by Barbara Waldinger A particular advantage of living in the Berkshires is the opportunity to witness gifted artists of all types creating the magic of live performance. On September seventeenth, Donald Margulies, considered to be one of America’s foremost living playwrights, was in attendance at the sold-out opening of his…
by Barbara Waldinger On Cedar Street is a musical based on Kent Haruf’s final novel, Our Souls at Night,a simple, bittersweet story about two lonely, damaged, widowed neighbors, Addie Moore and Louis Waters, who have discovered through each other a second chance at connection, companionship, and even love. In the…
by Barbara Waldinger Of the twenty-four plays written by the great Irish dramatist Brian Friel (1929-2015), (probably best known in America for his multi-award winning Dancing at Lughnasa [1990]), two of them—Faith Healer (1979) and Molly Sweeney (1994)—consist of monologues expressed by three characters. Why would such a gifted playwright…
by Barbara Waldinger Actors are hired for piecemeal work–one production at a time—unless they are fortunate enough to be part of a continuing series, as was Dan Lauria in The Wonder Years, among others.But even series come to an end and what’s next? Some actors turn to directing and others…
by Barbara Waldinger August Wilson’s towering play Fences, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama, is a challenging work for any theatre to produce. Expectations are high among critics and audiences alike as to how the production will bring to life the story of Troy Maxson, a garbage collector in…
by Barbara Waldinger If the script of a play is a blueprint, then its journey from page to stage depends not only on the playwright, but also on the vision of the director, the actors, and the production team. In the case of Brenda Withers’ play, Off Peak, at the…
by Barbara Waldinger Pondering why Million Dollar Quartet is so popular, Berkshire Theatre Group Director/Choreographer Greg Santos attributes its success to the “nostalgia factor”—the hit songs of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”: Elvis Presley. However, if this production consisted only of…
by Barbara Waldinger The Contention (Henry VI, Part II) is probably Shakespeare’s first play, according to the program note of the Director, Tina Packer. As such, it is as stuffed with extreme actions and emotions, violence and humor, power struggles and severed heads as is the nearly extinct ice cream…
