WELCOME TO Great Barrington Public Theater
Home of original work, new voices, and powerful performance.
Our 2021 summer season of new works has concluded. We thank you for joining us, helping us spread the word, and we invite you to sign up for news. Please stay in touch. There’s more to come.
D O N A T E
Please consider making Great Barrington Public Theater part of your philanthropic plans this year.
We opened the season with Dad, a poignant comedy by acclaimed Berkshire playwright Mark St. Germain. It told a loving, personal story of sibling and parent rivalries, the challenges of aging, and the power of reconciliations. The cast included Berkshire favorites Mark H. Dold and Peggy Pharr Wilson, David Smilow, and Jim Frangione, who also directed.
Next up came Mr. Fullerton, a charming, sometimes risqué peek beneath the sheets of Edith Wharton’s true-life romance with a younger man. It was a whirlwind around Paris staterooms with Edith’s friend Henry James, her outspoken lady’s maid, Posy, and her secret lover Morton Fullerton.
We closed the season with The Christopher Boy’s Communion, a provocative new drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet that asks how much will a mother sacrifice to save her son from destruction. GB Public’s Artistic Director Jim Frangione directed a powerful, all-star Berkshire cast including Keira Naughton, David Adkins, Will LeBow, Diane Prusha, Monk Schane-Lydon, Nathan Hinton, and Kevin O’Rourke.
Hear David Mamet interview!
WAMC Roundtable
Where Playwrights, Actors and Directors Give Us a First Look at New Work.
Wrapping up to the 2021 summer lineup, we presented Wet Ink, a first look at future possibilities now working in the wings.
New plays often start with new stories from fiction writers like Brendan Mathews and Great Barrington Public’s dramatist Elizabeth Nelson, who gave a free afternoon reading of their new stories in the Great Barrington Public Townhall park.
We also presented a staged reading of Queen of the Sea, a new play by Michael Brady about three strangers who meet on a cruise ship for "the voyage of a lifetime”. Nothing has prepared them for what's to come.
Actor Treat Williams gave two readings of his solo play Grant: An Evening With The General, a revealing visit with the iconic Ulysses S. Grant.
Audiences also met the The Queen of Fenway Court, a play by superb writer-actress Leigh Strimbeck about the willful, unconquerable museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner.
If you haven’t already, please join GB Public’s friends list for news, important program announcements and special discounts. We’ll keep you up to date, (but not inundate you). Thank you for your continued support as we plan new productions in the months ahead.
Best to you and your loved ones,
Jim Frangione, Artistic Director
Deann Simmons Halper, Executive Director
We Present
WE PRODUCE NEW PLAYS WITH NEW VOICES AND A RICH VEIN OF BERKSHIRES TALENT.
Great Barrington Public Theater was established to create opportunities for theater artists and supporters in the Berkshires. Great Barrington Public celebrates the many excellent playwrights, actors, directors, designers, administrators and technicians in our towns and neighboring areas.
We present in Great Barrington MA, at the McConnell mainstage and the intimate Liebowitz black box theaters, in the Daniel Arts Center, on the campus of Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
We are
Berkshire Voices,
where new plays come to life.
Learn more
You Play
A STARRING ROLE
We want to make high-quality theater affordable and accessible to all our audiences. To do this, we need your support. Your contribution to Great Barrington Public Theater makes possible the work of local artists in the creation of contemporary plays. You are the magic.
Please consider supporting our mission to spotlight the exceptional artists residing around us in the Berkshires, and to make high-quality theater available and affordable to all.