Spring Awakening: Berkshires Theaters Begin Announcing Their Lineups
It won't be long now. Four prominent theaters are revving up for their spring seasons. Hallelujah!
It almost feels like pre-pandemic times. Press releases are coming in from Berkshires theaters about their spring seasons! Some of the productions will be livestreamed, others under a tent or out in the open, but any kind of news like this revives our faith in the power of the arts. If they can look to the future, so can we. Here’s what has passed through our transom in the past week.
BSC's 10x10 New Play Festival is usually a highlight of Pittsfield's 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival, which was last week. But we can't fault Barrington Stage for being a little tardy, because the New Play Festival is always worth the wait. The 10 ten-minute plays by 10 playwrights ("100 Minutes of Pure Joy") will be filmed live on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (with no live audience) and will be streamed by demand March 11-14 and 18-21.
“Who knew when we started our 10x10 New Play Festival ten years ago that it would become one of our most popular events of the year?” said Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. “We started with two weeks of performances and as of last year, we ran our 10x10 Plays for one month in the middle of the winter. This year, we have the added challenge of filming the plays in an empty theater and streaming them into our patrons' homes. While this is not the challenge we were looking for, we hope to reach an even larger audience than ever before!”
Some of the festival's "regulars" will be back, among them Matt Neely, Peggy Pharr Wilson and Robert Zuckerman, and the selection of one-acts sounds as compelling as ever (who can resist "Lizzie Borden Gets Engaged?").
Tickets are $35 for one viewer, $55 for a household viewing, and are available at the BSC website.
Huge kudos go to the BTG, which was the first Actors Equity-approved theater to produce a musical, "Godspell," during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last summer —and to great acclaim. Having created a workable, safe venue at Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre under the tent, it’s offering “a diverse lineup of musical talent,” to take us to summer.
Concerts are scheduled every Saturday evening from May 1 through June 12, with each performer or group giving two shows, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Hewing to The Colonial’s concert programming in the past, the lineup includes local, regional and national talent. Kicking off the series (May 1) is Harvest & Rust, a group of western Massachusetts-based musicians celebrating Neil Young’s most widely acclaimed album, "Harvest." “Takin’ It To The Streets,” on May 22, is another tribute show, this one to The Doobie Brothers. Multiple Grammy Award-winner and mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile appears on May 29, followed by folksinger Tom Rush on June 5. You can find the full schedule and ticket information on BTG’s website.
As they were when entering the tent for "Godspell", ticketholders will have their temperatures scanned, and patrons will be required to wear masks.
Shakespeare echoed through the trees at the Lenox-based theater’s first home at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s iconic Berkshire estate. In 2000, S&Co moved to its own two-theater campus on Kemble Street in Lenox , and now Shakespeare will again be performed outdoors at a new, 500-seat amphitheater. It didn’t take a pandemic to conjure the need for an outdoor space, but it did make it more urgent.
“We’ve been considering this particular location on the property for a long time as part of our strategic plan,” said Allyn Burrows, the company’s artistic director. “We can imagine Shakespeare’s words resonating amongst these spruce trees.”
Demolition of the buildings occupying the space where The New Spruce Theatre, as it will be called, has already begun. It’s scheduled to be completed in time for the opening of "King Lear" this summer. The role of King Lear, which was cancelled because of the pandemic last summer, will be played by Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future” fame.
Shakespeare & Company has yet to announce its full 2021 performance season yet, but safety protocols have been established. The Company plans to fill the new space at half capacity and will set forth a “COVID-19 Code of Courtesy,” requiring visitors to practice social distancing and wear masks at all times.
The socially conscious theater based in Lenox announced a 2021 season that connects “our pasts and present to our collective future,” with a combination of online readings and a live production in the fall.
WAM Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven says the plays WAM will present this season “deliberately shift our gaze away from white-centric stories and modes of storytelling and invite us all into conversation about a new future.”
The season begins with two online Fresh Takes Play Readings, starting with "Letters by Kamala," by Rachel Lynett, which will be available to stream March 14-21. It conjures three female American political leaders of the past to share their wisdom, perspective and wry humor with VP candidate Kamala Harris.
"The Light," by Loy A. Webb, follows, online April 25-May 2. A surprise proposal gift puts the future of Genesis and Rashad’s relationship at risk when they are forced to confront a devastating secret from the past.
Tickets for both readings are on sale now.
We’ll continue to bring you the scoop on WAM's live theater later in the season, all the cultural organizations’ spring and summer programming as the news flows in.
