More innovations at Barrington Stage

Spelling Bee rehearsals underway

At this time of year, there is extra energy flowing though downtown Pittsfield as the various casts for shows at Barrington Stage Company are deep in intensive rehearsals. Even as I Am My Own Wife starring the incredible Vince Gatton enters its last weekend of shows, (my discussion with him about theatrical craft will appear in Berkshire Fine Arts online next week) two more casts are hard at work. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is already doing run-throughs of their show and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is getting ready for final rehearsals in the Stage Two space.

But there is another Barrington Stage enterprise underway, and while it requires the same sort of creativity as what goes on stage, it is less likely to get formal applause. Such is the fate of those who work in marketing the arts. Read on.

The cast of Spelling Bee

Under the leadership of founder Julianne Boyd, Barrington Stage has long pioneered outreach to the Berkshire community. By that I mean making those who live and work in the Berkshires feel welcome, wanted and entertained at their performances. The Berkshires have always been home to the arts but over the years, some of the residents looked at all that cultural activity as being, well, for "them" and not for "us".

Economics are part of it. Those who labor in the Berkshires year round are often not as well to do as those who make their summer homes here. And even though ticket prices are quite reasonable compared to New York, or even Albany and Boston, for those who think $10 is a lot for a meal, $20-40 a head can be quite a high price to manage.

So Barrington Stage, and a number of other local theater groups innovated Half-Tix, a day of the show operation where you can often get tickets at half their regular prices. The tickets are sold at several locations in the Berkshires, and only in person. You can often find other cultural attractions with special offers as well.

In the Adams Visitors’ Center, 3 Hoosac Street, Adams, MA
At the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce Booth, 362 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA
And at the Pittsfield Visitors’ Center, located in the Colonial Theatre Annex at 111A South Street in Pittsfield, MA

The tickets are first come, first served, and limited in number.

Working on the music for Mystery of Harris Burdick

Another innovation which gets its debut on Friday, June 13, is as much social as saving money on ticket prices. Carolann Patterson, marketing director for Barrington Stage calls it " Pay What You Can Nights for 35 and Unders" which says exactly what it is. You can pay as little as $5.00 (hopefully more) if you are under 35 and want to see Spelling Bee, which is the first show to be offered.

But...as they say on TV, "But wait....there's more!"

The "more" is the best part - it is the party afterwards that is open to the thirty-somethings, and twenty-one plus somethings who saw the show. BSC has teamed up with other Pittsfield organizations in this new initiative. The Pittsfield Garden Tour will follow design director Geri Jones of Churchill Gardens and convert the adjacent alleyway in to an enchanted evening garden for the MainStage after-theatre parties. John Kelly of Kelly’s Package Store, Inc will provide the party drinks (red and white wine and beer) and Paul Rich & Sons will contribute garden furniture, while Larry Kratka will spin the tunes.

The special pay-as-you-can performances and their parties that follow happen on these Fridays:

June 13 Spelling Bee
June 20 Harris Burdick
July 11 My Scary Girl
July 25 The Violet Hour
August 15 Private Lives
August 15 See Rock City.

Plan to attend, and who knows, you could end up dancing with a cast member!

If you are 21 to 35, this may be one of the most enjoyable and best priced night out acativity of the Berkshire summer. The Barrington Stage Box Office is (413) 236-8888. Barrington Stage Website

The cast for Harris Burdick

Of course, you don't have to be under 35 to enjoy Barrington Stage and its year round offerings. They welcome those who are older just as warmly.

Funny stuff at Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare knows how to have fun
The cast has as much fun as the audience. (Kevin Sprague photos)

Memorial Day weekend brought with it the openings of two superb, if serious, plays. I Am My Own Wife at Barrington Stage Company and The Caretaker at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. So it was a welcome change of pace when Shakespeare & Company decided to open with a superb reworking of Georges Feydeau's French Farce, The Ladies Dressmaker, under the title of The Ladies Man.

If you missed my rave review over at Berkshire Fine Arts, well, you really should read the full account of this fun evening:

Larry Murray's Review of The Ladies Man

The biggest delight of the evening was the re-discovery of Elizabeth Aspenlieder's immense comedic talents. In a note after the performance, she wrote that she had worked hard on her " 47 entrances and exits…wild! In fact so much so I tore all my intercostals during rehearsals last week…we are all bruised and beaten but are having a ball." As I said in my review, farce is hard work, especially if you want to make it all look so easy.

I have said it before, and repeat again: do not miss this production, things this funny only come along once in a great while! The Ladies Man runs all Summer long.

The Shakespeare & Co. website

Next opening for them will be Alls Well That Ends Well later this month. I will be reviewing that one as well.

The Power of Pinter at Berkshire Theatre Festival

James Barry as Mick (l) and Jonathan Epstein as Davies in The Caretaker opening the Berkshire Theatre Festival season.

When I walked into the Berkshire Theatre Festival's Unicorn Theatre last Sunday afternoon, I gave up the glorious Berkshire sunshine and lush carpet of green for the grey and dingy squalor of a London flat. In creating the set for their season opener, The Caretaker, scenic designer Jonathan Wentz has done such a convincing job of hopeless chaos, I wanted to escape back to the flowers of Spring, and the hope of renewal that was just beyond the theater walls.

Pinter is hard. If you take his work seriously, you have to surrender your own comfort level and exchange places with his sodden characters who have so little to live for. As the press release states so cooly:

Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker is an enigmatic and sinister comedy about the struggle for power. The fragile relationship of two brothers, Aston and Mick, is turned upside down when Davies, a homeless man, enters their lives. Since its premiere in 1960, this play has been recognized as a landmark in 20th century drama.

Director Eric Hill comments: “I’m excited to examine the dramatic tension and mystery of Pinter – always a study in trying to get behind the words and underlying causes of the relationships.”

I think this play was a triumph as I wrote in my review in Berkshire Fine Arts, but it is also depressing. Honest examination of the human condition is rarely upliftiing, at least in Pinterland.

Larry Murray's review of "The Caretaker" in Berkshire Fine Arts

Just don't see it on a glorious spring day, save it for a cloudy or rainy one. Pinter is brilliant, this production is absorbing, but it is also deeply affecting.

I Am My Own Wife, the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf

Promo image from the movie "I Am My Own Woman" which tells the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as a young man (center), a young woman (left) and Charlotte herself in her later years.
Vince Gatton as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in "I Am My Own Wife" at Barrington Stage Company through June 8.

The Barrington Stage Company under Julianne Boyd has been taking a lot of risks in recent years, starting with their move to Pittsfield from Great Barrington. Happily most of their regular audiences took the change in stride. They too benefit from a wonderful new theatre and larger base of fellow theater-goers. The company is no longer just a summer operation, it presents plays almost year round.

So it was only a small surprise when they announced they were doing the Doug Wright Tony and Pulitzer winning I Am My Own Wife with the incredibly talented Vince Gatton playing the three dozen or so roles in this one man play.

At Berkshire Fine Arts, Charles Giuliano did the lead review, and declared it more powerful and absorbing than the original Broadway production:

Charles Giuliano's Review of "I Am My Own Wife" in Berkshire Fine Arts

Charles and I decided this play deserved more attention than just a single review, and so I undertook to write a second story, detailing the conflicts and debates that still rage about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. She was the one and only transvestite to reign in Berlin during the Communist era.

In my research on Charlotte, I read numerous other takes on her life. The best of the lot was in a review of her film, I Am My Own Woman, found at Planet Out. Its details were a little too frank for inclusion in my own article in Berkshire Fine Arts.

Popcorn Movie Review

Now a 60-something lady who loves to don Victorian lingerie and display her ever-youthful butt, Charlotte speaks fondly of her mostly deceased ex-lovers. She's always had a penchant for older men, and time has outrun most of them.

There was a time, after the Wall went up, when gay East Berliners were barred from meeting one another in public; gay bars were closed and gays were prohibited from placing "contact ads" in newspapers or magazines. That's when Charlotte met one of her great loves in response to a number scrawled on the wall of a public latrine.

Her story seemed to both absorb and mystify many in the Berkshires audience who listened in polite, presumably stunned, silence. There is wonderful humor in the production, but not many in the opening night audience laughed. So I quietly chuckled as the bon mots were delivered by Gatton.

In my treatment, I decided that Charlotte was not only his own wife, but her own husband as well. You can read why I came to that conclusion here:

Larry Murray on Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in Berkshire Fine Arts

The creator of Pangea Day

Jehane Noujaim

Each year a few special people are given the opportunity to reveal their deepest wishes at the TED Conference. In 2006 a nervous Jehane Noujaim shared her vision for world peace with the TED attendees. A documentary filmmaker of amazing vision and grace, she was given a grant to make this a reality. But this is more than about charitable contributions, since TED attendees also have a desire to support its grantees and make sure the dream becomes reality. This is my small effort to spread the word.

Here is the talk that began the work on Pangea Day in motion.



The TED conference is an annual event and the acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. For more of these amazing talks on video, and the list of amazing people who have given them, visit the TED site. The best part is that the talks on line are absolutely free. It costs upwards of $4,000 to attend, with some of the fee used to support worthy projects like this.

The TED Talks