Great Barrington Public Theater set to stage the American premiere ofThe Stones, a mind-twisting gothic mystery, with Ryan Winkles in a solo performance as the haunted school teacher Nick, directed by Michelle Joyner.
An audience favorite at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe,* The Stones* is a present-day, provocative gothic mystery by award-winning, London-based playwright/director Kit Brookman. Great Barrington Public Theater opens the company’s ten-week summer season with the American premiere of the riveting new play.
After a strange epiphany, Nick leaves his job as a school teacher and breaks up with his long-term boyfriend. A reconnection with an old flame– from whom he’s kept a long-buried secret–leads to a job at a countryside estate as tutor to two beguiling young children. In his uprooted situation, the job, setting and family seem too good to be true… until ordinary stones begin to materialize around him. A fascinating, ominous mystery unfolds. Reality splinters into historical illusions with the stones as witnesses of the human record, leaving Nick and his audience to riddle: Who among us is deluded and anesthetized by modern contentment? Who is crippled by guilt and revenge–both personal and collective? And finally: How do we navigate and survive our murky, threatened future?
Brookman is a daring, gifted writer making a name in British theater circles. The GB Public’s production of *The Stones* pairs *Ryan Winkles*, one of the Berkshires’ finest actors, with consummate storytelling director Michelle Joyner, who saw *The Stones* at the 2022 Edinburgh festival. She was taken by the story’s contemporary voice, sensibilities and moody atmosphere and describes it as, “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.”
*The Stones* plays June 15-July 2, Thurs.- Sat., 7:30pm, Sat. and Sun., 3pm, in the Liebowitz black box theater, Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
More information can be found on the GBPT website and on Facebook. Tickets to performances are affordable to all, between $25 and $50, and are available on the website and by phone 413-372-1980, or GBPTboxoffice@gmail.com.
ABOUT Ryan Winkles
Previous shows at Great Barrington Public Theater: Breakwater; Regional credits include: Joy and Pandemic (Huntington Theatre Company); Universe Rushing Apart (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Mr Fullerton Between the Sheets (Gloucester Stage); Visitors (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse); Pericles (the rig); ROE (WAM Theater) Ryan is also a company member of Shakespeare & Company where credits include As You Like It, The Tempest, Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Othello, and Richard III. Television: “Time Traveling Bong”(Comedy Central). Film: The Boston Strangler(Hulu), Paper Birds(French Press Films), UFOTOG(Trumbull Studios). Education: BA, FSU; MFA UW-Madison. Proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG. ryanwinkles.com
ABOUT Michelle Joyner
Last season at GBPT, Michelle was the director/dramaturg of The Shot by Robin Gerber, starring Sharon Lawrence, which went on to The United Solo Festival (Theater Row, New York) and won Best Production, Best Performance, Audience Favorite and Best design. It was produced at New Jersey Rep in April 2023. Michelle was Assoc. Director (with Tina Packer) on The Waverly Gallery at Shakespeare and Co. and directed When We Were Young and Unafraid and A Certain Age at their winter reading series, as well as the past three productions of The Valentine Show (with Allyn Burrows). She has directed numerous readings for GBPT and Berkshire Voices as well as many plays on the west coast. This past season she performed an original piece in She/Her at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as at PS21 in Chatham. She starred in The Approach last season at Shakespeare and Co. (Nomination: Best Acting Ensemble). Michelle is also an accomplished screen actor with a long career and has written ten studio screenplays. Her first full-length play Iodine will have a reading this year. She has directed a short film Especially Not Roommates and leads The Long Table, a women’s writing group. Member: SAG-AFTRA, AEA, WGA, and DG. She is currently creating THE RAMSDELL PROJECT, a theatrical development space in Great Barrington to open later this year.