A World Premiere, a New Play Reading Series, and a Return to August Wilson join the Bard
LENOX, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company has announced its first titles of Season 2025, including a World Premiere, two Shakespeare productions, and a new Jewish play reading series.
Allyn Burrows, Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director, said he’s thrilled with the variety of next season’s programming.
“I’m excited by the impact that our audiences will experience,” he added. “With the whirlwind of an election season behind us, we can settle down for some powerfully resonant stories of humanity brought vividly to life on our stages.”
Opening on Friday, June 20 – the first day of summer – Shakespeare & Company’s 48th season begins with the World Premiere of The Victim by Lawrence Goodman, directed by Daniel Gidron and featuring Annette Miller. Staged as a reading in the company’s Plays in Process series in 2024, The Victim tells the stories of three women: a successful New York doctor whose racial diversity training has gone horribly wrong, a health aide grappling with racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a Holocaust survivor facing her own horror and finding her way back to love and healing.
July starts with the reprise of Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, co-created by Allyn Burrows and Jacob Ming-Trent and directed by Burrows, from July 1 through 6 at the Tina Packer Playhouse. A mash-up of modern music and Shakespeare verse, Shake It Up premiered in 2024 and returns for a limited, six-show run.
Outdoors, the classic tale of meddling families and young love Romeo and Juliet will be staged at the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre from July 12 through August 11, directed by Kevin G. Coleman and Jonathan Epstein.
July also marks Shakespeare & Company’s return to August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with The Piano Lesson, directed by Christopher V. Edwards July 25 through August 24 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. Set against the backdrop of 1936 Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning The Piano Lesson is a testament to the complexities of family, history, and legacy. It’sthe fourth in Wilson’s American Century Cycle series of plays, and the second performed at Shakespeare & Company following the award-winning production of Fences in 2023.
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, with its timeless themes of identity, gender roles, and the clash of wills, will be directed by Allyn Burrows and Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer and staged from August 14 through August 24 at the Tina Packer Playhouse.
This fall, Shakespeare & Company will also introduce A Celebration of Jewish Playwrights: A Special Weekend of Staged Readings at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, October 9 through October 11.
Three- and five-show FLEXpass ticket packagesare on sale now at early-bird prices, with additional titles and events to be announced at a later date. For more information, visit shakespeare.org or call the Box Office at 413.637.3353.
About Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, and attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of more than 150 artists.