The Adams Memorial Theatre, the longtime mainstage for the nearly 50-year-old Williamstown Theatre Festival, will be no more come 2005. The space will be chopped up and reconfigured in an expansive Williams College construction project which has already begun and will conclude in 2005 with the christening of the Center for Theater and Dance.

The Adams will be divided into a new 250-seat theatre, a 200 seat studio theatre and a 40-seat dance rehearsal and performance space. Those several stages will replace the Fest's existing second space, the 96-seat Nikos Stage. Taking the place of the Adams will be a new 550-seat mainstage theatre.

Overseeing everything is the Boston-based architectural firm of William Rawn Associates. The entire project is the work of Williams College, the small, exclusive New England liberal arts college which has served as host to the Williamstown Theatre Festival since its beginning in 1956.

Already being built is a three-level parking garage which will accommodate 234 cars. It will be finished this autumn.

The WTF—arguably the leading summer theatre in America—recently began its 48th season with a revival of Where's Charley?. The line-up will continue with new plays by Alfred Uhry and Eric Bogosian. Williamstown productions often travel to New York Broadway and Off Broadway stages. Recent examples include Hedda Gabler, One Mo' Time and The Price. WTF received the 2002 Regional Theatre Tony Award.

—By Robert Simonson