Pictured left to right are Barrington Stage Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, MA Governor Deval Patrick and founding Board President Mary Ann Quinson at the renaming of BSC’s stage, the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. Photo by Kevin Sprague,

(Pittsfield, MA)  June 23, 2012 – At Barrington Stage Company’s Annual Summer Gala, in celebration of the theatre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof and the honoring of Berkshire Bank as a major long-time supporter, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced to the sold-out audience from the stage the renaming of the BSC Mainstage theatre. 
The stage is now named the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in honor of the 18-year partnership between founding Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and founding Board President Mary Ann Quinson.
  
Quinson has led the Barrington Stage Board of Trustees since 1995 and was instrumental in the move from an eight-week summer season at Mount Everett High School in Sheffield to year-round theater in 2006 in Pittsfield with the purchase of the former Berkshire Music Hall (now a state-of-the-art renovated 1912 vaudeville house) and Octagon House as the center of BSC’s Pittsfield campus.  

 

Boyd and Quinson were intrepid believers they could bring top-notch theatre to the Berkshire community.  They began a theatre that few thought would last one season.  Their motto that summer was “out of our minds and onto the stage.” 

 

Julianne loved the idea of a grass roots movement in a community where the arts could make a difference. They both understood that arts can lead an economy. Their work has been a gift to the Berkshires, and beyond, as shows such as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeand Freud’s Last Session have been seen throughout the country and throughout the world. 
Boyd has directed many productions at BSC, including last season’s critically acclaimed world premiere of The Best of Enemies by Mark St. Germain; The Crucible and Sweeney Todd (both in 2010), A Streetcar Named Desire (2009), West Side Story (2007), and Follies (2005). Through her artistic vision, she has attracted some of the best stage professionals in both performing and designing, created the award-winning Playwright Mentoring Project, partnered with William Finn in developing the acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab and instituted BSC’s New Works Initiative, the first being Mark St. Germain’s Dr. Ruth, All the Way, now through July 21 at the St. Germain Stage, directed by Boyd. 
On a local level, Barrington Stage has helped revitalize Pittsfield businesses, developed the award winning Playwright Mentoring Project to help youth at-risk and has helped make this town a haven for the arts. 

 

Following the Gala performance of Fiddler on the Roof, audience members were ushered to St. Joseph’s High School on Maplewood Avenue, where the auditorium was transformed into a banquet hall for 400 attendees, with cocktails, a fabulous silent auction, dinner and dance party. 
All proceeds from the Summer Gala support BSC’s three-fold mission: to produce top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre, especially young people.