FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BSC Press Director Charlie Siedenburg, 551-655-0968

 Barrington Stage Company’s Playwright Mentoring Project (PMP) Benefit
Brel in the Berkshires! with Amanda McBroom and George Ball
Saturday, September 22

 (PITTSFIELD, MA) – Barrington Stage Company, under the leadership of Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director, and Tristan Wilson, Managing Director, will host a Benefit for its award-winning Playwright Mentoring Project (PMP) this Saturday, September 22 with Grammy Award-winner Amanda McBroom’s Brel in the Berkshires! with George Ball and Michele Brourman at Spice Dragon  (297 North Street, Downtown Pittsfield).

The Benefit begins with a 5pm dinner (in a private home or local Pittsfield restaurant), followed by the concert at 8pm with a dessert and champagne reception at 9:30pm.  Tickets are $150 (includes dinner and concert) and $100 (concert only).  For more information on the Benefit, please contact Trevor Wise at (413) 997-6116 or twise@barringtonstageco.org.

A special guest at the Benefit is Caitlin Mayes, a sophomore at Berkshire Arts Regional Technical School, who joined Barrington Stage’s Playwright Mentoring Project in North Adams in 2011-2012 and will continue this year. An avid reader and poet, Caitlin plans to become a writer and English teacher.

About BSC Playwright Mentoring Project (PMP):
The Playwright Mentoring Project is an intensive, six-month theatre program that offers at-risk youth in Berkshire County a safe place to tell their stories, learn theatre and improvisation techniques, and develop conflict resolution skills. Participants write an original play based on their own life experiences that they perform and discuss at schools, community centers, and theatres throughout the region. This October, we will serve 80 youths throughout seven groups, including court-mandated groups in Pittsfield and North Adams.  In April 2012, the PMP year-end presentation was performed for more than 1500 audience members.  The Playwright Mentoring Project is the winner of the nationally renowned “Coming Up Taller Award” presented at the White House in 2007.

Barrington Stage’s Education Committee includes Reba Evenchik (Co-Chair, Benefit Committee), Sheila Richman (Chair, Education Committee and Co-Chair, Benefit Committee), Jonathan Ball, Audrey Friedner, Augusta Leibowitz, Amy Mann, Dalija Merritt, Heather Nolin, Phyllis Sandrew, Carole Siegel, Judy Stolzberg, Rose Ann Sturgeon, Bob Youdelman, Frank La Frazia (Director, Playwright Mentoring Project), and Hester Kamin (Director of Education).

For more information on BSC’s Playwright Mentoring Project, contact program director Frank LaFrazia at 413-997-6117 or flafrazia@barringtonstageco.org.

#     #     #