Eden Espinosa, Alison Pill, Asmeret Ghebremichael & More Join Williamstown Theatre Festival Programming

Williamstown Theatre Festival has revealed the lineup for the WTF Cabaret, a cabaret series curated in partnership with Tony Award nominee and Festival mainstay Christopher Fitzgerald. The WTF Cabaret will feature a “Cabaret All-Stars” company of Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, and Jon-Michael Reese, with additional performances by artists including Natalie Joy Johnson, singer-songwriter Eleri Ward, Tony Award nomineeLee Wilkof, and Samantha Williams. Two-time Grammy Award winner and friend of the Festival Lewis Black and acclaimed comic Jaye McBride are among the hosts for this year’s WTF Cabarets, and Joel Waggoner will serve as music director with Stephanie Layton as associate music director. These artists will be joined by additional performers to be announced along with surprise guests at each edition of the WTF Cabaret. Gersten also announced additional casting and creatives for the Main Stage Reading Series, including Alison Pill, Michael Chernus, Jeremiah Maestas, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Kristjan Thor.

 

This summer, the Festival welcomes the return of the WTF Cabaret. Intimate, casual, and always surprising, these exhilarating evenings feature performances by Festival artists you know and love! No two weekends are the same, and all shows take place on the specially created 2023 Festival Stage, featuring a mix of premium cabaret-style tables and traditional seating, as well as a full bar.

 

The WTF Cabaret will take place over three successive weekends starting later this month. Cabaret All-Stars will be a part of all three weeks with guest artists and hosts rotating each week. Below is the schedule and performers (subject to change).

 

· Thursday, July 20 – Saturday, July 22: Featuring performances by Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Jon-Michael Reese, and Natalie Joy Johnson. A host and additional guest artists will be announced soon.

· Thursday, July 27 – Saturday, July 29: Hosted by Lewis Black and featuring performances by Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Jon-Michael Reese, and Lee Wilkof. Additional guest artists will be announced soon.

· Thursday, August 3 – Saturday, August 5: Hosted by Jaye McBride and featuring performances by Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Jon-Michael Reese, Eleri Ward, and Samantha Williams. Additional guest artists will be announced soon.

 

The performance schedule for the WTF Cabaret series is Thursdays and Fridays at 8 PM and Saturdays at 10 PM. Table seating is $70 and traditional seating is $50 (prices include a $5 processing fee per ticket). Seating is general admission. Tables will be assigned when checking in at the theater.

 

Get up close and personal with beloved Festival actors at the Main Stage Reading Series, where new and classic plays come to life on the specially created intimate 2023 Festival Stage. Watch as the creative process unfolds before you and experience these works in exhilarating new ways.

 

Saturday, July 22 & Sunday, July 23

Paris, ACTORS!

By Hamish Linklater

Directed by Jack O’Brien

Featuring Gus Birney, Hamish Linklater, Jeremiah Maestas, Lily Rabe, Noah Robbins, Jordan Tyson, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Stuhlbarg

 

Jeremiah Maestas, Jay O. Sanders, and Michael Stuhlbarg join the cast of Paris, ACTORS!, a blistering backstage farce written by Hamish Linklater and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien. Paris, ACTORS! will also feature Linklater’s longtime partner and Tony Award nominee Lily Rabe, Gus Birney, Noah Robbins, and Jordan Tyson.

 

Occupied Paris. 1944. Real-life celebrity Nazi Werner Krauss is between projects. But the Party, desperate for a propaganda extravaganza in the City of Lights, has arranged a remount of his notorious Merchant of Venice produced by a French theater teeming with family secrets. Paris, ACTORS! is The Last Metro if Truffaut were unavailable to direct, but the Marx Brothers were. 

 

Saturday, July 29 & Sunday, July 30
 

Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov
Translation by Paul Schmidt
Directed by Kristjan Thor
Featuring Edmund Donovan, Grace Gummer, Henry Wolfe Gummer, Mamie Gummer, Louisa Jacobson, Robert Sean Leonard, John Rothman, Dario Ladani Sanchez

Kristjan Thor directs real-life sisters Grace Gummer, Mamie Gummer, and Louisa Jacobson in a reading of the Chekhov classic Three Sisters. They will be joined by their singer-songwriter brother Henry Wolfe Gummer, John Rothman, Edmund Donovan, Tony Award winner Robert Sean Leonard, and Dario Ladani Sanchez.

 

The beloved Prozorov family returns to Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer to recount their timeless and tumultuous tale of existential longing. In this Chekhov classic, sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina yearn for the promise of Moscow while grappling with the tribulations of unrequited love and family drama at home. In the wake of their father’s death and a changing Russia, the women must face the reality of their choices and take responsibility for their uncertain futures. 

 

Additional casting and creatives for Three Sisters will be announced shortly.

 

Saturday, August 5 & Sunday, August 6

The Pillowman

By Martin McDonagh

Directed by Lila Neugebauer

Featuring Michael Chernus, Alison Pill

 

Drama Desk Award winner Alison Pill and Obie Award winner Michael Chernus join the cast of WTF’s upcoming reading of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman that will be directed by Drama Desk and Obie Award winner Lila Neugebauer.

 

They say life imitates art – but what happens when that art is horror? In a totalitarian dictatorship, young author Katurian is interrogated by the authorities after a string of child murders bears a striking resemblance to his grisly short stories. When his brother admits to the murders and implicates Katurian and their troubled childhood, more complicated questions arise – is it really possible to separate art from artist? Widely regarded as one of the greatest plays of the last 25 years, The Pillowman is as dark as comedies get and is sure to keep audiences glued to the edge of their seats. 

 

Additional casting for The Pillowman will be announced shortly.

 

Tickets for the 2023 Season can be purchased online at wtfestival.org, by calling the Box Office Hotline at (413) 458-3253, or by visiting the Box Office at 1000 Main Street in Williamstown. Box Office hours are noon to 5 PM Wednesday through Sunday. The Box Office Hotline is closed one hour prior to and 30 minutes after curtain on matinee days.

 

Use of face masks is optional for all visitors at the '62 Center for Theatre & Dance.

 

If you have additional questions regarding your visit, please contact the WTF Box Office at (413) 458-3253 or by email at tickets@wtfestival.org.

 

 

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED

 

Hasan Minhaj: EXPERIMENT TIME

 

Hasan Minhaj: Experiment Time will play a strictly limited four-performance engagement on Saturday, July 8 (3 PM and 8 PM) and Sunday, July 9 (2 PM and 7 PM) on the Main Stage at the ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance. Minhaj will showcase and prepare new material for his latest work-in-progress.

 

Minhaj is one of the most in-demand comedians on screen and stage today. Earlier this year, he was the guest host of “The Daily Show,” and he is also the host and creator of Netflix’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning weekly comedy show “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” and the Netflix comedy specials “Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King” and “The King's Jester.”

 

 

Laura Benanti IN CONCERT

 

For one performance only on Sunday, July 16 at 3 PM on WTF’s Main Stage, Broadway legend and Tony Award winner Laura Benanti graces the Main Stage to share songs from her illustrious career. A long-time friend of the Festival, Laura also starred as Perdita in the WTF production of The Winter’s Tale (2001) and last performed for WTF audiences at the 2020 Gala. A star on stage and screen, Laura’s career spans over two decades since she took Broadway by storm at the age of 18. Laura has earned two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and garnered five Tony Award nominations.

 

Proceeds from Laura Benanti in Concert benefit Williamstown Theatre Festival.

 

 

FRIDAYS@3 READING SERIES

 

Friday, July 14

Nick and the Prizefighter

By Kamilah Bush 

Directed by Kristolyn Lloyd 

Featuring Dane DeHaan, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Amber Iman, and dL Sams

Music Composed by Brittany Campbell

 

Selah Thompson is the caregiver for her famous playwright father, Forest Thompson. Nick Beerman, a young writer and dramaturg, is tasked with helping Forest complete his life's work before the clock runs out. Selah must fight for control of her father's work and legacy—and find her own rhythm as she prepares to face the world without him.

 

Friday, July 21

Plunder and Lightning

By Cindy Lou Johnson

Directed by Portia-Krieger/">Portia/">Portia Krieger

Featuring Samantha Bohrer, Johanna Day, Annie Golden,

Nina Grollman, and John Pankow

 

Tina and George’s preparations for an important party are wildly derailed when their daughter Rikki shows up on the run from the cops, and Tina’s stepmother, Lola, threatens to levy charges of elder abuse. A dark comedy about greed and the urgent power of love, Plunder and Lightning examines the price to be paid for burying our sins—in the field out back.

 

Friday, July 28

Chapters of a Floating Life

By Clarence Coo

Directed by Jennifer Chang

Featuring Grant Chang, James Chen, Leah Getz, Teresa Avia Lim, and Diana Oh

 

Two couples from China try to make ends meet in New York City in the wake of the Second World War. One husband and wife live uptown, obsessed with a past of poetry, painting, and gardens. Another pair face the day-to-day reality of keeping a Chinatown restaurant in business. Their worlds, previously separated by class and education, converge when the two women find each other in Central Park and fall under the spell of the Chinese language.

 

August 4

Wipeout

By Aurora Real de Asua

Directed by Maggie Burrows

Featuring Emily Kuroda and Becky Ann Baker

 

It’s Gary’s 77th birthday and all she wants to do is surf. The only problem? She’s never stepped foot on a board before. But with the help of a hot-rod teenage surf instructor and the company of her two best friends, Gary is about to go on the ride of her life. As the three women navigate the currents of the Pacific, they must confront seven decades of secrets and sacrifices, not to mention the odd jellyfish or two.

 

 

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE WORKSHOPS

Play development is a year-round activity at WTF. Every summer, the Festival supports new work in development by inviting artists to participate in residencies and workshops. We’re thrilled to welcome the following artists and projects to Williamstown this summer.

Breaking the Binary Theatre is a new work development and community building hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) artists come together to reclaim our artistic license and liberty on our own terms in spaces built by and for us. Breaking the Binary Theatre hosts a number of programs and initiatives, including our flagship artistic event each October: the all-TNB2S+ Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. @BreakingTheBinaryTheatre on Instagram. www.btb-nyc.com.

TWITCH

By Liliana Padilla (they/them)

Directed by Jack Ferver (they/them)

Dramaturgy by Desiree S. Mitton (she/they)

Produced by Breaking the Binary Theatre

Following their collaboration as a part of the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in October of 2022, playwright Liliana Padilla (they/them), director Jack Ferver (they/them), dramaturg Desiree S. Mitton (she/they) are reuniting with several of their BTB collaborators to further dive into the world of TWITCH as part of Breaking the Binary Theatre's 2023 Falco and Steinman Residency Program.

Nightdrive makes rigorously irreverent, demandingly vulnerable, borderline-impossible plays that use indelible moments of stagecraft to build thrillingly personal relationships with audiences. Their work includes an apocalypse around a campfire (The Grown-Ups, Time Out New York’s Top 10 NYC Theatre Productions of 2021); a live immersive alien movie (Alien Nation); a five-dimensional community meeting with a full pancake breakfast cooked on stage (Providence, RI); a haunted rock concert (Thank You Sorry); and a hybrid comic book with interactive animation (Apathy Boy). They’ve been semifinalists for the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award, finalists for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and resident artists at Pipeline Theatre Company and Ars Nova.

Society

By Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques

Society is part play, part participatory focus group, part collective fever dream, presented around a giant conference table. You can’t believe they still ask you back in for more sessions—it feels like you’ve been going there forever. But the money’s decent, and it costs so much to live in this city. And there are snacks. It’s supposed to be a different group in there every time, but a couple people are starting to look familiar. Maybe you’re just imagining things. But they’re staring at you, too, right?

 

Waterwell is a group of artists, educators, and producers dedicated to telling engrossing stories that deliberately wrestle with complex civic questions in unexpected ways. WW creates productions that are creatively daring and emotionally potent to cultivate connections across real and perceived divides. www.waterwell.org

 

Plate Spinner Productions is a production company working across entertainment media. PSP is committed to developing, nurturing, and producing unique and dynamic stories that challenge artists and audiences to question the status quo, and believe that a fair and equitable world is possible. www.platespinnerproductions.com

A Good Day to Me Not to You

By Lameece Issaq

Directed by Lee Sunday Evans

A co-production of Waterwell and Plate Spinner Productions

 

Writer and actor Lameece Issaq teams up with two-time Obie winner Lee Sunday Evans on her riotously funny and gut-wrenching new play about a 40-whatever dental lab tech who gets fired and moves into St. Agnes Residence, a woman's boarding house run by nuns. While there, she must come to terms with her unfulfilled path to motherhood, the untimely death of her sister, and earth-shaking news about her beloved nephew – all while fending off her unpredictable and sometimes deranged cohabitants. Performed by Issaq in a story-telling tour-de-force.

 

In addition to these companies, please visit the WTF website for a full list of artists who will be joining us in residence this summer.

 

 

“A NEW BRAIN” PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP

WITH BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY

 

As previously announced, Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) will partner with Barrington Stage Company (BSC) to present the 1998 musical A New Brain, featuring music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Finn and James Lapine, and direction by Joe Calarco.

 

A New Brain will feature Adam Chanler-Berat, three-time Tony Award nominee Mary Testa, Tally Sessions, Demond Green, Dorcas Leung, Salome Smith, and Justine Horihata Rappaport.

 

A New Brain will play from Wednesday, August 16 through Sunday, September 10 on BSC’s Boyd-Quinson Stage (30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA). Opening night is Sunday, August 20. Tickets for A New Brain can be purchased now directly through the BSC Box Office at (413) 236-8888 or by visiting barringtonstageco.org/tickets. For more information about A New Brain, including updated masking policies, please visit www.barringtonstageco.org.

 

 

WTF CABARET BIOGRAPHIES

 

Two-time Grammy award winning comedian/actor/writer Lewis Black, known as the “King of Rant,” uses his trademark style of comedic yelling and finger pointing to expose the absurdities of life. His comedic brilliance makes people laugh at life’s hypocrisies and the insanity he sees in the world.

 

Black is the longest-running contributor on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” His stand-up specials have appeared on HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime, and Epix. 

 

Black notably voiced the character “Anger” in the Pixar Academy Award-winning film, Inside Out and will be reclaiming his role in the sequel. His other notable films include Universal’s Accepted co-starring Jonah Hill, Blake Lively and Justin Long, and also Man Of The Year opposite Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney and Jeff Goldblum.

 

The comedian has released eight critically acclaimed comedy albums including the 2007 Grammy Award-Winner, The Carnegie Hall Performance. He won his second Grammy in 2011 for his album, Stark Raving Black, and has a total of six Grammys nominations. He has published three bestsellers: Nothing’s Sacred (Simon & Schuster, 2005), Me of Little Faith (Riverhead Books, 2008) and I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas (Riverhead Books, 2010). 

 

Today, Lewis is currently on his Off The Rails Tour.

 

Eden Espinosa is recognized for her critically acclaimed portrayal of Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other Broadway credits include originating the title role in Brooklyn the Musical, and Maureen Johnson in the closing company of Rent. Her regional credits include Eva Peron in Evita, María Celia in Two Sisters and a Piano, Sadie Thompson in Rain, Emma Borden in Lizzie, Daniela in In the Heights and Mary in Merrily We Roll Along. Mama in The Gardens of Anuncia and most recently starring as Tamara De Lempicka in Lempicka directed by Tony award winner Rachel Chavkin. Her television appearances include “Law and Order”, “Ugly Betty”, and “Elementary”. Voiceover credits include Cassandra in “Tangled the Series”, “Robot Chicken”, “MAD TV”, “Elena of Avalor”, and “Titan Maximum” and received an Emmy Nomination for The Queen of Hearts in “Alice’s Wonderland Bakery”. Eden’s albums Look Around and Revelation, her album of original music, can be found on all streaming platforms and available at www.edenespinosa.com Instagram @edenespinosa

 

Three-time Tony nominee Christopher Fitzgerald most recently starred in the Broadway revival of Company. He earned a Tony nomination and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his previous Broadway role as Ogie in Waitress. He was Tony nominated for prior roles in Young Frankenstein and Finian’s Rainbow, for which he received a Drama Desk Award. His other Broadway credits include originating the role of Boq in Wicked; An Act of God; The Merchant of Venice opposite Al Pacino; Amour (Drama Desk nomination); and Chicago. Off-Broadway and regional credits include the US premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night at Second Stage (Drama Desk nomination); the American premiere of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Public; the renowned Steppenwolf production of McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane; the US debut of Frank McGuinness' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Lincoln Center; the title role in Barnum at the Chichester Festival Theatre (UK) and he spent thirteen seasons with the Williamstown Theater Festival (MA), beginning as an apprentice in 1993. In 2010, he starred in an all-male version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, directed by his wife, Jessica Stone. Favorite productions include June Moon, Where’s Charley, and Dead End among many others. His film credits include Girl Most Likely opposite Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening. He was a series regular on SyFy’s “Happy!,” DirecTV’s “Almost There,” and WB's “Twins.” He most recently recurred on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and on Netflix in “Godless.” 

 

Natalie Joy Johnson was last seen on Broadway as Pat in the Tony Award winning musical, Kinky Boots. Other favorite roles include Legally Blonde on Broadway (Enid Hoopes) & the First National Tour (Paulette), Lempicka at La Jolla Playhouse & Williamstown Theatre Festival (Suzi Solidor), Bare: A Pop Opera (Nadia), & Southern Comfort (Cori). TV credits include “High Maintenance” (HBO) and “Difficult People” (Hulu).

 

Natalie is an accomplished cabaret artist - selling out venues on both coasts (Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, The Regency, Rockwell). In 2019, she was invited to perform in the inaugural season of the Sydney Cabaret Festival in Australia. Her singles "GORGINE" and “GET INTO IT…QUEEN” (under the name Miss Natalie) are available wherever you stream music, and the music videos are available on YouTube.

 

For more information & upcoming shows, visit www.nataliejoyjohnson.live.

 

Jaye McBride is funny, smart and proudly transgender. Jaye is the first openly trans comedian to perform at Madison Square Garden and is a regular at New York City’s “Comedy Cellar". In 2021 she was featured as one of the "New Faces" at the Just For Laughs comedy festival and has been invited to the New York Comedy Festival and Netflix is a Joke Festival.

 

Jon-Michael Reese is a performer based in Brooklyn. He has performed on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning A Strange Loop and in many plays and musicals across the country from Matt in The Fantasticks to James Baldwin in Jimmy and Lorraine. His cabaret By Myself: Judy and Jon-Michael, Together Again! was last seen at Club Cumming and Green Room 42

 

Joel Waggoner is a Broadway Actor and Singer/Songwriter from Iowa and New York City and an acclaimed musician and entertainer. Broadway credits: School of Rock,Be More Chill. Off-Broadway: A Man of No Importance (CSC), Southern Comfort (Public Theater), The Joel Waggoner Experience (Joe’s Pub). Television: “Only Murders in the Building” season three, “$100,000 Pyramid” winner. Joel plays piano, violin, guitar, accordion, vocals. He is queer and writes about it. The singles “Unlikely Warrior” with band Miss Natalie, “Gorgine,” “Get Into It…Queen,” and “Stable Girl” with Julia Mattison are available on all music platforms. Arranger for Randy Rainbow. Discography: Trixie Mattel Two Birds, One Stone, Knoxville Original Cast Recording, MacGyver: The Musical, My Marcelo Cast Recording, Natalie Douglas, Alyssa Robbins, One Voice (Natalie Weiss/Sally Wilfert), Joe Iconis’ Broadway Bounty Hunter Cast Album. Breakout Instagram series ADVENT CAROLNDAR with Julia Mattison featured on NPR and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Instagram: @joelwaggoner @adventcarolndar @joelcappella TikTok: @unlikelywarrior. www.joelwaggoner.com

 

Eleri Ward is a New York City-based actor, singer, songwriter, and musician. In 2021, she recorded and produced her full-length indie-folk Sondheim album, “A Perfect Little Death,” in her closet. After gaining a viral TikTok following, it was released by Ghostlight Records and has been hailed as “a harmonious marriage of musical theater and indie folk music, with hauntingly beautiful arrangements” by Forbes and “an incandescent new record, something genuinely new” from American Theater Magazine. Coming off a triumphant national summer tour opening for global superstar Josh Groban, she released “Keep A Tender Distance,” the sublimely introspective follow-up to “A Perfect Little Death” in 2022. According to The New York Times, “Ward plumbs this deep well in a way that feels so intuitively right, it’s remarkable no one has done it before.” She studied Songwriting at Berklee College of Music before transferring and graduating from The Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Musical Theater with an emphasis in Songwriting & Acting, and has since consistently explored the lines between Theater and Music through her unique interpretive lens. www.eleriward.com@eleriward

 

Lee Wilkof spent four wonderful summers at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and is thrilled to return to perform here this summer. Lee’s most recent performance was as The Announcer in Champion at The Metropolitan Opera. He originated the roles of Seymour in Little Shop Of Horrors, and Sam Byck in Assassins. He has been in around 125 films and television shows. Lee directed the film No Pay, Nudity, and has written the book and lyrics for a new musical entitled Brotherly Love. Lee is married to painter Connie Grappo, and is the father of Perrie Wilkof, master baker, and Master of Social Work student at Ohio State University. Lee is celebrating 50 years in show business this year. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, and three Drama Desk Awards. He is a recipient of an Obie Award, and a SAG Award.

 

 

MAIN STAGE READING SERIES BIOGRAPHIES

 

Alison Pill recently starred in the independent feature Eric Larue, directed by Michael Shannon, and starring opposite Alexander Skasgård and Judy Greer, which just premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2023 to terrific reviews. She can currently be seen starring in “Hello Tomorrow!” opposite Billy Crudup for Apple TV+ and will next star in the independent feature film, Young Werther opposite Douglas Booth. She also starred in the CBS All Access series “Star Trek: Picard”, Alex Garland’s FX limited series “Devs”, and the Amazon series “Them.” Pill’s other television work includes Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story: Cult”, the ABC drama “The Family”, the acclaimed Aaron Sorkin HBO series “The Newsroom”, the HBO drama “In Treatment, The Book of Daniel”, and “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows”. 

Recent film credits include Peter Hedges film The Same Storm, All My Puny Sorrows, which premiered at TIFF in 2021, and the Oscar-nominated biopic, “VICE”, written and directed by Adam McKay, opposite Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Steve Carrell. Alison can also be seen in Miss Sloane, Hail Caesar!, Snowpiercer, Goon, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Milk, Dan In Real Life, Dear Wendy, and Pieces Of April.   

Alison starred on Broadway in the Tony-nominated production of Three Tall Women, written by Edward Albee, directed by Joe Mantello, and opposite Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in The Lieutenant Of Inishmore and for a Lucille Lortel Award for On The Mountain.  She won The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble in the U.S. premiere of The Distance From Here. 

Jay O. Sanders returns to Williamstown for the first time since his summer with the Second Company in 1975. He has just finished the run of Primary Trust at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theater. Before that, he played Nick Laine in Girl From The North Country on Broadway, the title roles in Uncle Vanya at Hunter Theater Project (2019 Drama Desk Award) and Cyrano de Bergerac at the Guthrie, and all 12 plays of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama, (Hunter, Public, European and World Tours), and Kent in King Lear at the Delacorte. Playwright; Unexplored Interior: This Is Rwanda. Film; Day After Tomorrow, JFK, Angels in the Outfield, Tumbleweeds,Bardo, When You Finish Saving The World. TV; “True Detective”, “Sneaky Pete”, “The Sinner”, “Roseanne”. Sanders has also narrated many PBS documentaries.

Michael Stuhlbarg. Film credits include: A Serious Man (Golden Globe Nomination), The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, The Post, Men in Black 3, Shirley,Arrival, Hugo, Lincoln, Steve Jobs, Trumbo, Miles Ahead, Miss Sloane, Pawn Sacrifice, Blue Jasmine, Cut Bank, Bones And All, Hitchcock, Seven Psychopaths, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Strange. TV credits include: “Your Honor”, “Dopesick” (Emmy Nomination), “The Staircase”, “Traitors”, “The Looming Tower” (Emmy Nomination), “Fargo”, “Boardwalk Empire”. Broadway credits include: The Pillowman (Tony Nomination, Drama Desk Award), The Invention of Love, Cabaret, Taking Sides, Saint Joan, Timon of Athens, The Government Inspector. Off-Broadway credits include: title roles in Socrates, Hamlet, Richard II; Measure For Pleasure, Twelfth Night, A Dybbuk, The Winter’s Tale (All With The Public Theater); The Voysey Inheritance (Atlantic Theater Company—Obie, Callaway Awards). Travesties(Williamstown), Long Days Journey Into Night (American Repertory Theater).  BFA—The Juilliard School. Upcoming film: The Instigators.

Kristjan Thor is a critically-acclaimed director of film, theater, and immersive experiences. Over the course of a twenty-year career, Thor has directed and produced two feature films, many theater, short film and video projects as well as leading and managing various types of live events. Kristjan is also the co-founder and creator of The Blackout Experience, the world’s most notorious immersive fear experience. More recently, he directed Preparedness by Hillary Miller and Hart Island by Tracy Weller. He has taught at NYU NYCDA, where he is currently heading the new media program. Additionally, Kristjan often works as an acting coach for various industry professionals.

 

 

ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL

 

For seven decades, the Tony Award-recognized Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theater artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival of diverse, world premiere plays and musicals, bold new revivals, and a rich array of accompanying cultural events.

 

Artists are drawn to Williamstown Theatre Festival to make great theater in an environment conducive to artistic risk-taking. Matthew Broderick, Audra McDonald, Dominique Morisseau, Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Stroman, Uma Thurman, and Blair Underwood are just a few of the luminous theater artists who have worked at the Festival. Many others, including Sterling K. Brown, Ty Burrell, Charlie Day, Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Chris Pine, and George C. Wolfe, began their careers at the Festival.

 

Productions and artists shaped at the Festival fill theaters in New York City and around the world. Recently, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside, Grand Horizons, The Rose Tattoo, The Visit, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, and Lempicka, to name just a few. Cost of Living, which was developed and premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and made its Broadway debut last fall.

 

Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org.

 

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!