Theatre Intelligence
Nicki Wilson Sees Beyond the Berkshires
The Maids at Pittsfield’s New Stage through October 31
Ken De Loreto & Daniel Osman in “The Maids.” Photo by Ritch Holben.
“Pittsfield doesn’t suffer from Berkshire elitism,” says Nicki Wilson, who opened the New Stage Performing Arts Center above Richard Stanley’s Beacon Cinema earlier this year. A founder of the well-regarded Castle Hill Theatre Company for children, Wilson, who lives in Great Barrington, doesn’t suffer from Berkshires myopia. “We’ve taken our plays to Hudson, NY, and Salisbury, CT,” she says. For her current, daring all-male production of Jean Genet’s The Maids, she assembled a tri-state artistic team. The three-person play features two Berkshires actors—Daniel Osman who owns the legendary Dream Away Lodge in Becket and plays Solange, and Ken De Loreto of Southfield who plays Madame—and Columbia County’s David Anderson, who is the executive artistic director of the Walking the Dog Theater in Hudson and plays Claire. Directed by Thomas Gruenwald, who lives in Sharon, CT, the play has sets and costumes by Charles Tomlinson, who is Gruenwald’s Connecticut neighbor. “It’s my dream team,” says Wilson.
A native New Yorker, Wilson sees Pittsfield as a nexus for rural expatriates who crave an urban culture fix. “It’s really where everything is happening,” she says. “It’s more and more becoming a destination for the arts.” She’s certainly doing her part by making New Stage a venue for a variety of productions such as the WAM Theatre‘s version of Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Baby directed by Kristen van Ginhoven (November 11 - 28) and Castle Hill’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever directed by Laurie Ellington (December 3 - 19). “We were happy to host two events for Pittsfield’s LGBTQ weekend and Burlesque from Across the Tracks, too,” she says.
One of Wilson’s new champions is playwright Lonnie Carter—a resident of Falls Village, CT, who teachers dramatic writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts—who was bowled over by The Maids. “I couldn’t believe that this kind of play was getting a production with this caliber of acting in Pittsfield,” says Carter, whose works is frequently produced at top tier regional theaters like Victory Gardens in Chicago. Now, Carter has signed on to have his 2008 play Two Great Oceans produced at New Stage. “It’s a play he wrote when Obama and Hillary were running against each other and it’s about Frederick Douglas and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and who would get the vote first—blacks or women” says Wilson, who is jazzed to be bringing new voices to Pittsfield. “It will open in February for Black History Month and continue into March which is Women’s History Month.”
New Stage Performing Arts Center
55 North Street, Pittsfield; 413.418.0999
The Maids
October 29 & 30 at 8 p.m.
October 31 at 3 p.m.
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