans, damaging revelations and evil plots go awry in a wild climax. The cast will feature Peter Scolari as Charlie, Betsy Palmer as Betty Meeks, Sarah Avery as Catherine Simms, James Barbour as the Reverend, Kevin Cahoon as Ellard Simms, E.J. Carroll as Owen Musser, and Don Sparks as Froggy LeSueur. Our Review
At the BTF UNICORN
May 23-June 8th. Back Story by local playwright Joan Ackermann. The play was part of a commision involving 17 authors for the Humana 2000 Festival. Ackermann was to write a story about a relationship between a brother and a sister who were facing a major turning point in their lives in the year 2000. Michael Dowling directs. Our Review
June 12-June 29, Dimetos , a 1974 Athol Fugard play about a young woman astride a terrified horse, desperately trying to escape from a deep well and inspired by the Camus quote "Once upon a time there was. . . a man. . . who dreamt he was a horse." Directed by Peter Wallace. Our Review
July 3-July 20, Miss Julie by August Strindberg. English adaptation by Craig Lucas, (based on a literal translation by Anders Cato who directs. The battle between the sexes and the complex class strictures of 19th Century Sweden fuel August Strindberg's powerful drama about an obsessive love-hate relationship between a chateliane, her footman and the one, rash, lustful moment they share. The cast featuresRebecca Creskoff, Mark Feuerstein, Marin Hinkle. Our Review
July 24-August 17, Insurrection: Holding History by Robert O'Hara.Our Review.
August 21- August 30, Brownstone,a musical by Josh Rubin, Peter Larson, Andrew Cadiff. Directed by James Warwick. Three singles and one married couple charting their paths through life in the Big Apple. (awarded Richard Rogers Best Musical award in 1984). Our Review
BTF PLAYS! Theatre for Young Audiences
June 26-July 20th at 11am at the Berkshire Museum (443-7171-xt.10) will present Mozart's The Magic Flute adapted and directed by E. Gary Simons III.
July 26-August 18th, 11 am at the Unicorn Theatre. Monkey, written by E. Gary Simons III and directed by Tara Franklin (who plays Lydia in Dimetos). The adventures of a monk and his companion Monkey as they travel the twisting path to enlightenment in the tale based on an ancient Buddhist folk tale. They encounter, amongst others Bull Emon and the King of Heaven.
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The Mac-Haydn Theater musical theater in the round on Rte. 203 in Chatham, NY.. 518-392-9292 for or check their website. This is one of the busiest and most fun venues in the area, even though a bit beyond our regular easy-drive range. Performance schedules are first week Thursday, 2 and 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 5 and 8:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.; second week: Wednesday at 2 and 8, Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 5 and 8:30, Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.90 and $21.90, $19.90 for all matinee seats, children under 12 with an adult $12.00. This season's shows are as follows:
May 23 - June 2, The Sound of Music. Rodgers¹ and Oscar Hammerstein¹s beloved hit about the Trapp Family Singers and their flight from the beginnings of Nazism to the freedom of America. "Do, Re, Mi, Sixteen Going On Seventeen, Eidelweiss, Climb Every Mounta" are just some of the hummable tunes.
June 6-16, Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel taking us back to the silent movies with Mack Sennett behind the camera and Mabel Normand in front of it, the audience never knew what was coming next -- but they did know it would make them laugh! (See our review of another production a few seasons back at Barrington Stage herel
June 20-30, Naughty Marietta a now rarely seen Victor Herbert operetta featuring "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life."
July 4-14, 1776 The story of our Declaration set to beautiful music.
July 18-28, Crazy For You with the music of an American theatre legend, George Gershwin.
July 31 - August 4, Sophie Tucker. For one week only, the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas" comes to life with Kathy Halenda’s return to the Mac-Haydn stage . Special times for performances July 31 through August 4, call for information.
August 8-18, Mame Jerry Herman's musical about everyone’s favorite Auntie and her nephew
August 22 - September 1, Oklahoma. The groundbreaking Rodgers and Hammerstein show. Likely to be more traditional than the revival currently in Broadway.
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The Miniature Theatre of Chester, an Actors’ Equity Association company, at the Chester Town Hall, on Middlefield Street off Route 20. (413-354-7771) -- web site .
High Dive by written and performed by Leslie Ayvazian June 26-30 Our review of Ayvazian's performance Off Broadway
The Tempest by William Shakespeare - July 3 -14. THE TEMPEST. This is an adaptation by founding director'Vincent Dowling about Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and his former slave Caliban who return to the enchanted ""Isle of the Bermudes" where they once spent years in exile. There, they re-enact the amazing events set in motion by the great storm. Mr. Dowling's Prologue reveals the reasons for the trio's return to the "Brave New World" and, as the magician Prospero. Not long ago, this play was mounted by the Chester company's neighbor, Shakespeare & Co. for our review of that production, go here.
Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg - July 17- August 4. This was a Pulitzer runner up by Greenberg whose terrific The Dazzle had its New York premiere at the Roundabout in New York and whose latest, Over There is being co-produced by the Donmar Warehouse in London and the Joseph Papp Public Theater (See our Off-Broadway Listings for details). For Rain director Jonathan Banks working at Chester, on a play by a living playwright is a departure from the "forgotten" plays he brings to life at his own award-winningMint Theater Company in New York ( 2002 Drama Desk Award for preserving and producing little-known plays of merit and a 2001 OBIE). For a better picture of that company's mission, you might want to check out the recently anthology of Mint plays Worthy But Neglected: Plays of the Mint Theater Company (available via our Amazon book store )
Our Review
An Almost Holy Picture by Heather McDonald - August 7-25. This is one of those plays that works best in a small house -- like the Miniature Theatre of Chester -- but which was produced on Broadway because Kevin Bacon starred in it. For our review of that production go here.
Performances at the theater are are Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm., with matinees Thursday and Sunday at 2:00pm. Tickets are $20 General Admission, $17 Seniors, $10 Students; group rates are available. For reservations, call the box office at 413-354-7771. For further information visit MTC’s website at: www.miniaturetheatre.org.
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Old Castle Theatre, Vermont Route 9 at Gypsy Lane P.O. Box 260, Bennington, Vermont O5201 (802-447-0564 Box Office, 802-447-1267 Office, 802-442-3704 Fax) Website which includes maps for getting there. Bennington, Vt., is a bit too far north for me to get there often but has a long and full season The schedule for summer--fall is as follows:
May 17th-June 22. The trio of plays, all by A.R. Gurney, will be running in repertory -- The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters and Ancestral Voices. They will be performed in rotation, featuring the same cast. Oldcastle theater goers can use a Flex Pass enabling them to see all three plays for the price of two.
June 28 - July 20, The Apple Tree , a musical based on three famous short stories. "The Diary of Adam and Eve" is Mark Twain' s take on the mother and father of us all. "The Lady or the Tiger", by Frank R. Stockton, asks the question "Which is more powerful: love or jealousy?" Jules Feiffer¹s "Passionella" is a comic, modern interpretation of the Cinderella story. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, of Fiddler on the Roof fame, weave the three stories together with Book, Music and Lyrics. 20.
July 26 -August 10th, A Complete History of America (abridged), by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, the guys who created a crash course in Shakespeare. They now take the audience on a wacky roller coaster ride with our founding mothers and fathers.
August 16 - September 1,No Cure in Sight.A world premiere production of Robert Shanks¹ tragicomedy, in which David and Emma Sage are the embodiment of love, commitment and intelligence. David, a Nobel Prize-winner in physics, becomes the target of dark forces in corporate, political and religious America. A story that could come from tomorrow¹s headlines, it runs from August 16 through September 1.
For Fall Oldcastle has lined up Eugene O'Neill's last play, A Moon for the Misbegotten which will run from October 4 through October 20.
442-7158
Shakespeare & CompanyShakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble St., Lenox, (413) 637-1199 Web Site
May 3, 2002-August 25, 2002, Golda's Balcony a world premiere by William Gibson (author of The Miracle Worker and Two For the Seesaw). The 90-minute play follows Israel's passionate Prime Minister Golda Meir through the days preceding the 1973 Yom Kippur War in her negotiations with her Middle East neighbors, U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger, and the memories of her own extraordinary life. It was revised by the playwright with the Company through a series of invited readings. Annette Miller (who last summer distinguished herself in Collected Stories) is Golda and Daniel Gidron directs. Spring Lawn Theatre Our Review.
June 12 -August 31. Macbeth with Tina Packer directing Dan McClearyand Carolyn Roberts as the Macbeths. The eight-member cast ncludes Jason Asprey as Macduff, Henry David Clarke as Malcolm, Johnny Lee Davenport as Banquo, Michael Hammond as Duncan, Jennie Israel as Lady Macduff, and Judith McSpadden as Fleance. Founders' Theatre (which remains in the Elizabethan set-up which places the audience on all sides of the action and on stage. Our Review
Allyn Burrows as King Harry |
June 21-August 24. The Henry VI Chronicles: in Two parts. Shakespeares first plays are an apt choice as the first plays to be performed in the footprint of the Rose Playhouse (expected to come to fruition 2 years hence). The three plays are sculpted into two 90-minute productions to be presented in repertory throughout the summer. Directed by Jenna Ware and performed by actors from the Summer Performance Institute. See our feature: Experiencing the War of the Roses in Shakespeare & Company's Rose Playhouse In the Making
July 4-Sept 1. The Wharton One Acts: Roman Fever and The Other Two, adapted by Dennis Krausnick from Edith Wharton's short stories and directed by Normi Noel. Featured actors: Ethan Flower, Corinna May and Diane Prusha. Our Review.
August 27-31. Studio Festival of Plays will launch its 10th season with five productions presented as works-in-progress and staged readings. Admission is a $10.00 suggested donation. With minimal to no production elements, the Festival provides an opportunity for Company actors, directors, and writers to explore and develop new works and adaptations that may be workshopped in the future and become part of one of the Company's future seasons. This year's Festival includes two new plays and several staged readings, selected by Artistic Associates Michael Hammond and Dan McCleary. The Schedule is as follows:
TWO ROOMS by Lee Blessing, directed by Andrew Borthwick-Leslie and Jenna Ware. Format: staged reading. Theatre: Spring Lawn. Time: Tuesday, August 27 @ 10:00 am. Cast: Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, Corinna May, Diane Prusha, and Allyn Burrows. The play follows the story of Michael Wells, a history professor at the American University in Beirut who has been kidnapped by Muslim terrorists, and his wife Lainie in Washington, D.C., who tries to keep their relationship alive without personal contact and little government assistance. Lainie recreates what she imagines to be her husband's cell by clearing his home office of furniture and replacing it with a mat where she begins a ritual of speaking to him. As Michael tries to maintain his sanity, he begins to speak to Lainie in much the same way from his cell in Beirut. Meanwhile, Walker, a newspaper reporter, and Ellen, a State Department attaché, each battle through Lainie with their own agenda: Walker wants her to go public with her story and force the government to do more in her case, and Ellen wants her to stay quiet and let the State Department handle everything. When Lainie finally decides to go on television, there are serious, even mortal, personal and political implications for not just Lainie, but everyone involved.
COPENHAGEN, by Michael Frayn, directed by James Goodwin Rice. Format: staged reading. Theatre: Spring Lawn Time: Wednesday, August 28 @ 10:00 am. Cast: Ariel Bock, Jonathan Epstein, James Goodwin Rice, TBA. This international hit is about the German physicist Werner Heisenberg's strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Neils Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionized atomic physics in the 1920's with their work on quantum mechanics and the uncertainly principle. However, the world has now changed, and the two men find themselves on opposite sides in a bitter world war. Their meeting is fraught with danger, embarrassment, and ends in disaster. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have exercised historians ever since.
LIVING IN EXILE, a retelling of the Iliad by Jon Lipsky, directed by Daniela Varon. Format: reading. Theatre: Spring Lawn. Time: Thursday, August 29 @ 10:00 am. Cast: Jennie Israel, John Douglas Thompson, TBA. Massachusetts playwright Jon Lipsky wrote this play 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, not with the intention of modernizing Homer's text, but rather in order to tell a war story.
THE HOLOCAUST KID by Sonia Pilcer (adapted from her book by the same title), directed by Jonathan Epstein. Format: staged reading. Theatre: Spring Lawn. Time: Thursday, August 29 at 8:00 pm. Cast: Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Jonathan Epstein, and other cast members TBA. This first stage adaptation opens with young Zosha in the glow of the morning after a romantic interlude with the famous writer, Uly Oppenheim, whose book, Our Bodies, Not Our Souls drew Zosha to his lecture the night before. Zosha's revelling quickly comes to an end, however, when her parents, Heniek and Genia Palovsky, drop in on her unannounced. Pilcer's book, a novel-in-stories, each one connected by a common thread: the emotional strain of being a Second Generation Holocaust survivor.
EMILY, a puppet play written and directed by James Day. Format: staged reading. Theatre: outdoor Rose Footprint Time: Saturday, August 31 @ 10:0 0 am. Cast: Laura Fusare, Valerie Madden, Mark Woollett, and Brian Mason. Patrons 17 and younger admitted free of charge. Set in a mystical time this play with masks and puppets, traces the humorous adventures that befall a young girl as she travels through forests and gardens meeting mythical characters that inspire her along her journey. James Day is a costume designer and stitcher with the Company.
September 7- November 3. World premiere of a new adaptation of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter by Dr. Carol Gilligan with Tina Packer directing a company of ten actors on a journey through the classic 17th century tale of a young woman accused of adultery and her struggle for redemption. Founders' Theatre, every Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Also seven student matinees at 10:00 am every Friday. Press Opening, Saturday, September 14
August 1, 2002. Regular visitors to the Mac-Haydn Theater in the Round in Chatham will be saddened to hear that its co-founder Linda J. MacNish, passed away on July 25, of complications from diabetes. She was born in Spencertown, NY, May 10, 1939, and was brought up in Austerlitz. During high school from which she graduated as Valedictorian, she accompanied the choir as well as playing the flute and piccolo in the band. After studying political science at Drew University in Madison, NJ. but switched course for a job with Good Housekeeping and free lance writing. Combining her writing talents with her love of musical theatre, she became one of the first to produce "luncheon theatre" in New York City; where her original Dalrymple, You Rascal was performed. She also composed music and wrote lyrics for several off-Broadway shows, including Broadway Calling. In 1969 she co-founded the Mac-Haden with Lynne Haydn, and has since nurtured it as Producer and Artistic Director for 34 years. A memorial service will be held, at The Mac-Haydn Theatre, August 19 at 2:00 p.m. and emorial contributions may be made to The Mac-Haydn Theatre, Inc., 1925 State Route 203, Chatham, NY, 12037. In the spirit of the show must go on, Mame, the last musical for which she provided input will go on shortly. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
July 31, 2002. You can see Shakespeare & Company's 90-minute Henry VI Chronicles: part two in the new outdoor Rose Footprint Theatre FREE on four Thursdays: August 1, August 8, August 15, and August 22. All performances begin at 5:00 pm. Ticket vouchers, available on a first come/first served basi . must be picked up at the Founders' box office prior to each performance. Seating is general admission.
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Sharon Playhouse 49 Amenia Road, POB 1187 Sharon, CT (860/364-SHOW),Winter Phone: 860/435-6414, Fax: 860/364-8043 )is not part of our regular beat though those who come to the Berkshires from New York for weekends can easily schedule an event of interest for on the way up or going back. email the Tri-Arts Center at info@triarts.net or visit their website
Crazy For You (June 27 - July 21)
(August 2 - 18) State Fair
Special Events: The Big Band Sound, July 27 and Divas Do America, August 24 E-mail: info@triarts.net Back to Index
StageWorks, at North Pointe Cultural Arts Center on Rte 9, the main road through Kinderhook, NY. (I-87, I-90, Taconic Pky and Berkshire Spur of the Thruway) 518-828-7843 or their website at www.stageworkstheater.org
We've never been to Stage Works but are told it's no further from any town like Lenox or Lee than the MacHaydn or Theater Barn. This summer's offerings include:
July 3 to July 28. Dirty Blonde by Claudia Shear (another production of Shear's witty romance and homage to Mae West is also at the Theater Barn -- though we can vouch only for the production we saw in New York -- and liked enough for 3 viewings -- Our review).
Aug 28 to Sept 22. Brutal Imagination by by Cornelius Eady. For the nine days it took Union, South Carolina police to break her story, a grief stricken Susan Smith made national headlines claiming that her 1990 Mazda Protege had been hijacked by an unidentified black man -- with her two infant children still in the car.
July 13, 8 pm, Free, a theatrical adventure for adults and children, based on the ancient Chinese adventures ofThe Monkey King, performed by Mettawee River Theatre Company, directed and designed by Ralph Lee
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Theater Barn, 654 Route 20 New Lebanon, NY (518) 794-8989 info@theaterbarn.com web site. The non-equity company's shows really are in a barn and the performers and production values definitely not in the big league category. Lots of antiques shops and restaurants en route. All performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm and 8:30pm and Sundays at at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets $18; $16 at Sunday Matinees
June 14 - June 23, Dirty Blonde, an area Premiere of the comedy with music about the naughty, bawdy Mae West and the unlikely couple who fall in love with her. . .and each other. (For more details see our review of the show in New York.
June 27 - July 7, My Way! A Tribute to Frank Sinatra featuring over 50 of his best known tunes from "Chicago" to"New York, New York".
July 11 - July 21, Dial M For Murder, the ever popular mystery which Alfred Hitchcock famously brought it to the silver screen.
July 25 - August 4, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. the Seinfeld set to music Off-Broadway hit.
August 8 - August 18, Can Can. Cole Porter's s musical comedy set in romantic Paris!
August 22 - September 1, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum the wildly Roman Vaudeville farce.
FALL SEASON -- Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
September 6 - September 22, The Country Club, Douglas Carter Beane's comedy about a group of privileged friends assessing life, love, the past and the future. Our Review of the play's premiere production.
September 27 - October 13, The Complete History of America (Abridged) (also at Old Castle in Vermont during the summer).
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Williamstown Theatre Festival
Adams Memorial Theatre, 1000 Main Street, Williamstown, MA (413/597-3400) web address
MAIN STAGE
Where's Charley? (June 19-30). The one-time partnership of George Abbott (book) and Frank Loesser (music &lyrics) for the musical comedy in in Brazil - where the nuts come from - or is it she? Nicholas Martin directs the show which features a 14-piece orchestra. The cast of 20 will include: Blair Brown (Donna Lucia), Christopher Fitzgerald (Charley), Simon Jones (Sir Francis Chesney), Tom Lacey (Brassett), Sarah Schmidt (Kitty Verdun), Jessica Stone (Amy), David Turner (Jack Chesney) and Paxton Whitehead (Mr. Spettigue). Our Review Once in a Lifetime (July 3-14) in which three vaudevillians set out for tinsel town to seek their fortune. This spoof is the first collaboration by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Michael Greif directs. For more plot details, check our review of another revival seen four years ago here. Cast features Dylan Baker, Petger Frechette, Lauren Graham, Kristine Nielsen, Mary Catherine Garrison, Joel Rooks. Sets, Allen Moyer; costumes, Linda Cho; lights, Rui Rita; sound, Jerry Yager. Our Review.
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Loot (July 17-28). John Tillinger, who directed a Broadway production of this Joe Orton farce 16 years ago is again at the helm. The cast features Jeffrey Jones, Charles Keating, Austin Lysy, Kellie Overbey. Our Review
God of Vengeance (July 31-August 11) adapted by a WTF favorite, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies. When this great drama of the Yiddish theatre by Sholem Asch was staged on Broadway in 1923 it so shocked audiences that it was shut down on a morals charge. The story is that of a brothel owner who attempts to gain respectability in legitimate society while keeping his daughter uncorrupted. A remarkable discovery of twentieth century drama retold by one of the leading dramatists of the twenty-first. A revival played briefly Off-Broadway a few years ago. The WTF production is directed by Gordon Edelstein. Our Review.
The last two weeks on the Main Stage are devoted to a Mini-Festival (August 14-25) to celebrate the art of theater and storytelling. Outstanding performers take to the Adams Memorial Theatre for three loving recollections that transport the artist and audience. For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again (August 14-18) by French-Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay, a celebrated. It is directed by Carey Perloff and stars Olympia Dukakis in a play The Washington Post described as "an unabashed love letter from a man to his mother." has written an amusing and universal valentine to those who shape our lives. A Distant Country Called Youth (August 20, 22 and 24) is adapted and directed by Steve Lawson, from The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Vol. I: 1920-1945. This runs in repertory with Lackawanna Blues (August 21, 22, 23 and 25), written and performed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Mr. Santiago-Hudsoh's memory play was well received at New York's Public Theatre. For details, see our review of that production here.
NIKOS STAGE
Under the Blue Sky (June 12-23). This is the American premiere of one of Britain's most promising young playwrights, 27-year-old David Eldridge, something of a modern day La Ronde, about the awkward love lives of high school teachers who seem as desperate and vulnerable as those they teach. It won the 2000 Time Out Live Award for Best New Play in the West End. The WTF director is John Erman. The cast features Rob Campbell, Tate Donovan (who was widely praised for his last off-Broadway appearance in Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero) , Vera Farmiga , Michael Gaston, Marsha Mason and Annabella Sciorra. The set which revolves to depict a London flat, a house in Essex and a cottage garden in Devon is by James Noone, lit by Davide Weiner. Costumes are by Willa Kim and sound by Matthew Burton.
One of our London readers who saw the play there wrote: This playwright's witty dialogue is a joy and he reveals private lives that show these teachers have as much to learn as their students. The three couples' relationships are neatly connected and there's nothing stuffy or "schoolteacher-ish" about the unfolding events. The middle scene is, in fact X-Rated, with Graham, a frustrated male virgin, turning a humiliating encounter with a sexually overactive math teacher around so that she must fulfill the sexual fantasy that will "make him a man." Eldridge saves his final story to illustrate a pattern of unequal male-female relationships for a warm and sensitive happy ending story of a May-December friendship that blossoms into a wonderful finale to the accompaniment of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do."
September 20th update: The play was produced in September at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles where it was open for review -- to read what our LA reporter had to say about it go here
Moving Picture (June 26-July 7) takes us back to 1888 and Thomas Edison's laboratory at its height of productivity and innovation. As the race for the first motion picture machine heats up and the potential for profit comes into focus, the question is raised as to what price loyalty? Darko Tresnjak,will direct this world premiere written by Dan O'Brien. Armand Schultz is Edison. Also in the cast: Jordan Charney, Nathan Croddry, Liam Craig, Peter Jacobson, Gregor Paslawsky, Jesse Pennington, Robert Thompson Jason Wells. Sets: David Gordon; costumes, Linda Cho; lights, Rui Rita; sound, Jerry Yaeger
Birdie Blue (July 10-21), another world premiere, is by Cheryl West, author of the much praised Jar The Floor. Cicely Tyson and James Brown star in the two-actor family portrait and will be directed by. Marion McClinton. The Red Angel (July 24-August 4), another world premiere, has Eric Bogosian going Ivy League with the story of a respected novelist who takes a teaching post at a university. A sultry student unexpectedly shows up after school for a fascinating psycho-sexual match of wills.
Without Walls (August 7-18) . This is a new play by Alfred Uhry, the Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning author of Driving Miss Daisy. Morocco Hemphill, an esoteric black drama teacher, is the best thing about the Dewey School, and Anton, the school's newest transfer, is not. As Anton and Morocco journey on paths of self-discovery, who will learn the hardest lesson? Christopher Ashley directs yet another world premiere.
It wouldn't be summer without Late Night Cabaret (June 27 - June 29, July 11 - 13, July 25 - 27, August 8 - 10) when Festival and guest artists take to the stage in Williams College's beautifully restored Goodrich Hall for late night evenings of comedy and song.
Also back are Fridays@3 -- Pay $3, arrive at the Nikos Stage in time for the 3pm Readings and Discussions.
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