2025 was an exciting and innovative season—a mix of new plays and classics, chock full of exceptional performances, directors and designers. Barbara Waldinger’s Top Ten Plays For first rate ensemble performances: Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Robert Egan. Dorset Theatre Festival The Piano Lesson by August…
Once again, the remarkable Berkshires theatre scene was replete with variety, excellence, and creativity. Writing in December, as I look back on a season that stretched from October 2024 to October 2025, there were successes and a few productions that were not yet ready for prime time. However, this reviewer…
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…
LENOX, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company returns to August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with The Piano Lesson, July 25 through August 24 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, presented in collaboration with Actors’ Shakespeare Project (ASP). Set against the backdrop of 1936 Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony…
A World Premiere, a New Play Reading Series, and a Return to August Wilson join the Bard LENOX, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company has announced its first titles of Season 2025, including a World Premiere, two Shakespeare productions, and a new Jewish play reading series. Allyn Burrows, Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director,…
Top Honors Split Four Ways PITTSFIELD, MA (November 13, 2023) – At an SRO ceremony held at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (BTCA) presented the Berkshire Theatre Awards, colloquially known as The Berkies, on the evening of Monday, November 13, 2023. This was the seventh time the awards…
LENOX, Mass. – In tandem with its production of August Wilson’s Fences, Shakespeare & Company will host a book signing, pre-show reception, and post-show talkback with Patti Hartigan, author of the forthcoming biography AUGUST WILSON: A Life, on Saturday, August 12, beginning at 12:30 p.m. By special arrangement with the author, publisher Simon…
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…
