Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Great Barrington. For the fourth-consecutive summer, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is playing host to the Berkshire Playwright’s Lab (BPL), which presents free staged readings of new plays, performed by casts that usually include some high-wattage stars of stage and screen. In keeping with BPL’s relatively new tradition, the season kicked off last Friday, July 15, with an evening of new one-act plays, followed by a reception on the Mahaiwe stage, to benefit BPL. The party is always a great equalizer, giving audience members the chance to interact with actors, directors, playwrights, and the four founding directors of BPL: Joe Cacaci, Jim Frangione, Matthew Penn, and Bob Jaffe (in photo, with actor Peter Riegert, left).
Production/stage manager Valerie Carlson with actor Margot White; Jill Jaffe with BPL's Joe Cacaci.
Actors Christohper Hirsch and James Murtaugh; actor Dan Lauria and the Mahaiwe's general manager Karin Watkins.
Actors Amy Van Nostrand and Finnerty Steeves; actor Brian Murray and BPL advisory board member Helice Picheny.
BPL intern Colin Gold and advisory board member Steve Picheny; Adele Lee and playwright Alexis Perkins Parry.
Julia Hobart Trumbull, the Mahaiwe's board chair Lola Jaffe, and visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull.
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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
