BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
PRESENTS
NINA RAINE’S AWARD-WINNING PLAY

TRIBES

AUGUST 18 – SEPTEMBER 3
DIRECTED BY JENN THOMPSON

(Pittsfield, MA) 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, is proud to present the regional premiere of Nina Raine’s  award-winning play, Tribes. 

Directed by Jenn Thompson (BSC’s Lost in Yonkers), Tribes begins performances August 18, 2016, opens August 21, and runs through September 3, 2016, at the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street).

Winner of the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Tribes is a funny yet moving, and always provocative play about a young man who was born deaf into an unconventional hearing family. 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. 

Tribes features Joshua Castille as “Billy,” Miles G. Jackson as “Daniel,” C. David Johnson as “Christopher,” Deirdre Madigan as “Beth,” Eli Pauley as “Sylvia,” and Justine Salata as “Ruth.”

Tribes features scenic design by John McDermott, costume design by  Tracy Christensen, lighting design by Philip S. Rosenberg, and sound design by Toby Algya.  Candace Broecker Penn and Chris Matthews are rehearsal/performance interpreters. Alexandra Wailes and Christopher Tester are ASL advisers. Renee Lutz is the production stage manager.  Casting is by McCorkle Casting Ltd. 

Tribes premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2010 and opened Off Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre March 4, 2012, winning the NY Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.

Jenn Thompson (Director) recently served as Co-Artistic Director at TACT NYC. Ms. Thompson has directed numerous Off Broadway productions including Women Without Men (2016 Drama Desk Nominee for Outstanding Director of a Play), 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award-Winner Abundance (also at Hartford Stage), and the first NYC revival of Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers with script revisions approved by Mr. Simon (2012 Drama Desk Nomination For Best Revival.) She recently directed Bye, Bye, Birdie for Goodspeed Musicals and The Call at TheaterWorks Hartford.

Nina Raine (Playwright) received the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and OBIE Award for Tribes.  Nina Raine is an English director and playwright who began her career as a director-in-training at the Royal Court Theatre after graduating from the University of Oxford. She dramaturged and directed  Unprotected at the Liverpool Everyman (TMA Best Director Award, Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award) and her debut play, Rabbit, premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2006 and transferred to the West End before going to New York. Rabbit won the Charles Wintour Evening Standard and Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. Nina also directed her second play, Tiger Country, at Hampstead Theatre. She directed Jumpy at the Royal Court Theatre, later transferring to the West End, and Shades (Critics Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Newcomer).

The popular Conversations With… series continues with ”Discussing Different Methods of Communication in Deaf Culture.,” on August 21 at 2:00pm at the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street). Noted Broadway ASL interpreter Candace Broecker Penn, Karran Larson
Pittsfield Case Manager, Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and ASL interpreter Christopher Tester CDI, will discuss lip-reading versus signing, and why the Deaf Community’s debate over communication is such a hot topic. The event will be ASL-interpreted by Trudy Gilbert. Free Event. Reservations suggested. Barrington Stage Box Office: (413) 236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.  
 

Performances of Tribes are : Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:00pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Wednesday and Friday at 2:00pm, and Sunday at 5:00pm. Please note – there is no 2:00pm performance on Friday, August 19. Tickets: $20 – $69. Barrington Stage Box Office: (413) 236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

Barrington Stage Company will offer an ASL-interpreted performance of Tribes on August 23 at 7:00pm.  The interpreters for the performance are Candace Broecker Penn, Chris Matthews and Joan Wattman.

Tribes is sponsored by Norma and Sol Kugler.

 

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 named “Best Theatre Company” in Metroland’s Best of the Capital Region 2009-2012, and was voted “Best Live Theatre” by The Berkshire Eagle readers in 2011, 2012, and 2015. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

WWW.BARRINGTONSTAGECO.ORG 

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