History

BSC 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.

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 order to give our audiences a wider spectrum of plays, recently BSC has committed to producing classical works as well. Cyrano de Bergerac (2004), The Importance of Being Earnest (2005) and Ring Round the Moon (2006) received major critical and audience acclaim and became the three of the most successful dramatic plays in its thirteen-year history.  

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 our Stage II 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 had its NY premiere this past spring at 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
In 2000, BSC initiated a Playwright Mentoring Project (PMP) for youth at-risk.  Each year BSC works with high school-aged youth under the guidance of an artistic mentor, a professional playwright and two peer mentors to create an entirely youth created and written show that tours local schools and community venues.  The PMP is now in three Berkshire communities: one PMP group for Latino immigrants in Lee, one in Great Barrington and three in Pittsfield, including one offered for youth on probation through the Juvenile Court system in Berkshire County.  PMP has garnered state attention as well as two segments on National Public Radio.

BSC also offers year-round drama classes, called KidsAct!, for youth 8-17 and in the summer produces a Youth Theatre production of a musical employing local teenagers, who sign a mini “Equity” contract and get paid a weekly salary. A professional creative team is brought in to work with the youth, who rehearse the show for three weeks and then perform it for five weeks.

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. This year, BSC gave away more than $25,000 worth of free and half-priced youth tickets to its critically acclaimed production of West Side Story.
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. Half-TIX makes available to the public half-priced tickets to performing arts organizations on the day-of-performance, first-come-first-served basis. Half-TIX customers also receive discounts at museums and other non-performing-arts cultural organizations. This is the first booth of its kind outside of a major city.   BSC offers Half-TIX in Pittsfield, North Adams and Chatham (NY), as well as Great Barrington.