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EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND!
BSC’s 2023 10×10 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL
10 TEN-MINUTE PLAYS x 10 PLAYWRIGHTS = 100 MINUTES OF PURE JOY
February 16 – March 12
St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center
36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA
TITLES & PLAYWRIGHTS
Right Field of Dreams
By Stephen Kaplan
Directed by Alan Paul
Ten-year-old Tim would much rather be watching Damn Yankees than playing right field in his Little League game.
A Date
By Diana Metzger
Directed by Alan Paul
Two 20-somethings, in a post-pandemic society, attempt a face-to-face first date, with some outside assistance.
Anything You Want
By Arlene Jaffe
Directed by Matthew Penn
A college kid needs to take a celebrity photo to graduate. Problem is, she’s in the middle of a blizzard in the middle of the Berkshires. The solution? The prolific man who illustrated Americana.
Gimme Shelter
By Robert Weibezahl
Directed by Alan Paul
An unconventional septuagenarian and a 20-something with an uncertain future forge an unexpected connection at a retirement village’s bus stop.
Real Magic
By Brent Askari
Directed by Matthew Penn
Magician Carl has a bad gig at a children’s party as well as an encounter from his past.
The Moon is Full of It
By Jim Moss
Directed by Matthew Penn
The King’s jester attempts to woo the King’s chief scientist.
If I Go First
By Michael Brady
Directed by Matthew Penn
Harry and Lizzy have lived a good life together. But Lizzy is sick and in pain, and wants to exit on her own terms. It’s time to have The Talk.
Piece of Cake
By Allie Costa
Directed by Alan Paul
Baking is the family business, but it’s not that easy — especially when you’ve got big shoes to fill.
The Haunting Package
By Deirdre Girard
Directed by Matthew Penn
Bethany is delighted with her surprise anniversary weekend — until the hotel room seems to have a mind of its own…
All Aboard!
By Michael Burgan
Directed by Alan Paul
While taking a train home to attend a memorial service for his father, Neal’s trip turns into an unexpected physics lesson, with some unexpected people along for the ride.
“Funny, smart, engaging”
—Albany Times Union
“Enjoyable, relatable, entertaining, and thought provoking”
—Broadway World
“Engaging, resourceful, wonderfully-balanced”
—Berkshire Eagle
“A charmer packed with compelling performances in intriguing situations and never less than entertaining from start to finish.”
—Nippertown
“A regional hit for over a decade…always #1 on my ‘must-see’ list…a superb theatre experience.”
—Pioneer Valley Radio
“Sparkling…quick and winsome”
—Talkin’ Broadway
“Laughs galore…If you want to be entertained and uplifted see 10×10!”
—Berkshire On Stage
“Moments remain magically, indelibly implanted”
—Berkshire Edge
“With solid acting, sensitive directing, and simple, serviceable set and lighting design, I give it a perfect ten.”
—Splash Magazine
“An enjoyable experience worth attending”
—Saratogian
CAST
SKYLER GALLUN* Off Broadway and New York theatre: A Raisin in the Sun (The Public), Richard III (The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park); Terezin (Playwrights Horizons); Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in Bryant Park); Henry VI: Part III, Twelfth Night, Cymbeline (Shakespeare in the Parking Lot). Regional: Lord of the Flies (Denver Center), Macbeth (dir. Robert O’Hara, Denver Center). Film: Ray Donovan: The Movie, Souvenirs. TV: Ray Donovan, Dickinson. NYU BFA.
SKY MARIE* is a little district with a big voice hailing from Washington, D.C. Since Sky can remember, the performing arts have had her heart. This fiery interest led her to attend Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., then attended Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her theatre credits include Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Senica/The Bishop in Men on Boats. Sky also happily played Cleopatra/Iris in Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London through Rutgers Theater Company. This year’s 10×10 will be her Barrington Stage debut.
MATT NEELY* is delighted to return to Barrington Stage! At BSC: 10×10 (10th year!), The Crucible. Off Broadway: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Hospital. Off-Off Broadway: The Trial, The Heart of a Dog, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck), The Furies, Twelfth Night (Sebastian), Sex and Other Collisions, Spare Change, Marriage, Unreal City. When not acting, Matt is a Financial Advisor at Inspire Confidence Group in Williamstown, MA and teaches yoga. MFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University and The Moscow Art Theater, BS in Theater from Skidmore College. Love to Margo, Allie and Tommy!
CAMILLE UPSHAW* is a proud Detroit native, NYC-based actress, entrepreneur, teaching artist and mentor. She made her Broadway Debut in the production of Chicken & Biscuits at Circle in the Square Theatre. She was also nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actress Award by the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation for her performance in Letters in the Dirt. TV/Film: Sundance Film Festival (Still Here), CBS (Blue Bloods), HBO Max (That Damn Michael Che), OXYGN (Monster Preacher) BFA: SUNY Purchase College. IG: @cmillieee
PEGGY PHARR WILSON* Associate Artist. BSC: Boca, America v 2.1, Gaslight, His Girl Friday, Guys and Dolls, The Crucible, To Kill A Mockingbird, Carousel, The Laramie Project: Epilogue, 10×10 Festival (’12–‘23, all 12 years!). Great Barrington Public: Dad, Public Speaking 101. BAT: Doubt: Shakes & Co: Leap Year. New York: Six Women with Brain Death (co-author, performed in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City). Regional: 10 seasons with Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado performing over 50 roles, including Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (best actress Ovation Award—Denver Post), Shirley Valentine, Moon for the Misbegotten and Three Viewings. Many regional including: Dallas Theatre Center, Theatre 3, Kansas City Rep, Unicorn, KC Lyric Opera, White River in Vermont and Rose Theatre in Chicago.
ROBERT ZUKERMAN* BSC: Boca, If I Forget, His Girl Friday, The Crucible, Ring Round the Moon, The Importance of Being Earnest, Thief River, The Collyer Brothers at Home, and seven previous 10x10s. He’s done two dozen plays Off Broadway at Irish Rep, the Atlantic, CSC, the Pearl, Theatre for a New Audience, etc. Regional credits include Arena Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Florida Rep, Gable Stage. He’s performed in radio (Coriolanus for WBAI-FM in NYC), television (Renaissance Gardening for Rhode Island PBS), and film (In Bed With Ulysses), toured for the USO (USAF bases in Greenland), narrated for the Library of Congress, and served as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts.
PLAYWRIGHTS
BRENT ASKARI (Real Magic) BSC: Andy Warhol In Iran (commissioned by BSC), American Underground (Burman New Play Award Recipient), Protecting the Innocent (10×10 2021). The Berkshire Theatre Critics Association awarded Andy Warhol In Iran a “Berkie” for Best New Play of the 2022 season, and Northlight Stage in the Chicago area is producing the play in early 2023. Brent is also the winner of the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Theater for his play The Refugees. Brent has had other work developed and produced at venues including Geva Theatre Center, the PlayPenn Conference, Gulfshore Playhouse, Florida Rep, Melrose Theater and Palm Beach Dramaworks.
MICHAEL BRADY (If I Go First) BSC: Pipeline (10×10 2019). Also with BSC, served as playwright mentor for the Playwright Mentoring Project. Michael is an Associate Artist with Great Barrington Public Theatre where he manages Berkshire Voices, a workshop for local playwrights. Other plays include To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, developed by Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City and produced as a film by Sony Pictures; Sara, Equity Library Theatre at Lincoln Center; Semper Fi, Gloucester Stage Company; Hard Time, Main Street Stage, North Adams; Two Bears Blinking, New Theatre, Miami. Member of the Dramatists Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
MICHAEL BURGAN (All Aboard!), a freelance writer, has written more than 300 books for children and young adults. He studied playwriting at Emerson College and took classes at Chicago Dramatists. Credits include: Alternate selection, 1999 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival (GIGO); Appetite Theatre 2005 Bruschetta Festival, Chicago (Bob’s Head and Toys in the Attic); Theatres Against War 2005 Freedom Follies, New York (Truth, Justice, and…); 2011 Boston Theater Marathon (Mirror Touch); Connecticut Heritage Productions 2011 New Stories on Stage (Rosary Peas); 2018 Benchwarmers, Santa Fe Playhouse (One More Coffee). He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
ALLIE COSTA (Piece of Cake) is an actor, writer, director and singer working in film, TV, theatre and voiceover. Her acting credits include Spring Awakening, 90210, You Me & Her, Future Shock and Alien vs. Musical. She’s also appeared in commercials and podcasts, narrated audio books and documentaries, and lent her voice to video games and animated projects. Her work has been produced internationally, including the critically acclaimed Two Girls, Don’t Shoot the Messenger Pigeon, Music of the Mind, Boxes Are Magic and Can You Keep a Secret? She’s currently working on an original episodic series. Occasionally, she sleeps. alliecosta.com
DEIRDRE GIRARD (The Haunting Package) BSC: Are You One Of Those Robots? (10×10 2020). Deirdre Girard received her Playwriting MFA from Boston University. She’s had dozens of award-winning short plays produced worldwide, and several full-length productions. Her work has been published by Applause Books, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press and Heuer Publishing. Most recently, her collection Women at the Center was published, a monologue from In This House was selected for The Best Female Monologues of 2022 by Smith & Kraus, she won Best of Show for Soulmate and she completed a new collection of short horror plays. Deirdre is a playwriting instructor, a member of the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre Advisory Council, an editor for Stage Source’s NPA Newsletter and a founding member of the Newburyport Arts Collective.
ARLENE JAFFE (Anything You Want) Born in Pittsfield, blossomed in New York, her first written monologue (at age five) was from an indignant monkey in space. She’s progressed, with full-length plays and one-acts like: Anonymous: Who wrote Frankenstein? Search and Rescue: FEMA dogs at the World Trade Center. Surrounded: developed in BMI’s Musical Theater Workshop. The Rock Eater: Howard Hughes, demystified. North Bend: What led to the Newtown tragedy? Rita Shalimar: An actress has big talent, big body issues. ElliEli: White hot pain, deep black comedy. Iriomote: Plight of an endangered species. Emigrant: Building with a soul. The Keys: Reverse cyborgs are human? After Mr. Mona Lisa (her published book of historical fiction) is Arlene’s just-completed prequel, Francesco Before.
STEPHEN KAPLAN (Right Field of Dreams) BSC: For Unto Us (10×10 2015). Recent productions include a NNPN Rolling World Premiere of Tracy Jones (Winner: Chameleon Theatre; Finalist: B Street New Comedies Festival, ScreenCraft Stage Play Contest, Trustus Playwrights Festival). Currently under development: Un Hombre: A Golem Story (Finalist: Jewish Plays Project, Wild Imaginings Epiphanies, Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival). Other plays have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and regionally around the country. He is a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and his plays have also been finalists for Seven Devils and the Woodward/Newman Award and semi-finalists for PlayPenn and FutureFest. For more information visit bystephenkaplan.com.
DIANA METZGER (A Date) is a playwright, screenwriter, essayist, theatre critic and creative writer from Silver Spring, Maryland. Diana has been a teaching artist with Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre Company, and Art Stream. Round House commissioned and produced Diana’s play Beach Week with their teen performance company. Diana wrote for the MTV scripted series Faking It and worked on the ABC Family show Greek. Diana was a finalist for the Humanitas New Voices writing award two years in a row for both comedy and drama writing. Diana received her MFA in Creative Writing at American University and her BS in Communication (Theatre Major with a certificate in Creative Writing for the Media) from Northwestern University.
JIM MOSS (The Moon is Full of It) has authored seven full-length plays and over a hundred one-acts. His work has been produced in theatres in London, Chicago, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, San Diego, Seattle and numerous New York Off Broadway venues, including: La MaMa Galleria, the American Globe and Manhattan Repertory Theatre. In 2018, his play Tagged won three contests: First place in Theatre Odyssey’s One-Act Play Festival in Sarasota, Best Lab Works Production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival and the British Theatre Challenge in London. In 2022 his play Beyond the Summer of Love was the full-length winner of the Tampa Theatre Festival.
ROBERT WEIBEZAHL (Gimme Shelter) BSC: Gown (10×10 2022). Robert is delighted to have a play chosen for BSC’s 10×10 Festival for the second consecutive year. His plays have been performed live and virtually in New York, California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, Indiana and Australia. Playwriting honors include Winner of the Quarantine Playwriting Competition at the Grand Theatre, Cartersville, Georgia (2020); finalist at Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest (2019); selection for the William Inge Theatre Festival New Play Lab (2022) and the Palisades Playwrights Festival (2018, 2019). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild. robertweibezahl.wordpress.com
CREATIVES
ALAN PAUL (Director) spent 15 seasons at the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he served as Associate Artistic Director. His shows at STC bridged the gap between classical and popular culture. His productions of Camelot, Kiss Me, Kate and Man of La Mancha are the theatre’s #2, #3 and #4 highest-selling shows, and Camelot won the Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical. Alan has received acclaim for his bold interpretations of Shakespeare, including a modern-dress Romeo and Juliet and The Comedy of Errors set in 1960s Greece. Alan directed the film of Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here, which was a New York Times Critics Pick. Alan is particularly dedicated to new work and has spent much of his career developing new plays and musicals. At STC, Alan commissioned Lauren Gunderson to write a feminist reimagining of Peter Pan and Wendy which premiered in 2019. He recently directed Our Town with a new score by Michael John LaChiusa. Other STC productions include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Boys From Syracuse, The Winter’s Tale and Twelfth Night. Alan has directed productions at theatres across the country including Kiss Me, Kate at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and The King and I at Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre, for which he was nominated for a Jeff Award for Best Director. In Washington, Alan has directed at the city’s top theatres, including The Pajama Game at Arena Stage, Cabaret at Olney Theatre Center, Spring Awakening at Round House Theatre, The Rocky Horror Show and Silence! The Musical at Studio Theatre, and I Am My Own Wife at Signature Theatre.
MATTHEW PENN (Director) BSC: 10×10 2017–22, Judgment Day, Typhoid Mary. Penn most recently directed The Sweet Taste of Freedom, a film shot entirely in the Berkshires. The film won Best Drama at the New York Shorts International Film Festival. To date the film has played in 14 festivals in 4 different countries. Penn is an Emmy-nominated director and has directed and/or produced over 200 hour-long dramatic television shows. He has worked for every major network as well as Netflix and HBO. He began his television career at Law & Order where he earned an Emmy nomination for directing the show’s 200th episode and became the show’s Executive Producer. Penn’s TV credits include iconic series like: The Sopranos, Law & Order and NYPD Blue as well as Queen of the South (Co-Executive Producer/Director) Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods, Damages, Royal Pains, The Mist, Secrets and Lies. On stage Penn directed Jane Anderson’s Mother of the Maid at New York’s Public Theater starring Glenn Close. Berkshire theatre audiences also know Penn from his work at many of the region’s most significant theatres: Shakespeare & Co.: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike. BTG: The Actor’s Nightmare and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You. Penn was a Co-Artistic Director of Berkshire Playwrights Lab for 13 seasons.
MARCUS KEARNS (Scenic Designer) is a Johannes Factotum of Theatre. He has spent the 2010s splitting his time between the Berkshires and NYC where he was staying busy as a props carpenter for Broadway, production manager for everything from Redbull to Rihanna, and performing whenever he had the chance. He settled in Brooklyn and was working as the Associate Production Manager of Theater and Media for BRIC Arts Media, where he supported the voices of local artists in Brooklyn. He moved back to the Berkshires in 2021 and made his onstage return debut in Mr. Fullerton with The Great Barrington Public Theater before settling in as the Associate Production Manager for Barrington Stage Company.
PEGGY WALSH (Costume Designer) has spent most of her career performing and designing for Musical Theatre. Favorite design projects are Children of Eden, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Angels in America and The Pirates of Penzance. For the last 12 years, she has been working with high school students for Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival. She has costumed in high schools throughout the Berkshires including Taconic, Monument Mountain, Springfield Central, Waldorf, Mount Everett, Chatham and Pittsfield High School. She also designs for Pittsfield’s Shakespeare in the Park project. The 10×10 project marks her first time designing for Barrington Stage.
LUCAS PAWELSKI (Lighting Designer) BSC: 10×10 2020–21, Holiday Getaway, Love Letters. Lucas is a local lighting designer best known for his work at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield as the Staff Lighting Designer from 2016 to 2019 and currently for his designs at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington where he serves as the Production Manager and the Resident Lighting Designer. Other design credits include the lighting design of Ghostlit Theatre’s Production of The Tempest and The Fabulous Invalid’s Production of Call Fosse at the Minskoff.
ERIC SHIMELONIS (Sound Designer) BSC: Time Flies and Other Comedies, Black Sheep. Eric has designed and composed for hundreds of plays in NYC and DC, with numerous Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel and Helen Hayes nominations and awards. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and Tanglewood, and he has received critical acclaim for his score in the film International Falls. With his wife, Rebecca Sheir, Eric produces and composes music for the children’s storytelling podcast Circle Round, which has listeners in more than 160 countries. shimelonis.com
HOPE ROSE KELLY* (Production Stage Manager) This is a BSC debut for this Berkshires-based Stage Manager. Theatres worked at include Hartford Stage Company, Shakespeare & Company, WAM Theatre, American Stage Company, Montana Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Public Theatre in Maine, Stonington Opera House, McCarter Theatre, Wilma Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Hangar Theatre, CLOC. Member of Actors’ Equity Association and Stage Managers’ Association: serving as Editor-in-Chief on the Board, Chair of the International Cohort.
MERIT GLOVER* (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be working on his first show at Barrington Stage. Recent credits include Stones in His Pockets, It Came From Outer Space, Tiger Style! and Marie and Rosetta (Stage Manager, TheatreSquared), Legally Blonde, Little Shop of Horrors (Assistant Stage Manager, Saugatuck Center for the Arts), Primating, Marie and Rosetta (Stage Manager, Arkansas Repertory Theatre). Originally from the Berkshires, Merit is a graduate of Berkshire School, and holds a degree in Theatre Arts and Spanish from Case Western Reserve University.
McCorkle Casting: Pat McCorkle, CSA; Rebecca Weiss, CSA (Casting) (C.S.A.) Casting actors for Barrington Stage for 21 years. Pat McCorkle is pleased to be an Associate Artist at BSC. Broadway: Over 50 productions including On the Town, Amazing Grace, End of the Rainbow, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, She Loves Me, A Few Good Men. Off Broadway: highlights — Clever Little Lies; Sheer Madness; Tribes; Our Town (Barrow Street); Freud’s Last Session; Toxic Avenger; Almost, Maine; Driving Miss Daisy. Feature film: Premium Rush, Ghost Town, The Thomas Crown Affair, Die Hard with a Vengeance, School Ties, etc. Television: Twisted, St. George, Sesame Street, Hack, Californication, Max Bickford, Chappelle’s Show, Strangers with Candy, Barbershop, etc. mccorklecasting.com
CHARLIE SIEDENBURG (Berkshires Press Representative) (Associate Artist, 19th Season) joined the BSC family in 2005 and has represented over 150 BSC productions. His work has led to features in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Associated Press and American Theatre Magazine. His many PR credits include the Metropolitan Opera (Live in HD), Paper Mill Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, Surflight Theatre and Two River Theater Company. He serves as Press Rep for Wagner College Theatre, The Minty Awards, Ghostlight Productions and Forestburgh Playhouse. Charlie is a 1995 Theatre/Arts Administration graduate of Wagner College on Staten Island, where he currently teaches Theatre Appreciation. In 2021, he received a Berkshire Theatre Critics Association Special Award for Exceptional Support of Arts Journalism in the Berkshires.
THE PRESS ROOM (National Press Representatives) Broadway: Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Prima Facie, Room. Off-Broadway: Blue Man Group, Death Drop, The Fears. Upcoming: Female Troubles, Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical, A Wonderful World. Recent credits: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Paradise Square, The Waverly Gallery, Three Tall Women, Farinelli and the King. Clients include: The Acting Company, Drama Book Shop, Hershey Felder, Hunter Theater Project, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, New York Classical Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Rosie’s Theater Kids, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatre Row, Vineyard Theatre, The Wooster Group.