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Find out more about the Tanglewood schedule; brochures with complete programs and information on how to order tickets will be available in early February by calling 617-638-9467. For further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org.
The Berkshire Regional Intermodal Transportation Center in downtown Pittsfield is the only real bus depot in Berkshire county, but the towns and cities listed below are served by major carriers, including Peter Pan Bus and Bonanza bus. The only Amtrak service to and from Berkshire county is the daily Amtrak Lake Shore Limited to Boston, Springfield, Albany NY & Chicago IL.
Around the turn of the last century, at the height of the Gilded Age, there were a dozen trains daily from New York city to Lenox and Pittsfield, and in the 1940s, “ski trains” delivered 40,000 city dwellers to Bousquet’s in Pittsfield. But today, public transportation to and from the Berkshires is pretty much limited to the bus, except for the Lake Shore Limited between Boston and Chicago IL which leaves Pitsfield west bound at 2:10PM and east bound at 5:52PM. The train-bus connection that Metro-North provided from Grand Central in NYC to Wassaic, NY and then by bus to Gt. Barrington, MA has been discontinued.
The following Berkshire towns are served by common carriers such as Amtrak, Peter Pan Bus (800-343-9999), and Bonanza Bus (800-343-9999):
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
NB – Metro-North Railroad has discontinued their Wassaic – Gt. Barrington connecting summer weekend bus service, which used to run Fridays and Sundays during the summer. Follow this link for schedules and fares on Metro-North Railroad.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; Providence-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; Providence-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Amtrak; Lake Shore Limited to Boston, Springfield, Albany NY & Chicago IL
Purchase tickets at least nine days in advance online or by phone, 800-USA-RAIL. Tickets will be mailed to you.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; Providence-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Bonanza Bus; New York-Pittsfield-Williamstown-Bennington.
Peter Pan Bus Lines & Greyhound; Boston-Springfield-Pittsfield-Bennington.
The Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1934 as the Berkshire Garden Center, and its public display gardens are among the oldest in the United States. Guest Gardener during 2010 at Berkshire Botanical Garden will be Anthony Archer-Wills, the author, broadcaster and lecturer, who has pioneered water-gardening techniques in Europe and South America, as well as the US, with more than 2,000 projects to his name over some 50 years.
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Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale schedule is: May 7, 2010 –
8 a.m. – 11 a.m., members only; 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., general public. May 8, 2010 – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., general public. Gardeners can choose from thousands of plants, shrubs and bulbs, many of which are grown right at Berkshire Botanical. New this year is a Garden Tag Sale offering pre-owned tools, pots and treasures. Friday May 7; 1 pm will feature a special event talk and sale of rare plants with Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery at 1pm on Friday; $30, reservations required.
Schedule and ticket information for the Williamstown Theatre Festival 2010 season, which includes the popular musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town, and the Vietnam-era drama Fifth of July on the WTF Main Stage in Williamstown, MA.
For a quick overview: WTF 2010 season at-a-glance.
About A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum: The Romans are coming! As in the time of Plautus himself, director Jessica Stone (Butley, The Odd Couple) helms an all-male troop of actors through the comic fray in this fresh, “old” take on American master and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Sondheim’s raucous musical classic. With Tony nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (Young Frankenstein, Wicked, Finian’s Rainbow) leading the charge as Pseudolus, a slave who must win his freedom by playing matchmaker for his master, this toe-tapping, zany romp through ancient Rome is a paean to the Gods of Comedy.
About Six Degrees of Separation: One evening can change the course of many lives. Into a Manhattan couple’s nightly discussions of art deals and dinner reservations, a charismatic stranger arrives with stories of a famous father and promises of walk on roles in Cats: The Movie. Could he possibly be for real? This Olivier Award winner and Pulitzer finalist stirs the pot of privilege with often hilarious and ultimately heart-breaking results.
About Our Town: Set not far from the Williamstown in the fictional Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, Our Town finds the beautiful in the mundane lives of people in a small town. Director Nicholas Martin brings together a family of Williamstown favorites, including Becky Ann Baker (All My Sons, Assassins) and Dylan Baker, Jessica Hecht, Campbell Scott, and John Rubinstein as the local town-folk whose hopes and memories are chronicled in America’s most beloved play.
About Fifth of July: Terry Kinney will direct a production of Lanford Wilson’s modern classic Fifth of July, which will play the WTF Main Stage from August 11 – 22, 2010. A co-production with Bay Street Theatre, this gentle comic drama from Wilson’s beloved Talley Trilogy will be the final Main Stage production of the season.
In Fifth of July, as friends and family gather to remember a lost loved one, a group of thirty-something prodigals from the rebellious post-Vietnam generation return to their rural Missouri home, finding themselves older and wiser, but devoid of dreams. Long-buried rivalries and burning secrets reignite on a late summer evening as this motley tribe struggles to adapt to the changes wrought in their lives.
About It’s Jewdy’s Show!: Following her success of 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, Judy Gold returns to the stage in this hilarious look at her amazing life through the lens of the classic sitcoms of her youth. With multi-media, original music, laughter, and love, Judy shows us how she balances family and ambition in a world in which she sometimes does not fit.
About Samuel J. And K.: In this hard-charging play, Samuel J. surprises his adopted brother, Samuel K., with a trip back to his birth country of Cameroon for college graduation—but Samuel K. has no desire to face a place and a past that abandoned him. Samuel J. and K. challenges the traditional definitions of family and asks if a place we’ve only imagined can become home overnight.
About After The Revolution: It’s 1999, and three generations of a radical leftist family meet in New York to celebrate the law school graduation of Emma, the family’s youngest torch-carrier. A public revelation about her late grandfather, a victim of the blacklist, sends Emma reeling as the family begins to fracture. Shaken and betrayed, she must weigh her fierce politics and family loyalty to decide if the ends really justify the means. Developed from scratch at WTF, After the Revolution is a play about love, family secrets, and the American Left. Following Williamstown, After the Revolution will be seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons this fall.
About The Last Goodbye: Conceived and adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by Michael Kimmel, with the music and lyrics of Jeff Buckley, arranged by Kris Kukul, an ensemble of fourteen singer/actors bring to life the lyrical beauty of two great poets set in a world of youthful angst, grandeur and grit. Fall for Romeo and Juliet all over again in this incendiary new musical.
Tickets for the 2010 Williamstown Theatre Festival season can be purchased online at www.wtfestival.org starting May 29 at Noon and by phone at (413) 597-3400 starting Tuesday, June 1 at 10:00 a.m.
Berkshire Theatre Festival’s schedule for the 2010 season, its 82nd season of theatre in Stockbridge, MA, will feature plays by William Shakespeare, Macbeth; Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; and Edward Albee, A Delicate Balance; plus two musicals, The Last Five Years, Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, and Babes in Arms, Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Book by George Oppenheimer.
Opening Nights at Berkshire Theatre Festival also are Press Nights and will take place this year on Saturdays for all performances. BTF Main Stage performances are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm, Wednesdays at 7pm, with 2pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays. Tickets range from $15 to $63.
A twist in time and a boldly contemporary score give fresh perspective to the classic boy-meets-girl tale in Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown’s bittersweet musical romance. Lovers Jamie and Cathy tell their stories in mirrored chronology- he from the beginning, she from the end. The result is an intimate chronicle of a modern relationship from the first thrilling meeting through the struggles of married life. Fueled by the energy, passion, and humor of Brown’s unique melodies, The Last Five Years is a moving portrait of two people fighting the universal struggle for love.
Terrified that his wife is bound for infidelity, an actor decides to test her loyalty by doing what he does best: putting on a character. And so begins The Guardsman, a hilarious tale of treachery, deception, and assumed identities that has inspired three separate films. The actor’s charade grows more and more complicated as he realizes that the Guardsman is a harder role to tackle than he ever could have imagined. Witty, charming, and delightfully clever, The Guardsman is packed with twists from beginning to end.
One man’s struggle with his own blind ambition sparks a firestorm of blood and betrayal in William Shakespeare’s cautionary masterpiece. Macbeth himself is an anti-hero for the ages, conflicted and complex, at once a victim and a monster. The plot is action-packed and furiously paced, racing toward a haunting conclusion. Source to some of Shakespeare’s most famous words of wisdom, Macbeth carries a message that resonates clearly beyond time and place.
Agnes and Tobias, a 50-something couple, want nothing more than to be left alone. However, they are saddled with Agnes’s alcoholic sister. When their daughter returns home as a result of her fourth divorce and their best friends seek asylum from some unnamed fear, tensions fray and every relationship in the house threatens to fall apart. An examination of the intricate web we all create among our friends and family and how easily it can all fall apart, A Delicate Balance sings with Edward Albee’s trademark lyricism and insight. This Pulitzer Prize-winning play is poignant, incisive, and funny.
Berkshire Theatre Festival has received a 2010 Access to Artistic Excellence grant of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in support of BTF’s Children’s Theatre Company production, Annie, featuring over 120 Berkshire area students and adults. Performances, on the BTF Main Stage: September 10 at 7:30pm, September 11 at 2pm and 7:30pm, September 12 at 2pm, September 17 and 18 at 7:30pm – Tickets $10-$25.
Berkshire Theatre Festival’s Unicorn Theatre performances are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm; Wednesday evening at 7pm; with 2pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays, except as noted below. Prices range from $15 to $44.
At 27,000 feet, a single rope can mean the difference between death and survival. Trapped on a ledge beyond reach of rescue, a man struggles frantically to save himself and his injured partner. With time, the elements, and faltering hope working against them, the men turn to each other in a desperate attempt to grasp their situation. K2 is a survival story with a deep emotional core, a gripping tale of two men whose lives and souls are threatened by the unforgiving mountainside around them, filled with what the New York Times calls “that tingling sensation of traveling beyond the rim of experience – of holding on to life at its highest peak.”
If there’s anyone to find humor in the world’s dying breaths, it’s Samuel Beckett. Following the success of BTF’s 2008 production of Waiting for Godot, Endgame presents an absurdist’s vision of a future where time and reason are little more than suggestions, with characters as memorable as they are miserable. And wrapped up in the hilarity, in true Beckett style, is a brutally honest commentary on life and death. Never has “The End” seemed so bizarre – or so incredibly funny.
David Chandler (Clov) has been seen on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers, Death of a Salesman, and American Clock. Previous BTF acting credits include The Einstein Project and A Man for All Seasons. Randy Harrison (Nag) is returning for his sixth season in Stockbridge. He is best known for his work on the American TV series Queer as Folk. He has been seen on Broadway in Wicked and recently appeared as Andy Warhol in the world premiere of the musical Pop! at Yale Rep. His BTF acting credits include Ghosts, Waiting for Godot, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, and Equus.
N.B. – all Friday performances for Babes in Arms are at 7pm.
The song list for this high-spirited musical reads like a Greatest Hits for writers Rodgers and Hart: The Lady Is A Tramp, My Funny Valentine, Johnny One Note. Babes in Arms, the original “let’s put on a musical” musical, tells the story of a few determined teens and their fight to keep their independence by producing their own show, turning out great song after great song along the way and inspiring the classic film starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.
Presented by the Unicorn Company, the same group that brought you Candide, The Who’s Tommy and Assassins, Babes in Arms is packed with laughs, music, and youthful exuberance – pure entertainment with a heart so big, it sings.
E. Gray Simons III is the Artistic Associate of Education at BTF. For the past fifteen years he has been acting, writing, and directing for the BTF PLAYS! program. He has also been the principle instructor for the Summer Performance Training ApprenticeProgram since 2001. His previous BTF directing credits include Peter Pan, Oliver!, and Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?
N.B. – From September 1-4: Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. There is no matinee on Thursday, September 2. There will be no performances from September 6- 29. From September 30-October 24: Thursday- Saturday at 7pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
World Premiere! An estranged couple struggles to cope with the death of their daughter in William Donnelly’s world premiere play. Edward and Rebecca have moved on since their divorce – she to a new husband and he to a series of failed relationships. However, when an unexpected tragedy brings them back together, they’re forced to navigate a web of grief and guilt that leads to tears, laughter, and, ultimately, hope. At once deeply touching and filled with humor, No Wake takes an honest look at the grieving process and the unexpected consequences it can bring.
Kyle Fabel recently directed the highly regarded production of Tranced and the critically acclaimed Fabuloso for Merrimack Repertory Theatre. A graduate of NYU’s MFA acting program, Kyle has also appeared as an actor with BTF in The Einstein Project, The Illusion, and Four Dogs and a Bone.
PO Box 797, Stockbridge, MA 01262
Box Office – 413-298-5576 ext. 33
website: BerkshireTheatre.org
e-mail: info@berkshiretheatre.org
Full-time Berkshire residents get 20% off to all season performances in the Main Stage and Unicorn Theatres; Saturday nights in the Main Stage excepted.
Children under 18 get $15 tickets to all season shows, Saturday nights excluded. Students 19-25 with valid ID receive $20 tickets to all shows, again Saturday nights excluded.
Summer in the Berkshires means that the Boston Symphony Orchestra will be in residence at Tanglewood in Lenox; many of the world’s leading dance companies will be in performance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket; the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Shakespeare and Company, Barrington Stage Company, and Chester Theatre Company will be entertaining audiences with wonderful plays; fine art exhibitions, sculpture, installations, and contemporary art displays and programs will be on view at the Clark Art Institute and Williams college Museum of Art in Williamstown, Chesterwood and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MASS MoCA in North Adams, and the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield; literary and history programs will draw fans to Herman Melville’s Arrowhead in Pittsfield and Edith Wharton’s The Mount home and gardens in Lenox.
The Berkshires’ summer entertainment schedule is augmented by concerts, films, and other performances available at these year-round venues: the Guthrie Center in Housatonic, the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield and Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Gt. Barrington. There are movie theatres in Pittsfield (Beacon Cinema), Lanesborough (Regal Cinemas), Williamstown (Images), and Gt. Barrington (Triplex).
Here are links to schedule and ticket information for concerts, plays, dance performances, exhibitions and other arts and entertainment events in the Berkshires during the 2010 summer season.