An introduction to new works showcased outdoors at the Rose Footprint Theatre
LENOX, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company presents Plays in Process, a celebration of developing works that offers an inside look at the evolution of a play from script to stage.
Returning for its fourth year, Plays in Process has already seen several titles go on to become fully realized productions. Shakespeare & Company’s 2025 season opened with the World Premiere of The Victim by Lawrence Goodman, a 2024 Plays in Process reading. In 2024, the company presented the World Premieres of Three Tall Persian Women by Awni Abdi-Bahri, This Is It by Kate Kohler Amory and Tamara Hickey – a co-production with MetaGirl productions staged in Boston. Currently, 2022’s Plays in Process play Tilly No-body, a one-person play written and performed by Company Artist Bella Merlin, is showing at Edinburgh Fringe.
Artistic Director Allyn Burrows said the series has grown quickly and serves as an incubator for plays in development, creating more fully realized scripts as well as a measure of excitement.
“Our patrons are invited to be among the first to see readings of plays with bright futures, and our early successes suggest this model can be long-lasting,” he said. “While we never know exactly where they might end up, we’re involving our audiences early on, making them a larger part of the process.”
This year’s titles are:
The Shallows by Jim Frangione and directed by Judy Braha: a sequel to the award-winning Flight of the Monarch, presented last season at Shakespeare & Company.
Adults at Play, written and directed by Ken Ludwig, whose play Dear Jack, Dear Louise also earned accolades when presented at Shakespeare & Company in 2023.
Free and Equal by Kaia Calhoun, directed by Kaia Calhoun and Shakespeare & Company’s Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer.
The series is also the second outdoor production since Shakespeare & Company was named one of the top 10 Outdoor Performance venues in the United States by Newsweek. Tickets are $29.50 including fees; $5 Card to Culture tickets for EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare participants are available for in-person purchase or by calling the Box Office. 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.