Williamstown Theatre Festival 2009

A Shortened 55th Season

By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 13, 2009

Nicholas Martin is taking full measure of his second season as artistic director of the renowned Williamstown Theatre Festival. Giuliano photos.

Martin, seen here with actress Kate Burton, pledges that the reduced 2009 season will not cut back on the quality of its productions.

The actor, director and playwrite, Roger Rees, was sacked after three disappointing seasons as artistic director of WTF.

 

           Last season Nicholas Martin took over as artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival following the unsuccessful three year tenure of Roger Rees. Given the problems with Rees,  the Board of WTF initially offered Martin a two year contract. By mid season, having provided much needed stability, it was extended indefinitely. 

            Today, the somewhat abbreviated schedule for 2009 was announced with Martin returning as artistic director He will direct the world premiere of  Jonathan Marc Sherman's Knickebocker opening on the, smaller, experimental Nikos Stage on July 8. 

           In taking over last season it is unclear if there was a deficit left behind by Rees. But Martin mounted an ambitious and expensive 2008 season with five Nikos productions and four on the Main Stage. With its elaborate sets, large cast, and full orchestra, She Loves Me, which Martin took with him from his former position as artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company, was surely costly to import and produce.

            Much has happened since the end of last season. With the economy in a tail spin, and no recovery in sight, there has been speculation about the fate of WTF as well as the other major theatre and performing arts groups in the Berkshires. So far they have all announced full and ambitious schedules. Tanglewood has even added an extra week featuring James Taylor to end the season. Jacob's Pillow appears to be returning at full strength. With its new Sol LeWitt building Mass MoCA is anticipating a strong attendance.

               In reducing its Nikos productions from five to three, and shortening the season, WTF appears to be trimming the schedule rather than compromising on the quality of  productions. It was a criticism of WTF during the Rees years which saw a decline of prestige and attendance. In that regard perhaps Martin overstated his ambition last summer and is now taking a more conservative approach. He has nothing to prove regarding the quality of last season that went a long way to get WTF back on track as one of the nation's foremost regional theatre companies.

            In a Berksire Eagle story Martin is quoted as stating that "It's heartbreaking. I fought it at first but it seemed far more wise not to compromise on productions. I can't start cutting production budgets. We've seen that tried before here. Better to do only four plays on the Main Stage if it means we can continue to do new work in the Nikos."

          Last year the season began on June 18 with Beyond Therapy on the Nikos Stage. This season opens on the Main Stage with Children, by A.R. Gurney, directed by John Tillinger on July 1. The following week, July 8,  Knickebocker, by Jonathan Marc Sherman, directed by Martin will debut on Nikos Stage. The Main Stage and Nikos will, as in the past, alternate weekly openings with the season ending on August 23 with Quartermaine's Terms, by Simon Gray, directed by Maria Aitken.
               
The Main Stage
 
Children
July 1 – 12, 2009
 WTF's Main Stage season will begin with Children by A.R. Gurney. Tony-nominee John Tillinger (Loot, The Sunshine Boys) directs this timeless Gurney classic set in a large summer home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. When an estranged brother's return and a mother's impending marriage recall painful memories of their father's death, seething arguments reignite one family's struggle with its tragic past and uncertain future.

 True West
July 15 – 26, 2009
 Next on the Main Stage will be True West, by Sam Shepard, directed by former Boris Sagal Directing Fellow Daniel Goldstein (Walmartopia, Godspell). Former WTF Apprentice Nate Corddry ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Showtime's "United States of Tara"), and his real-life brother Rob Corddry ("The Daily Show," The Heartbreak Kid), will play the squabbling siblings in this Pulitzer Prize-winning play. This modern classic is an explosive exploration of family rivalry as two very different brothers attempt to sell Hollywood their version of the great American Western.

 The Torch-Bearers
July 29 – August 9, 2009
 Tony-nominated stage and screen actor Dylan Baker (November, Mauritius, Revolutionary Road) will direct a cast including Becky Ann Baker (All My Sons, Assassins) and Tony Award-winner Marian Seldes (A Delicate Balance, Deathtrap) in The Torch-Bearers by George Kelly.  The play is a side-splitting 1920s farce in which a troupe of amateur actors rehearse and perform a show-stopping new play—or try to with all their might. Their stage is riddled with comedic drama, suspense, and good old-fashioned witty mayhem, similar to both Noises Off and Boeing Boeing.

 Quartermaine's Terms
August 12 – 23, 2009
Tony-nominated director Maria Aitken (Broadway and West End's award-winning production of The 39 Steps) will close the WTF Main Stage with Quartermaine's Terms by Simon Gray (Butley, The Late Middle Classes). Featuring a cast including Tony-nominee Mary Beth Hurt (Top Girls, A Delicate Balance), Simon Jones (Blithe Spirit, Waiting in the Wings) and Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, Journey's End), this charming and heart-felt 1960s comedy follows an endearingly eccentric group of English teachers in Cambridge whose insatiable quest for knowledge has masked their secret longings for passion, romance, and true happiness.

Nikos Stage

Knickerbocker
July 8 – 19, 2009
 Nicholas Martin will open the Nikos Stage season, directing the world-premiere of Knickerbocker by Jonathan Marc Sherman (Women and Wallace, Sophistry).  "Are you ready?" The question looms over Jerry as the months tick by and his unborn son grows from the size of a peach to the size of, well, a baby. As the birth date creeps ever nearer, will the advice, encouragement and warnings of friends and family make Jerry more or less ready? The awe and terror of becoming a new parent shines through Sherman's newest play as he examines whether one can ever truly be ready for parenthood.

 What Is The Cause Of Thunder?
July 22 – August 2, 2009
Also on the Nikos stage, WTF Artistic Associate Justin Waldman (WTF and Off-Broadway's The Atheist) will direct the world-premiere of What Is The Cause Of Thunder?, a new play by Noah Haidle (Mr. Marmalade, Saturn Returns).  After 27 years on the same soap opera, Ada is starting to confuse her art and her life. But after so many years of acting, her art is her life.  Haidle's poignant comedy brings us the hilarity of day-time drama alongside the harsher, but often equally funny, realities of life.

 Caroline In Jersey
August 5 – 16, 2009
 Closing the Nikos Stage season will be the world-premiere of Caroline in Jersey by Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew at the Huntington Theatre Co., directed by Nicholas Martin and Steppenwolf), directed by WTF Artistic Associate Amanda Charlton (Dissonance, Demon Dreams). Caroline is down and out in New Jersey. She's having a nervous breakdown, her career as an actress is tragically dwindling, and a peculiar stranger has made his presence known in her new apartment. Can she find a way to conquer it all? This funny and touching new play follows one woman's whole-hearted attempt to accept the past and take hold of the future, despite the many surprises that might pop up along the way.