by Barbara Waldinger How many actresses beyond their teenage years have bemoaned the fact that they will never get to play Juliet, never be cast to recite that gorgeous poetry on a stage? No wonder Candy Buckley celebrates her role as Juliet in Barrington Stage’s U.S. Premiere of A TENDER…
by Barbara Waldinger On April 9 th of this year a press release was sent out by the Dorset Theatre Festival announcing that Kristine Nielsen, a two-time Tony nominee (for VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE and for GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS) would be joining the company…
by Barbara Waldinger How does a director in 2024 attempt to update a 1938 Pulitzer-winning play–ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS by Robert E. Sherwood—so that it will speak to today’s audience? And why choose to take on this project when the play was turned into an Oscar-nominated film in 1940 (with…
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…
