Barrington Stage Company

Exhausted from an allnighter of becoming a grandmother for the fourth time Julianne Boyd was as high octane as usual. She has an all consuming, combustive approach for building and sustaining Barrington Stage Company though its first twenty years. That growth and success has come from a commitment to a balanced program pf popular musicals and risk taking productions of dramas that address serious social and political themes.

Arriving at Dottie's in Pittsfield for breakfast with Julianne Boyd, artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, several individuals notified me that she was running late. She had been up all night texting with family and friends about the birth of her fourth granddaughter. Eventually she arrived both exhausted and energized to discuss the upcoming 20th season of the company.

Barrington Stage Company announces four new Associate Artists, all of whom are working at Barrington Stage in 2014 – casting director Pat McCorkle, lighting designer Scott Pinkney, scenic designer Brian Prather, and press director Charlie Siedenburg.

In 2011 Marg Helgenberger left the hit TV show CSI after twelve seasons. The show continues with top ratings but she departed to pursue other options including live theater. She has taken a dramatic pay cut to star in Sharr White's The Other Place which opens soon at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. She and director Christopher Innvar met with the media to discuss the most challenging role of her career.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), announces Emmy Award-winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger will star in the Berkshire premiere of Sharr White’s The Other Place, kicking off BSC’s 20th Anniversary Season, from May 21 through June 14 on the St. Germain Stage, directed by BSC Associate Artist Christopher Innvar.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), has announced the creative team for the company’s 20th Anniversary Season opener – Kiss Me, Kate, to be presented June 11 through July 12 on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street). Joe Calarco and Lorin Latarro will direct and choreograph Kiss Me, Kate, which features music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Sam and Bella Spewack. BSC Associate Artists Darren R. Cohen will music direct and Renee Lutz returns for her 20th season opener as production stage manager.

Mark St. Germain is developing a two person play Dancing Lessons to premiere this summer at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. It entails a brilliant professor with Aspberger's a form of Autism. He seeks dancing lessons from a resident in his New York apartment building leading to a poignant and humorous relationship. There will be a Q&A following a reading at MCLA on March 8.

For the first time Shakespeare & Company in partnership with Long Wharf is sending a production to New York. Satchmo at the Waldorf, starring John Douglas Thompson, a member of the S&Co theatrical family, appears as Louis Armstrong in the first play written by Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout.

No it ain't Mardi Gras in New Orleans but Pittsfield is giving it a shot. Shake off the funk with the annual city wide Ten by Ten Festival. There's lots to do so bundle up and break out of the cabin.

Now in its 20th year Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass has earned a reputation as one of the nation's finest regional theatre companies. During a recent press conference artistic director, Julianne Boyd, discussed the upcoming season.

Yesterday there was a late afternoon media scramble when a Barrington Stage Company press conference announcing the 2014 season was followed within minutes by an unanticipated release by Williamstown Theatre Festival. It's taken some sorting but we now have an unusually early and clear picture of the summer season. We have a fairly complete clip and save rundown. Berkshire Theatre Group has yet to announce and WTF will soon post its program of the Nikos Stage.

During a bone crunching cold snap the Berkshire theatre media gathered on stage for a lunch and press conference hosted by Julianne Boyd the artistic director of the now twenty-year-old Barrington Stage Company. In addition to discussing the program for the coming season Boyd confirmed that last summer's hit musical On the Town is headed for Broadway with either a summer or fall opening.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) announces casting and the creative team for its 10×10 New Play Festival, with performances February 13 through March 2, as part of the 2014 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival.

The approach of this WAM production of Émilie La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson has the twist of "Let us now praise not so famous women and trash men." The guy in this case is no less than Voltaire, her lover and collaborator, portrayed as a clown and misogynist. PC aside this is an enjoyable evening of theatre on the Mark St. Germain Stage in Pittsfield through November 24.

The Pulitzer and Tony winning Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris is currently on the short list of most produced plays in America. In a co production with Dorset Theatre Festival where it was staged his summer it runs through October 13 at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. This is its fifth review for Berkshire Fine Arts.

With several major Berkshire arts organizations now closed until next year it's time to reflect on the intense and often remarkable 2013 high season. It's impossible to be everywhere, often with conflicts on any given night, but we offer highlights of what we managed to review. In addition to the Berkshires we covered five new plays at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The busy season included a number of interviews with artistic directors, actors and playwrights.

Barrington Stage Company announces two productions for the theater’s 20th Anniversary Season - Kiss Me, Kate the musical comedy masterpiece by composer Cole Porter and authors Sam and Bella Spewack and the world premiere romantic comedy Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain. The new play was well received during a staged reading over the holiday weekend.

With two of the three original cast members- Joey Collins as F.Scott Fitzgerald and Angela Pierce as studio representative Miss Evelyn Montaigne, the play commissioned and premiered by the Contemporary American Theatre Festival has transferred from Shepherdstown, West Virginia to Barrington Stage. With the addition of Ted Koch as Hemingway "Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah" has been written and directed by Mark Saint Germain. It is being staged in the theatre which has been named for him.

The Pulitzer prize-winning play, Clybourne Park is a response to A Raisin in the Sun, the 1959 play of hope and change toward a better future for African Americans. Clybourne Park depicts a different perspective of the events of that play and a version of reality 50 years after those fictional events.

Following On the Town and the Chosen Barrington Stage ends its main stage season with yet another run away hit. Julianne Boyd charms and delights as producer/ director of the first ever attempt at Shakespeare his iconic comedy Much Ado Nothing. Barrington's mainstays Christopher Innvar and Gretchen Egolf soar to new heights as the feisty lovers Benedick and Beatrice. On every level from sets to costumes this is a gorgeous and hilarious seasonal treat.

A new play by Mark St. Germain "Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah" will run at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass from August 15 through September 29. It was commissioned for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival where we saw it earlier this summer in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. We met for breakfast to discuss changes for the still evolving play which is now in its eighth draft.

Twenty three years ago Ed Herendeen left an administrative position at Williamstown Theatre Festival to found Contemporary American Theatre Festival for Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. There out of the glare of the urban theatre world he has nurtured the creation of 100 new plays through commissions, premieres and second productions. He strives to create an environment which is review proof and writers are able to experiment without fear of failure.

In 2011 a production of My Name Is Asher Lev enjoyed a sold out run at Barrington Stage Company. There is a similar response to The Chosen adapted and directed by Aaron Posner based on a novel by Chaim Potok. While based on a conflict between sects of fundamentalist Jews its humanistic theme of coming of age between two friends and rivals has universal appeal to audiences.

During a visit to the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shephardstown, West Virginia we met with the artistic director Ed Herendeen. We discussed the process of commissioning Mark St. Germain's Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah. It transfers soon to Barrington Stage Company. We debated the controversial Modern Terrorism which we had seen the previous evening. This is the first of two parts of that lively dialogue.

In varying stages of gender reassignment and an ability to pass in hostile Bubba Land a circle of friends are the focus of a new musical Southern Comfort having its world premiere at Barrington Stage. For audiences willing to accept this complex work on its own terms the experience to remarkable.