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BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2016 SEASON
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
PRESTO CHANGE-O
Music by Joel Waggoner; Book and Lyrics by Eric Price
Directed by Marc Bruni
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THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
AMERICAN SON
By Christopher Demos-Brown; Directed by Julianne Boyd
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KIMBERLY AKIMBO
By Pulitzer Prize Winner David Lindsay-Abaire; Directed by Rob Ruggiero
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GILBERT & SULLIVAN’S
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Directed by John Rando; Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse
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TRIBES
By Nina Raine; Directed by Jenn Thompson
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THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER
Music and Lyrics by Joe Iconis
Book by Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams
Directed by Leah Gardiner
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CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM
By Mark St. Germain
(New York – January 11, 2016) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, announced today its 2016 season for both the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage and St. Germain Stage.
The 2016 season at BSC will include the world premieres of two new musicals – Jonathan Larson Award winning composer Joe Iconis’s Broadway Bounty Hunter and Presto Change-O, directed by Marc Bruni of Broadway’s Beautiful The Carole King Musical.
Also this summer, the Tony Award winning director John Rando and Emmy Award winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse, the team behind the acclaimed and Tony Award nominated Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN, will reunite at BSC to stage Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. Both Rando and Bergasse received 2015 Tony Award nominations for their work on ON THE TOWN, which premiered at BSC in 2014.
2016 will also bring to BSC the world premiere of American Son by award-winning playwright Christopher Demos-Brown, as well as Kimberly Akimbo by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, the acclaimed Drama Desk Award winning play Tribes by Nina Raines, and Mark St. Germain’s Camping With Henry and Tom, the recipient of both the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Lucille Lortel Award.
“Barrington Stage is thrilled that our 2016 season will feature three world premieres, two of which we commissioned (Presto Change-O and American Son) and the third written by a musical theatre team (Broadway Bounty Hunter) who have been longtime friends and collaborators of the theatre. These plays/musicals, will be joined by some of the best work of an award-winning group of playwrights,” said Artistic Director Julianne Boyd.
THE 2016 BOYD-QUINSON MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:
The World Premiere of AMERICAN SON
By Christopher Demos-Brown
Directed by Julianne Boyd
Previews begin June 17, 2016
Opens June 22, 2016
Runs Through July 9, 2016
When a recently estranged biracial couple is called into a police station after their son’s car is found, their differing views on parenting boil to the surface. This timely and thought-provoking new play tackles issues of race, bias, and culture in present-day America.
Gilbert & Sullivan’s THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Directed by John Rando (Tony Nominee, ON THE TOWN; Tony Award Winner, URINETOWN)
Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (Tony Nominee, ON THE TOWN; Emmy Award Winner, SMASH)
Previews begin July 15, 2016
Opens July 20, 2016
Runs Through August 13, 2016
Twenty-one year-old innocent Frederic, born on Leap Year, falls madly in love with Mabel, the simple but beautiful daughter of the fast talking Major General. Love isn’t easy as they find themselves surrounded by a host of raucous characters, including a band of incompetent but fun-loving pirates and a group of bumbling policemen.
TRIBES
By Drama Desk Award Winner Nina Raines
Directed by Jenn Thompson
Previews begin August 18, 2016
Opens August 21, 2016
Runs Through September 3, 2016
Billy was born deaf into a fiercely idiosyncratic and politically incorrect family. While he has adapted brilliantly to his family’s unconventional ways, they’ve never bothered to return the favor. It’s not until he meets Sylvia, a young woman on the brink of deafness, that he finally understands what it means to “speak up” for himself.
CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM
By Outer Critics Circle Award Winner Mark St. Germain
Previews begin October 5, 2016
Opens October 9, 2016
Runs Through October 23, 2016
In 1921, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and President Warren G. Harding took a camping trip together into the Maryland woods to escape civilization; what they couldn’t escape was each other. Inspired by an actual event, Camping with Henry and Tom is an exploration of friendship, politics and leadership—a comedic and dramatic clash of two great minds and one great heart of the twentieth century.
THE 2016 ST. GERMAIN STAGE PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:
The World Premiere of Presto Change-O
Music by Joel Waggoner
Book and Lyrics by Eric Price
Directed by Marc Bruni (Broadway’s Beautiful The Carole King Musical)
Previews begin May 18, 2016
Opens May 25, 2016
Runs Through June 11, 2016
This exciting new musical tells the story of three generations of magicians who find themselves under one roof for the first time in years. When the grandfather patriarch starts causing real magic to happen, they must confront their past mistakes and re-examine what it means to be a family.
Kimberly Akimbo
By Pulitzer Prize Winner David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Rob Ruggiero
Previews begin June 16, 2016
Opens June 19, 2016
Runs Through July 9, 2016
Set in the wilds of suburban New Jersey, Kimberly Akimbo is a hilarious and heartrending play about a teenager with a rare condition causing her body to age faster than normal. When she and her family flee Secaucus under dubious circumstances, Kimberly is forced to reevaluate her life while contending with a hypochondriac mother, a rarely sober father, a scam-artist aunt, her own mortality and, most terrifying of all, the possibility of first love.
The World Premiere of Broadway Bounty Hunter
Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson Award Winner Joe Iconis
Book by Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin, and Jason SweetTooth Williams
Directed by Leah Gardiner
Previews begin August 12, 2016
Opens August 19, 2016
Runs Through September 3, 2016
Inspired by the Blaxploitation movies of 1970’s (think Shaft), this exciting new musical follows 60-year-old unemployed actor Annie (“a woman of a certain age”) as she’s asked to become a bounty hunter and capture one of the most dangerous criminals alive, an ex-Broadway producer turned drug warlord. With a score rich with R&B and Funk (and a splash of 80’s Rock ‘n’ Roll), the musical follows Annie as she tries to find the inner-strength she needs to save theater itself and realize her true badass identity.
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An additional production for the St. Germain Stage will be announced shortly, along with casting, creative team and full performance schedules.
Tickets for the 2016 season go on sale March 1st.
ABOUT BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
Barrington Stage Company, a professional award-winning Equity regional theatre located in the heart of the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, MA, was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. Barrington Stage’s mission is three-fold: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways to bringing new audiences into the theatre—especially young people. Barrington Stage garnered national attention in 2004 when it premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which later transferred to Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards. In 2009/2010 Barrington Stage produced the world premiere of Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session, which later moved Off-Broadway and played for two years. St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth (which premiered at BSC as Dr. Ruth, All the Way in 2012) played Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in fall 2013. BSC’s all-time record-breaking musical, On the Town, originally presented in 2013, opened on Broadway in 2014 with BSC as a co-producer, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. Barrington Stage was voted “Best Live Theatre” by The Berkshire Eagle readers in 2011 and 2012 and was named “Best Theatre Company” in Metroland’s Best of the Capital Region 2009-2012.
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