Williamstown Theatre Festival

The highlight of a scaled back Williamstowm Theatre Festival season was the world premiere Pamela Palmer by the renowned playwright David Ives. With a noir approach he would have us accept the improbable. His tale of class struggle is set in the mansion of the unhappy housewife who has hired a detective.

Standup comedian, Rachel Bloom, is a really big deal. Her rom-com “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” ran for four seasons on The CW with poor ratings but a solid fan base. She brought a standup piece “Death, Let Me Do My Show” to Williamstown Theatre Festival. The routine was filmed for future release on Netflix.

“Dragon Mama,” a one-woman show by Sara Porkalob, is but one of three staged productions in this season of the venerable Williamstown Theatre Festival. With a brief run it is presented on the black box Center Stage. It has been used only once preciously.

Williamstown Theatre Festival is pleased to announce Beth Hyland as the recipient of the 2024 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award for her play SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA. Hyland will receive the $10,000 award and the accompanying $10,000 Jay Harris Commission to write a new play.

It was energizing to meet the 31-year-old artist, Dara Haskins, who was born in Baltimore and now lives in Philadelphia. We found it impossible to resist her charm and enthusiasm. She was eager to sell me a small painting but I fended off stating that I was there as a critic. Her intent is to raise enough money to return to Cuba where she recently resided for a month.

Williamstown Theatre Festival announces The Plastic Bag Store, produced by MASS MoCA in association with WTF, opening May 9. Created by artist Robin Frohardt and produced by Pomegranate Arts, this immersive, multimedia experience will be open from May 9 through September 2 in MASS MoCA’s Building 1.

In Connecticut, we have seen Long Wharf Theatre vacate its longtime home in New Haven; with no home, it is presenting what shows it does in a variety of mostly smaller venues.

Absorbing, insightful, fun and hilarious are dumbfounding but accurate terms to describe the William Finn and James Lapine musical A New Brain being revised at Barrington Stage Company. It's a musical about neurosurgery.

Treat Williams, the actor known for his roles in the movies “Hair” and “Deep Rising” and the TV show “Everwood,” has died. He was 71. A  S.U.V. crashed into his motorcycle in Dorset, Vt. He was 71. We spoke with him in 2013 following a performance as King Henry in “Lion in Winter.”

The once fabled Williamstown Theatre Festival, under interim artistic director Jenny Gersten, has cut back this season.

A New Brain features music and lyrics by BSC Associate Artist William Finn (BSC: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Royal Family of Broadway), book by Finn and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine (Broadway: Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George), and direction by BSC Associate Artist Joe Calarco (BSC: Waiting for Godot, Into the Woods, Ragtime), with music direction by Vadim Feichtner (BSC: The Royal Family of Broadway; Broadway: Falsettos, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and choreography by Chloe O. Davis (Paradise Square).

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) announces full casting for the world premiere of Mark St. Germain’s new play The Happiest Man on Earth (May 24-June 17) and a new production of the legendary Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret (June 14-July 8).

“Bill Finn and James Lapine’s A New Brain has long been deserving of rediscovery, so it is a wonderful opportunity for our theatres to join forces for the first time to present it for our audiences this summer,” commented BSC Artistic Director Alan Paul and WTF Interim Artistic Director Jenny Gersten, in a joint statement.

Stephen R. Lawson, 73, a longtime resident of Williamstown died on February 7, 2023, of natural causes. In varying capacities he was an associate of the Williamstown Theatre Festival for some five decades. For 13 years he curated the Williamstown Film Festival which was produced at Images Cinema and MASS MoCA.

The purpose of the BTCA and the Berkshire Theatre Awards is to promote and celebrate the quality and diversity of theatre in the region. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the evening of November 14 at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield.

We Are Continuous by Harrison David Rivers is a "semi-autobiograhical" play having its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival. It conveys the strong relationship between mother and son as he deals with coming out, choosing a life in theatre, marriage, and dealing with HIV. It has been given a stunning production.

Most Happy in Concert, now at Williamstown Theatre Festival is not a revival of the 1956 musical Most Happy Fella with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It's a tear down and deconstruction by director Daniel Fish. He similarly ripped apart Oklahoma which won a Tony award. Let's see if he again cruises Broadway with an even more radical production of a vintage musical.

After a six week run at Geffen Playhouse MAN OF GOD written by Anna Ouyang Moench and directed by Maggie Burrows has launched the three play season for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Four Korean American teen girls are confined to a Bangkok hotel room during a field trip with their Pastor. It appears that he is a voyeur and predator. Once outed the comedy entails fantasy acts of revenge.

Participating cultural organizations include Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Berkshire International Film Festival, Berkshire Theatre Group, Community Access to the Arts, The Clark, Hancock Shaker Village, Jacob’s Pillow, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, MASS MoCA, The Mount, Norman Rockwell Museum, Shakespeare & Company, The Trustees and Williamstown Theatre Festival. 

The 2022 Williamstown Theatre Festival season promises laughs, singing, and introspection, including a thrilling new suspense comedy, a disarmingly personal and intimate WTF-commissioned world premiere play, and a musical concert event celebrating Frank Loesser's magnificent score from The Most Happy Fella, retold with dazzling new orchestrations

After seven seasons of woke programming Mandy Greenfield has resigned as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival. There was a tech crew walkout last summer over brutal conditions during hazardous and stressful outdoor productions. During a production of Row in a reflecting pool at Clark Art Institute there were days of delays due to rain and thunder storms . Problems were widely reported in the media. Former artistic director, Jenny Gersten, has rejoined WTF as interim artistic director.

During the era of KIng Cotton North Adams thrived by processing bales shipped north from plantations. The Eclipse Mill produced thread which was woven across the street in the Delftree Mill. Until 1938 the mills employed child labor. During a single visit Lewis Hine created nine photographs outside the mill. These images as well as vintage views of the Eclipse Mill comprise a special exhibition. They flank the entrance ramp to the vast artist/ loft complex. The community based project is an aesthetic, historic and humanistic accomplishment.

 Images Cinema will host a “sneak preview” of the first episode of Hudson Falls, a new comedy/drama/mystery series, on Wednesday, July 21st at 7:30 PM. This special event will be a fundraiser for the nonprofit theater and will include an onstage conversation with the cast and the creator/producer of the show, independent TV/movie producer Elias Plagianos of Clarkstown, New York.  

How theater is presented this summer continues to expand. TheaterWorks in Hartford, West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park and Ridgefield’s Thrown Stone Theater are exploring what are called “site-specific” productions – where the production’s content has a relationship to the site where it is performed.

Miami New Drama's production of Seven Deadly Sins won a Drama League Award on Friday. The Drama League Awards have recognized outstanding achievements on and off Broadway since 1935. Seven Deadly Sins won in a new category -- “Outstanding Interactive or Socially-Distanced Theater.”