Barrington Stage Company

Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield has a reputation for mounting an annual blockbuster revival of a vintage musical. It also has an an agenda to present message plays that inspire and inform audiences. In the era of Trump Barrington is presenting Ragtime which seemingly conflates the mandates for entertainment and education. It results in a long evening top heavy with big ideas, multiple characters and confusing subplots.

The Irish playwright, Conor McPherson, challenges us to think about how we would react if the world turned upside down, and no longer functioned. How would we survive?

The brilliant and versatile Jeff McCarthy is a perennial star for Barrington Stage Company. In the era of Trump the season opens with a message play Kunstler by award winner Jeffrey Sweet. It transfers from a sold out Off Broadway run at 59East59 Theatres. In this two hander McCarthy is paired with Erin Roche. The young black student aspires to be a lawyer but not like Kunstler who she initially admired but now despises.

After a long illness, on March 10, the widely respected publisher and editor of Berkshire on Stage and Screen, Lawrence “Larry” Murray, passed away. He organized the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association. Last November he rallied to attend the First Annual Bertkshire Theatre Awards. He presented the top award, named for him, to Jullian Boyd of Barrington Stage for community service through theatre.

Barrington Stage Company adds a reading of the musical Butterflies, Speech & Debate on the St. Germain Stage, and its annual youth production, Bye Bye Birdie, at the Pittsfield Museum.

The Barrington Stage Company season begins on May 18 with Kunstler by Jeffrey Sweet. It will end on October 22 with Gaslight (Angel Street) by Patrick Hamilton. The featured musicals, a signature of BSC will be Ragtime, June 21 to July 15 and Sondheim's Company which will be directed by BSC's Julianne Boyd from August 10 to September 3.

The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the sixth year and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC’s 10X10 New Play Festival.

During the Fall meeting of American Theatre Critics Association there was the traditional lunch wih the stars at Sardi's. Our correspoindent Sandy Katz was on hand to soak up the fun and files this spirited report.

The Berkshire theatre gilterrati crammed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret for a raucous evening celebrating The First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Seventeen arts journalists voted on 120 nominees in 25 categories chosen from artists in the 75 live theatre productions mounted in Berkshire County and adjacent areas between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.

There has been extensive media coverage of the First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. The winners of The Berkies have been announced. There will be an awards celebration 5 pm on November 13 at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret in Pittsfield. In this first round of awards Barrington Stage Company and Shakespeare & Company dominated in most categories. The smash hit Pirates of Penzance ran the table. The Larry Murray Award, named for the founder, will be the only suprise of the gathering of critics, media and theater mavens.

For the first annual Berkshire Theatre Awards seven shows received more than five nominations each including 11 for The Pirates of Penzance and eight for Broadway Bounty Hunter, both produced by Barrington Stage Company. Seven nominations were received for Or, and six for The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare & Company. Also popular with five nominations each are The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Little Shop of Horrors (Berkshire Theatre Group), and American Son (Barrington Stage).

The 1993 Mark St. Germain play, Camping with Henry and Tom, is as fresh as a daisy in a timely revival at Barrington Stage Company. With an update of just five lines Henry Ford, originally inspired by third party candidate Ross Perot, has an uncanny resemblance to the worst aspects of Donald Trump.

Since 2009 when Freud's Last Session opened at Barrington Stage there have been annual meetings and numerous e mails with playwright Mark St. Germain. We met recently at Dottie's for brunch to talk about current projects. In Pittsfield there is a revival of Camping with Henry and Tom. At TheatreWorks in Hartford is a production of Relativity about Albert Einstein that stars Richard Dreyfuss. He is also adapting Freud, which has had 200 plus global productions, as a screenplay. He ranks at 14 on the 2016 list of most produced American Playwrights. That does not include his global productions.

Since its London premiere in 2010 Tribes, an award winning drama by Nina Raine, opened Off Broadway and has since been produced by major regional companies. It is being directed at Barrington Stage Company by Jenn Thompson

Annie Golden broke out with Hair in 1979. As she sings in a sure to be standard the actress is a "Woman of a Certain Age." She plays herself in a world premiere of Broadway Bounty Hunters by Joe Iconis at Barrington Stage Company. This is a fun musical that you will want to see at least twice. They just don't make them like this anymore.

In a raucous, energetic, daunting production of Peerless by Jiehae Park Barrington Stage has boldly brought twentysomething, off off Broadway to the Berkshires. This assault to the senses may not be appealing to older audiences. It gives us a lively glimpse into the mind set of evil twns evoking Macbeth to murder their way to acceptance at the colleges of their choice. Does that make sense?

In a world gone utterly mad, for a great escape, there is nothing quite like an evening at Barrington Stage and the swashbuckling production of the perennial Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan. It has been masterfully created by that other theatrcal partnership Rando and Bergasse the pair that brought Barrington's On the Town to Broadway.

In a ripped from the headlines, award winning play, American Son having its world premiere at Barrington Stage, the theme that black lives matter is explored with riveting power, The company comissioned the play by Christopher Demos-Brown and is flaunting conventional wisdow by opening the main stage season with something other than the usual light summer fare.

In Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire, as played by the masterful Debra Jo Rupp, Kimberly, celebrating her sixteenth birthday is about to die of old age. In a superb performance Rupp conflates giddy youth and the world weary wisdom that comes with time and lifde experience.

Barrington Stage Company is launching its Pittsfield season with a commissioned musical Presto Change-O which is having its world premiere on the intimate St. Germain Stage. On many levels this perky production is zesty and magical and that's not just an illusion.

Playwright Mark St. Germain started as a writer for The Cosby Show. He could have stayed on in TV and its easy money. But Mark took the road less traveled for a challenging career in theatre. We first met for breakfast after the premiere of Freud's Last Session at Barrington Stage. There has been a dialogue ever since as he developed new plays. The insights have been invaluable.

Following its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theater, Peerless by Jiehae Park (Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Wondrous Strange), and directed by Margot Bordelon (Okay, Bye; At the Rich Relatives), will be the third production for the St. Germain Stage.

Barrington Stage is the first to announce its program for the 2016 season. For the winter blues there will be the 10x10 New Play Festival February 11-28. The shoulder season warms up with previews beginning May 10 with the world premiere of a musical "Presto Change-o."

In the post 9/11 climate President Obama has been referred to as a closeted Muslim. The African American Republican candidate Ben Carson has stated that, despite the concept of freedom of religion, a Muslim should not be President. Before JFK there was a similar injunction against Catholics. For its fall collaboration with regional schools Barrington Stage Company is presenting the awarding winning play Veils by Tom Coash.

During the tenth annual Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, September 24 to 27, there will be a staged reading of a work by John Guare "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven" adapted from a short story by Williams.