About Barrington Stage Company

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), founded in 1995, is a not-for-profit professional theatre company in the Berkshires (MA), with a three-fold mission: to produce top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre, especially young people.

History

Barrington Stage Company has become the fastest growing arts venue in Berkshire County, attracting some 45,000 patrons each year, and gaining national recognition for its superior quality productions and comprehensive educational programming.

Co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, Barrington Stage has produced several award-winning plays and musicals, beginning with winning the Elliot Norton/Boston Theatre Critics Award in its very first year for The Diary of Anne Frank. In its third year, BSC won two Elliot Norton/Boston Theatre Critics Awards and four Outer Critics Awards for its smash hit production of Cabaret, which moved to Boston and played an extended run at the Hasty Pudding Theatre. Several other BSC productions, including Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Three Viewings, A View From The Roof, Ears On a Beatle, Mack and Mabel, South Pacific, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Follies and West Side Story have been named among the top ten productions of the year in many area newspapers —leading The Boston Globe to laud BSC as “one of the jewels in the state’s crown.”

In 2005 BSC presented the rarely produced Stephen Sondheim/James Goldman masterpiece Follies, which received across-the-board rave reviews from critics including The New York Times, Variety and The Boston Globe, the latter newspaper calling BSC “the premiere place in Massachusetts to produce musicals.”

In 2004, BSC developed, workshopped and premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which took Broadway by storm in 2005, capturing two Tony Awards (for Best Book and Best Featured Actor), Three Drama Desk Awards, and numerous other awards.

Commitment to New Work and the Musical Theatre Lab

In the last five years, BSC produced eight world premieres. In addition to Spelling Bee, in 2003 BSC produced The Game, a musical based on the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which starred Christopher Innvar and Tony Award-winner Sara Ramirez and was hailed by audience and critics alike; also in 2003 Ears on a Beatle by Mark St. Germain (starring Dan Lauria) opened on BSC’s Stage 2 and then moved to New York City where it ran off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre (DR 2). In 2004 BSC produced Mark St. Germain’s The God Committee, which later moved off-Broadway to the Lambs Theater. In 2005 BSC workshopped and then premiered Cusi Cram’s Fuente, starring Michael Ray Escamillo and Lucia Brawley.

BSC’s commitment to new work is perhaps best seen in the Musical Theatre Lab (MTL), overseen by Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist William Finn. MTL, created in 2006, is a place for young musical theater writers to develop their work on all levels: from staged readings to workshops to full productions. In its first two years three workshops and three world premieres were produced as well as a number of staged readings. The critically acclaimed The Burnt Part Boys (2006), written by Nathan Tysen, Chris Miller and Marianne Elder, recently received a workshop at the Vineyard Theatre. Kirsten Childs, who wrote the 2007 world premiere Funked Up Fairy Tales, continued developing her musical at the Sundance Institute in December, 2007. And Barry Wyner’s 2007 hit musical Calvin Berger is soon to receive a NY production. Lastly, the 2007 workshop of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Joe Calarco (book), Nathan Tysen (lyrics) and Chris Miller (music) will receive a full production in BSC’s 2008 MTL season.

A Permanent Home

In July 2005 BSC purchased a 1912 vaudeville theatre in downtown Pittsfield. (In its first 11 years, BSC operated from rented space at the Consolati Performing Arts Center at Mount Everett High School in Sheffield.) In January 2006 BSC began renovations on the theatre and by June, 2007, BSC opened its doors to a completely renovated 520 seat state-of-the art theatre.

Education

For information on BSC’s many educational programs, including the award-winning Playwright Mentoring Project (2007 Coming up Taller Award given by the President’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities), KidsAct!, Youth Theatre and other initiatives, please see page 35.

Audience Services

BSC has worked hard to develop a local audience by establishing a strong community relationship with residents of Berkshire County and adjoining areas. BSC believes that the foundation for developing new audiences is services. Barrington Stage has, since its inception, offered free Mainstage tickets to students 13 and younger and half-priced tickets to students 14 and older. Last year, BSC gave away more than $28,000 worth of free and half-priced youth tickets to its critically acclaimed production of West Side Story. This year BSC has begun Pay What You Can nights for those 35 and younger for each of its Mainstage and Stage 2 shows.

BSC is also very proud of having spearheaded the opening of a half-price ticket booth in Great Barrington, MA in collaboration with the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, the Berkshire Visitors Bureau and many cultural organizations throughout Berkshire County. This is the first booth of its kind outside of a major city. BSC offers ½ TIX in Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Adams and Chatham (NY).