Sponsored by Drs. Judi and Martin Bloomfield

New York Times Critic’s Pick

Chester Bailey

By JOSEPH DOUGHERTY
Starring REED BIRNEY and EPHRAIM BIRNEY
Directed by RON LAGOMARSINO

JUNE 18–JULY 9
By popular demand: performances added!

Indoors at the Boyd-Quinson Stage,
30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA

In a stateside hospital at the close of World War II, a young man recovers from catastrophic injuries. Or so the doctors have told him. But Chester Bailey denies what’s happened to him has actually happened, which is how he comes under the care of Dr. Philip Cotton. Older, wounded in his own ways, Cotton is charged with leading Chester back to reality. The journey is not what either man expected. Chester Bailey stars real-life father and son, Tony Award winner Reed Birney (The Humans, “House of Cards”) and Ephraim Birney (“Gotham,” “The Americans”), as doctor and patient.

The Washington Post hailed Chester Bailey as “a keenly observed, beautifully written tale about guilt and psychological resilience in World War II-era America, and a luminous showcase for father-son actors Reed Birney and Ephraim Birney.”

Sponsored in part by The Lese Family

“Compelling…As striking as a sucker punch, too effective to let you keep an emotional distance…Conspires to keep you eagerly tied up in its yarn.”
—The New York Times

“Too compelling to look away…theater could be poised not just for a return but a renewal.”
—The Boston Globe

“A gift for everyone, on both sides of the footlights.”
—Albany Times Union

“Sublimely nuanced, richly layered”
—The Berkshire Eagle

“All the elements — a riveting narrative, beautifully-rendered language, stellar performances, and most sensitive scenery, lighting and sound design — combine in seamless harmony. Chester Bailey is the best piece of drama I have seen anywhere — regionally, on Broadway or Off — in a long, long time, and that’s excluding the dark theater days of the pandemic.”
—Off Script with Dan Dwyer

“This is as good as theater can get and the actors, playwright and director allow us to witness and partake in it.”
—Berkshire Bright Focus

“This is an unforgettable story, brought to the stage by brilliant actors and magicians of the theater.”
—In the Spotlight

CAST

EPHRAIM BIRNEY* (Chester Bailey) is a New York City actor and writer. His screen credits include TV shows like Gotham and The Americans, as well as the indie film Sylvio, and most recently, Strawberry Mansion, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. He’s worked in theatre both Off Broadway and regionally in plays including: The Goodperson of Szechwan at The Public Theater, Admissions at Studio Theatre in Washington DC and this past March, The Sound Inside at TheaterWorks Hartford. This is his second round as Chester, previously at The Contemporary American Theater Festival. He has promised to read the script this time.

REED BIRNEY* (Dr. Philip Cotton) Broadway: The Humans (Tony Award); Casa Valentina (Tony Nomination); 1984; Gemini; Picnic. Off Broadway: Uncle Vanya (Drama Desk Nomination) Blasted (Drama Desk Nomination); Circle Mirror Transformation (OBIE, Drama Desk Awards). TV/Film — Netflix: House of Cards, The Forty Year Old Version, Lost Girls; NBC: The Blacklist; Hulu: The Handmaid’s Tale; FX: The Americans; Apple TV: Home Before Dark; HBO: High Maintenance, Titans; Blumhouse: The Hunt; Four Friends — dir. Arthur Penn; Crimewave — dir. Sam Raimi; Mass, 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Fall 2021 release. 2006 OBIE for Sustained Excellence. 2011 Drama Desk Award for Career Excellence.

CREATIVES

JOSEPH DOUGHERTY (Playwright) earned Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his play Digby produced by Manhattan Theatre Club. He wrote the libretto for the Tony-winning musical My Favorite Year presented at Lincoln Center. An Emmy and Humanitas Prize winner for his work on thirtysomething, he has written Emmy-winning movies for HBO and has contributed as a writer and director to several television series including Judging Amy, Once and Again and Pretty Little Liars. His play Chester Bailey was selected as Outstanding World Premiere Play by the TBA Awards when it was presented at A.C.T. in San Francisco.

RON LAGOMARSINO† (Director) directed the world premiere of Chester Bailey at American Conservatory Theatre (Theatre Bay Area Awards including Best Play and Best Production) and its subsequent run at Contemporary American Theatre Festival. He also directed the premieres of Alfred Jury’s Driving Miss Daisy (Drama Desk nomination) and Last Night of Ballyhoo which garnered the Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award, respectively. The two-year national tour of …Daisy (Helen Hayes nomination) starred Julie Harris and Brock Peters, and Dame Wendy Hiller led the West End cast. For his productions of …Daisy, Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild and Timothy Mason’s Only You, he won the Outer Critics Circle Award. Other premieres include works by John Patrick Shanley, Beth Henley and Jane Anderson (Ovation nomination for Looking for Normal). For Manhattan Theatre Club, he directed Joseph Dougherty’s Digby (Drama Desk nomination), and at Lincoln Center Theater, the Dougherty/Ahrens/Flaherty musical My Favorite Year. He has developed new works at NY Stage & Film, Sundance, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and Ojai Playwrights Conference. His own play Jerome was developed at NYS&F and chosen as a Finalist at the O’Neill. TV credits include several pilots including David E. Kelley’s Emmy-winning Picket Fences for which he won the Directors Guild of America Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for the homefront pilot. Episodic work spans from thirtysomething to My So-Called Life to Pretty Little Liars.

BEOWULF BORITT (Scenic Designer) BSC: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, On the Town and The Pirates of Penzance. 23 Broadway shows including: Act One (Tony Award), The Scottsboro Boys (Tony Nomination), Therese Raquin (Tony Nomination), Come from Away, Freestyle Love Supreme, The New One, A Bronx Tale, Hand to God, Sondheim on Sondheim, …Spelling Bee, LoveMusik and On the Town. Off Broadway: 100 shows including The Last Five Years, Fiddler on the Roof (in Yiddish) and Miss Julie. He has designed for NYC Ballet and Ringling Brothers Circus and around the world in England, Russia, China, Australia and Japan.

TONI-LESLIE JAMES (Costume Designer) Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet, Come From Away, August Wilson’s Jitney, Amazing Grace, Lucky Guy, The Scottsboro Boys, Finian’s Rainbow, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, King Hedley II, One Mo’ Time, The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Footloose, The Tempest, Twilight Los Angeles 1992, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Jelly’s Last Jam. Awards and nominations include three Tony Award nominations, the 2019 Drama Desk Award and five other Drama Desk nominations, two Hewes Design Awards, the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award and the Obie Award for Sustained Costume Design Excellence.

PETER KACZOROWSKI (Lighting Designer) BSC debut. Peter has designed 60 Broadway plays and musicals. He has extensive credits with resident theaters like Lincoln Center, MTC, Roundabout, The Public (both downtown and at the Delacorte), Encores!, as well as with most leading regional theatres in the US. Opera: The Met, San Francisco, Houston Grand, Santa Fe, LAMCO, Seattle. Abroad: Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera/North, Edinburgh Festival, Maggio Florence, L’Arena di Verona, La Fenice, Bonn, Lisbon. Awards: Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Dramalogue, Ovation, LA Drama Critics, Hewes. peterkaczorowski.com

BRENDAN AANES (Sound Designer) Off Broadway: Fire in Dreamland at The Public Theater, Balls with One Year Lease (Drama Desk Nomination), Wild Abandon at Irish Rep, {my lingerie play} at Rattlestick, Beep Boop at HERE. Regional: The Good Person of Szechwan and War of the Roses at Cal Shakes, Everybody at Shakespeare Theater DC, The Unfortunates, John, The Hard Problem and Chester Bailey at American Conservatory Theater, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Kansas City Rep, The Glass Menagerie and Othello at California Shakespeare Theater, The Music Man at Sharon Playhouse.

GEOFF BORONDA* (Production Stage Manager) BSC: Harry Clarke, If I Forget, Gertrude and Claudius, The Chinese Lady, Typhoid Mary. New York: Ain’t No Mo’, Mobile Unit—Romeo & Juliet and The Comedy of Errors, Buzzer, Ping Pong, The Urban Retreat, The Great Immensity, Fortress of Solitude (The Public Theater); The Undertaking and Whisper House (The Civilians); generations (Soho Rep). Regional: Moby-Dick (American Repertory Theater) Shakespeare in Love, Jazz (Baltimore Center Stage); A View from the Bridge (Center Theatre Group); Hamlet, A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Yale Repertory Theatre); Appropriate (Westport Country Playhouse). Education: MFA Stage Management from the Yale School of Drama.

MCCORKLE CASTING LTD; PAT MCCORKLE, Nathan Francis, Rebecca Weiss (Casting) (C.S.A.) Associate Artist. Casting actors for Barrington Stage for 19 years. 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 (Berkshire Press Representative) (16th Season) Associate Artist. Charlie joined the BSC family in 2005 and has represented over 130 BSC productions. His work has led to features in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, USA Today and American Theatre Magazine. His many PR credits include the Metropolitan Opera (Live in HD), Paper Mill Playhouse (1999–2004), 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 In The Wings Productions. Charlie is a 1995 Theatre/Arts Administration graduate of Wagner College on Staten Island, where he currently teaches Theatre Appreciation. Last year he was appointed Director of Alumni Relations for his alma mater, Moore Catholic High School.

THE PRESS ROOM (National Press Representatives) Broadway: Hamilton, The Book of Mormon and upcoming productions of The Brothers Size, Chasing Rainbows, Born for This, Paradise Square and Working Girl: The Musical. Recent Broadway credits: The Waverly Gallery, Three Tall Women, Farinelli and the King. Off Broadway: Gloria: A Life, Beyond Babel. Other clients include: Vineyard Theatre, The Wooster Group, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatre Row, Rosie’s Theater Kids, Hunter Theater Project, NY Classical Theatre, Southern California’s 3-D Theatricals, the award-winning web series “Indoor Boys,” actor/pianist Hershey Felder, Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata for the Shaw Festival, and Miami New Drama’s world premiere musical, A Wonderful World.

BSC does not preemptively offer content advisories, however for those who wish to be informed about potentially sensitive content, click below to learn more.

This play is recommended for ages 14 and up. However, every child has different sensitivities and parents should use their best judgment.

This play contains depictions of:

        • Sexual assault

If you have further questions, contact the box office at 413-236-8888.