Contact: Charlie Siedenburg, BSC Press Director
551-655-0968; Charlie_siedenburg@yahoo.com
BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2013 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Joshua Bergasse, Gretchen Egolf, Jeff McCarthy and John Rando Honored
(PITTSFIELD, MA) May 1, 2013 – Barrington Stage Company (BSC), under the leadership of Julianne Boyd Artistic Director and Tristan Wilson Managing Director, announces four new Associate Artists, all who are working at Barrington Stage in 2013 – award-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse, actors Gretchen Egolf and Jeff McCarthy, and award-winning director John Rando.
Formed in 2010, the Associate Artists Program’s honorees include composer/lyricist William Finn, actor/director Christopher Innvar, playwright Mark St. Germain, music director Darren R. Cohen, actors Mark H. Dold and Debra Jo Rupp, and production stage manager Renee Lutz.
Associate Artists are integral members of the BSC theatre family who have made extraordinary contributions to the theatre. They have helped the theatre accomplish its mission, both by collaborating on top-notch work at BSC and by fostering a close relationship with the community. Associate Artists are part of the artistic team and help by suggesting plays and musicals to be produced, by developing new work on both the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage and the St. Germain Stage and by consulting with the Artistic Director on various projects, both artistic and educational.
“These four superlative artists have given Barrington Stage some of its most outstanding productions in past years. Each one will be in residence at BSC this summer and will play a major role in our 2013 season – we couldn’t be luckier!”
Choreographer Joshua Bergasse’s BSC credits include: Guys and Dolls, Carousel, World Goes Round, West Side Story, and the upcoming On the Town. Bergasse is the 2012 Emmy Award-winning choreographer of NBC’s musical drama “SMASH”, which just completed its second season. Other choreography credits include “So You Think You Can Dance” (Fox), It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman! (Encores!), The Sound of Music (Carnegie Hall), Bomb-itty of Errors, Captain Louie (off-Broadway), Fame the Musical (National tour), West Side Story (Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Fulton Theatre, North Carolina Theatre), Tarzan (North Shore Music Theatre). This summer, Bergasse will be choreographing the new musical Secondhand Lions at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle. As a performer Bergasse was seen in the Broadway/touring companies of Movin’ Out, Hairspray, The Life and West Side Story. In addition to being on the faculty of the Broadway Dance Center in NYC for over 15 years, Bergasse has been either a guest choreographer or guest faculty member at NYU, Marymount Manhattan, Kean University, Indiana University, James Madison University, Shenandoah University, and the UC Irvine satellite program.
Actress Gretchen Egolf’s BSC credits include: Going to St. Ives, Private Lives, A Picasso, and this summer’s Much Ado About Nothing. Gretchen began acting as a child in Lancaster, PA. She moved to New York to attend The Juilliard School and has been living and working in NY and LA ever since. As her television and film career began blossoming, her work in the theater, both on and off Broadway, has remained a constant. On stage, Gretchen has appeared on Broadway in Jackie (also in the West End) and Ring Round the Moon (LCT) and off-Broadway in More Lies About Jerzy (Vineyard Theater) and All this Intimacy (Second Stage), among others. Regionally, in addition to her Barrington Stage appearances, she has played Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Guthrie Theater, Rosalind in As You Like It at the Pittsburgh Public, Emma in Betrayal at the Huntington Theater, Hannah in Arcadia at ACT, and many others over the years. Her television appearances include series regular roles as Katie Vasser on “Journeyman” and Amy Dylan on “Martial Law,” to her recurring characters, Vanessa Whittaker on “Roswell” and ADA Gill on “Law & Order, SVU.” She starred opposite Brad Garrett in the Jackie Gleason biopic Gleason for CBS and opposite John Stamos in The Two Mr. Kissels for Lifetime. Gretchen studies and teaches the Michael Chekhov acting technique. She attended the Juilliard School.
Actor Jeff McCarthy’s BSC credits include: All My Sons, Sweeney Todd, Follies and Mack & Mabel, Kunstler, and this summer’s world premiere, Southern Comfort. Broadway: Chicago (Billy Flynn), The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (Grinch) Urinetown (Lockstock), The Pirate Queen (Dubdhara), Side Show (Terry), Beauty and the Beast (Beast), Smile (Big Bob), Zorba (Niko), The Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King) L.A.: Les Misérables (Javert), The Three Sisters (Vershinin), Search and Destroy (Martin), A Little Night Music (Frederick), City of Angels (Stone). Off-B’way: Southern Comfort (CAP21) Sympathetic Magic (Second Stage), Dream True (Vineyard), On the 20th Century (York). Regional: Kunstler (Hudson Stage), Fox on the Fairway (Signature Theater), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Virginia Rep), Mame (Kennedy Center), You, Nero (Berkeley Rep), The Price and The Front Page (Long Wharf), The Beggar’s Opera (Santa Fe Opera) Henry IV part1&2 (Indiana Rep) Bed and Sofa (Wilma Theater), The Misanthrope (Guthrie), Buried Child and Pantegleize (ACT, San Francisco), Henry IV (Indiana Rep.) and Sunday in the Park with George (Seattle Rep). TV: “The Good Wife”, “Schweitzer” (title role), “Letterman”, “Love Monkey,” “Star Trek: TNG” and “Voyager,” “Ed,” “Law & Order(s),” “Cheers,” “Designing Women,” “L.A. Law,” “In the Heat of the Night.” Film: Starting Out in the Evening, Consent, RoboCop 2, Eve of Destruction, Rapid Fire, and Cliffhanger. Jeff is the voice of the great Chuck Jones’ creation, Michigan J. Frog.
Award-winning director John Rando made his BSC debut in 2011 with Guys and Dolls and will direct this summer’s On the Town. John is the Tony Award and Outer Critic’s Circle Award-winning director of Urinetown, The Musical. Other Broadway credits include: A Christmas Story, The Wedding Singer, A Thousand Clowns, and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party. John recently directed Carousel at Lincoln Center for the NY Philharmonic, which was broadcast for Live at Lincoln Center on PBS. With City Center Encores!, he directed It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, On the Town, Damn Yankees, Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, Pajama Game, Do Re Mi, and Strike Up The Band. His many Off- Broadway credits include the 20th anniversary revival of David Ives’s All In The Timing at Primary Stages; the 2009 Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Musical: The Toxic Avenger. He has extensive regional credits including The Guardsman at Berkshire Theatre Festival and A Flea in her Ear at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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 workshopped, and 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. 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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