[Capdist-announce] Great Barrington Public Theater Announces 2023 Summer Season

Fri Mar 10 08:04:09 EST 2023

*For Immediate Release*

*Contact: Mike Clary*

*MrMikeClary1 at gmail.com* <MrMikeClary1 at gmail.com>

*518-267-0683*

*March 6, 2023*

*Great Barrington Public Theater to present three outstanding new plays on
two stages, in performance June to August.*

*Lineup includes The Stones, a mind-twisting gothic mystery; Off Peak a
sparkling comedy; Just Another Day, a comic and poetic reaffirmation of
endless love.*

This summer, June to August, Great Barrington Public Theater will produce a
trio of new plays featuring top-tier performers, directors and stage
artists residing in and around the Berkshires. Performances are in the
Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, five minutes from the
center of Great Barrington, and, in keeping with GBPT core mission, tickets
are affordable to all.

The Public’s ten-week season opens in the intimate Liebowitz black box
theater, with the American premiere of *The Stones *(June 14 to July 2).

[image: The-Stones temp.jpg]

A hypnotic solo show, *The Stones* is a contemporary gothic mystery by
award-winning, London-based playwright/director Kit Brookman It was an
audience favorite at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The story unfolds after Nick quits his teaching job and breaks up with a
long-term boyfriend, then hears from an old flame from high school from
whom he's withheld a terrible secret. This leads Nick to take a job as a
tutor to two young children in the countryside; the job, setting and family
seem too good to be true… until the mysterious stones begin to arrive. A
gripping, fascinating mystery unfolds. Reality splinters into historical
illusions that question whom among us is delusional and who is guilty for
humankind’s collective past, present and murky future.

Brookman is a daring, gifted writer from Australia now making a name in
British theater circles. Audiences can learn more about Kit Brookman and
the play on his website <https://www.kitbrookman.com/the-stones>. *The
Stones* will be directed by accomplished actor-director-writer Michelle
Joyner, who notes, “It’s a very of-the-moment tale that makes you want to
pull your chair closer to the fire and listen. The pacing is tense, the
mood darkly comic and spellbinding.”

In choosing *The Stones* GBPT Artistic Director Jim Frangione says, “We’re
thrilled to have the opportunity to present the U.S. premiere of Kit
Brookman’s play following its success at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. It’s
a transfixing work by a bold voice and fantastic fit for the Liebowitz
black box and our creative teams. Being a powerful writer and storyteller
herself. Michelle Joyner is the pitch-perfect director for this postmodern
tale.”

Next stop* Off Peak *(July 6-July 23), on the McConnell Theater mainstage.

[image: off peak image.jpg]

It’s a nimble, funny and at moments poignant new script by writer-actor
Brenda Withers that premiered last year, delighting audiences, at the
Hudson Stage Company, in nearby Armonk, NY. This was followed by a brief
run at Manhattan’s 59E59 Theaters where it gained added positive notice.
Brenda Withers describes this work as, “A delightful new play about
forgiving, forgetting, and the healing power of a good delay.” *The New
Yorker *called it a “sly, smart, often very funny. Withers’s script
providing an abundance of emotional and intellectual twists and turns” and *The
New York Times* said it is “so close to life that you expect a conductor to
come in at any second.”

“*Off Peak *is a smart, repartee comedy that our audiences will enjoy
tremendously,” Jim Frangione says. “It’s a cleverly disguised life lesson
that invites us to eavesdrop, for a fast-moving 80 minutes, on a man and
woman who were once intimately connected and who now find themselves the
only two passengers in a Metro North train car. It’s lots of fun, with
incisive writing about the difference between love and relationships, the
opportunity for second chances, and of course, improbable coincidence and
happenstance that make and break relationships. Love is funny stuff.
Especially in hindsight.”

*Off Peak* will feature GBPT favorites Peggy Pharr Wilson and Kevin
O’Rourke, directed by James Warwick, who says, “It’s about two richly
created, recognizable people who find themselves revealing their past and
present, and discovering reconciliation and forgiveness with great humor
and compassion. Their stories are told with personal, heartwarming insight.”

[image: Peggy Pharr Wilson.jpg]

Peggy Pharr Wilson

[image: Kevin O'Rourke.jpg]

Kevin O'Rourke

The GBPT summer peaks with *Just Another Day, *(July 27-Aug 13)

[image: JUST-ANOTHER-DAY temp.jpg]

Premiering in partnership with Shadowland Stages in Ellenville, NY, *Just
Another Day* is a heart-stirring new drama by the familiar screen and stage
actor-writer Dan Lauria. An aging comedy writer and poet meet daily on a
park bench to question the reasons, circumstance, how, why and whether they
were ever actually married, and if so, what magic held them together
besides a mutual love of old movies.

“Most plays about elderly couples are about younger members of the family,”
Lauria said. “But on this bench there are no children, no doctors, no
nurses, just two people who trade wit, barbs and nostalgia about old
movies, all the while, trying to remember who they are and how they
connect, at least for that day. The heart of the story is about respecting
the wisdom and the knowledge of our older artists who are being forgotten.”

Frangione adds, “Dan has written an affecting play about endless love, how
unreasonable and confusing it is, but lifelong and irrefutable. We become
involved with these two strangers, and it will register with anyone who
lives with memories of love. We’re very excited to partner and premiere
this play with Shadowland Stages.”

*Just Another Day *will be directed by James Glossman, who says, “How does
enduring love speak? Maybe with poetry, but maybe even better with some
jokes. Dan Lauria has written a joyous, powerful love story about the
lasting gifts of comedy and laughter, even at the end of the world.”

[image: Dan Lauria.jpg]

Dan Lauria

*‘*

*Coming August 24-26 Representation and How to Get It*

* A Special Event*

*Three Performances Only, at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home, in Lenox, MA*

[image: REPRESENTATION temp.jpg]

*Representation and How to Get It *(August 24-26) is a new solo show
presented by GBPT in partnership with The Mount, created collaboratively by
playwright Joyce Van Dyke, actor Elaine Vaan Hogue, and director Judy Braha.

Poet and visionary Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the *Battle Hymn of the
Republic*, was famous as a charismatic human rights activist. In
*Representation
and How to Get It*, it’s early dawn, and we find Julia Howe rehearsing a
talk she’s about to give to the Boston Radical Club on political
representation for women. She has pointed questions for her audience,
delivering a passionate, moving call-to-arms for our time. Director Judy
Braha says, “When it comes to speaking truth to power, Julia Ward Howard
got it right a century and a half ago. We want her words and this play to
charge the audience with agency, hope, and a collective sense of the need
to take action now.”

“It’s going to be an all-around fantastic season,” Deann Simmons Halper,
GBPT Executive Director sums up the season. “We’re looking forward to
sharing four outstanding new plays with theater lovers in the Berkshires,
and those who visit from Boston, the Hudson Valley, New York City, and
elsewhere. We’re committed to showcasing new plays and to spotlighting the
wealth of talent now living in an around the Berkshires. We love to bring
new stories and new ways of seeing the world to audiences, and these four
plays do it brilliantly.”

*On June 9*, a *Peek Behind the Curtains Benefit* at St. James Church,
Great Barrington will preview snippets of the GBPT’s coming season as well
as new shows being considered for future staging. More details are coming
soon. The benefit will include food and drink, live music, singing and
other surprise entertainments, as well as meet and greets with some cast
members and special company friends. The coming weeks will also see
readings of new plays currently in the works at Berkshire Voices
<https://www.greatbarringtonpublictheater.org/berkshire-voices>.

The Liebowitz and McConnell Theaters are in the Daniel Arts Center, five
minutes from downtown Great Barrington on the bucolic campus of Bard
College at Simon’s Rock, 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230. More
information can be found on the GBPT website
<https://www.greatbarringtonpublictheater.org/> and on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/GreatBarringtonPublicTheater/>. Tickets are
affordable to all, between $25 and $50, and are available on the website
and by phone 413-372-1980, or GBPTboxoffice at gmail.com.
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