The Barrington Stage Company's annual gala always begins with a fashion parade as guests walk two blocks up North Street from the Mainstage to the party at the gym at St. Joseph's High School. This year, guests were encouraged to wear red and black to match the party decor inspired by Sweeney Todd, the brilliantly macabre 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical that has gotten rave reviews (and runs through July 19.) The gala honored Mary Ann "Minkie" Quinson (left center, with Aly Brandt and Martine Taylor), who has been the chairman of the board since Barrington Stage's inception sixteen years ago at the Mt. Everett High School in Sheffield. It was Quinson who led the campaign to move to buy a theater in Pittsfield five years ago, and the city's grateful mayor, James Ruberto, declared in his tribute to Quinson that no other institution has been as important to the "downtown revival" as Barrington Stage. Certainly, the two teenagers from BSC's Playwright Mentoring Project who spoke about how the program had saved their lives was testimony to the power of art. And the rousing version of "Thank You for Being A Friend" (video below) that the Sweeney Todd ensemble sang to Quinson was testimony to the quality of talent that Barrington Stage consistently brings to the Berkshires.
Barrington Stage Company press representative Charlie Siedenburg and marketing director Laura Roudabush await guests outside St. Joe's; board member Reba Evenchik, wearing an outfit she'd just bought in London, and her husband, Bruce Evenchik.
Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd and her husband, Dr. Norman Boyd; their daughter Emily Boyd with novelist Chris Krovatin, the son of journalist-turned-novelist Anna Quindlen.
Maggi & Mark St. Germain, the author Freud's Last Session, which is playing at BSC Stage 2 through July 3, before its Off Broadway run begins on July 9; Erin Benay and Jaqueline Wilcox.
Designers Matt Larkin & Elaine Grant; Doug Shufelt and Nancy Kalodner of Benchmark Real Estate.
Tom Potter and Dan Mathieu of MAX Ultimate Food, which catered the party; Jonathan Ball of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Pittsfield and Barbara Schulman of Wheeler & Taylor.
Sweeney Todd cast members Zachary Clause, Allan Synder, John Rapson, and Paul Betz.
Bruno & Minkie Quinson; Sweeney Todd's Billy Shaw and Harriet Harris.
BSC's Katie Johnson, Musical Theater Lab director William Finn, Reba Evenchek, Angelique Mouyis-Tsakalakos & Niko Tsakalakos, whose new musical, Pool Boy, has its world premiere at Barrington Stage on July 13.
Sweeney Todd's Branch Woodman and Timothy Shew; Pittsfield gallery owner Leslie Ferrin and Berkshire Museum executive director Stuart Chase. A brief clip of the Sweeney Todd ensemble serenading Minkie Quinson.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
