(Pittsfield, MA) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Alan Paul, announces the 10-minute plays, playwrights and casting for the 12th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, part of the 2023 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival.
“I’m thrilled to make my BSC directorial debut with the 10X10 New Play Festival this winter,” said Artistic Director Alan Paul. “I love new work, so I am excited to present ten new plays that are often funny, sometimes sweet, and always surprising. I can’t wait to warm up my first Berkshires winter by sharing these unique pieces with you. I look forward to seeing audiences at the theatre.”
BSC’s 10X10 New Play Festival will be presented at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center (36 Linden Street) with performances February 17 through March 5, 2023. The Press Opening is Sunday, February 19 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $35 – $45 and are available at www.barringtonstageco.org/10×10.
The 10X10 New Play Festival cast features 10X10 veterans Matt Neely, BSC Associate Artist Peggy Pharr Wilson and Robert Zukerman. Additional 10X10 casting will be announced at a later date.
Directors for the 10X10 New Play Festival are BSC Artistic Director Alan Paul and returning for his seventh year, Matthew Penn (BSC’s Judgment Day, Typhoid Mary). An Emmy-nominated director (Law & Order), Penn has been co-Artistic Director of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab for the last 14 seasons in Great Barrington.
The creative team includes Peggy Walsh (costume design), Marcus Kearns (scenic design), Lucas Palweski (lighting design) and Eric Shimelonis (sound design).
BSC’s 2023 10X10 New Play Festival:
Real Magic by Brent Askari
Magician Carl has a bad gig at a children’s party as well as an encounter from his past.
Brent Askari has had two full-length plays previously produced at Barrington Stage Company: American Underground (Burman New Play Award Recipient) and Andy Warhol in Iran (commissioned by BSC). The Berkshire Theatre Critics Association awarded Andy Warhol in Iran a “Berkie” for Best New Play of the 2022 season, and Northlight Stage in the Chicago area is producing the play in early 2023. Brent is also the winner of the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Theater for his play The Refugees. Brent has had other work developed and produced at venues including Geva Theatre Center, the PlayPenn Conference, Gulfshore Playhouse, Florida Rep, Melrose Theater and Palm Beach Dramaworks.
If I Go First by Michael Brady
Harry and Lizzy have lived a good life together. Lizzy is now sick and in pain, and wants to exit on her own terms. It’s time to have “the Talk”.
Michael is an Associate Artist with Great Barrington Public Theatre where he manages Berkshire Voices, a workshop for local playwrights. His play Pipeline was produced in Barrington Stage Company’s 2019 10×10 New Play Festival. Also with BSC, served as playwright mentor for the Playwright Mentoring Project. Other plays include To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, developed by Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City and produced as a film by Sony Pictures; Sara, Equity Library Theatre at Lincoln Center; Semper Fi, Gloucester Stage Company; Hard Time, Main Street Stage, North Adams; Two Bears Blinking, New Theatre, Miami. Member of the Dramatists Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
All Aboard! by Michael Burgan
While taking a train home to attend a memorial service for his father, Neal’s trip turns into a physics lesson, with some unexpected people along for the ride.
A freelance writer, Michael Burgan has written more than 300 books for children and young adults. He studied playwriting at Emerson College and took classes at Chicago Dramatists. Credits include: Alternate selection, 1999 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival (GIGO); Appetite Theatre 2005 Bruschetta Festival, Chicago (Bob’s Head and Toys in the Attic); Theatres Against War 2005 Freedom Follies, New York (Truth, Justice, and…); 2011 Boston Theater Marathon (Mirror Touch); Connecticut Heritage Productions 2011 New Stories on Stage (Rosary Peas); 2018 Benchwarmers, Santa Fe Playhouse (One More Coffee). He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Piece of Cake by Allie Costa
Baking is the family business, but it’s not that easy — especially when you’ve got big shoes to fill.
Allie Costa is an actor, writer, director and singer working in film, TV, theatre and voiceover. Her acting credits include Spring Awakening, 90210, You Me & Her, Future Shock and Alien vs. Musical. She’s also appeared in commercials and podcasts, narrated audio books and documentaries, and lent her voice to video games and animated projects. Her work has been produced internationally, including the critically acclaimed Two Girls, Don’t Shoot the Messenger Pigeon, Music of the Mind, Boxes Are Magic and Can You Keep a Secret? She’s currently working on an original episodic series. Occasionally, she sleeps. alliecosta.com
The Haunting Package by Deirdre Girard
Bethany is delighted with her surprise anniversary weekend — until the hotel room seems to have a mind of its own…
Deirdre Girard received her Playwriting MFA from Boston University. She’s had dozens of award-winning short plays produced worldwide, and several full-length productions. Her work has been published by Applause Books, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press and Heuer Publishing. Most recently, her collection Women at the Center was published, a monologue from In This House was selected for The Best Female Monologues of 2022 by Smith & Kraus, she won Best of Show for Soulmate and she completed a new collection of short horror plays. Deirdre is a playwriting instructor, a member of the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre Advisory Council, an editor for Stage Source’s NPA Newsletter and a founding member of the Newburyport Arts Collective.
Anything You Want by Arlene Jaffe
A college kid needs to take a celebrity photo to graduate. Problem is, she’s in a blizzard in the middle of the Berkshires. The solution? The prolific man who illustrated Americana.
Plays: Emigrant, Iriomote, Anonymous, Search and Rescue, Surrounded, The Rock Eater, North Bend, Rita Shalimar, ElliEli, The River Sambre, The Keys and more. Novels: Mister Mona Lisa and Francesco Before.
Right Field of Dreams by Stephen Kaplan
Ten-year-old Tim would much rather be watching ‘Damn Yankees’ than playing right field in his Little League game.
Recent productions include a NNPN Rolling World Premiere of Tracy Jones (Winner: Chameleon Theatre; Finalist: B Street New Comedies Festival, ScreenCraft Stage Play Contest, Trustus Playwrights Festival). Currently under development: Un Hombre: A Golem Story (Finalist: Jewish Plays Project, Wild Imaginings Epiphanies, Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival). Other plays have been produced Off Broadway at 59E59 and regionally around the country. He is a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and his plays have also been finalists for Seven Devils and the Woodward/Newman Award and semi-finalists for PlayPenn and FutureFest. For more information visit bystephenkaplan.com
A Date by Diana Metzger
Two 20-somethings, in a post-pandemic society, attempt a face-to-face first date, with some outside assistance.
Diana Metzger is a playwright, screenwriter, essayist, theatre critic and creative writer from Silver Spring, Maryland. Diana has been a teaching artist with Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre Company, and Art Stream. Round House commissioned and produced Diana’s play Beach Week with their teen performance company. Diana wrote for the MTV scripted series Faking It and worked on the ABC Family show Greek. Diana was a finalist for the Humanitas New Voices writing award two years in a row for both comedy and drama writing. Diana received her MFA in Creative Writing at American University and her BS in Communication (Theatre Major with a certificate in Creative Writing for the Media) from Northwestern University.
The Moon is Full of It by Jim Moss
The King’s jester attempts to woo the King’s chief scientist.
Jim Moss has authored seven full-length plays and over a hundred one-acts. His work has been produced in theatres in London, Chicago, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, San Diego, Seattle and numerous New York Off Broadway venues, including: La MaMa Galleria, the American Globe and Manhattan Repertory Theatre. In 2018, his play Tagged won three contests: First place in Theatre Odyssey’s One-Act Play Festival in Sarasota, Best Lab Works Production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival and the British Theatre Challenge in London. In 2022 his play Beyond the Summer of Love was the full-length winner of the Tampa Theatre Festival.
Gimme Shelter by Robert Weibezahl
An unconventional septuagenarian and a 20-something with an uncertain future forge an unexpected connection at a retirement village’s bus stop.
Robert Weibezahl is delighted to have a play chosen for BSC’s 10×10 Festival for the second consecutive year. His plays have been performed live and virtually in New York, California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, Indiana and Australia. Playwriting honors include Winner of the Quarantine Playwriting Competition at the Grand Theatre, Cartersville, Georgia (2020); finalist at Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest (2019); selection for the William Inge Theatre Festival New Play Lab (2022) and the Palisades Playwrights Festival (2018, 2019). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild. robertweibezahl.wordpress.com
The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival is a winter arts festival located in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, organized by the City of Pittsfield and Barrington Stage Company.
ABOUT BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is an award-winning theatre located in Pittsfield, MA, in the heart of the Berkshires. Co-founded in 1995 by Julianne Boyd, BSC’s mission is to produce top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to engage our community with vibrant, inclusive educational outreach programs. Alan Paul succeeded Ms. Boyd as the company’s Artistic Director in 2022.
BSC attracts over 60,000 patrons annually and has gained national recognition for its superior-quality productions and comprehensive educational programming, including the award-winning Playwright Mentoring Project, the Musical Theatre Conservatory, Youth Theatre, KidsAct! and other initiatives. The company has become integral to the economic revitalization of downtown Pittsfield.
BSC’s reputation for excellence began with a smash revival of Cabaret that moved to Boston in 1997 for an extended run. The theatre’s prominence grew with the world premiere of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin (BSC 2004; Broadway 2005-2008, winner of two Tony Awards). Other notable productions include the world premiere of Christopher Demos-Brown’s American Son (BSC 2016; Broadway 2018); Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session (BSC 2009; Off-Broadway 2010-2012); Leonard Bernstein, Comden & Green’s On the Town (BSC 2013; Broadway 2014, four Tony Award nominations); Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company, starring Aaron Tveit (2017); and West Side Story in honor of Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins’ centenaries (2018).
BSC develops and commissions new work with two programs: PlayWorks, which supports the creation of new plays, and the Musical Theatre Lab, which develops new musicals. Since 1995, BSC has produced 38 new works, 19 of which have moved to New York and major US regional theatres. Following the industry-wide shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, BSC was the first Equity theatre in the US to return to live performance with its critically acclaimed production of Harry Clarke, starring BSC Associate Artist Mark H. Dold and directed by Ms. Boyd.
The 2022 season featured a critically acclaimed revival of Ain’t Misbehavin’, which won two Berkshire Theatre Awards, including Outstanding Ensemble; Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics; Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music, winner of eight Berkshire Theatre Awards including Outstanding Production of a Musical; the world premiere play All of Me by Laura Winters, winner of two Berkshire Theatre Awards; the world premiere play Andy Warhol in Iran by Brent Askari, winner of a Berkshire Theatre Award for world premiere of a new play; May Treuhaft-Ali’s world premiere play ABCD; the Youth Theatre’s world premiere production of The Supadupa Kid; and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, winner of three Berkshire Theatre Awards including Outstanding Production of a Play.