CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM

DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER INNVAR

STARRING PJ BENJAMIN, PATRICK HUSTED, FISHER NEAL and KEVIN O’ROURKE

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!
PERFORMANCES OCTOBER 5 – OCTOBER 23 ONLY

(Pittsfield, MA– September 2016)

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, presents Mark St. Germain’s award-winning play Camping with Henry and Tom, directed by Christopher Innvar.

Camping with Henry and Tom performances begin October 5, 2016, with an opening set for October 9, 2016, running through October 23, 2016.

In 1921, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and President Warren G. Harding took a camping trip together into the Maryland woods to escape civilization; what they couldn’t escape was each other. Inspired by an actual event, Camping with Henry and Tom is an exploration of friendship, politics and leadership—a comedic and dramatic clash of two great minds and one great heart of the twentieth century.

Camping with Henry and Tom features PJ Benjamin as “Thomas Edison” (Broadway: The Wizard in Wicked), Patrick Husted as “Henry Ford” (BSC’s An Enemy of the People), Fisher Neal as “Colonel Starling” (TV’s Person of Interest), and Kevin O’Rourke as “Warren Harding” (WGN America’s Outsiders and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire).

Camping with Henry and Tom features scenic design by David Barber, costume design by Charlotte Palmerlane, lighting design by Scott Pinkney, and sound design by Brad Berridge. Renee Lutz will serve as production stage manager. Casting is by McCorkle Casting Ltd.

Mark St. Germain’s Camping with Henry and Tom premiered Off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1995 featuring John Cunningham, Ken Howard, Robert Prosky, and John Prosky, winning the Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Off Broadway Play. BSC’s Renee Lutz served as the production stage manager.

MARK ST. GERMAIN (Playwright) For BSC: Dancing Lessons, Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah, Dr. Ruth, All the Way, The Best of Enemies, Freud’s Last Session, The Collyer Brothers/Period Piece, The God Committee, and Ears on A Beatle. The Best of Enemies received its world premiere at BSC in 2011 and became the theatre’s best-selling play of all-time. Mark also wrote the play Freud’s Last Session, which became Barrington Stage Company’s longest running play and moved off-Broadway where it played for two years. Other plays include Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap, Camping with Henry and Tom (Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award) and Forgiving Typhoid Mary. With John Markus, Mark wrote the musical comedy The Fabulous Lipitones. Television credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for The Cosby Show, Life Stories and Dick Wolf’s Crime and Punishment. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, winner of an AT&T “New Plays For The Nineties Award,” both produced at the Lamb’s Theater, NYC. Jack’s Holiday was produced at Playwrights Horizons. Mark’s musical, Stand By Your Man, The Tammy Wynette Story was created for Nashville’s Ryman Theater and has toured nationally. Mark’s newest play, Relativity (starring Richard Dreyfuss) is being presented this fall at Hartford Theatreworks. According to American Theatre Magazine, Mark is one of the Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights in the 2016-17 Season.

CHRISTOPHER INNVAR (Director) is an actor and director. At BSC: Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire, Absurd Person Singular, Carousel, Private Lives, Ring Round The Moon, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Cyrano De Bergerac, The Game, His Girl Friday. Director: Sharr White’s The Other Place, Mark St. Germain’s The Collyer Brothers At Home/Period Piece, Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man, Conor McPherson’s Shining City. 2013 10X10- directed There’s No Here Here, The Wilderness, Higher Ground (Writer). New York: Porgy and Bess, The People in the Picture, 110 In the Shade, The Three Penny Opera, Les Misérables, Victor/Victoria, Atlantic Theatre Co, Lincoln Center, MTC, The Vineyard, Red Bull, The Women’s Project, Playwright’s Horizons, Transport Group. Innvar has played leading roles at regional theatres around the country including: Steppenwolf, Guthrie, Yale Rep, Wilma, McCarter, Long Wharf and D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre. TV/Film: The Following, The Good Wife, Law & Order(s), Gravity, Spin City, Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Prime, Rock The Paint.

The popular Conversations With… series continues with “Politics Then (1921) and Now: So Much Has Changed… Or Has It?,” on Sunday, October 9 at 12:30pm at (Please note new location) the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street). Moderated by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, Playwright Mark St. Germain will discuss the personalities and hubris of presidential candidates in 1921 and how history repeats itself. Free Event. Reservations suggested. Barrington Stage Box Office: (413) 236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

Camping with Henry and Tom is sponsored by Bonnie and Terry Burman and sponsored in part by The Dobbins Foundation & Richard Ziter, MD. Performances of Camping with Henry and Tom are: Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00pm,with matinees Saturday at 2:00pm and Sunday at 3:00pm. Tickets: $20 – $49. Barrington Stage Box Office: (413) 236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

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.