Berkshire Theatre Group Spreads Holiday Cheer in Downtown Pittsfield

Berkshire Theatre Group is excited to announce their participation in lighting up downtown Pittsfield for the Holiday Season. In addition to the decorations covering the outside of the historic Colonial Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group has decorated the window fronts of 74 North St. at the corner of School St. and North St. in downtown Pittsfield.

Designed by Joseph Wilk and Kyle Urquhart, the windows display not only holiday cheer, complete with wrapped presents, ornaments and a fully decorated Christmas tree, but also a webcam with a companion monitor where passersby can have their holiday photos taken. Programmed by Dennis Koch, the camera snaps a picture ever fifteen seconds and then displays the picture on the monitor. Later the pictures will be loaded onto discoverpittsfield.com, downtownpittsfield.com and thecolonialtheatre.org where people can go and see all the holiday cheer that fills downtown Pittsfield. The display will be up through the end of December.

Berkshire Theatre Group is also presenting a range of holiday events to get its audiences in the spirit! On December 10 and 11 The Albany Berkshire Ballet will present The Nutcracker at The Colonial and finally from December 17 to 30 A Christmas Carol will be performed at The Colonial with a cast of Berkshire community members and special guest James Taylor as Bob Cratchit.

The Colonial Theatre, founded in 1903, and Berkshire Theatre Festival, founded in 1928, are two of the oldest cultural organizations in the Berkshires. Having united in November of 2010 under the helm of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, these two institutions are providing the Berkshires and beyond with the finest in live theatre, music, dance and the visual arts on four stages in Stockbridge, MA, Pittsfield, MA and Lenox, MA. The Fitzpatrick Main Stage (408 seats), cataloged by the National Register of Historic Places, was originally designed and built by Stanford White as the Stockbridge Casino in 1888. The intimate Unicorn Theatre (122 seats) is a home for emerging artists and new theatrical ideas. The Colonial in Pittsfield (800 seats) re-opened in August of 2006, following a $21 million restoration, and boasts pristine acoustics, classic gilded age architecture and state-of-the-art technical systems. BTG also performs at the newly built outdoor Neil Ellenoff stage at the Mount. Together they serve over 100,000 patrons per year and reach over 10,000 students through their educational and outreach programs. For more information on BTF call (413) 298-5536 and on The Colonial call (413) 448-8084. To purchase tickets, call (413) 997-4444 or (413) 298-5576 or go online to www.berkshiretheatre.org or www.thecolonialtheatre.org.