Welcome back to the Williamstown Theatre Festival Blog! As we gear up for this summer’s season of shows, beginning performances on June 23rd with It’s Jewdy’s Show: My Life as a Sitcom by Judy Gold and Kate Moira, we’ll be bringing you some preview info on all the shows of the season.
Look for our usual weekly schedule devoted to the show opening that week—Monday | Preview, Tuesday | Interview, Wednesday | Dramaturgy, Thursday | Special Feature and Friday | Opening Night Photos—beginning on June 21st.
Also, remember that aside from the exciting season of shows on the Main and Nikos stages, the Workshop will produce the Fellowship Play and Musical, Directing Assistant Projects, Directing Intern Projects, and the Greylock Theatre Project. Aside from Fridays @ 3 and the Tuesday Talkback, Literary will also host a Friday Q & A for all of the Nikos shows. The playwright along with a special guest will converse with audience on the new work at WTF this summer. Don’t miss this exciting new addition to the first Friday performance of each Nikos show.
More information about all of the events at WTF (don’t forget the Free Theatre and the Cabarets) will be posted each week, so be sure to check us out regularly. Its bound to be another busy and exciting summer!
Sarah Slight, Literary Associate
TRUE WEST has opened on the Main Stage!
WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THUNDER? Opens on the Nikos Stage
Workshop Shows in the Directing Studio in the ’62 Center[photo] T. Charles Erickson 2009. Pictured: Paul Sparks and Nate Corddry in TRUE WEST, Dir. Daniel Goldstein
© [Scenic Design | Neil Patel, Costume Design | Linda Cho, Lighting Design | Ben Stanton] 2009
© [graphic design] Art direction and design by Iris A. Brown Design, IABDNY.com. Illustration by Kristin R. Spix Design
KNICKERBOCKER Has Opened on the Nikos Stage!
The first show of the 2009 Nikos Stage season opened Thursday night to a standing-room only audience who celebrated the sold-out evening with a soiree at Mezze Restaurant. Knickerbocker, written by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by WTF Artistic Director Nicholas Martin, offers us a glimpse into the life of a man as the months tick by and his unborn son grows from the size of a peach to the size of, well, a baby. As the birth date creeps ever nearer, will the advice, encouragement and warnings of friends and family make Jerry more or less ready? The awe and terror of becoming a new parent shines through Sherman’s newest play as he examines whether one can ever truly be ready for parenthood.
The world-premiere of Knickerbocker stars Brooks Ashmanskas, Peter Dinklage, Bob Dishy, Rightor Doyle, Annie Parisse, Susan Pourfar and Reg Rogers. Knickerbocker runs through July 19 only– buy your tickets now before it's too late!
[pictured] Annie Parisse & Reg Rogers
2 for $55 Ticket offer extended to our production of TRUE WEST!
Our 2 tix for $55 offer is back by popular demand! Now through July 16 ONLY, in celebration of our 55th Anniversary Season, you can buy two tickets to our Main Stage production of True West for $55! True West runs July 15 – July 26 and stars Nate Corddry, Stephen Kunken, Debra Jo Rupp and Paul Sparks.
True West is written by American screen and stage legend Sam Shepard and is directed by former WTF Boris Sagal Directing Fellow Daniel Goldstein. This modern classic is an explosive exploration of family rivalry as two very different brothers attempt to sell Hollywood their version of the great American dream.
*Offer valid through July 16, 2009 only for any performance of TRUE WEST. Available by phone 413.597.3400 or in person only using the code "TW-55". Cannot be combined with any other discount and not applicable to previously purchased tickets. Tickets and seating subject to availability. Standard box office policies apply. All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.
A message from our friends at the Colonial Theatre – WTF Board Member and Audience Favorite James Naughton in Concert!
James Naughton
Mon 7/13/09 7:30pm
A: $45 B: $35
Naughton prefers to focus on styles ranging from pop standards to jazz. Of late, he’s been delving into songs made famous by a wide ranging roster of artists including Frank Sinatra, Randy Newman, Billy Eckstine, Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington. His numbers become miniature dramas—artistic monologues sung with old style “cool.”
For tickets: 413.997.4444 or online at www.thecolonialtheatre.org
Richard Thomas Returns to WTF
Emmy-winning actor Richard Thomas returns to WTF on Sunday, August 2nd in a one-night only special event — Blanche and Beyond, adapted by Steve Lawson from the 1945–1957 letters of Tennessee Williams. The one-man show will mark anniversaries for both alumni: 25 years since Thomas first performed at Williamstown, and 40 years since Lawson's first summer at the Festival.
Blanche —the sequel to A Distant Country Called Youth, presented at WTF in 2002 — covers the peak years of Williams' career... From the Broadway triumphs of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Summer and Smoke and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In letters by turns hilarious, raunchy, and poignant— written to the likes of Elia Kazan, Jessica Tandy, Gore Vidal as well as critics, lovers, and family— Blanche explores a brilliant playwright facing the seismic shock of international fame.
The single performance of Blanche and Beyond will take place on Sunday, August 2nd at 7:00pm on the Main Stage. A Q-&-A with Thomas and Lawson will follow the show. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling 413.597.3400, in person at the WTF box office, or online at wtfestival.org.
Fridays @ 3 this Week is Mistake Were Made by Craig Wright, directed by Hartford Stage’s Jeremy Cohen.
Theatre producer, Felix Artifex works and works all day from his desk. At any moment all ten of his phone lines could be full of people wanting and needing something. His only comfort is a huge, ugly Koi goldfish that lives in a tank in his office. As he tries to put his latest project—Mistakes Were Made, a play about the French Revolution—together he must appease a Hollywood star’s creative input, gently make suggestions to the writer, deal with agents, and free Italian-Americans carting trucks of sheep in a foreign land from a terrorist all in the name of theatre. At the end of the day, one wonders, is it worth it?
Fellowship Project play, After the Revolution
by Amy Herzog, directed by Bill Foeller Fellow Tamara E. Fisch performs July 12 and 13 @ 7pm and 11pm in the Directing Studio
The Workshop presents Directing Assistant shows
July 16 @ 11pm in the Directing Studio
Will You Please Shut Up? By Dan O’Brien
Directed by Adam Knight
[with] Rightor Doyle and Irene Lucio
July 18 @ 11pm in the Directing Studio
The Egg-Layers by Lauren Feldman
Directed by Mike Donahue
[with] Lauren Blumenfeld, Ashton Heyl, Gayle Rankin, Francesca Choy-Kee, and Dan Hartley
[graphic] Art direction and design by Iris A. Brown Design, IABDNY.com. Illustration by Kristin R. Spix Design.
[photo] Sam Hough for © WTF ’09
[pictured] (1) Annie Parisse and Reg Rogers © [Scenic Design | Alexander Dodge; Costume Design | Gabriel Berry; Lighting Design | Philip Rosenber]
[pictured] (2) Stephen Kunken, Debra Jo Rupp, Nate Corddry, Paul Sparks
[photo] Sam Hough for © WTF ’09 [pictured] Brenann Stacker
Blogging seems to be the newest trend for theatre companies—along with Facebook and Twitter—and I understand the development. It is the fastest and most convenient way to present you, our audience, with a total behind the scenes look at what is going on here at the festival that would have been impossible before.
I’ve enlisted a lot of help generating content that, I hope, enriches your experience of the Festival. Assistant directors, dramaturgs, and other staff members will provide entries that focus on all seven shows as well as other special projects. Because a new show opens every week, I’ve established a standard weekly schedule that we will follow:
Mondays—Extended Preview.
• Includes all of the events happening in the upcoming week.
Tuesdays—Interview Day.
• It could be an actor, designer, director, playwright or stage manager working on the show that opens that week or someone interesting from the festival.
Wednesdays—Dramaturgical Research.
• Information that you won’t find in the program for the show opening that week.
Thursdays—Special Feature.
• On the show opening that week that covers something interesting related to the show and/or rehearsal process.
Fridays—Opening Night.
• Photos, quotes and stories from the theatre, backstage and opening night parties.
By clicking the links in the column on the right, you can also find information on other events and programs including Free Theatre, Cabaret, Fridays@3 readings, and Workshop shows.
Thanks for visiting the blog. Check back often!
-Sarah Slight, Literary Associate (pictured)
[photo] Sam Hough for WTF ’09
©2009 Williamstown Theatre Festival Blog | by TNB and eKENT
