Performance of the Week
King Lear Boogie
written and performed by
Will LeBow
A tribute to Shakespeare and howl, howl, Howlin’ Wolf.
Click here to view the lyrics.
Will LeBow’s credits include, Broadway: Act One and Off-Broadway: Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing, Nocturne (NYTW Drama Desk Nomination). Regionally he has been in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Sonia Flew, The Rivals, The Cherry Orchard, The Corn is Green, Love's Labour's Lost (all at the Huntington Theatre in Boston); The Merchant of Venice, The Birthday Party, Full Circle, We Won't Pay We Won't Pay, Picasso At The Lapin Agile, Ubu Rock, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Uncle Vanya, Animals and Plants, Romance, Duck Variations, Marvelous Party, (American Repertory Theatre); Once in a Lifetime (American Conservatory Theatre); Glengarry Glen Ross, Twelfth Night (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Abduction From the Seraglio, Ariadne Aux Naxos, (at the Boston Lyric Opera); Porgy and Bess, (BSO); Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, (Boston Pops). Film/TV credits include What Doesn't Kill You, Next Stop Wonderland, Home Movies, Dr.Katz: Professional Therapist.
The Cherry Orchard 2020
by Carl Sprague
Our marionette theatre dates back to the 1920s, when my great-grandfather Julius Hybler began building it in his home in the little Czech town of Semily in Northern Bohemia. After Czech independence from Austria, puppet theatre enjoyed a revival in recognition of its role preserving Czech language and theatre during centuries of German domination. Small family theatres became a popular hobby, with marionette components and lithographed scenery prints available by catalogue.
During the Prague Spring of 1968, my father smuggled the theatre and a dozen marionettes through the Iron Curtain in a rented VW Beetle. Here in the US my grandmother Maria Krofta spent a year restoring the theatre before revealing it to us astonished children at Christmas. Being the eldest grandchild, I took the show over, and have been hogging it ever since. I’ve done a lot of other things in film and theatre, but they all started here.
Carl Sprague has been creating sets in the Berkshires and beyond for more than thirty years; for The Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Colonial Theatre, The Music-Theatre Group, The Oldcastle Theatre, Mixed Company, Shakespeare & Co., and The Chester Theatre. Film design: Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, and over fifty feature and television projects from The Social Network to Twelve Years a Slave. Art director for Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, concept illustrator for Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, and Grand Budapest Hotel, which won the Oscar for best production design, as did La La Land. Also, Art director for David Mamet’s State and Main. Recent film work: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Proud Mary, American Dharma, Tesla, The Good House and The French Dispatch. His sets for photographer Gregory Crewdson were featured in The New York Times.
Baker's Revenge
written and performed by
Jessica Provenz
When a modest baker finds herself at the center of international affairs, baking and mixing and whisking for the President of the United States—a man she despises—she could be compelled to take action.
Jessica Provenz is a two-time recipient of the Lecomte du Noüy Award for Emerging Playwrights. She was Playwright-in-Residence at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Christopher Durang and Marsha Norman. Her plays have been workshopped or produced around the country at Cape Cod Theatre Project, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Irish Rep and E.S.T., among others. Jessica is Director of Development at Barrington Stage, where her short play Stay, Please is part of the 2020 10x10 New Play Festival and where she has received a commission to write a full-length play. A graduate of Northwestern University, she is a member of Berkshire Voices and a contributor to Berkshire Magazine. She lives in Lenox, MA with her 8-year-old son.
The Eye of the Needle
written and performed by
Andrew Reynolds
In the remote wilderness a diabetic hiker severely fractures his leg. His husband must leave him alone to launch a daring rescue by helicopter in this memoir piece about holding focus, overcoming obstacles, and the power of love.
Andrew Reynolds is a playwright, hiker and fundraiser based in Great Barrington. His play The Memory of Mollusks was a finalist for the 2012 Eugene O'Neill Center National Playwrights Conference; Dark Hole was a 2013 NPC semi-finalist and Eucatastrophe won the 2009 Kaplan New Play Competition. More recently, many of his plays have received readings, including In Between Without You (North Shore Readers Theater 2018), The Last Days of the Contract Player (Berkshire Voices 2019) and There Are No Words (Fresh Ink Series at GBPT 2019). His short play A Departure was recorded by actors Len Cariou and Michael Urie for the national podcast Playing On Air.
Final Words
written and performed by
Michael Brady
A mémoire on famous last words that blends social observation, recollection and personal experience into poetic monologue.
Michael Brady manages Berkshire Voices, Berkshire Playwright Lab’s on-going workshop for local playwrights. His play To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday was developed by The Ensemble Studio Theatre and produced as a film by Sony Pictures. Other stage works include: Sara, Equity Library Theatre at Lincoln Center, Semper Fi, Gloucester Stage Company, Hard Time, Main Street Stage, North Adams, MA, and Two Bears Blinking, New Theatre, Miami. His plays Titles, The Season and Green Tiger Seven have been read with Berkshire Playwrights Lab and he has directed at the Radius Festivals. His play Pipeline was featured in Barrington Stage Company’s 2019 10x10 New Play Festival in Pittsfield, MA. Michael is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Meet The Deadlies
written and performed by
Anne Undeland
Another day, another opportunity to sin. In MEET THE DEADLIES, Anne Undeland gives us a woman who just can't help herself... For the purposes of the GBPT's online event, you'll only get to meet two of the Deadlies. Stay tuned for that future day when you'll meet all seven. In person.
Anne Undeland is a playwright / actor and a member of Berkshire Voices, Berkshire Playwrights Lab’s writing group and Howl Playwrights where two of her 10-minute plays, The Sisterhood and Bob Dole for President received public readings. Her short plays, The Kiss and Another Part of the Wood, were selected for BPL’s Radius Festival in 2018 and 2019; The Kiss won best play at The Writer’s Voice Ten Minute Play Festival at the West Side Y in New York in 2018, and was performed at The Road Theatre in Los Angeles and Oldcastle Theatre in Bennington, VT. Lady Randy, her full-length play about Winston Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome, was produced by WAM Theater at Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA in 2019 with Anne in the title role. [ anneundeland.com ]
OLD STRAIGHT FEMALE WHITE
written and performed by
Alexandra Angeloch
A pediatric nurse has come to that time and age in life when she must question the value of her existence in today’s milieu of identity politics.
Alexandra Angeloch, actor/playwright. Plays produced: Bottom Buddies, Sticky : Mimi Entertainment, Howl Playwrights. A Day of Wonderful, Axial Theater, San Diego Candy Shoppe, Oakwood Friends School. Making Whoopee, Plan Not 9, Spittin' Devil, Half Moon Theater, Raylene’s Fig, ASK. Readings, full length: Siren’s Whisper, Women’s Project. HERstory, Howl Playwrights. Published: A Day of Wonderful, Goddard C. Acting/Film: Night of the Living Jews (Mama Jones), Theatre: Remembering Olanna (Alex), Ancram Opera House; Good Night Pig (Doctor) Columbia Univ. Season’s Greetings (Rachel). Voice Theater, Heartbreak House (Mrs. Utterword) RTS. Emma, Apocalypse Productions. Member: Howl Playwrights: [ ahowlofplaywrights.org / alexangeloch.org ].
WomAnimal
written and performed by
Cindy L. Parrish
A woman going through Menopause Crazytown returns to her girlhood and to the earliest of mythological times when a woman could become an animal and an animal could become a women. Now it’s time for the woman to put her skin back on, and experience a wild transformation into her true Nature! This GBPT on-line event short film is a new, original take on the full one-woman multi-media performance piece, WomAnimal.
Cindy L. Parrish is a filmmaker, screenwriter, playwright and professional storyteller. Her award-winning film, Heroic Girlz screened for an invited audience at the UN Commission on the Status of Woman. WomAnimal began at the performance art house, Rites of Passage, subsequently performed at the Berkshire10x10 Festival, and Women’s Shorts. She is the Rikers Island Education Manager for American Prison Data Systems, a digital tablet company that provides free education, rehabilitation, and job skill training programs for students at Rikers Island and other jails and prisons.
Bear Tales: Six Feet Together is supported in part by grants from the following local cultural councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency:
Alford-Egremont Cultural Council
Great Barrington Cultural Council
Lee Cultural Council
Lenox Cultural Council
New Marlborough Cultural Council
Tyringham Cultural Council
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Mike Clary
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Susan B. Ades
Pulling It Together Productions, LLC
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Anastasia Bogushevsky
anastasiakristina.com