The Berkshire Theatre Festival (now Berkshire THeatre Group) has developed a tradition of being dedicated to its writers and directors. But it is a close-knit family of actors too, a creative home to many familiar faces and local favorites.

2012 is no exception.

With a mixture of Berkshire Theatre Group alumni, newcomers, up and coming talent and seasoned professionals, this company of actors is guaranteed to bring each of their roles vibrantly to life and provide audiences with a summer of magnificent theatre.

Artistic Director/CEO Kate Maguire comments, “A remarkable group of artists is assembling to present great work on our stages this summer. Actors, designers and directors will re-create powerful and wonderful plays such as A Chorus Line, A Thousand Clowns, A Class Act and The Puppetmaster of Lodz; and they will introduce new and exciting work by Kelly Masterson (Edith), David Epstein (Brace Yourself) and William Donnelly (Homestead Crossing). Our growing company of alumni talent is pleased to welcome newcomers and emerging artists that will continue to develop high quality work which has established the festival’s reputation as one of the best in the country.”

A Chorus Line

conceived and originally directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett
book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante
music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban (Pulitzer and Tony winner for A Chorus Line)
co-choreographed by Bob Avian
original Broadway production produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp, Producer, in association with Plum Productions, Inc.
directed by Eric Hill (17 years at BTG)
choreographed by Gerry McIntyre (BTG: The Who’s Tommy, My Fair Lady; Robby and Logue awards winner for Once On This Island; Broadway: Anything Goes, Once On This Island, Chicago)
musical direction by Steven Freeman (BTG: Side By Side By Sondheim; Broadway: Billy Elliot, Chicago, Damn Yankees, Grease)

Judy: Sara Andreas
Val: Ashley Arcement
Cassie: Nili Bassman (Broadway: Curtains, Never Gonna Dance, Chicago)
Mike: Matthew Bauman
Mark: Giovanni Bonaventura
Diana: Natalie Caruncho
Connie: Alex Chester
Greg: Chris Chianesi (BTG: The Who’s Tommy)
Don: Warren Curtis
Paul: Eddie Gutierrez
Bobby: Andrew Hodge
Larry: Bryan Thomas Hunt
Bebe: Julianne Katz
Al: Tim McGarrigal
Zach: Noah Racey (Broadway: Curtains, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Follies)
Richie: Neil Totton
Kristine: Margaret Wild (BTG: Former Acting Apprentice, The Who’s Tommy)
Maggie: Karley Willocks
Sheila: Dana Winkle (Regional: Walnut St. Theatre’s Aspects of Love, Paper Mill Playhouse’s Curtains)

A Thousand Clowns

by Herb Gardner
directed by Kyle Fabel

Albert Amundson: James Barry (BTG: The Who’s Tommy, The Einstein Project; Broadway: Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson)
Leo Herman: Jordan Gelber (BTG: Camelot; Broadway: All My Sons, Avenue Q)
Sandra Markowitz: Rachel Bay Jones (BTG: Sylvia; Broadway: Hair, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Arnold Burns: Andrew Polk (Artistic Director at The Cape Cod Theatre Project ’95-’08; ’07 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for The Accomplices)
Nick Burns: Russell Posner (NYC: The Actors Company Theatre’s Lost in Yonkers)
Murray Burns: CJ Wilson (BTG: Period of Adjustment, Macbeth; Broadway and NY: Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Signature Theatre’s The Lady from Dubuque)

Edith

by Kelly Masterson (Film: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
directed by Michael Sexton

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson: Jayne Atkinson (BTG: The Guardsman, Candida; Broadway: Blithe Spirit; Tony Award nominations for Enchanted April and The Rainmaker)
Thomas Marshall: Dan Butler (TV: Frasier, Roseanne; Broadway: Twentieth Century)
Woodrow Wilson: Jack Gilpin (Broadway: The Elephant Man, Getting and Spending)
Henry Cabot Lodge: Walter Hudson (BTG: Sylvia; Broadway: Welcome to the Club)
Cary Grayson: Stephen Skybell (Broadway: Pal Joey, Wicked)
Margaret Wilson: Samantha Soule (BTG: Candida; Broadway: The Philanthropist, Corom Boy)

Brace Yourself

by David Epstein
directed by James Naughton

Sunny: Jill Eikenberry (TV: L.A. Law; Broadway: Onward Victoria, Moonchildren)
Jeanette/Aunt Sarah: Jackie Hoffman (Broadway: The Addams Family, Xanadu, Hairspray)
Nina: Keira Naughton (BTG: Birthday Boy, Macbeth; Broadway: The Rivals, Dance of Death)
Andy: David Ross (Off-Broadway: Spin, Vengeance)
Kitty: Wrenn Schmidt (Off-Broadway: Beyond the Horizon, Temporal Powers)
Milt: Michael Tucker (TV: L.A. Law; Broadway: The Goodbye People, Moonchildren)

The Puppetmaster of Lodz

by Gilles Segál
translated by Sara O’Connor
directed by Brian Roff
puppets designed by Emily DeCola

Finkelbaum: Joby Earle (Broadway: War Horse)
The Concierge: Julia Gibson (Broadway: Stanley; Off-Broadway: Miss Julie)
Schwartzkopf: Jesse Hinson (BTG: Moonchildren, Macbeth)
Popov/Spencer/Weissfeld/Weissmann: Lee Sellars (Broadway: West Side Story, Talk Radio)

A Class Act

music and lyrics by Edward Kleban
book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price
originally directed on Broadway by Lonny Price
A Class Act was originally produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and previously developed by Musical Theatre Works
directed by Robert Moss
musical direction by Mark Gionfriddo

Lucy: Rachael Balcanoff (BTG: Former Acting Apprentice)
Ed Kleban: Ross Baum
Mona: Marie Eife
Charley, Marvin Hamlisch, Dr. Nodine, Jean-Claude Chevray: Brian Scannell (BTG: Former Acting Apprentice)
Bobby, Michael Bennett: Eddie Shields (BTG: A Christmas Carol)
Lehman Engel: Robbie Simpson
Felicia Lipshitz: Tessa Hope Slovis (BTG: Former Acting Apprentice)
Sophie: Anya Whelan-Smith (BTG: Former Apprentice)

Homestead Crossing

by William Donnelly (BTG: No Wake)
directed by Kyle Fabel
Produced in partnership with Merrimack Repertory Theatre of Lowell, MA and Portland Stage Company of Portland, ME

Noel: David Adkins (BTG: Sylvia, No Wake, Ghosts; Broadway: Next Fall, Saint Joan)
Tobin: Ross Cowan
Anne: Corinna May (Broadway Tour: The Graduate)
Claudia: Lesley Shires

Directors and Playwrights:

William Donnelly (Homestead Crossing Playwright) served as resident playwright for the Massachusetts-based Industrial Theatre from 1997 to 2008. His plays have been produced by the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Portland Stage Company, The Active Theatre Company, Act II Playhouse, The Public Theatre (Lewiston, ME), Unicorn Theatre, Theater Alliance, Mad Cat, Sacred Fools Theatre, Mill 6 Collaborative, and Rough & Tumble among others. A number of his short plays have appeared as part of the annual Boston Theatre Marathon. In 2005, he was awarded a Playwriting/New Theatre Works grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He has twice been named a Clauder Competition Finalist. Magnetic North was awarded the grand prize in 2006. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

David Epstein (Brace Yourself Playwright) David Epstein’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway, in Europe and at regional theatres across the US including, South Coast Rep, Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. Symphony Space recently produced his play, Surface To Air, in New York, directed by Jim Naughton. Exact Change was seen at the Lyric Hammersmith during a critically acclaimed run in London. He wrote the books and collaborated on the lyrics for the Off-Broadway musicals Wanted and The Bonus Army with the late Rev. Al Carmines. (A new production of The Bonus Army is scheduled this autumn at the Judson Poets’ Theatre, in New York.) He wrote the screenplay for Palookaville, produced by Red Wave Films, an award winner at the Venice Film Festival. He has written for the major film studios, and has been produced numerous times by network TV and PBS. Mr. Epstein, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, was Artist-in-Residence at Colgate University for a number of years.

Kyle Fabel (A Thousand Clowns and Homestead Crossing Director) Berkshire Theatre Festival Director: No Wake (2010). BTF Actor: The Einstein Project, Four Dogs and a Bone, The Illusion & Keely and Du. Other Directing credits: Fabuloso, Tranced, The Four of Us, Trying (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); The Last 5 Years (Playhouse on Park); Rich Hall’s Campfire Stories (Edinburgh); Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business, The Suicide, Enrico IV & The Ruffian on the Stair (NYU Graduate Acting Program). Other actor credits: Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention (Broadway); A Free Man of Color (LCT). Addt’l New York credits: The Triangle Factory Project & Noël Coward’s Long Island Sound (The Actors Company Theatre); David Ives’ English Made Simple (Primary Stages). Regional credits: The Farnsworth Invention & Feydeau’s Private Fittings (La Jolla Playhouse); The Alchemist (Shakespeare Theatre DC); A Steady Rain (Hartford Theaterworks); Closer, The Dead Eye Boy & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); The Taming of the Shrew (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Cymbeline & Loot (Hartford Stage Company); The Last Hurrah (Huntington Theatre); Tony Kushner’s Hydriotaphia (Alley); Rich Hall’s Best Western (Edinburgh). TV: Law and Order: Criminal Intent. MFA from NYU Tisch School Of The Arts.

Steven Freeman (A Chorus Line Musical Director) Broadway Credits: Billy Elliot, Irving Berlin’s White
Christmas, Chicago, Damn Yankees, Grease. Off-Broadway Credits: Saturday Night, Forever Plaid, 3 Postcards, Romance In Hard Times. Regional Credits: Old Globe Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cape Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, Prince Music Theatre.

Mark Gionfriddo (A Class Act Musical Director) was introduced in 2011 to Berkshire Theatre Group audiences as musical director and pianist for the first Musical Mondays series at the Colonial Theatre. He has also served as a pianist for recent BTG productions of The Who’s Tommy, In the Mood and Babes in Arms. Mark’s regional musical directing credits include I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Capitol Rep/Albany), Some Enchanted Evening and Beehive (CityStage/Springfield), Always Patsy Cline (The Theater Project), Cabaret and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well (MHC Theatre). Garrison Keillor, Mitzi Gaynor, Al Martino and the Young@Heart Chorus are just a few of the many artists whom he has accompanied. His choral and instrumental compositions and arrangements have been premiered in Boston, NYC, New Orleans, Nashville, DC and on NPR’s Performance Today and Says You! Mark is a member of the Music Department faculty at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA.

Eric Hill (A Chorus Line Director) Last summer Mr. Hill directed Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of The Who’s Tommy as well as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Neil Ellenoff Stage at the Mount. Additional BTG directing credits include Macbeth, Endgame, Faith Healer, The Einstein Project, Amadeus, The Glass Menagerie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Caretaker. Previous acting credits include A Man for All Seasons, Dimetos and The Father. Mr. Hill also serves as the Louis, Francis and Jeffrey Sachar Professor of Theater Arts at Brandeis University.

Kelly Masterson (Edith Playwright) is a playwright/screenwriter living in New Jersey. New York stage
productions include: Against the Rising Sea (2009 Queens Theater in the Park, starring Elizabeth Franz and directed by Joe Cacaci), Touch, Armageddon North Dakota and The Word is Out (Samuel French One Act Play Festival Finalist). Regional productions include: True Story and Dare Not Speak Its Name (Outstanding Play, Connecticut Critics Circle). Edith was developed in staged readings by Berkshire Playwrights Lab, which has also presented his Terminal Three (starring Elizabeth Franz), Rehab (Elizabeth Franz and Treat Williams) and A Butler in the House of Plenty (Dan Lauria and Brian Murray). Kelly’s screenplay Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Independent Spirit Award nomination) starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maria Tomei and Ethan Hawke and was directed by Sidney Lumet. His screenplay Snowpiercer, scheduled for release in 2013, stars Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer and John Hurt. Kelly is a member of Writer’s Guild of America East.

Gerry McIntyre (A Chorus Line Choreographer) Berkshire Theatre Festival: My Fair Lady, A Saint She Ain’t, Insurrection, Side by Side by Sondhiem, played Oronte in The Misanthrope. As a Director/Choreographer: Soon of the Mornin’ at Lions Theatre, Once On This Island at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Winter Garden Theatre and La Miranda Theatre for which he won a Robby Award for Best Director, and Ovation Nomination for Choreography and Best Musical and Drama. Logue awards for Direction and Choreography. Joseph…Dreamcoat with Diana Degarmo and Anthony Fedorov. The National Tour of Dreamgirls. Chicago at Ogunquit Playhouse for which he won a Broadway World Award for Choreography. As a performer he has appeared on Broadway Uptown It’s Hot, Anything Goes, Once on This Island, Chicago and Joseph…Dreamcoat. He has also appeared in the movie adaptation of Joseph…Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond.

Robert Moss (A Class Act Director) Bob Moss founded and ran Playwrights Horizons for its first ten years. Subsequently, he was the artistic director of the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York for fifteen years while at the same time teaching and eventually running the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, affiliated with NYU. He was artistic director of Syracuse Stage for twelve years. He began his artistic director career running the Barr Albee Wilder Playwrights Unit in 1971. Prior to that, he was a free lance director at theaters across America. In the early sixties he was a stage manager, culminating that career as Production Stage Manager of the illustrious APA Repertory Company in residence at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. He has directed over two hundred plays, some favorites being Angels in America, Romeo and Juliet, Man and Superman, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Room Service, and You Can’t Take it With You. He just completed a production of Speaking in Tongues this Spring and will be directing The Cherry Orchard in the Fall.

James Naughton (Brace Yourself Director) From Broadway and regional theatre to television and films, James Naughton has won critical acclaim in dramas, comedies and musicals. Naughton has appeared on-screen in The Devil Wears Prada playing Meryl Streep’s husband, co-starred opposite Barbara Hershey in the independent film Childless, and was also seen in The Weinstein Company’s Factory Girl, playing Sienna Miller’s father, and Warner Brothers Independent Films Suburban Girl, alongside Sarah Michelle Geller and Alec Baldwin. No stranger to the stage, Naughton has won two Tony Awards as ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ for Chicago and City of Angels, the latter earned him a Drama Desk Award as well. He starred in the Broadway production of Democracy as Willy Brandt opposite Richard Thomas. Naughton’s other theatre credits include Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, I Love My Wife, Whose Life is it Anyway, Drinks Before Dinner and Losing Time. On Broadway, Naughton has directed Arthur Miller’s Tony nominated production of The Price and Paul Newman in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. He won the 1999 MAC Award as best male vocalist for his one-man concert show, Street of Dreams, presented by Mike Nichols, and recorded his CD It’s About Time for DRG records. This summer, Naughton will direct David Epstein’s Surface to Air at Symphony Space. Naughton’s television credits include a guest appearance on the CBS show Out of Practice, Travellin’ Man, Necessity, The Bunker, The Birds II and The Return of Cagney and Lacey, as well as recurring roles on Who’s the Boss, Ally McBeal, Damages, and Gossip Girl. Other film work includes, The Good Mother, The Glass Menagerie, The Paper Chase, First Kid, A Stranger is Watching, Second Wind, and Labour Pains.

Brian Roff (The Puppetmaster of Lodz Director) Credits include: Dutch Masters by Greg Keller (Berkshire Theater Festival & Labyrinth Theater Company), Ceremony by Mark Schultz (Rising Phoenix Rep), What Happened When by Daniel Talbott (HERE), Crazy Little Thing by Melissa Ross (Center Stage), The Claiming Race by Robert Glaudini (Theater for a New City), Waterborn by Edith Freni (EST), Amazing by Brooke Berman (CATF), Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC), One Day on Wall Street by Julai Dahl (Naked Angels) and nine LAByrinth Celebrity Charades benefits. He was assistant director to Philip Seymour Hoffman on The Little Flower of East Orange, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Our Lady of 121st Street, all by Stephen Adly Guirgis. He is an artistic associate of Rising Phoenix Rep and a member of Labyrinth Theater Company.

Michael Sexton (Edith Director) Michael Sexton is the Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Society in NYC. He most recently directed Titus Andronicus with Jay O’ Sanders at the Public Theater. He has directed New York premieres of plays by Rinne Groff, Will Eno, Marsha Norman, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill, Ain Gordon, Rogelio Martinez, Victor Lodato, Phil Porter, Chloe Moss, Marin Gazzaniga, Eric Gamalinda and Rosemary Moore. His work has been seen at Red Bull Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan Class Company, Classic Stage Company, Soho Rep, PS122, The Old Globe, Portland Center Stage, Playmakers Rep, Rising Phoenix Rep, SPF and the Cherry Lane Alternative. He has been a frequent guest artist at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, the Juilliard School and Columbia University, where he has directed the works of Shakespeare, Moliere, Ostrovsky, Tirso de Molina, Brian Friel, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Suzan Lori Parks. He has taught theater and Shakespeare at Princeton University, UNC Chapel Hill, and NYU. He co-edited with Tim Page Four Plays by Dawn Powell.

Tickets are on sale now for all Summer 2012 shows. Tickets may be purchased in person at The Colonial Theatre Ticket Office at 111 South Street Pittsfield, MA 01201 or by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org. The Ticket Office is open Monday-Friday 10am–5pm, Saturdays 10am–2pm or on any performance day from 10am until intermission.

For more information about the performances, please visit our website at www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org

About Berkshire Theatre Group

The Colonial Theatre, founded in 1903, and Berkshire Theatre Festival, founded in 1928, are two of the oldest cultural organizations in the Berkshires. Having united in November of 2010 under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, these two institutions are providing the Berkshires and beyond with the finest in live theatre, music, dance and the visual arts on four stages in Stockbridge, MA, Pittsfield, MA and Lenox, MA. The Fitzpatrick Main Stage (408 seats), cataloged by the National Register of Historic Places, was originally designed and built by Stanford White as the Stockbridge Casino in 1888. The intimate Unicorn Theatre (122 seats) is a home for emerging artists and new theatrical ideas. The Colonial in Pittsfield (780 seats) re-opened in August of 2006, following a $21 million restoration, and boasts pristine acoustics, classic gilded age architecture and state-of-the-art technical systems. BTG also performs at the newly built outdoor Neil Ellenoff stage at the Mount. Together they serve over 100,000 patrons per year and reach over 10,000 students through their educational and outreach programs. For more information on BTF call (413) 298-5536 and on The Colonial call (413) 448-8084. To purchase tickets, call (413) 997-4444 or (413) 298-5576 or go online to www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.