Barrington Stage Company

Eleanor, which was filmed earlier this month without an audience at BSC’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, will be available to stream on October 3 & 4 at 7:30 pm ET. Tickets ($15) can be ordered from OvationTix and a link will then be sent to the ticket holder within 24 hours of the scheduled performance.

A work in progress, "Eleanor," by Mark St. Germain was commissioned by Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota. It was given a reading there. Recently it had a reading with another actress, Harriet Harris, for Barrington Stage Company. With two performances in an empty theatre it was viewed by subscription. By phone we discussed the new work and its intriguing character who was superly portrayed by a remarkable actress.

In collaboration with Actor's Equity, Barrington Stage Company and Berkshire Theatre Group have finalized a path forward. Barrington Stage Company is producing Harry Clarke, a one-man show that will employ two Equity members, a performer and a stage manager. It begins performances in August. Berkshire Theatre Group is mounting the musical Godspell, an outdoor production with a cast of about ten and two stage managers.

Out of precaution for actors, creative teams, staff and audiences, Barrington Stage Company will employ best safety practices, including reducing the 520-seat Mainstage to one third of its capacity; increasing the distance between rows and seats; and deep cleaning the theatre after every performance, among other measures. Patrons will be required to wear masks until further notice.

Barrington Stage Company will present two World Premiere musicals and new productions of a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical classic, a Tony Award-winning musical revue, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. BSC will also perform outdoors for the first time with free performances of one of the company’s World Premiere musicals and featuring the company’s popular Youth Theatre.

Can there be too much of a good thing? Barrington Stage Company is known for staging classical musicals. But now Ain't Misbehavin has been added to South Pacific. This seems more about the bottomline than balanced programming. The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg is the third high season production on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. Anna in the Tropics, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Nilo Cruz, will highlight the St. Germain Stage.

On a night that was colder than a witch's tit the faithful packed the pews of Zion Lutheran Church in Pittefield. We gathered for the fourth annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Because the heating system failed baby it was cold inside. But an evening in honor of great theatre proved to be a stellar and heart warming occasion.

Barrington Stage Company has announced three productions for its upcoming 2020 season – the musical masterpiece South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan and The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, and Anna in the Tropics, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Nilo Cruz, on the St. Germain Stage.

As the final production of the 25th season, artistic director, Julianne Boyd, is directing the world premiere of a timely social justice play American Underground by Brent Askari. It postulates a future when all American Muslims are treated as enemies of the state.

Juke box musicals with butkis for plots have become the norm. Kudos to Barrington Stage for its world premiere Fall Springs which actually has a compelling book. But fracking, the musical, oh my goodness! While it has entertaining moments this creation by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Niko Tsakalakos is a whacky long shot. It's more than just a town that sinks in the sludge.

In a conference organized by Florida critic, Jay Handelman, 30 members and guests of American Theatre Critics Association attended the biennial of the 30-year-old National Black Theatre Festival. In and around Winston-Salem, North Carolina there were 30 productions. During two insightful panel discussions we met artistic directors from Winston-Salem, Sarasota, Chicago and Houston. It provided a compelling overview of black theatre in America.

Hamlet is tormented to avenge the murder of his father by Gertrude, his mother and her lover Claudius, his uncle. First performed in 1609 they have been scorned by audiences ever since. John Updike's novel Gertrude and Claudius presented their sordid collaboration as a love story. That has been tranformed into a drama directed by Julianne Boyd for Barrington Stage Company. While the production is problematic it is among the best and most intriguing of the many plays of a prolific playwright.

For a change of pace Barrington Stage Company has opted not to give us yet another social justice scolding. Summer escapism with a belly full of laughs is provided by David Ives's Time Flies and Other Comedies. An all star cast of Barington actors are off the leash with total gonzo performances. They are anchored by the comedic genius of Debra Jo Rupp. Just wait till you see her paired with Cary Donaldson. With wings and buggy butts as Mayflys they wll be born, meet, mate, hatch and die all on one hilarious day. And that's just the first of six outrageous skits.

A new play by Jonathan Payne, A Human Being, of a Sort, at Williamstown Theatre Festival is based on an historical event. In 1906 a Congolese Pigmy native, Ota Benga, was brought to New York City, placed in a cage along with monkeys, orangutans and other primates for display in the Bronx Zoo. From this Payne has created a social justice drama that explores racism at the turn of the 20th century.

Mark St. Germain met for a lunch break on the first day of rehearsal for his play Gertrude and Claudius based on a 2000 novel by John Updike. Opening on July 31 it will be the thirteenth play by St. Germain to be produced by Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. The company's second stage is named for him. We discussed the process from Shakespeare to Updike and now St. Germain.

Barrington Stage always front ends an enticing musical. For the sixth time it's Stephen Sondeim. Into the Woods, with James Lapine, launches the 25th season on the Boyd-Quinson Main Stage in Pittsfield.

The award winning play, America v. 2.1. The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro, by Stacey Rose is a tough evening of theatre at Barrington Stage Company. It is the inaugural winner of The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a new national play contest at BSC. The playwright has absorbed the spectrum of avant-garde theatre and deflected it as a timely theatrical screed about racism in America, past, present and future.

The one person, one act play "Hold These Truths" by Jeanne Sakata focuses on the true story of Gordon Hirabayashi. After Pearl Harbor he was among 120,000 Japanese Americans who were relocated to prison camps in the South West. He was charged with the crimes of violating curfew and refusing to report to a detention center. He fought the charges to the Supreme Court. He and two other dissenters lost their cases. Invoking war powers as supreme commander Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9006 was upheld as constitutional. Decades later Hirabayashi, by then a professor of sociology, was cleared of all charges. In 2012 Persident Barach Obama awarded him The Presidential Medal of Honor.

Kudos to Barrington Stage Company for bringing theatre back to the Berkshires in the dead of winter. Yesterday we enjoyed a matinee of the eighth annual, 10X10 New Play Festival. It runs February 14 - March 10, 2019 at BSC’s St. Germain Stage.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) will feature four world premieres including the new musical from BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab, Fall Springs by Niko Tsakalakos and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb; America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of The American Negro by Stacey Rose; American Underground by Brent Askari; and Ragtag Theatre’s Hansel and Gretel, commissioned by BSC.

For the third annual Berkshire Theatre Awards, at the Zion Luteran Church in Pittsfield, it took two hours to present trophies in 21 categories. Some 27 critics voted on awards to companies in the Berkshires extending into New York, Connecticut and Vermont. The top honors went to Barrington Stage Company with nine awards and Williamstown Theatre Festival which took home five.

The stars came out in droves for the annual luncheon with critics at Sardi's the show bis watering hole. Sixteen individuals representing thirteen current plays broke bread with the scribes.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) announced today three productions for its upcoming 25th season – Into the Woods, the musical classic by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine; the world premiere new musical Fall Springs, by Niko Tsakalakos and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb; and Gertrude and Claudius, a new play by Mark St. Germain.

This week the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association is voting on the final award list in preparation for the Third Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held on Monday, November 12 at 7 pm at the Zion Lutheran Church, 74 First Street (Route 7) in Pittsfield, MA. --

The final fall production of Barrington Stage Company for a number of years had been coordinated with the reginal school curriculum. It has been the norm to explore an agenda with social justice theatre. This time, however, Barrington has opted to focus on ars gratia artis. Teachers as their lesson plan will discuss a harrowing masterpiece of American theatre, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.