Born in New York City, Sara Katzoff moved to Great Barrington with her family when she was very young, so she truly was “locally grown" in our region. Post-college she returned to New York, traveled across the country and Canada, and started to experience the fringe theater movement. In 2005, she co-founded Bazaar Productions and the Berkshire Fringe along with her now husband, Stockbridge's Peter Wise (pictured right), and long-term collaborator Timothy Ryan Olson (pictured far left), whom she met while a student at Simon’s Rock. Looking for an easier commute to NYC, she and Peter recently moved to Hudson. Here she talks about Berkshire County, Columbia County and all that surrounds. Although I was born in New York, I grew up in the Berkshires. My brother and I joke quite a lot about the fact that our parents made such an intentional choice to migrate to the Berkshires in order to raise us in a small, rural town and the first thing both of us did as soon as we were old enough was to move back to New York City! I know a lot of my peers that have followed the exact same trajectory and, much like me, are now finding their way back here. With a region this prolific, it’s impossible to narrow it down to just one favorite place! Nudel restaurant in Lenox or The Dream Away Lodge in Becket are two of my favorite destinations to spend an evening with friends. Jacob’s Pillow and MASS MoCA are two of my favorite cultural destinations and both are places where you can easily spend an entire day and evening. If we are staying local, the Spotty Dog or Half Moon in Hudson are our go-to neighborhood spots and there's always a bevy of great music at Helsinki. The loop trail around Benedict Pond in Beartown Mountain State Forest is an easy trail and a great place to enjoy the early morning. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time at Greenpoint Nature Preserve in Hudson. I love watching the landscape transform from season to season and the view of the Catskill Mountains and the river are spectacular. The people that create, live, work and give back to this community are just extraordinary. Citizens here are so active, curious and engaged in what's happening in our world, both locally and globally. There's a creative energy, a generosity and an openness that is really unique and special to this region. It’s something I've come to deeply appreciate after living in so many other places. There are more nonprofit organizations per capita here in the Berkshires than anywhere else in the United States. That's a pretty incredible statistic and I think it says a lot about this place. Every single one of those 1,026+ organizations (as well as many businesses) have a unique mission that's connected to serving our community and enriching the lives of the people in it. I'm incredibly moved and humbled to be part of that number and to live in a place where people are so passionate about so many incredible causes.
