Main Street Stage of North Adams may be temporarily homeless and seemingly an unloved theatrical orphan by the Daddy Warbucks of this world. But appearances are deceiving. You can’t keep a good community theatre company down, not in feisty North Adams where Alexia Trainer has done the Phoenix Rising act time after time during the company’s long history.

So lets all give three cheers at the news that Main Street Stage has reinvented itself yet again as a traveling, itinerant theatre company with pop-up performances all over the Northern Berkshires. Tradition is important among theatre artists, and getting your work before an audience is “job humber one.”

The company is undertaking an innovative “Summer Backyard Tour” of The King Stag in partnership with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. The family-friendly, 50 minute show will include puppets, music, comedy, stilt walking, masks, and magic and will be playing in seven Northern Berkshire locations. All shows are free and open to the public. The schedule is as follows:

June 16, 11 am, Mohawk Forest, Mohawk Forest Blvd, North Adams
June 22, 7 pm, Greylock Valley Field, Greylock Ave and Sullivan St, North Adams
June 23, 11 am, River Grove Park, River St. and Houghton St., North Adams
July 21, 11 am, Abbott School field, North County Rd., Florida Mt.
July 27, 10 am, Williamstown Youth Center, 270 Cole Ave., Williamstown
July 28, 6pm, Adams Visitors Center, 3 Hoosac St., Adams (rain date July 29, 6pm)
August 26, 4pm, Bascom Lodge, atop Mount Greylock

The play, loosely based on the scenario by Carlo Gozzi and adapted for the stage by Kelli Newby and David Lane, follows the story of King Deramo’s search for a queen which is complicated by true love, betrayal, mistaken identity, comedy, and, of course, magic. The show is directed by David Lane. The cast includes Justina Trova, Mollie O. Remillard, Kelli Newby, Michael Trainor and Alexia Trainor.
Set Design by Juliana Haubrich and costumes by Dawn Shamburger.

Main Street Stage is a collective of writers, musicians, sculptors, puppeteers, actors, and designers committed to bringing theatre directly into communities by collaboratively developing touring productions. It was incorporated as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization in September of 1999. Its home, until recently, was a quaint black box theatre on Main Street in North Adams, MA. Since leaving this space Main Street Stage has embraced their new home of parks and neighborhoods. For more information, please visit our website: www.mainstreetstage.org