Barrington Stage Company (BSC) artistic director Julianne Boyd has announced the theatre company's 2000 season. Programming commences June 21 and runs concurrently on three stages, including BSC's Mainstage, Stage II and the Youth Theatre.
On July 10, BSC also brings back its occasional "Monday Night Live" series with an appearance by the Bacon Brothers. Additional Monday night shows will be announced later in the season, theatre sources said.
The schedules run as follows:
Mainstage:
BSC begins its season on the Mainstage with Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Company. Scheduled to run from June 21- July 16, Company will be helmed by Julianne Boyd with musical direction by Darren Cohen. Featuring such numbers as "Being Alive," "The Little Things You Do Together" and "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," the BSC described its production of Company as staying true to the original -- a "non linear concept musical...that helped redefine a new musical form of Broadway." Company creators Sondheim and Furth also worked together on the 1991 production of Merrily We Roll Along and again in 1995 on the (non-musical) Getting Away with Murder.
A former president of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, BSC artistic director and Company director Julianne Boyd conceived and directed the Broadway musical Eubie based on the music of Eubie Blake, which earned three Tony nominations.
A faculty member of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Company musical director Darren Cohen has worked extensively with Boyd, including such BSC productions as Mack and Mabel and an award-winning production of Cabaret.
The production team for Company comprises set designer John Coyne, lighting designer Jeff Croiter and costume designer Linda Cho.
Next at the Mainstage will be a world premiere production of Suzanne Bradbeer's Full Bloom, a poignant examination of the affect society has on a girl discomfited by approaching womanhood. Scheduled to run from July 19 - Aug. 6, Full Bloom opens officially July 22. The play was developed at the 1999 New Harmony Project by NHP artistic director James Houghton. Playwright Bradbeer's Will O' the Wisp and Lone Star Grace have been produced in New York. She plans to be in residence at BSC during rehearsals for Full Bloom.
BSC's final production on the Mainstage will be Douglas J. Cohen's musical comedy thriller, No Way to Treat a Lady. Previews for No Way to Treat a Lady begin Aug. 9. The show opens Aug. 12 and runs through Aug. 27. Cohen wrote the book, music and lyrics for the musical comedy, which is based on William Goldman's novel; there was also a film of the same name.
Another "same name" connection with this BSC production involves No Way creator Douglas J. Cohen and musical director Darren Cohen. BSC says there is no family relation involved, just a happy coincidence. Douglas J. Cohen's book, music and lyrics for No Way to Treat a Lady and The Gig have earned noteworthy honors, including the Gilman and Gonzales Falla Theatre Foundation Award and two Richard Rodgers Development Awards from the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. Cohen's Glimmerglass was recently produced at the Goodspeed Opera Company.
First produced by the York Theatre Company in New York in 1997, Cohen's No Way was subsequently staged in London. The story involves a publicity-crazed actor, a New York City cop who lives with his meddling mother, and a beautiful girl.
No Way to Treat a Lady will be directed by Rob Ruggiero, the associate artistic director at Hartford TheatreWorks whose BSC credits include Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Valley Song, Italian American Reconciliation and Spunk.
Stage II
Three shows will be staged this coming season on BSC's Stage II -- a reprise of Eric Bogosian's Suburbia, an evening of one acts entitled "Small Obsessions and Big Neuroses" and BSC's fifth annual New Works Festival.
From July 6-16, Eric Bogosian's Suburbia will be helmed by artistic director Julianne Boyd and co-director Alethea Root, a local area student. Production notes on Suburbia outline a collaboration between BSC and the Railroad Street Youth Project which was formed in response to the need for positive youth activities in the Great Barrington area. The play's cast comprises local teens and young adults ranging from ages 17-24.
Also on Stage II this season will be "Small Obsessions and Big Neuroses," an evening of one acts featuring two plays -- Christopher Durang's The Actor's Nightmare, and Luke J. Taylor's Writer's Block. These two shows run back to back, beginning with previews on Aug. 3. The show opens Aug. 6 and will be running through Aug. 20.
Both shows will be directed by BSC artistic associate Andrew Volkoff, who recently won the Theatrix Short Play Festival award for Best Direction for the second year in a row.
Christopher Durang is the author of Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Beyond Therapy, Baby With the Bathwater, Sex and Longing, and Betty's Summer Vacation. In The Actor's Nightmare, Durang conjures a manic funhouse where a man stumbles on stage only to be mistaken as an understudy.
The late Luke J. Taylor was featured in BSC's New Works Festival last year. The author of plays and fiction, Taylor's other works include Kate and Two Guys. In his play Writer's Block, he tells the story of a writer who will do anything to publish the work of a lifetime.
From Aug. 17 - 20, BSC brings back the New Works Festival for the fifth year. Committed to the development of new plays, the festival will be presented at the Consolati Performing Arts Center.
Youth Theatre
BSC's Youth Theatre production for the 2000 season will be a revival of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls, based on Damon Runyon's gangster stories. This production runs from July 12-23.
Monday Night Live Series
BSC reprises its Monday Night Series with a July 10 performances by the Bacon Brothers, the popular folk music act starring film star Kevin Bacon and his brother, Michael.
For further information contact the BSC box office at (413) 528-8888 or visit [email protected].
-- By Murdoch McBride
