Berkshire Theater’s Full Fall Schedule
The theater season in the Berkshires no longer ends on Labor Day weekend. South County’s big three Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, and Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox—are all presenting important plays this fall.
Yes, Kate Maguire, the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s artistic director was thinking about election season last winter when she decided that she’d mount Rhoda Lerman’s one-woman play, Eleanor: Her Secret Journey, about the outspoken wife of president Franklin D. Roosevelt. She found the perfect actress to play the crusading First Lady: Elizabeth Norment, one of the stalwarts of the regional theater scene.
Eleanor: Her Secret Journey
Berkshire Theatre Festival
Stockbridge, MA; 413.298.5576
Through November 9
At Shakespeare & Company’s new Elayne P. Bernstein Theater, the company’s new director in residence, Irina Brook (daughter of avant garde director Peter Brook) is staging a world premiere adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s short story The Canterville Ghost with a cast that includes company favorites Micahel Hammond and Michael Toomey. It is a tale of an old English ghost and the American family he torments. “ I love all the comic moments when the ghost tries to impress us with his horrible and brilliant performances over the centuries, he has all the pathos of a tragic old out of work actor, reminiscing abut his greatest roles,“ Brook has said. “I love how the piece goes from light comedy to something very moving about love and redemption.“
The Canterville Ghost
Shakespeare & Company.
Lenox, MA; 413.637.1199
Through November 9
October 18: Special family day and children’s magic show ($10)
Barrington Stage is presenting To Kill A Mockingbird, a 1991 stage adaptation of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel and the 1962 Academy Award winning movie starring Gregory Peck. Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd (see the YouTube clip below) chose the play expressly because she thought story of race and justice would capture the imagination of the residents of Pittsfield. Indeed, the city is in a state of Mockingbird mania: Leslie Ferrin is hosting a Mockingbird inspired show at her gallery; Pittsfield Brew Works is hosting a Mockingbird trivia night featuring “Atticus Finch lager”, and the new independently-owned Chapters bookstore on North Street is hosting weekly discussion groups about book. The frenzy is supported by Cultural Pittsfield, which received an NEA grant for a program called The Big Read that encourages residents of cities and towns to all read the same book at the same time.
To Kill A Mockingbird
Barrington Stage Company
Pittsfield, MA; 413.236.8888
October 8 - 26
(Speclal $15 tickets for previews on October 8 & 9)
