by Barbara Waldinger Mac-Haydn Theatre’s latest “Special Event” is a two-day run of Jason Robert Brown’s THE LAST FIVE YEARS, sandwiched in just before the final weekend of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. Experimenting with events like concerts, “Show Stoppers” and now a fully-staged musical, Producing Artistic Director John Saunders, who directs…
by Barbara Waldinger On January 27, 1997, August Wilson (playwright) debated Robert Brustein (director, critic, professor) in New York’s Town Hall about race in the American theatre. Wilson, who advocated for a separate theatre by, for, and about African Americans, argued: “When a little Japanese child is handed a Samurai…
by Barbara Waldinger Who hasn’t heard of THE MOUSETRAP? Reputed to be “the world’s longest running play,” Agatha Christie’s masterpiece, offered to director Gerry McIntyre by the Berkshire Theatre Group, was met with skepticism.  In the program notes he asks: “what could I possibly bring to the show to…
by Barbara Waldinger One of the most important missions of the Great Barrington Public Theater is: “to develop and produce new plays, with a focus on playwrights and theater artists in the Berkshires.” True to form, the theater’s current production of MADAME MOZART, THE LACRIMOSA, was written, directed, performed, and…
by Barbara Waldinger Ari’el Stachel, playwright and solo performer in his one-man show at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn, describes his motivation for writing this script: “When I started writing OUT OF CHARACTER six years ago, I had no idea where it would lead. All I knew was this: as a…
by Barbara Waldinger WHERE WE STAND, the 2025 summer production of WAM Theatre, was written by Donnetta Lavinia Grays in order to create community. One performer, using storytelling and music, is tasked with removing the barriers between audience and actor, and in their stead, facilitating a communal response.  Grays…
by Barbara Waldinger “Stop talking,” says Nancy Pelosi to the newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom she has invited to her office. But discussion is the point of this seventy-seven minute intermission-less series of confrontations between the two women from 2018-2022, currently playing at Barrington Stage Company’s St. Germain Stage.…
Jacob’s Torah: A Staged Reading Sunday, June 8, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road, Pittsfield MA Written by Jesse Waldinger Directed by Barbara Waldinger The odyssey of a mystical Torah and the people who loved and protected it. Jacob’s Torah recounts the rescue of a Torah scroll…
