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Berkshires Summer 2004 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 . . . News In Review at Cranwell . . . Old Castle Theater. . . Shakespeare & Co . . . 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. Summing Up Summer 2003 in the Berkshires Send feedback to esommer@curtainup.com |
1/2 TIX.
As of June 25th, the popular 1/2-TIX and cultural events discount program is up and running again, at the following locations: 1. Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce Infor-mation Center on Main Street, Great Barrington 2. Pittsfield, inside the Berkshire Visitor's Center, 121 South St. 3. (New) Adams Visitors Center, 3 Hoosac St.
Participating orginazations include Berkshire Choral Festival, Tanglewood, Shakespeare & Company, Barrington Stage, Shaker Mountain Opera, Jacob's Pillow, Berkshire Opera.
Also available a complimentary Culture Card for discounts at museums and other county-wide arts events. Tickets available at all locations on the day of performance on a first-come, first-served , cash only basis.
Hours of Service: Every day except Monday from11am to 6pm; from 2pm to 6pm. Fri. & Sunday
Barrington Stage Consolati Performing Arts Center, Sheffield, MA (413/528-8888 Website
MAINSTAGE
June 24 to July 17th, a revival of Sweet Charity Broadway. Musical by Neil Simon with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy fields. Directed by Rob Ruggiero. Stars Valerie Wrightr as Charity Hope Valentine and Karl Kenzler, as Charity's mismatched love interest, Oscar. Kenya Massey will play Helene, Nat Chandler plays Vittorio Vidal and I. Gordon Stanley will play Herman. The press opening is set for Sunday, June 27 at 5 p.m.
July 22nd to August 7th, The God Committee -- world premiere a new play by Mark St. Germain whose Ear on a Beatle is currently playing Off-Broadway. Cast TBA.
August 12 to 28, revival of Cyrano de Bergerac to be directed by the company's artistic director Julianne Boyd and starring Christopher Innvarand Heather Ayers of last season's hit musical The Game.
STAGE II
July 7-25, world premiere of the musical comedy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, with music and lyrics by Tony Award-winner William Finn, and a concept by Rebecca Feldman and playwright Rachel Sheinkin. The finished project follows a winter reading/workshop. This show proved to be the hit of the Berkshire summer season and by mid-September found a home in New York with the Off-Broadway Second Stage company that's generated a fair share of Broadway transfers!
August 5 to 22, Lee Blessing's Thief River which I liked very much when it premiered at New York's Signature Threatre (review). It will be interesting to see it directed by Andrew Volkoff.
Youth Theater
July brings BSC's annual Youth Theatre. Tthis year's show i The Wizard of Oz, with music from the film.
Berkshire Opera
Berkshire Opera Company, 297 North Street, Pittsfield, 413-442-0099, www.berkshireopera.org.
The season continues smaller than one would hope for, but what there is promises to be very fine.
June 24 to July 4th, Rigoletto starring local diva Maureen O'Flynn in her signature role of Gilda. Performances are in two locations: The Koussevitzky Arts Center at Berkshire Community College in , Pittsfield on Thursday, Saturday Monday, Wednesday June 24, 26, 28, 30, at 8:00 pm; June 28th at 2pm. At Williams College in Williamstown, on July 2 at 8pm and July 4th at 2pm.
An American Opera Trio: A Hand of Bridge (Samuel Barber), A Game of Chance (Seymour Barab), Trouble in Tahiti (Leonard Bernstein) at Zukowski Theatre at Lee High School, Lee MA July 26, 28, July 31, at 8:00 pm, July 30th at 2pm.
The Berkshire Theatre Festival Berkshire Theatre Festival-- POBox 797, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (413/298-5536) web site
Main Stage
Pearl Cleagle's Blues For an Albama Sky, a co-production with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, directed by Timothy Douglas. June 22 to July 10; opening June 23rd.
George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, directed by Anders Cato. July 13 to July 24; opening July 14.
William Gibson's Miracle Worker, directed by Gary English who also did last summer's rarely seen Gibson play, American Primitive.. July 27 to August 14; opening July 28.
Moliere's Misanthrope, translated by Richard Wilbur and directed by Anders Cato . August 17 to September 4; opening August 18.
At the BTF UNICORN
Floyd Collins, a musical. Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel. Book and additional lyrics by Tina Landau. Directed by Jared Coseglia. June 9 to July 3. Our Review
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Siddhartha, A Jungian Fantasy World Premiere of Eric Hill's adaptation of the Hermann Hesse novel, directed by Hill. July 7 to July 31; opening July 8.
Kathy Levin Shapiro's Eugene's Home. Another world premiere; this one directed by Scott Schwartz. August 4 to August 21; opening August 5.
It Goes without Saying, written and performed by Bill Bowers, directed by Martha Banta. August 24, 2004 to September 4, 2004; opening August 25.
BTF Special Events
June 30 to July 17th, Robin Hood , with Wed-Sat 11am performances at the Berkshire Museum
Scheduled benefit events include The Joy of Censorship, written and performed by Joe Raiola on Sunday, May 30 at 3 pm on the Main Stage, tickets $40 and a reading by Eric Hill of Maureen Hunter's new play Atlantis in the Unicorn Theatre on Friday June 4, 8pm. Maureen Hunter's new play Atlantis in the Unicorn Theatre. For night owls there's also a Late Night at the Unicorn event-- Almost Obscene, a comedy from the Augusut 2002 International Fringe Festival written and performed by Joe Raiola and d irected by Barbara Pitcher, July 29-31; August 6-7, 12-14, with doors opening at 10:15 and beer, wine and snacks for sale.
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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. Performance schedule: Thurs. Fri., 2nd Wed. 8 p.m., Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun 7 p.m. Mats: 1st Thurs. 2 p.m., Sat. 5 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., 2nd Wed. 2 p.m. Tickets: $21-$23. Another busy season is ahead.
May 27 - June 6. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum! A little romance, lots of happy songs and laughs everywhere as Pseudolus the slave tries matchmaking to win his freedom.
June 10 - 20, Pirates of Penzance. A Gilbert and Sullivan favorite.
June 24 - July 4, Gypsy with MacHaydn favorite Kathy Halenda starring as Mama Rose.
July 8 - 18, Swing!. The big band sounds, the good old songs, the beat.
July 22 - 25, Adorable Me! The Totie Fields Story. She was the darling of the Catskills resorts, a pioneer of women's stand-up comedy, the sweetheart of TV variety shows - a rip-roaring great big bundle of laughs! Award winning actress Nancy Timpanaro-Hogan is Totie, sexy, sassy, a little bawdy and a lot of fun! Wednesday, July 21: Wednesday at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 22, at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Friday, July 23, at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at 5 p.m. & 8:30 p.m. Sunday, July 25, at 2 p.m.
July 29 - August 8, Showboat, the company's most requested classic.
August 12 - 22, Barnum. He was the “"Prince of Humbug"”, who believed there was a “"Sucker Born Every Minute"
August 26 - September 5, The King And I , Rodgers' and Hammerstein's classic, based on a true story of an up-to-date teacher who travels to Siam in the 1880's to confront the King's centuries of traditional thinking. “Whistle A Happy Tune, Hello Young Lovers, Something Wonderful, My Lord and Master” and the sweeping
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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 .
The Miniature Theatre's 15th Anniversary Season Focuses on Human Relationships. All performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm., with matinees Thursday and Sunday at 2:00pm. Tickets are $20-24
July 7-18, David Hare's Skylight, directed by James Warwick.
July 21-25, Tea For Three: Ladybird, Pat and Betty, written and performed by Emmy Award winning Elaine Bromka, also featuring Eric Weinberger, and directed by Byam Stevens
July 28 - August 15, The Pavilion by Craig Wright, directed by Michael Dowling. At their 20th high school reunion, held in a soon to be demolished dance pavilion, the Class of 1980's "cutest couple" meet again. Still reeling with anger and regret over a life-changing decision made two decades ago, they seek a future that will break the gravitational pull of the past. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, hailed by critics as an "Our Town for our time." -- for more details about what to expect, check out what our Philadelphia critic had to say about it when it was mounted by the prestigious Wilma Theater-- the review.
August 18-29, So Long, Sleeping Beauty by Irish playwright Isobel Mahon. Vincent Dowling will direct the American Premiere of the play set in a quiet park in Dublin where two strangers meet and find they constitute two legs of a romantic triangle that is played out to a different, sweet, moving, sometimes humorous tune. to Index
News In Revue at Cranwell Resort, Lenox 413 637 1364 www.newsinrevue.com
This is this torn-from-the-headlines show's tenth year in the Berkshires and with another election upon us it should be timelier than ever. This year's cast of characters includes "headliners" like Candidate Kerry, the Bush clan, Martha in stripes and Hillary in charge. Expect a few last minute surprises as new stories break and the News in Revue Gang whips up some topical tunes. The show runs from July 2nd through Labor Day with performances every night but Wednesday at 8:30. Audiences can opt for pre-show dinner in the mansion or wine, beer, coffee and dessert in the showroom.
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 . Bennington, Vt., is a bit too far north for me to get there often but has a long and full season. At the moment the information for 2004 is still sketchy, per below which represents a shorter season than in the past-- but nice to see since economics brought last year's season to an early close. Performances at the Bennington Center for the Arts will be Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $24 to $29. Student tickets are $10 for all performances. In an audience expanding effort, American Revolution will also be performed by the company at Middlebury College, and All My Sons at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland.
June 11 -20. JUDEVINE - By David Budbill
This marks the fourth time (the first in 1988) Old Castle will present this play by Vermont poet Budbill. that views Vermont as a Third World nation. The cast will include , Richard Howe, Joe Butler and Willy Jones who have appeared in previous productions of the play; also Mark Irish, Katrina Ferguson and Sophia Garder.
July 9 - 25 THE NOVELIST - By Howard Fast
This is a portrait of Jane Austen during the final year of her life when the reclusive English author is being courted by a retired sea captain who has read all her books and feels she is a kindred spirit. The play premiered in 1991 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Grace Kiley will make her debut as Austen and artistic director Eric Peterson will take to the boards as her suitor.
Aug. 6 - 22 I OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES - By Neil Simon
The Broadway play and movie hit that starred Walter Matthau as a once successful Hollywood screenwriter who is suddenly confronted with his distant and almost-forgotten daughter who has trekked from Brooklyn to Hollywood to meet him.
Sept. 3 - 12 AN AMERICAN REVOLUTION - By Vermont novelist, biographer, poet, screenwriter and playwrigJay Parini is a omedy set in the Green Mountain State about political intrigue, romance, a dysfunctional family and a ghostly mother.
Oct. 8 - 17 ALL MY SONS - By Arthur Miller. This play which opened on Broadway after World War II and takes place during the war, concerns war profiteering. The cast will include Paul Falzone.
Shakespeare & CompanyShakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble St., Lenox, (413) 637-1199 Web Site
Shakespeare's As You Like It, directed by Eleanor Holdridge. Founders' Theatre June 18 - August 29; press opening: Saturday, June 26 at 7:30 pm.
July 2 - September 5; press opening: Sunday, July 4 at 3:00 pm Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage again directed by Eleanor Holdridge -- a reprise of the successful revival during the winter season. Spring Lawn Theatre. In case you missed this on Broadway and television the title character is Lettice Douffet, a lover of history -- except the tedious, boring parts. This makes for some controversial revelations in her job as Tour Guide at the unutterably dull Fustian House in London. Promptly sacked by Charlotte Schoen, Lettice unintentionally engages "Lotte" in discovering the imagination locked deeply within her. Lettice and Lotte then establish their Eyesore Negation Detachment and set out to enlarge everyone's shrunken souls.
Full Gallop by Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson, starring Annette Miller. When I chatted with Miller at an opening last season, I wondered why she'd never played this role for which I thought she was ideally suited. Lo and behold, here she is, having already had some success with the role in Boston. Spring Lawn Theatre, July 8 - September 25; press opening: Friday, July 16 at 8:30 pm. It's been eight years since I last saw this play during CurtainUp's first season, so I look forward to seeing Shakespeare & Company's "Golda" do it.
Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors directed by Cecil MacKinnon. Founders' Theatre August 4 - September 2; press opening Friday, August 13 at 7:30 pm This was s Shakespeare's first go at mistaken identities and untangling the surprise, but not director Cecil MacKinnon's who recently directed the Company's Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labor's Lost. The cast of 18 TBA will include this year's Summer Performance Institute actors.
Vita & Virginia by Eileen Atkins, adapted from correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West; directed by Dan McCleary. This marks yet another reprise, this one from last summer -- see CurtainUp' s Review . Spring Lawn Theatre, September 24 - October 24; press opening, Sunday, September 26 at 3:00 pm
Shakespeare's Othello by William Shakespeare is a Bare Bard workshop production to replace the company's traditional Studio Festival. Jonathan Epstein and John Douglas Thompson, from last year's King Lear, will alternate playing the roles of Othello and Iago. Artist/Audience talk-backs will follow each performance.
Romeo and Juliet presented by the Education Program's Spring Tour actors and directed by Kevin Coleman at the Rose Footprint, July 8 - August 29; Thursdays at 5:30, and Sundays at 12:30 & 5:30. Also at the Footprint, Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World, a 45-minute event for all ages, July 7 - August 28, Wednesdays at 5:30, and Saturdays at 12:30 & 5:30. 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. Back to Index
Theater Barn, 654 Route 20 New Lebanon, NY (518) 794-8989 info@theaterbarn.com . Lots of antiques shops and restaurants en route.
The 2004 summer/fall season begins June 18th and will run through October 10th. It will feature four plays and four musicals. Performances: Thursday and Friday evenings at 8, Saturdays at 5 and 8:30, and Sundays at 2 and 7. Performances of the two fall shows are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 and Sunday afternoons at 2.
June 18 to June 27. Yasmina Reza's comedy, Art, winner of the 1998 Tony Award for best play. It chronicles the impact on the relationship among three friends when one of them buys a white-on-white painting.
July 1-11. The Honky Tonk Angels, a country-western musical by Ted Swindley, about three women seeking fame in Nashville.
July 15 to 25. Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest.
July 29 to Aug. 8. Beguiled Again, a revue built around the songs of Rodgers and Hart.
Aug. 12 to 25. Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? a 1950s spoof about school.
Aug. 25 through Sept. 5. Kander and Ebb's Cabaret. set in Berlin in the 1930s about the exploits of an amoral cabaret singer and an American writer.
Sept.10 to -19. A. R. Gurney's Sylvia, a comedy about an empty-nest couple and the stray dog that comes between them.
Williamstown Theatre Festival
Adams Memorial Theatre, 1000 Main Street, Williamstown, MA (413/597-3400) web address. Tickets for Main Stage productions range from $20 to $55 with July 2, July 16, July 30, and August 13 Kids' Nights that offer one free adult ticket to a Main Stage production for each full-price kids' ticket purchased. Tickets for Nikos Stage productions range from $22-24.
Rush tickets will be available for every Thursday evening Main Stage performance beginning at 6pm on the day of the show.
Main Stage
June 24 to July 10 Cabaret & Main, the popular cabarets will be on the Main Stage for the first time, with a rotating cast that will include Bill Irwin and James Naughton. The host will be Lewis Black, the acerbic comic and playwright who has been a WTF cabaret regular. The rotating cast of stars will include: Charlotte d'Amboise, Betty Buckley, Kate Burton, Tim Daly, Christopher Fitzgerald, Bill Irwin Terrence Mann, Andrea Martin, Joe Morton, Debra Monk, James Naughton, Martha Plimpton, Billy Porter, Roger Rees, Dana Reeve, Marisa Tomei, Scott Wolf, Carol Woods.
July 14 to 25, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Nicholas Martin
July 28 to August 8, a revival of Noël Coward's Design for Living, directed by Gregory Boyd and starring Campbell Scott, Steven Weber and Marisa Tomei .
August 11 to 22, a revival of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by Michael Grief.
Nikos Stage Season (For more details about these shows click here.
June 23 to July 4. The Water's Edge a play by Theresa Rebeck about a man who returns to the home, wife, and children he left 17 years earlier. It will be directed by Will Frears and will star Kate Burton.
July 7 to 18, Rodney's Wife , written and directed by Richard Nelson. It's about f the wife of a movie actor in 1962 Rome and the disorientation, emotional confusion, and desire she experiences while her husband is filming a Spaghetti Western.
July 21 to August 1. Michael John LaChiusa's R Shomon suggested by the short stories of Ryonosuke Akutagawa. The musical will be directed by Ted Sperling and will star three-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald; also Michael C. Hall, Tom Wopat, and Mary Testa (who recently contributed to the superb revival of LaChiusa's First Lady Suite. .
August 11 to 22. Terrence McNally's Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams about a married couple that runs a children's theater. This is the play that was supposed to, but didn't open at Manhattan Theater Club. It will be directed by Scott Ellis. Cast will include Bobby Cannavale, Debra Monk, Boyd Gaines, and Marian Seldes.
Miscellaneous Festival Activities
June 28 and July 27, the annual free Greylock Theatre Project; also free, the Boris Sagal Fellow Show showcasing WTF's non-Equity actors (August 4 to 6), Haroun and the Sea of Stories (August 5 to 14), a Festival family show to be directed by Evan Cabnet
Fridays @ 3 play readings at the Nikos Stage, Fridays at 3:00 pm for $3 (can be reserved through the Box Office. The schedule is as follows:
July 2 – Pass You By by Liz Flahive, directed by Evan Cabnet about a new playwright who crafts a dark, high school comedy about siblings, second marriages, sex, school dances, guns and gardening. IThe cast includes Gretchen Cleevely, Fiona Gallagher and Austin Lysy, Noah Trepanier and Janet Zarish.
July 9 – Epitaph by and with Ethan Sandler & Adrian Wenner, directed by Betsy Thomas is a workshop of a 2-man, 50-character romantic comedy.
July 16 – Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller, directed by Will Pomerantz Miller's poetic satire about an unsteady dictator who captures and condemns his biggest rival, must come to terms with his own humanity in this media-saturated world.
July 23 – Arrangements by Ken Weitzman, directed by Susanne Agins Winner of 2004 L. Arnold Weissberger Award for a new, unproduced play in which a strange but beautiful friendship blossoms between amateur slam poet Robby and obese and outspoken Donna.
July 30 – James and Annie by Warren Leight, directed by Jack Hofsiss is an interracial love story of a World War II hero who marries a white woman, hoping that a new age of acceptance is dawning.
August 6 – Welcome to My Rash in which Flora Berman, a writer, has developed a mysterious series of ailments so bizarre that she thinks her next symptoms might be hailstones, locusts and vermin; also a new one-act play especially for WTF and Welcome to My Rash, August 13 – WTF's Literary Department commemorates the Festival's 50th Anniversary with a diverse lineup of scenes directed and performed by members of WTF's workshop.
August 20 and 21, performances by the experimental dance-theater troupe Mad Dog, inspired by the works of science-fiction icon Stanislaw Lem.
Saturday, August 28, a one-night-only 50th anniversary celebration featuring artists from the Festival's past and future gathering to relive theatrical moments, stories, and memories. Directed by Nicholas Martin, the performance will be followed by dinner and fireworks.
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