BUILDING ON THE BREAKTHROUGH SUCCESS OF W71, THE FESTIVAL ADOPTS A BIENNIAL PRODUCTION CADENCE AND EXPANDS YEAR-ROUND
Williamstown, MA (January 20, 2026) — Following a landmark summer that reintroduced Williamstown Theatre Festival as one of the most ambitious and exciting destinations in American theatre–generating 17M impressions, with 50 percent reaching new audiences and attendance up 30 percent over 2024–the Festival today launched a new long-term artistic model designed to expand its reach, deepen its impact and secure its future.
As part of this evolution, Williamstown will adopt a biennial model for its next full summer Festival (W72) in 2027 and will use the intervening period to activate a new phase of artistic research, development, and year-round engagement. This strategic decision is designed to support a vision for a year-round eco-system of programming, of which the flagship summer Festival is a cornerstone, as well as a more sustainable, resilient future for the institution and the artists and staff who make its work possible. The expanded approach also includes a major investment in the creation of new and original work across theatre and adjacent storytelling forms, as well as new programs that support artists and audiences both in the Berkshires and beyond.
W71 was a season of firsts for Williamstown with sold-out performances, national critical attention, and the most diverse audiences in the Festival’s history. It was also a season of firsts: the first opera and first ice performance in the Festival’s history, and the opening of the first Festival-owned venue outside the Williams College campus, reaffirming Williamstown Theatre Festival’s role as a vital incubator for ambitious artists who are defining the future of American theatre and as a destination for adventurous audiences for generations to come.
There will also be dedicated efforts to explore Next Generation Learning Programs as well as new business and revenue-generating structures including a for-profit producing entity and a digital subscription model that connects a global theater community.
“This past summer offered a glimpse of what’s possible when an institution dares to evolve, and we are just getting started,” said Raphael Picciarelli, Managing Director, Strategy & Transformation. “W71 reestablished Williamstown as a hub for boundary-pushing new work. This next phase deepens that commitment by dedicating time and resources to developing and advancing initiatives, and strengthening the organization for the future.”
“Creating bold work requires strong systems behind the scenes,” said Kit Ingui, Managing Director, Operations & Advancement. “We’ll use the coming months to build the infrastructure, processes, partnerships and workplace practices that allow artists and staff to do their best work at the scale the Festival now demands.”
Throughout the creative development leading up to W72 in 2027, Williamstown Theatre Festival will continue to engage artists, audiences, and partners through programming and special events in Williamstown and beyond. Additionally, several core projects from last summer being brought to new audiences will include Heartbeat Opera’s Vanessa in NYC in May, with transfers of Not About Nightingales, Spirit of the People, and The Gig also in discussions. Jeremy O. Harris will return as Director of the Creative Collective for W72, with the remainder of the collective to be announced later this year. Additional programming details for W72 will be announced in the coming months.
“Williamstown Theatre Festival’s evolution reflects a deliberate, long-term strategy championed by the board and carried forward by Raphael and Kit,” said Margaret Gould Stewart, Chair of the Williamstown Theatre Festival Board of Trustees. “W71 demonstrated what the future of theatre can look like, and our next phase ensures the necessary structure is in place to support our ambitious vision and programming for years to come.”
“The American theater has always thrived when institutions are willing to take risks not just onstage, but in how they imagine their future,” said acclaimed playwright and director Robert O’Hara. “This kind of long-term thinking is exactly what the field needs right now. By committing to vision, care and sustainability at the same time, Williamstown Theatre Festival is helping model a future where bold work can actually endure both at the Festival and outside of it.”
“Cultural institutions play a vital role in shaping community and creative exchange,” said Chad Smith, President and CEO of Boston Symphony Orchestra / Tanglewood. “Williamstown Theatre Festival’s evolution reflects a thoughtful approach to sustaining that role over time, strengthening the foundation so artists, audiences and our region as a whole can continue to benefit from its presence and impact.”
“W71 was a testament to what can be achieved when artistic ambition and risk are encouraged and not stifled by fear. In this moment, both creatively and politically, fear is ruling many of us. The Creative Collective at Williamstown brings artists in the room early, arguing, dreaming, pushing each other, and helping shape what comes next free of the fears we have felt in other areas of our creative life,” said Jeremy O. Harris, Creative Director, Creative Collective. “There’s a real sense of permission there: to work in the same manner the artists who were vanguards of our field were able to at the start of the 20th century and at the inception of this festival.”
“For decades, Williamstown Theatre Festival has been a summer haven for artists to come find freedom in creative expression in one of the most beautiful places on earth” said Jenny Gersten, interim artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival from 2021-2024. “W71 was a bold step towards reimagining that legacy for contemporary audiences and I am looking forward to seeing how this new model bravely continues to deepen the Festival’s creative ambition.”
ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
For seven decades, the Tony Award-recognized Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theater artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival of diverse, world premiere plays and musicals, bold new revivals, and a rich array of accompanying cultural events.
Artists are drawn to Williamstown Theatre Festival to make great theater in anenvironment conducive to artistic risk-taking. Matthew Broderick, Audra McDonald, Dominique Morisseau, Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Stroman, Uma Thurman, and Blair Underwood are just a few of the luminous theater artists who have worked at the Festival. Many others, including Sterling K. Brown, Ty Burrell, Charlie Day, Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Chris Pine, and George C. Wolfe, began their careers at the Festival.
Productions and artists shaped at the Festival fill theaters in New York City and around the world. Recently, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside,Grand Horizons, The Rose Tattoo, The Visit, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living, and Lempicka.
Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org.