Barrington Presents 'I Am My Own Wife' Starting May 21

One of this decade's most acclaimed plays makes its Berkshire-area debut when Barrington Stage Company presents Doug Wright's I AM MY OWN WIFE, May 21 through June 8.  The team behind last season's hit, Fully Committed, actor Vince Gatton and director Andrew Volkoff return for the Stage II  season opener as the first show to play in BSC's new Stage II space, the VFW Hall, located at 36 Linden Street (one block west of North Street) in Pittsfield.  The official Opening Night performance is Saturday, May 24 at 8pm.
 
I AM MY OWN WIFE won nearly every award possible in 2004, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor, and the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for Outstanding New Play.

Wright's play invites audiences into the true-life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf:  a survivor, a curator, a fascinating character.  Wright tell the story of a heroic man who survived both the Nazi regime and decades of Soviet oppression in East Germany , living as a woman. Von Mahlsdorf daringly rescued antiques and art works that might otherwise have been destroyed in those fearful years of tyranny and terrorism, but at great sacrifice.  
 
I AM MY OWN WIFE follows this amazing real-life story through the eyes of Wright as he interviews von Mahlsdorf, taking the audience through perilous times with dozens of characters from various age groups and a plethora of nationalities. So, naturally, it takes an immense cast to tell the story: one person. Which works just fine when that one person is actor Vince Gatton.
 
Vince Gatton received a 2006 Drama Desk nomination as Best Actor in David Johnston's critically-acclaimed Candy and Dorothy at Theater Three, which he also performed at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater in Cape Cod .  Last year he also had the pleasure of working with the Tectonic Theater Project and playwright/director Moises Kaufman on a developmental workshop of his new play, 33 Variations.  His NYC  credits include: Party at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater (also original Chicago and LA productions), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told at the Theatre at St. Clements; Baptizing Adam at the Phil Bosakowski Theater; Henry IV parts 1 & 2, Henry VI parts 1 & 2, and Love's Labor's Lost with the Judith Shakespeare Company; Jinx, winner of the Riant Theater One-Act Play competition (and again with Sonnet Rep); and Busted Jesus Comix and The Americans with Blue Coyote Theater Group, where he is a Repeat Offender.
 
Currently represented on Broadway as the librettist for Disney's The Little Mermaid, playwright Doug Wright received Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his book for the Broadway musical Grey Gardens .   In 1995, Wright won an Obie Award for his play Quills. His screen adaptation of Quills was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review and nominated for three Academy Awards(r). Plays include The Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the Nude, Watbanaland and Unwrap Your Candy. For career achievement, Doug was cited by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and awarded the Tolerance Prize from the Kulturforum Europa. Currently, he serves on the board of the New York Theatre Workshop and the Dramatists Guild Council.
 
Director Andrew Volkoff is the former Associate Artistic Director of Barrington Stage Company and member of First Look Theatre Company. For Barrington Stage, Volkoff directed Fully Committed, Santa Land Diaries, Thief River , The Shape of Things, and Love and Happiness.  New York premiere: Savannah Bay by Marguerite Duras. Regional premieres: Stupid Kids and LaChiusa's The Wild Party at SpeakEasy Stage in Boston and A My Name Will Always Be Alice at the Lyric Stage. In NYC, he recently directed Follies for the Blue Hill Troupe, Bumping Heads at the Vital Theatre and a reading of The End of the Road by Bob Kerr for the Abingdon Theatre Company. Volkoff was a recipient of an SDCF Observership with Jerry Zaks on A Bad Friend at Lincoln Center and a 2005 Drama League Directing Fellow.
 
Performances for Barrington Stage Company's I AM MY OWN WIFEe are Tuesday through Friday  at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm at the VFW Hall (36 Linden Street) Pittsfield .  For ticket information, call 413-236-8888.  Tickets are $25 and $30. Preview tickets for May 21 and 22 are $15.  New this year is Pay What You Can Night for ages 35 and under.   Pay-What-You-Can Night for I AM MY OWN WIFE is Friday, May 23 at 8pm, minimum $5 cash at door.
 
Visit Barrington Stage Company's new website: www.barringtonstageco.org.

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