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by Elyse
Sommer
| I hope you'll have a good time --- James Levine at an open rehearsal, advice followed not only by Tanglewood audiences, but Berkshirites attending the many and varied entertainment events that make up summer '05 in the Berkshires. |
January 29, 2007. The Williamstown Theatre Festival's Summer 2007 scheule is chockablock full of productions at its Main and Nikos Stage, as well as its new black box Center Stage. The schedules for all are as follows (For a multitude of additional events check the WTF website wtfestival.org):
June 14 – 24, Center Stage. B. D. Wong in HERRINGBONE, a one man musical that recounts the childhood of vaudeville wunderkind George after he is possessed by the angry spirit of a toe-tapping midget. Book by Tom Cone, Music by Skip Kennon, Lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. Directed by Roger Rees
June 27 – July 8 Nikos Stage, DISSONANCE a world premiere about members of the Bradley String Quartet who have their artistic differences. Penned by Damian Lanigan, directed by Amanda Charlton.
July 4 – 15 Main Stage, THE FRONT PAGE by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Director to be announced. This much done comedy set in a Chicago newsroom follows concocted criminal charges, wily politicians, love nests and the daily grind of creating and selling newspapers
July 11 – 22 Nikos Stage, VILLA AMERICA, a world premiered written and directed by Crispin Whittell. What it's about: Gerald and Sara Murphy, who were at the center of the circle of artists, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, who migrated to France in the 1920s. Set on the sun-soaked coast of the French Riviera, this play commissioned by the Festival explores the lives, loves and losses of what Gertrude Stein called "the Lost Generation." In a happy scheduling coincidence, the Murphys and their circle will also be celebrated in an exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art right before the play premieres. The Colleges exhibits are never anything less than spectacular
July 18 – 29 Main Stage, THE AUTUMN GARDEN by Lillian Hellman. Directed by David Jones. Hellman seems to be having a renaissance (see our review of the recent Toys in the Attic). The setting here is a summer resort on the Gulf of Mexico in 1949 and seven friends confronting middle age assess the choices they have made and are about to make.
July 25 – Aug. 5 Nikos Stage, CRIMES OF THE HEART by Beth Henley. Directed by Kathleen Turner. Turner turns her talents as a director to the Pulitzer Prize winning comedy about the Magrath sisters. Past resentments bubble to the surface as they are forced to deal with assorted relatives and past relationships while coping with the latest incident to disrupt their lives. Aug. 1 – 12 Main Stage, Kate Burton in THE CORN IS GREEN by Emlyn Williams. Directed by Nicholas Martin. Burton seems like a good fit for the role Ethel Barrymore famously played on stage, Bette Davis on film, and Katherine Hepburn in the made-for-TV movie — a Welsh schoolteacher working in a small poverty-stricken coal mining town under whose . Under her guidance, an illiterate teenager from bully to brilliant student. Adding to the immediacy of the teacher-student relationship Miss Burton’s son, Morgan Ritchie, plays the role of Morgan Evans.
Aug. 7 – 18 Center Stage, THE PHYSICISTS by Friedrich Dürrenmatt translated by James Kirkup and directed by Kevin O’Rourke In Association with the Williams College Summer Theatre Lab . Three inmates at the Cherry Trees Sanatorium believe themselves to be world famous physicists: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Johann Mobius. But are they indeed insane? And what are their actual identities: madmen, murderers or scientists? Dürrenmatt’s 1962 comedy is a provocative examination of the impact of nuclear science on global power and the moral tolls of sanity.
Aug. 8 – 19 Nikos Stage, PARTY COME HERE a world premiere musical comedy with Book by Daniel Goldfarb, Music and Lyrics by David Kirshenbaum. Directed by Christopher Ashley. What it's about: A nervous groom, a statue of Christ and a 500 year-old Jewish caveman converge to make miracles happen during a tropical storm on one magical night in Rio.
Aug. 15 – 26 Main Stage. A TBA play to be directed by Maria Mileaf
January 29, 2007. Also announced for Summer 2007, the Berkshire Theatre Festival's 79th season. Main Stage performances are Monday through Saturday evenings at 8pm with matinees at 2pm on Thursdays and Saturdays. Tickets range from $22.50 to $67 with a $2 restoration fee included to finance a long range campain to refurbish the facilities (opening nights are also press nights). The schedule for the Main and Unicorn Theater is as follows:
The Main Stage, Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally, directed by Anders Cato . June 19-21 to July 7th, opening June 22. The Tony winning play and movie. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dale Wasserman, based on the novel by Ken Kesey, directed by Eric Hill . July 10 to July 28; opening July 13. McMurphy and Nurse Ratchett were the focal figures in the Oscar-winning film but Dale Wasserman’s stage adaptation spotlight the Native American "Chief" at the heart of the Ken Kesey novel.
Morning’s at Seven by Paul Osborn, directed by Vivian Matalon. July 31 to August 11th, opening , August 3 A golden oldie that pays humorous tribute to an all-American dysfunctional family, circa 1930, and the love that binds them together.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Anders Cato. From : August 14 to September 1; opening August 17. Shaw's portrait of women working in the world’s oldest profession and an emotional portrayal of the relationship between a street-savvy mother and her educated, independent daughter.
The Unicorn Theatre. Unicorn performances are Monday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees at 2pm on Saturdays for most shows. Prices range from $19 to $43 and seating this year is reserved.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, directed by Eric Hill. From May 24 to June 30t opening May 25. Tennessee Williams’ first major success about past her prime Amanda Wingfield, her dreamer son, Tom and painfully shy Laura who retreats into a world as fragile as her glass animals.
My Pal George written and performed by Rick Cleveland, directed by Eric Simonson. From July 3 to July 21; opening July 4th. This is a workshop production not open for reviews. Cleveland of Six Feet Under and The West Wing fame returns to Stockbridge to develop the sequel to his 2005 BTF solo, My Buddy Bill.
Two-Headed by Julie Jensen, directed by Marc Geller. From July 25 to August 18; opening July 26. The title is the playwright's phrase for keeping secrets and denying truths . Her play depicts forty years in the lives of two Utah women in the late 1800's.
Educating Rita by Willy Russell. Director TBA. From August 21 to October 20; opening August 22. You may remember the movie version of this bittersweet comedy that brings a disillusioned, middle-aged English professor together with Rita, an irreverent, working class, Liverpool hair-dresser.
Family programs include Cinderella adapted by E. Gray Simons III (who also directs) from the Brother’s Grimm fairytale, from June 27 through July 28 at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield . . .AESOP’s NETWORK: Broadcasting Theatrical Fables, again adapted and directed by E. Gray Simons III, from August 1 to 18 at the Unicorn Theatre. . .Alice in Wonderland adapted for the stage by Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, directed by E. Gray Simons III. September 7 at 7:30pm and September 8 at 2pm and 7:30pm at the BTF Main Stage. . . Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Eric Hill. Directed by Eric Hill and E. Gray Simons III, from December 8 to 23 at the Unicorn Theatre
January 17, 2007. Shakespeare & Company has announced its 30th Anniversary Season:
Rough Crossing by Tom Stoppard; directed by Kevin G. Coleman Founders' Theatre: May 25 - September 2 This is a revival of a lesser known play by the playwright whose epic trilogy has been the major must-see event of the New York Season, inspiring our own somewhat epic coverage of news and notes as well as reviews — our Coast of Utopia page Set in the1930s aboard an ocean liner bound for New York, it's actially an adaptation from Ferenc Molnar's Play at the Castle and P.G. Wodehouse's The Play's the Thing. Cast TBA.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare; directed by Eleanor Holdridge. Founders' Theatre: June 8 - September 1 The Company is undertaking it's own hard to top farewell at its old home production Our Review Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall; directed by Timothy Douglas. Founders' Theatre: July 5 - September 2 . Play by one of Great Britain's premier playwrights. For an idea of what it's about see our reviews of it in London and Off Broadway
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare; directed by Michael Hammond. Founders' Theatre: July 27 - September 2. Tina Packer and Nigel Gore now reprise their one-night stand — a one night staged concert reading at Tanglewood ( Our Report) as the legendary, graying Roman superhero and his lady love. Packer's portrayed Cleopatra 20 years ago in the Company's last full scale production.
The Secret of Sherlock Holmes by Jeremy Paul; director TBA . Founders' Theatre: September 28 - October 28 Starring Michael Hammond and Dave Demke as the famous consulting detective and his sidekick Dr. John Watson in a complex interpretation.
Scapin by Bill Irwin and Mark O'Donnell; director TBA, adapted from Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere Outdoor tented Rose Footprint: June 27 - September 1 This play about the ultimate escape artist will be performed in two parts on alternating days, bringing together a cast of 9 TBA actors performing in the tradition of true Elizabethan theatre.
December 26, 2005. Summer seems a long way off but the Boston Symphony and Jacob's Pillow are getting ready for Summer 2006. Here are the links to their schedules: http://tanglewood/2006_schedule.php> and http://jacobs_pillow/2006schedule_school.php">
December 7, 2005. With winter in full swing and trips to the Berkshires more likely to be for skiing and sledding than theater, the people making this area such a prime entertainment destination each summer are busily preparing for summer 2006. For starters, Barrington Stage Company the company that presented the world premiere of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has announced its 2006 season opener: Galt MacDermot's musicalization of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy to run from June 22-July 15, 2006.
Artistic director and company founder Julianne Boyd will direct the production which will l feature choreography by Lara Teeter and musical direction by Darren Cohen. This sung-through coming of age tale of Homer Macauley, a telegraph messenger who becomes a witness to the sorrows and joys of a small California town during World War II, first saw the light of day at the Public Theater in 1983. It's Broadway transfer a year later didn't last very long, but leave it to Ms. Boyd to make the show come alive.
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