Berkshire Theatre Group Announces Casting for “4000 Miles”

Pittsfield, MA – Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) and Kate Maguire (Artistic Director, CEO) are excited to announce casting for its upcoming production of 4000 Miles, a play redefining family, loss and healing.

ABOUT

Amy Herzog’s acclaimed play, 4000 Miles, offers a compelling exploration of human connections, grief and the unanticipated paths to solace. Set against the backdrop of New York City’s West Village, this production unveils the profound story of 21-year-old Leo and his spirited 91-year-old grandmother, Vera Joseph.

Amidst Leo’s turmoil following a devastating loss during his cross-country bike expedition, he seeks refuge in Vera’s bustling apartment, inadvertently transforming their lives. A tale of unexpected roommates embarking on a month-long emotional rollercoaster, 4000 Miles delves deep into their complexities, from Leo’s struggles with love and loss to Vera’s rekindled sense of companionship after years of solitude. Herzog’s poignant narrative, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2013, resonates with audiences through its compassionate portrayal of chosen and unchosen families, spotlighting the profound healing power found within trust and genuine connection.

Witness the captivating journey of two outsiders navigating life’s uncertainties and forging an unlikely bond that transcends generations.

Recommended for ages 14 and up.

This production will be directed by Lizzie Gottlieb and feature Evan Silverstein as Leo Joseph-Connell, Gabriella Torres as Bec, Maria Tucci as Vera Joseph and Allison Ye as Amanda.

The creative team of 4000 Miles was written by Amy Herzog and consists of direction by Lizzie Gottlieb, scenic design by Jason Simms, costume design by Laurie Churba, lighting design by Patricia M. Nichols, sound design and composition by Clare and Olivier Manchon, intimacy coordination by Lillian Ransijn, stage management by Mickey Acton and casting direction by Kelly Gillespie, CSA and Caparelliotis Casting.

Tickets for all of BTG’s exciting productions are on sale now. All plays, schedules, casting and prices are subject to change. To purchase tickets, visit www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org or contact the Colonial Box Office by calling 413-997-4444.

The Box Office is open Tuesday through Sunday 12pm-5pm or on any performance day from 12pm until curtain. BTG’s Pittsfield Campus is located at 111 South Street, (The Colonial Theatre) Pittsfield, MA. BTG’s Stockbridge Campus is located at 6 East Street, (The Unicorn Theatre) Stockbridge, MA.

At The Unicorn Theatre

4000 Miles

written by Amy Herzog

directed by Lizzie Gottlieb

casting by Kelly Gillespie, CSA and Caparelliotis Casting

on The Larry Vaber Stage

at The Unicorn Theatre

Previews: Thursday, May 16 at 7pm and Friday, May 17 at 7pm

Opening/Press Night: Saturday, May 18 at 7pm

Closing: Saturday, June 1 at 7pm

Tickets: Preview: $50

Tickets: $61

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Evan Silverstein (Leo Joseph-Connell) Evan is a NYC/London-based actor in his final year of training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He last appeared at Berkshire Theatre Group in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (dir. Eric Hill).

Gabriela Torres (Bec) is a proud first-generation Mexican American, born in El Paso, Texas and raised in its border “sister city” Juarez, Mexico. She is thrilled to make her Berkshire Theatre Group debut! Off-Broadway: Traición de la Amistad (Repertorio Español), How to Defend Yourself (workshop at NYTW). TV: Evil, The Blacklist. Film: Babygirl, an upcoming A24 film. Education: The Juilliard School, MFA. Favorite Juilliard credits include: All My Sons (Ann), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), F***ing A (Hester) and Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra). “Mi hermosa familia, you’re the reason I’m here. Thank you for everything. Abuelitas Amparo y Alicia, this one’s for you.”

Maria Tucci (Vera Joseph) has been acting on stage and screen since 1964 when she started in Joe Papp’s brand new New York Shakespeare Festival. The following decades include Broadway productions of Athol Fugard’s A Lesson From Aloes, The Substance of Fire, Mary Stuart, The Rose Tattoo, Night of the Iguana. Off-Broadway credits include Collected Stories, The Seagull, Filumena, Marking, Master Class, A Fair Country. She has played Juliet, Antigone, Hermione, Hecuba, Mrs. Warren and numerous other women who die in the last act.

Allison Ye (Amanda) is an actress based in Los Angeles and studied opera, theatre, and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California. She has spent most of her recent career on screen, including South Park and HBO Max’s Gray Matter. She is excited and grateful to be a part of this incredible play, working alongside incredibly talented people.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Amy Herzog (Playwright) is an American playwright. Her play 4000 Miles, which ran Off-Broadway in 2011, was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her play Mary Jane, which ran Off-Broadway in 2017, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. Herzog’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway, and have received nominations for, among others: the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Actor and Actress (After the Revolution); the Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (The Great God Pan); and Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play (Belleville). She was a finalist for the 2012–2013 and 2016–2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was also nominated for a 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for her adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Lizzie Gottlieb (Director) directs film and theater. Her most recent film, Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, was released last year by Sony Pictures Classics and played in theaters across the country. The film won several festival awards, was named one of the Five Best Documentaries of the Year by the National Board of Review and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Lizzie’s first film, Today’s Man, is about her brother, who is on the autism spectrum, and aired on PBS (Independent Lens). Her film Romeo Romeo, about a young lesbian couple on a quest to have a baby, was also on PBS (America Reframed) and won the NLGJA award for Excellence in Documentary. She founded and ran an Off-Broadway theater company, Pure Orange Productions, dedicated to producing new plays at accessible prices. With that company, she produced and directed plays including Keith Bunin’s The Principality of Sorrows with Robert Sean Leonard, David Lansbury and Joanna Going; Marking by Patrick Breen, starring Peter Dinklage, Amy Ryan, Aidina Porter, Seth Gilliam and Maria Tucci. Other productions include Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Evolution with Josh Hamilton and Peter Dinklage, Noel Coward’s Private Lives with Sara Ramirez and Fifth Planet by David Auburn with Christina Kirk and Michael Ian Black. She directed plays for Naked Angels, New York Stage and Film, Malaparte and Julliard. Lizzie teaches Documentary Directing at the New York Film Academy and at Brown University. She is currently working on a film about Vietnam deserters.

Jason Simms (Scenic Designer) is a designer for plays, musical theatre, opera and media. Jason is honored to return to BTG after designing The Smile of Her (2023), Hair (2018), The Puppetmaster of Lodz (2012) and Dutch Masters (2011). Work in other regional theatres includes: Pioneer Theatre Co. (Salt Lake City), Weston Playhouse (Vermont), George St. Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Co., People’s Light and Theatre (Philadelphia), Bristol Riverside Theatre (Bristol, PA), Denver Center Theatre Co., Chautauqua Theatre Co. (Chautauqua, NY), The Old Globe (San Diego), TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley), Two River Theatre Co. (Red Bank, NJ) and many others. NYC venues include: The Public, The Cherry Lane, 2nd Stage Uptown, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Soho Playhouse, The Juilliard School, The Wild Project, The Ohio Theater, The New Ohio Theater, The Bushwick Starr, amongst many others. MFA: NYU, Tisch School of the Arts. Jason is an Assistant Professor of Design at Cornell University, Performing and Media Arts.

Laurie Churba (Costume Designer) BTG credits include: Holiday Memories, What We May Be, Constellations, Cedars, Dutch Masters, In the Mood, The Last 5 Years, K2, Prisoner of Second Avenue, Love! Valour! Compassion! and Coastal Disturbances. Ms. Churba teaches Costume Design and Contemporary Theatre Practice at Dartmouth College and designs costumes professionally around the US. She was on the costume design team for Saturday Night Live for 11 seasons. She is also an ensemble member with Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble.

Patricia M. Nichols (Lighting Designer) is based in New York and her work has been seen Off-Broadway, on national tours and in regional theatres across the country. Off-Broadway credits include How Alfo Learned to Love, Broken, Splintered Souls, Fidelity FutureStage at New World Stages, Because I Can and Safety. Tricia was a part of the artistic team for The Elf on the Shelf, A Christmas Musical National Tour and The Gazillion Bubble Show National Tour. Her regional theatre credits include her work at: Berkshire Theatre Group, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Cape Rep Theatre and Skyline Theatre Company. Tricia has worked as the Associate Lighting Designer for the Broadway and all domestic and international productions of Jersey Boys, and also served as the Associate Lighting Designer on Broadway’s The Pirate Queen, A Free Man of Color, and the Broadway and all touring productions of Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays. She has assisted many designers on Broadway productions both in and out of town. Tricia has been a United Scenic Artist member since receiving her MFA in Lighting Design from University of California San Diego.

Clare & Olivier Manchon (Composers, Sound Designers) Olivier and Clare Manchon come from a background of writing, recording and sharing music with live audiences. They toured much of the world with their band Clare & the Reasons; Olivier also headed Orchestre de Chambre Miniature. Collaborators during these years included Van Dyke Parks, My Brightest Diamond, DeVotchKa, Sufjan Stevens and other special humans. Olivier has a rich history in the theater world, playing on the original Broadway run of Spring Awakening; being concertmaster of Groundhog Day, as well as playing Matilda, Kinky Boots and many others for years in between other projects. He was also the music director for the original run of Peter Dinklage’s Cyrano. Clare and Olivier love scoring films, including Lizzie Gottlieb’s Turn Every Page, Vanessa Redgrave and Kelly Reilly’s ABC show Black Box, Ricky Jay’s Documentary, Romain Duris’ hit period French adventure En Attendant Bojangles and Secret Mall Apartment, which premiered at 2024’s SXSW Film Fest. They also did additional music for Modern Love, Nick Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of a Massive Talent and other films. This is Clare and Olivier’s first time writing for a play, and they are so honored that Lizzie brought them on and are inspired by 4000 Miles. Based in Kingston, NY (from Brooklyn/Paris/Martha’s Vineyard), Olivier and Clare have two kids, Gustave and Ernestine, a coonhound rescue, Coltrane, and a cat who seems to have infinite names.

Lillian Ransijn (Intimacy Coordinator) is a multi-modal performance artist who implores the moving body and personal storytelling to plumb the depths of grief, loss and missed connection. They seek to see and be seen through the power, history, devastation, intimacy and immediacy of the body through their work as a deviser, choreographer, teaching artist, filmmaker and intimacy coordinator. A member of Pig Iron/UArts’ inaugural M.F.A. class in Devised Performance Practice (2016), and one of the first to complete an honors thesis in Dance and Movement Studies at Emory University (2005), their work has been presented nationally by The High Museum of Art, UC San Diego, Colorado College, Emory University, First Person Arts, Fringearts, Urban Movement Arts, The Wilma Theater and Temple University’s Center for Intellectual Disabilities, amongst others. Currently they teach Movement and serve as Intimacy Director for the affiliated Connecticut Repertory Theater in the UConn Dramatic Arts Program and they continue to make new physical theater works as Co-Artistic Director of Rough & Tumble Productions. www.lillian.ransijn.com

Mickey Acton (Stage Manager) is very excited to be returning to BTG this summer! Recent projects have included Water For Elephants (Broadway & Alliance Theatre), Doppelganger (The Armory), Pagliacci (Austin Opera), On Cedar Street (Berkshire Theatre Group), Sweeney Todd (Austin Opera), A Christmas Carol (Actors Conservatory Theater), On Your Feet! (Paper Mill Playhouse) and SUFFS (The Public Theater).

Kelly Gillespie, CSA (Casting Director) has been on the casting staff at Manhattan Theatre Club for 17 seasons. Favorite MTC projects include Prayer for French Republic (Broadway and Off-Broadway), Mary Jane, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, The Best We Could, Skeleton Crew, Ink, Choir Boy and The Explorers Club. Other credits include Bite Me, Sancocho, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, What We’re Up Against, Sundown Yellow Moon and Ironbound (WP Theater); Melancholy Play, A Map of Virtue, The Zero Hour and Monstrosity (13P); Good Person of Szechwan (Foundry and Public Theater); Photograph 51 (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Exclusion and POTUS (Arena Stage); Age of Innocence and Trouble In Mind (The Old Globe); Two Sisters and a Piano (Two River Theater); and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America, Residence, Seven Guitars, 4000 Miles, Dot, The Roommate and Eat Your Heart Out (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Gillespie also was resident casting director for several seasons for the Off-Broadway companies TACT and Keen Company. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan.

Caparelliotis Casting (Casting Director) Select Broadway: Mary Jane, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Cost of Living, Macbeth, The Minutes, Skeleton Crew, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Jitney, The Glass Menagerie. Additional theater includes: MTC, The Old Globe, Signature Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company. TV/Film: New Amsterdam (NBC), The Boys in the Band for Netflix (Original Casting).

Season Discounts & Ticket Information

BTGY (Young Adult)

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 can purchase one ticket to any BTG produced show for $30 (fees included). This offer is available by phone or in person only. Additionally, one BTG presented show ticket may be purchased for 10% off the single ticket price (rental events not included).

EBT Card to Culture Program

EBT Card to Culture is a collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Department of Transitional Assistance. This is available to anyone with EBT, WIC, or ConnectorCare Insurance. This offer includes two tickets to the majority of BTG’s shows at the rate of $5 each. All additional fees are also waived. These tickets are subject to availability as seating is limited. This offer is available by phone or in person only.

Berkshire Resident

Full-time Berkshire residents receive a 25% discount to any Friday BTG produced show. Limit two tickets per patron per performance. Exclusions include previews, openings and special events. Tickets must be purchased by phone or in person at our box office. A valid Berkshire County driver’s license is required when picking up tickets.

Massachusetts Teachers Association

Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) members are eligible for a discount of 20% off orders to any BTG show. Education is a core value of BTG, and we appreciate those who are doing the work in our community. To redeem this discount, mention it while ordering over the phone at 413-997-4444, or in person at our box office.

AAA

AAA members are eligible for 10% off on orders to any BTG show. To redeem this discount, mention it while ordering over the phone at 413-997-4444, or in person at our box office.