Barrington Stage Co. 10x10 New Play Festival Brings the Heat to Upstreet

The Friendship Dynamic performed at the 14th Annual 10x10 New Play Festival. Pictured (L to R): Raya Malcolm as Orlean, Lori Vega as Page, Matt Neely as Blunt, and Xavier Reyes as Trace. Photo by Roman Iwasiwka.

Each winter, when downtown streets are wind-whistling tracks of ice and snow, Pittsfield’s  cultural calendar snaps back to life with a bloom of theatrical energy. The catalyst is the 10x10 New Play Festival, Barrington Stage Company’s annual relay of brand new 10-minute plays, returning for its fifteenth season as the signature event of the Upstreet Winter Arts Festival.

Other featured events include Hot Plate Brewing Company's celebration 10x10 with a beer release and special event each day including a quinceañera to celebrate the festival’s 15^th anniversary in partnership with Barrington Stage Company.  Hancock Shaker Village is bringing back The Big Chill to add to the 10×10 festivities.  The Berkshire Art Association’s Real Art Party and the Berkshires Jazz concert both return this year.   Berkshire Museum is hosting its Days of Play offsite due to renovations.  Other host venues include the Berkshire Athenaeum,  Clock Tower Artist Studios, Solarium and Wander.  Downtown Pittsfield, Inc is coordinating A Taste of Downtown for the entire month with featured events throughout the 10 days.

150 Little Plays

Running February 12 through March 15 on the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, the festival offers 100 minutes of tightly wound comedy and drama—10 short works presented back-to-back, performed by a familiar ensemble of company favorites and directed by a mix of longtime collaborators and emerging voices. It’s fast-paced, playful, and often surprising, designed to be taken in as a single sitting, where tone and perspective shift every few minutes.

“The 10x10 New Play Festival is one of the most highly-anticipated events of the Barrington Stage season. From our staff, to our brilliant cast and indefatigable crew—everyone who has a hand in bringing these 10 plays to life does so with a sense of elation,” says Alan Paul, Barrington Stage Company’s artistic director, who will direct three of the plays this year. “I am thrilled that this year’s festival features three plays directed by BSC’s artistic coordinator Moira O’Sullivan, who is a talented emerging director, and features a play written by our director of development, playwright Jessica Provenz. 10x10 is truly a labor of love for me and everyone at the company.”

That sense of collective investment has helped make 10x10 a winter tradition in Pittsfield, and a proving ground for new work. The 2026 lineup spans political satire, romantic misfires, existential dread, and human encounters, all unfolding in familiar settings like coffee shops, tree lots, and date nights gone sideways.

This year’s 10 plays include “A Modest Proposal II” by David MacGregor, which imagines two state senators pitching an “out-of-the-box” solution to unwanted pregnancies in a state that has outlawed abortion, and “Best By Date” by Scott Mullen, where a date night derails after an unexpected reminder of life’s fragility. In “Cricket” by Erin Osgood, a woman in a bathrobe follows a mysterious sound minutes before a funeral, while “Do You Hear an Echo?” by Cynthia Faith Arsenault turns a skeptical eye toward the promises and failures of personal technology.

Other works lean into romance and social ritual. “Love Shovel” by John C. Davenport finds unexpected connections unearthed by a utilitarian tool; “Missed Disconnections” by Samara Siskind revisits Craigslist as a last refuge for old-fashioned romantics; and “The Rebound Quiz” by Byron Nilsson stages a coffee shop confrontation filtered through a love of classic movies. Seasonal tensions surface in “Tannenbaum” by James McLindon, set in a Christmas Eve tree lot, while “Top Shelf Tolstoy” by Maximillian Gill follows a newcomer whose attempt to borrow a Russian novel collides with a library’s desperate fundraising tactics. Rounding out the program is “Waking Greek” by Jessica Provenz, where two characters wake alone on a stage.

The cast brings back several audience favorites—Matt Neely, Peggy Pharr Wilson, Robert Zukerman, Raya Malcolm, and Maya Loren Jackson—joined this year by newcomer Avery Whitted. Directing duties are shared by Emmy-nominated Matthew Penn, returning for his tenth year with the festival; Alan Paul; and Moira O’Sullivan, making her 10x10 directorial debut.

City leaders see the festival as a cornerstone of Pittsfield’s winter cultural economy. “We are ecstatic to partner with Barrington Stage Company for the 10x10 Upstreet Winter Arts Festival for its fifteenth year,” says Jen Glockner, the City of Pittsfield’s director of cultural development. “BSC’s 10x10 New Play Festival is the signature event of the festival. We can’t wait to see what’s in store this year!”

Performances run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets start at $40 and are expected to sell quickly; early purchase is encouraged.

For Barrington Stage Company, now more than three decades into its mission of developing new work and engaging the community, 10x10 remains both a celebration and a snapshot—of artists testing ideas, of audiences willing to lean in, and of a downtown that continues to gather around live performance, even in the depths of winter.