Williamstown Theatre Festival Opens Nikos Stage with Create Fate

Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) opens this year's Nikos Stage season with Create Fate on July 13 at 8:00 p.m. The Nikos Stage is now in the newly-renovated Adams Memorial Theatre, which was home to the WTF's Main Stage for the past fifty years. Etan Frankel's new play Create Fate is directed by Christopher Ashley.

Sarah Chalke (TV's "Scrubs"), Michael Chernus (Off-B'way's Finer Noble Gases) and Joe Pantoliano (TV's "Sopranos") star in Create Fate.

Please note that the seating capacity for the Nikos Stage has expanded from 96 to 173, creating more ticket availability.

Love can be a brutal game. When the deck is stacked against him, Nathan does the only thing he can to get the love of his life to notice him: he calls in the professionals. When is true love a product of fate, and when is it just a set of well-choreographed accidents?

The designers include Michael Carnahan (sets), David Zinn (costumes), Charles Foster (lights) and ACME Sound Partners (sound).

Etan Frankel (Playwright) Plays have been developed at the Huntington Theatre Company, New York Stage and Film, Primary Stages, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Underwood Theater, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Rattlestick. Etan has twice been honored with Lincoln Center's Le Comte du Nouy Award and also received the Dasha Epstein Playwriting Award. He is a graduate of Duke University and The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program.

Christopher Ashley (Director) 5th WTF season. WTF: Cabaret & Main, Without Walls, Light Up the Sky, and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Recent credits: All Shook Up, The Rocky Horror Show (Tony nomination), Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd (Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award). Other NY: Valhalla, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Blown Sideways Through Life (NYTW); Fires in the Mirror (Public), Jeffrey, Das Barbecü (Minetta Lane); Country Club, As Thousands Cheer, Rude Entertainment, Mondo Drama (Drama Dept.); The Smell of the Kill (Helen Hayes); Voices in the Dark (Broadhurst); Communicating Doors (Variety Arts); Bunny Bunny (Lucille Lortel); L'il Abner (Encores!); Between Us, The Wonder of the World, Newyorkers (MTC); The Naked Truth, Watbanaland, The Night Hank Williams Died (WPA). Film: Jeffrey (Orion Classics), Blown Sideways Through Life (American Playhouse).

Sarah Chalke (Maria) Off-B'way: Modern Orthodox (Hannah). TV: "Scrubs" (Dr. Elliot Reid); "Roseanne" (Becky Conner) and "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" (Gloria Hobson). Upcoming Film: Alchemy (Samantha, 2005) and Cake (Jane, 2006).

Michael Chernus (Nathan) Off-B'way: A Number (NYTW); Finer Noble Gases (Rattlestick); St. Scarlet (W.E.T.); Golden Age (The Kraine); Thunderbird (Cherry Lane Mentor Project); New World Rhapsody (HB Playwrights Foundation). Regional: Romeo and Juliet (Guthrie); Jump/Cut (Woolly Mammoth); Demolition Downtown (Hartford Stage); Romeo and Juliet (Great Lakes Theater Festival); The Blue Bird (NJ Shakespeare Festival); Suicide Weather (NY Stage and Film); A Moon for the Misbegotten (Northern Stage). Multiple seasons at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Upcoming film: Winter Passing, Lucky 8 and Clear Out. Graduate of The Juilliard School.

Joe Pantoliano (Fuller) B'way: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Off-B'way: Visions of Kerouac. L.A.: Orphans (World Premiere); Italian American Reconciliation (written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, World Premiere). Film: Bad Boys I +II; Daredevil; Memento; The Matrix; Bound; The Fugitive; Midnight Run; Empire of the Sun; La Bamba; The Goonies and Risky Business. Upcoming films: The Moguls (2005); Unknown (2006) and The Health Inspector (2006). He co-wrote his memoir, the NY Times Best Seller "Who's Sorry Now," (Dutton) with David Evanier.

Ticket & Schedule Information

Tickets are on sale online at the Festival's official website (www. WTFestival.org) and at the Box Office for in-person sales as well as by calling (413) 597-3400.

The Box Office is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As of July 6, the box office will be open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Box Office is closed on Mondays. Tickets may be purchased by calling (413) 597-3400, or by visiting the Box Office in person. Exact seating locations are available for internet and phone orders. All mail, internet, and phone orders are subject to a $5 service charge per order.

Nikos Stage productions are held in the 173-seat Adams Memorial Theatre. Ticket prices for Nikos Stage productions are $33 or $35, depending on performance date. Tickets are still readily available due to the larger seating capacity. Nikos Stage performance times are Tuesday through Friday evenings at 8 p.m., Saturday evenings at 8:30 p.m. Matinees are Thursdays at 3 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. The Nikos Stage is also handicapped accessible, and is equipped with assistive listening devices for the hard of hearing.

COMING UP NEXT ON NIKOS STAGE

THE SUGAR SYNDROME by Lucy Prebble, directed by Maria Mileaf (July 27 – August 7). Seventeen-year-old Dani surfs internet chat rooms searching for someone who is honest and direct. What she finds is a man twice her age who thinks she is an eleven year-old boy. With richly textured writing and humor, it's Lucy Prebble's play that's honest and direct. And fierce. And devastatingly, disarmingly, disturbingly funny. The Sugar Syndrome contains adult subject matter and is intended for mature audiences.

TOUGH TITTY by Oni Faida Lampley, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright (August 10 – 21). Diagnosed with breast cancer, trying to stay married, raise two small sons and endure poisonous treatments, Angela confronts her childhood ideas about God and goodness, and wrestles with the haunting question, "What did I do wrong?" Funny, poignant – and tough.