English

By SANAZ TOOSSI
Directed by KNUD ADAMS
Based on the STUDIO THEATRE PRODUCTION

SEPT 27–OCT 15

Boyd-Quinson Stage
30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

Barrington Stage Company takes immense pride in bringing the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning play English, by Sanaz Toossi, to the stage. This thought-provoking production delves into the lives of four students who, while hailing from the same native language background, come together in an Iranian classroom to prepare for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) proficiency exam. Amid the unique challenge of mastering a new language, their journey unfolds against the backdrop of a single, compelling rule: “English Only!” As they navigate the complexities of language acquisition, English explores the power of communication, connection, and the shared human experience, reflecting the universal struggles and the unique nuances of embracing a new linguistic identity.

The Virginia and Harvey Kimmel Family Fund presents the 2023 Student Matinee Program

“An outstanding play. A masterfully executed look at the impossibility of translating humanity through imperfect means.” —Juan A. Ramirez, Theratrely

“A rich new play! Both contemplative and comic. The director Knud Adams gently underlines the calm, almost classical rhythms of Toossi’s writing.” —Jesse Green, The New York Times

REVIEWS

“Insightful, delicately crafted…Playwright Sanaz Toossi skillfully navigates issues that deal with cultural identity, personal identity, the value of names; language; how we speak; how we are heard and understood; accents; what it means to maintain pride in one’s cultural heritage and birthright in a world in which other cultural values – language – hold sway.”
—Berkshire Eagle

“Barrington Stage Company finishes a stellar season with its final mainstage offering, an insightful and nuanced production of English, which ran off-Broadway last year and five months ago won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama…a funny and profound consideration of the interconnections of language, culture and identity.”
—Albany Times Union

“Provocative…The cast works beautifully together, well directed by Adams…enhanced by the presence of Playwright Sanaz Toossi in an intense, emotional role…Toossi’s play succeeds in compelling us to question, listen, wonder, resist and empathize with others trying to improve their lives with language. You will leave talking.”
—Berkshire On Stage

“It is a play I urge you to see. The playwright’s work is delicate and delectable and her acting is simply super. She joins an excellent company and the result is a very winning play, beyond just the Pulitzer.”
—Berkshire Bright Focus

“Comedic and heartfelt…the quietly powerful production holds human connection close to its heart.”
—Berkshires Week

“Complex, topical and timely”
—Berkshire Fine Arts

“Relevant…a neatly balanced ensemble piece…sharpened and stimulating”
—Talkin’ Broadway

EVENTS

FREE ARTISTIC EVENTS

Aftershows

FREE Discussion with purchase of a ticket for that night’s performance.

Stick around after the show for a discussion of the play, its themes and its relation to our community; featuring select cast and creative team. Purchase your tickets by clicking the desired date below.

English — October 7 at 8:00pm | October 14 at 8:00pm

Deeper Looks

FREE DISCUSSION

Come learn more about the immigrant experience in our own backyard. This powerful panel discussion will feature an Immigration Lawyer and University of Albany law professor, an ESL tutor at Southern Berkshire Literacy Network, and an Iranian immigrant who has made her life in Pittsfield.

English — October 1 at 11am, Boyd-Quinson Stage

Beyond the Play
A Reading List Inspired by English

Recommended by and on display at

The Bookloft

63 State Rd, Great Barrington, MA
413.645.3256 | thebookloft.com

HOURS: Mon–Fri 10–6; Sat 10–5; Sun 11–4

From our friends at The Bookloft:

“These are a mix of themes and genres, intended to appeal to a wide range of readers, but all relating to a sense of self and identity in an ever-changing society, a sense of belonging.”

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

A widely acclaimed memoir of a young woman growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and her reckoning with her homeland.

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

The fictional story of Khosrou, who was born in Iran and spent two years as a refugee before immigrating to Oklahoma, based on the author’s own life.

Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

A biography of life as an Iranian immigrant in a new country with no prior knowledge of the language or culture. Explore the author’s own experience having immigrated to Southern California at age seven.

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

A Young Adult novel about a boy visiting Iran, his mother’s country, for the first time and having a hard time fitting in with his foreign relatives. Everything changes when he meets another boy who helps him connect to his Persian roots.

The Complete Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

This science fiction trilogy tells the story of a young woman, Binti, who finds herself at odds among her family and people, and among her peers at the new interspecies academy she attends. Binti deals with identity and a sense of belonging in a society she never quite feels right for.

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

Narges Kalogli (Goli) BSC Debut. Theater: English (Studio Theatre); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Country (The New School of Drama, New York); Crossroads (Roble Studio Theatre, Stanford University); Tarabnameh (Visual and Performing Arts Center, Cupertino); Metamorphoses (Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley). Multimedia Performance: Antigone Is Not Available Right Now (KW & Sophiensaele, Berlin). Film: Sokoutée. MFA in Acting, The New School of Drama; BFA in Theatre and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley; Training at American Conservatory Theatre. nargeskalogli.me

Pooya Mohseni (Roya) BSC Debut. Theater: The Sex Party (Menier Chocolate Factory, London); English (Atlantic Theater); Chonburi Hotel & The Butterfly Club (Williamstown Theater Festival); White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage); She/He/Me (National Queer Theater); Our Town (Pride Plays); Galatea (The WP Project); The Good Muslim (EST). Film and television: See You Then, Terrifier, Always Azizam, Law & Order: SVU, Big Dogs, Falling Water, Madam Secretary. Maggie Flanigan Studio. Pooyaland.com @pooyaland

Nazanin Nour (Marjan) BSC Debut. Theater: Wish You Were Here (Off Broadway); English (Studio Theatre); Othello (Vpstart Crow); Pack of Lies (The Little Theatre of Alexandria); Christmas at the Murphy’s (Lifedome Theatre). Film and television: A Thousand Little Cuts, The Last King, All Of You, Big Mouth, Madam Secretary, Criminal Minds, Political Animals. @iamnazaninnour

Babak Tafti (Omid) BSC: The North Pool, Much Ado About Nothing. Theater: Othello (Public’s Shakespeare in the Park); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Against the Hillside (EST); The Profane (Playwrights Horizons); Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova/Signature Theatre). Select television: “Bradford Luke” on the final season of Billions; Succession, Super Pumped, Legacies. He can next be seen as a lead in Joanna Arnow’s film The Feeling That the Time For Something Has Passed (TIFF). MFA Acting, Yale School of Drama.

SANAZ TOOSSI (Elham & Playwright) BSC Debut. Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning English (co-production Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible, released 2020). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (Launch commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). Toossi was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award, the 2022 recipient of The Horton Foote Award and, most recently, the 2023 recipient of the Best New American Play Obie Award. MFA NYU Tisch.

Knud Adams (Director) BSC Debut. Knud directed the world-premiere of English in a co-production with The Atlantic and Roundabout, for which he and the creative team won a special citation Obie Award, and Toossi was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Other recent productions: Primary Trust (Roundabout); English (Studio Theatre); I’m Revolting (Atlantic); Bodies They Ritual (Clubbed Thumb); The Headlands (LCT3); Paris (Atlantic). He also directed a radio play, Vapor Trail, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed by Playwrights Horizons.

Afsoon Pajoufar (Scenic Designer) BSC Debut. Afsoon is a New York-based designer of stage and environment for plays, operas and other live performances. Recent works: Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre For A New Audience); Molière’s Dom Juan (Fisher Center at Bard SummerScape); English (Studio Theatre); Lady M (HeartBeat Opera); MƆɹNIŊ[MORNING//MOURNING] (PROTOTYPE); Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience and Fisher Center at Bard); Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Paper Pianos (EMPAC); Will You Come With Me (The Play Company); ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM (New Ohio Theatre); s.i.n.s.o.f.u.s (Harvard University); The Silence (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Internationally, her work has taken her to Alte Münze (Berlin) and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). She is a member of USA829. afsoonpajoufar.com

DINA EL-AZIZ she/her (Costume Designer) BSC Debut. Theater: The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Weightless (WP theater); Disgraced (American Stage); A Distinct Society (Theaterworks, Pioneer Theater); Layalina (Goodman Theatre); English (Studio Theater); Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); When Monica Met Hillary (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co/Guthrie Theater/American Repertory Theater/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (Guthrie, Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival); One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves, Pay No Attention to The Girl (Target Margin). MFA, Design for Stage and Film, NYU Tisch. dinae.me

Masha Tsimring (Lighting Designer) BSC Debut. Theater: Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb); Unstill Life (LA Dance Project); Deepe Darknesse (Lisa Fagan/Lena Engelstein); Another Rose (Virgin Voyages); Eternal Life, Part 1 (Wilma); Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Abrons Art Center); The Appointment (Lightning Rod Special); morning/mourning (Prototype/HERE); Montag (Soho Rep); Vietgone (Guthrie); Tick, Tick… Boom! (Portland Center Stage); Der Freischütz (Wolf Trap Opera); To the Yellow House (La Jolla Playhouse). She is a proud member of USA829. mashald.com.

Kenny Neal (Sound Designer) BSC Debut. Neal is a Helen Hayes Award-winning sound designer, composer and arranger in Washington, DC. Theater: She a Gem, Digging Up Dessa ( The Kennedy Center); The Upstairs Department, Daphne’s Dive, Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes, Heisenberg, John, The Gulf (Signature Theatre); English, Straight White Men, Jumpers for Goalposts, Choir Boy (Studio Theatre); A Nice Indian Boy, Dance Nation, The Royale, Oil (Olney Theatre Center); Becoming Dr. Ruth (Theatre J/Cleveland Playhouse); The Last Match, Airness, columbinus, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Well, Floyd Collins, Old Wicked Songs, Bat Boy (1st Stage); Recent Tragic Events (Prologue Theatre); The Master and Margarita (Constellation Theatre Company); Klytemnestra (Theater Alliance); Agnes of God (Factory 449); Pramkicker, Mom Baby God (Taffety Punk).

ANA BAYAT (Cultural Consultant & Dialect Coach) BSC Debut. Ana is is a multilingual storyteller with 35 years of experience in theatre, film, voiceover, translation and language/dialect coaching worldwide. Ana’s critically acclaimed play Mimi’s Suitcase (Neda Nobari Foundation Grant in Innovative Arts, shortlisted for an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe) is the only solo show of its kind relevant to the current Woman, Life, Freedom revolution in Iran. Following training in the Stanislavski system, Ana completed higher studies in speech and dramatic arts, film, and language and linguistics in England. In addition to UK/US English and Persian, Ana is fluent in Spanish and French. Ana recently coached Glenn Close to speak Persian in Apple TV+ series Tehran, and was the dialect coach for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Atlantic Theatre and Studio Theatre’s productions of English where she was also the cultural and casting consultant. anabayat.com @theanabayat

JASON BROUILLARD he/him (Production Stage Manager) BSC: Cabaret, A Crossing, Andy Warhol in Iran, Anna in the Tropics, All of Me. Broadway: Big Fish, Spider-Man, The Best Man, Bonnie & Clyde, Baby It’s You, West Side Story, Jersey Boys, LoveMusik, Hairspray, Frog and Toad, Dance of The Vampires, The Civil War. Tours: Dear Evan Hansen, An Evening with Patti LuPone & Mandy Patinkin, John Lithgow: Stories by Heart, Ragtime. Off Broadway: Sakina’s Restaurant, If I Forget, Trip of Love, Satchmo at the Waldorf, The Cocoanuts. Carnegie Hall: Anyone Can Whistle. Many regional theater productions, including the new musical Afterwords at the 5th Avenue Theatre.

Merit Glover he/him (Assistant Stage Manager) BSC: Blues for an Alabama Sky, 10×10 2023. Theater: Stones In His Pockets, It Came From Outer Space, Tiger Style!, Marie & Rosetta (TheatreSquared); Primating, Marie & Rosetta, Million Dollar Quartet (Arkansas Repertory Theater); Sojourner, A Little Princess (Quintessence Theatre Group); Charlotte’s Web (Flat Rock Playhouse). BA Case Western Reserve University (Theatre Arts & Spanish).

McCorkle Casting: Pat McCorkle, CSA; Rebecca Weiss, CSA (Casting) 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