Barrington Stage Company Announces 2010 Season

Barrington Stage Company, under the leadership of Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director, and Richard M. Parison, Jr., Producing Director, announced the theatre's 2010 Season today.

BSC MAINSTAGE
As previously announced, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Tony Award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, will open BSC's 16th season from June 17 to July 17, 2009 (Press Opening, Wednesday, June 23 at 7pm). Presented in celebration of Sondheim's 80th birthday, Sweeney will be directed by BSC's Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, with musical direction by Darren R. Cohen. Adapted from Christopher Bond's play, Sweeney Todd will star Broadway and BSC veteran Jeff McCarthy (Mack and Mabel and Follies). Sweeney marks the fourth Sondheim musical mounted by Julianne Boyd who directed A Little Night Music, Company and Follies to popular acclaim.

Art, the international award-winning comedy by Yasmina Reza (God of Carnage, The Unexpected Man), translation by Christopher Hampton, runs from July 22 to August 7, 2010 (Press Opening, Sunday, July 25 at 5pm). Three men's friendships are tested in extraordinary and hilarious ways when one of them buys an expensive white on white painting. Art has received more than 125 productions in 30 translations worldwide.

Absurd Person Singular, Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, will play on the Mainstage from August 12-29, 2010, with a Press Opening Sunday, August 15 at 5pm. Jesse Berger, who directed last summer's hit production of Sleuth, returns to direct. One of England's greatest playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn, is best known for such noted classics as Bedroom Farce and The Norman Conquests. Absurd Person Singular is an uproariously funny comedy that follows the fortunes of three couples on three successive Christmas Eves in three different kitchens. The couples, all obsessed with social climbing, spin out of control to a darkly hilarious ending.

Complete Mainstage casting and designers will be announced in April.
BSC STAGE 2
Receiving its New England premiere from May 27 through June 13 (Press Opening Sunday, May 30 at 7:30pm) is the new play by Matthew Lopez, The Whipping Man, directed by Broadway and BSC veteran Christopher Innvar (director, The Collyer Brothers At Home; actor, A Streetcar Named Desire, Private Lives, etc.). At the end of the Civil War, a Jewish Confederate soldier returns home to Richmond to be greeted by his two black servants, reared Jewish and now free men. When it premiered at New Jersey's Luna Stage in 2007, The Star Ledger called The Whipping Man "must see theater...a spellbinding production."

BSC Musical Theatre Lab
BSC's acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab will kick off its 5th season with the world premiere of Pool Boy by Nikos Tsakalakos (music and lyrics) and Janet Allard (book and lyrics) running July 13 through August 8 (Press Opening Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30pm). The production tells the story of a pool boy whose summer turns upside down when he's seduced by L.A. glitz and glam and a sexy older woman. The story is based on the composer's real-life experience as a pool boy at the Hotel Bel-Air.

A second MTL musical, TBA, will run from August 18-29.

Back for its 5th edition is the wildly popular Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don't Know But Should, hosted by William Finn, for two performances on Labor Day weekend Friday, September 3 and Saturday, September 4, both at 8pm on the Mainstage.

"I am thrilled that BSC will be extending its season in 2010. It will be an exciting year for us: we will be producing one of the greatest musicals written in the second half of the 20th century on our Mainstage, we will be working with schools and the community with our fall and holiday productions and we will be giving birth to two new musicals in our Musical Theatre Lab," said Artistic Director Julianne Boyd in a prepared statement.

BSC YOUTH THEATRE
Barrington Stage Company's Youth Theatre will present Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into the Woods with performances from July 14 through August 15, at St. Joseph's High School, 22 Maplewood Avenue, Pittsfield. Into the Woods is a brilliant, fractured retelling of several well-known fairy tales (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood). The beloved fairy tale characters enter the woods, each looking for something - they are granted their wishes and then, in a clever turn of events, must face what it means to live "happily ever after." Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning score includes "No One Is Alone" and "Children Will Listen." Auditions for local youth ages 13-19 will be held in March 2010.

BSC FALL MAINSTAGE
One of the greatest plays of the 20th century, The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller in response to Joseph McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities' vilifying and blacklisting people suspected of being Communists in the 1950s. Set in 1692, the play uses the Salem, Massachusetts witch hunts as a parallel for what was happening in the U.S. at that time. The Tony Award-winning play will run on the Mainstage October 6-24, 2010 (Press Opening Sunday, October 10 at 3:00pm).

BSC HOLIDAY MAINSTAGE
The beloved Christmas movie, A Christmas Story, comes to life at BSC next holiday season. Adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian and based on the motion picture screenplay by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, A Christmas Story tells the story of Ralphie, a small-town boy growing up in the forties, who has only one wish for Christmas: a Red Ryder BB gun (with the unforgettable line: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"). The classic and hilarious story of Christmas shenanigans will run in December 2010, schedule TBA.

SPECIAL EVENTS
On February 6, 2010, BSC brings the sizzling Brazilian celebration of Carnivale to the Berkshires. The event will include exotic food and cocktails, dancing and live music by multicultural Latin band Los Sugar Kings. A special pre-party dinner will be held at 6pm, followed by the Carnivale at 8pm on the second floor of Jae's Spice in downtown Pittsfield (297 North Street). Tickets for the 6pm pre-party dinner and 8pm Carnivale are $125 per person; tickets for just the 8pm Carnivale are $35 per person in advance, $40 at the door.

BSC will hold its Annual Summer Gala on Saturday, June 26, 2010, featuring a performance of Sweeney Todd followed by a spectacular party with dinner, dancing and a silent auction.

An Evening with Judy Collins will be held at the Mainstage on Monday, July 26 at 7pm. For more than 40 years, Judy Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide with her unique blend of interpretative folksongs and contemporary themes. Collins won the 1975 Grammy for Song of the Year with her version of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns." Tickets for the concert are: VIP $65 (includes post-show reception and premium seating), Adults $45, Seniors $40, Youth $35.

A Staged Reading of a new play by Mark St. Germain will be held on Stage 2 September 4 and 5. Mark St. Germain is the author of the critically-acclaimed Freud's Last Session, BSC's longest-running production, which played to sold-out houses throughout the summer and fall 2009.

AFFORDABLE THEATRE FOR ALL CONTINUES IN 2010
BSC will once again offer the popular Pay What You Can Performances for each Mainstage and Stage 2 show during the summer season. Low-priced previews continue at $15 and $20 for the first two performances on the Mainstage and $15 on Stage 2. For the Mainstage, $35 Senior tickets will also continue for matinee performances. $15 tickets for youth 21 years and younger will be offered again for all performances except Saturday evenings. Single tickets, priced from $15-$58, go on sale March 1, 2010. FlexPass subscriptions are currently available at discounted prices - with no handling fees through December 31, 2009. Groups of 15 or more should contact Group Sales Manager Monica Bliss at 413 997-6112. For information on shows, FlexPasses and tickets call 413-236-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org.

Barrington Stage Company, a professional award-winning Equity theatre located in the heart of the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, MA, was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. BSC's mission is three-fold: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways to bringing new audiences into the theatre-especially young people. BSC garnered national attention with William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's Tony Award-winning musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which began as a workshop at BSC in February 2004, was produced in its world premiere to critical acclaim that summer season prior to taking New York by storm at Second Stage Theatre and later transferring to Broadway's Circle-in-the-Square Theatre where it has played more than 1,000 performances. For more information, log on to www.barringtonstageco.org.