Barrington Stage Company

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.

What happens when a woman can't stand her best friend's finance but shags him anyway? It's only sex she reasons and I was drunk. That's about as deep as it gets in a millenial comedy Engagements by Lucy Teitler having a world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in Lenox.

For vintage screwball comedy the John Guare rewrite of His Girl Friday, directed for Barrington Stage by Julliane Boyd, is just awesomely hilarious. It stars Christpher Innvar as the veteran editor and master manipulator Walter Burns, and the wonderful Jane Pfitsch as his ex and star reporter Hildy Johnson. This is the side splitting hit of the Berkshire season,.

The renowned playwright John Guare was in Pittsfield recently for the first days of rehearsal of his play His Girl Friday. It is being directed by Julianne Boyd for Barrington Stage Company. He and others in the production met with the media for a lively give and take.

Back in January Julianne Boyd announced to the media how she had always wanted to present a play by an American master, Neil Simon. She chose his Pulitzer and Tony winning Lost in Yonkers a bitter sweet saga of a poor immigrant Jewish family under the thumb of a mean and brutal matriarch. Director Jenn Thompson earned a Drama Desk nomination for a prior production of the play which she has now staged brilliantly in the Berkshires.

The title Shining City is a Bliblical reference that "A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." But there is much that is obscure and repressed in this drama by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson.

When Jeff McCarthy brings down the house with an iconic barnburner The Impossible Dream it is richly evident that the fifty-year-old musical Man of La Mancha still packs a whallop that can blow the socks off of an audience. This Barrington Stage production that launches the Mainstage of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield is the benchmark hit of the still new 2015 Berkshire theatre season. It is doubtful that any actor will match or surpass his performance as the male lead in a musical.

With a striking resemblance to the Civil War General Benjamin Butler the hilarious performance by David Schramm in "Butler" launches the Berkshire season at Barrington Stage Company. Based on actual characters and events the playwright, Richard Strand, stretches the facts to create an evening of outrageous comedy.

Now in his final weeks as director of the Clark Art Institute Michael Conforti hosted a media event promoting a blockbuster season for Northern Berkshire County. There were presentations by Joe Thompson for Mass MoCA, Tina Olsen for the Williams College Museum of Art, and Mandy Greenfield for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Notably absent from the media event were North Adams based arts presenters Downstreet, The Eclipse Mill Gallery, The Rudd Museum of Art and the fall annual Williamstown Film Festival.

Three productions developed in the Berkshires are among the nominees for the 2015 Tony Awards. Williamstown Theatre Festival is represented by two production Elephant Man and The Visit which were presented on the watch of former artistic director Jenny Gersten. Barrington Stage Company is recognized for its musical On the Town,

Because of the Official Secrets Act it would be decades before the efforts of 10,000 at top secret Bletchley Park would be revealed. Primarily through the genius of the brilliant, tormented Alan Turning they succeeded in cracking the seemingly impossible 159 million daily variations of the Enigma code machine. Convicted of Gross Indecency Turing was alleged to take his life after a year of court imposed chemical castration.

Barrington Stage Company, has announced casting for the 10-minute plays for the 4th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, with performances February 12 through March 1, as part of the 2015 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival.

On a miserable January day the media gathered for lunch on stage at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. Artistic director Julianne Boyd announced programming for the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. There are still slots to fill on the Mark St. Germain second stage. Once that is complete Boyd will move on to schedule the cabaret largely based on who is available for the 99 seat basement venue. The company will again collaborate with the Berkshire Museum to present a youth oriented production.

The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the fourth year from February 12-22, 2014, and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC’s 10X10 New Play Festival. Directors for the 10X10 New Play Festival are BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Artistic Associate and Director of New Play Development Stephanie Yankwitt.

Cleaning up toxic waste from the Housatonic River is a hot button issue for the Berkshires. Environmental pollution and efforts to repress that threat to the local economy is the focus of a powerful production of the Ibsen/ Miller play An Enemy of the People at Barrington Stage Company through October 19.