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

Updated Casting Announcement
Barrington Stage Company presents
Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah
A World Premiere written and directed by Mark St. Germain

Joey Collins, Ted Koch and Angela Pierce star
Performances now through September 28
St. Germain Stage
at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center

(Pittsfield, MA)  Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director, and Tristan Wilson, Managing Director, presents Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah, a world premiere play written and directed by BSC Associate Artist Mark St. Germain about the friendship and rivalry between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, played by Joey Collins and Ted Koch respectively.  Due to scheduling conflicts, Lucy Owen is not able to continue with the run as scheduled and Angela Pierce joins the company in the role of Miss Evelyn Montaigne, a role she played earlier this summer at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival.

Performances for Scott and Hem began Thursday, August 15 with an official opening scheduled for Wednesday, August 21 at 7:30pm and running through Sunday, September 29 at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield.

In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, famous authors and frenemies, meet in Hollywood at the notorious Garden of Allah apartment complex. A humorous and heated exchange ensues about the cost of love, friendship and the price of being a writer.

Mark St. Germain is a BSC Associate Artist and the playwright of BSC’s 2012 hit play Dr. Ruth, All the Way (now titled Becoming Dr. Ruth), the acclaimed 2011 BSC production of The Best of Enemies, and the 2009/2010 BSC smash hit Freud’s Last Session.

Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah is produced as part of a rolling world premiere agreement between Barrington Stage Company and the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah is sponsored by Sydelle and Lee Blatt.

Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah contains strong language.

Joey Collins (F. Scott Fitzgerald) BSC debut. Broadway: The Glass Menagerie, Rock ‘n’ Roll. Off-Broadway: Vieux Carré, Bug, Antigone Project, Beasley’s Christmas Party, Gross Indencency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Regional: Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah, Captors, In a Forest Dark and Deep at Contemporary American Theatre Festival; Also Rep Theatre of St. Louis, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, A.C.T., Cape Playhouse, Merrimack Rep, The Old Globe & others. TV: Law & Order, Kidnapped. Film: Dottie’s Thanksgiving Pickle, Bittersweet.

Ted Koch (Ernest Hemingway) Broadway: The Pillowman, Death of a Salesman, Elling, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. National tours Frost/Nixon, Death of a Salesman.  Recent Off-Broadway and regional credits include: Strange Interlude (Shakespeare Theatre) Donnybrook! (Irish Rep.) God of Carnage (Pittsburgh Public) Snow Falling on Cedars (Hartford Stage) Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown Theatre) True West, (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination) Television credits include: The Americans, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl, The Sopranos, The West Wing, Law & Order, Ed. Films include: Cold Souls, Hannibal, Englishman In New York, Love to Leenya, Autumn in New York, Dinner Rush.

Angela Pierce (Miss Evelyn Montaigne) BSC debut. Broadway: The Norman Conquests, A Streetcar Named Desire.  Off-Broadway/Regional credits include: Love Goes to Press (Mint Theatre), King Lear (The Public), A Streetcar Named Desire (Intiman Theatre), Hedda Gabler (St. Clement’s Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer (Studio Arena), Soldier’s Wife (Mint Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC/Shakespeare Theatre, DC). Film credits include: “Mania Days”, “You Don’t Know Jack”, “The Uncertainty Principle”, “Able Danger”, “10th Avenue”. Television credits include: “Lie to Me”, “Private Practice”, “Law & Order”.  Graduate of the Juilliard School Drama Division.

The creative team for Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah includes David M. Barber (sets), Margaret A. McKowen (costumes), Scott Pinkney (lighting), and Jessica Paz (sound). Lori M. Doyle is production stage manager.

Mark St. Germain (Playwright/Director) At BSC: World premieres of Dr. Ruth, All The Way, The Best of Enemies, Freud’s Last Session,The God Committee, Ears on a Beatle, and Ciao! as well as the 2006 production of The Collyer Brothers at Home & Period Piece. He has also written the plays Camping with Henry and Tom and Forgiving Typhoid Mary. Mark wrote the musical comedy, The Fabulous Lipitones, with John Markus. With Randy Courts he wrote the musicals The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and Jack’s Holiday. His musical Stand by Your Man was written for Nashville’s Ryman Theater. Television includes “The Cosby Show”. Mark co-wrote the screenplay for Carroll Ballard’s film Duma and directed and produced the documentary My Dog featuring Richard Gere, Lynn Redgrave, Billy Collins and wrote the award winning children’s book, Three Cups. Mark is proud to be a Board Member and Associate Artist at BSC, a member of the HB Writer’s Lab, and honored to have his name on the Stage 2 theatre.

Performances of Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah will take place at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield.

Performances August 15 – September 1: Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 4pm (excluding August 17), Sunday at 3pm (additional matinee on Thursday, August 29 at 4pm).

Performances September 6-28: Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 4pm and Sunday at 3pm.

Press Opening: Wednesday, August 21 at 7:30pm
Tickets start at $40. Seniors: $32 all matinees. Low priced previews August 15 & 16 are $15. Youth ages 6-18, tickets $15 all performances (subject to availability).  To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Barrington Stage Box Office at 413-236-8888 or visit www.barringtonstageco.org. The Box Office is located at 30 Union Street, Pittsfield.

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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