Great Barrington Public Theater Annual Benefit Will Honor Tristan Wilson

The Great Barrington Public Theater Annual Benefit will take place on June 14, 2025 at Saint James Place. This year’s honoree and recipient of the 2025 Black Bear Award will be Tristan Wilson.

Tristan Wilson served as the first Managing Director of Great Barrington Public from 2020 until his recent retirement in December 2024. He was integral to the operations of GB Public and helped launch the company to its full season and off-season programming.

Tristan Wilson and Jim Frangione were friends and partners while working at Berkshire Playwrights Lab in 2017 before Jim Frangione and Deann Simmons Halper co-founded Great Barrington Public Theater.

“When Deann and I started Great Barrington Public Theater in 2019, we knew that Tristan had to be our first and most important hire.” GB Public Artistic Director Jim Frangione reminisces, “Since then, we ran the day to day operations of the company together. One of Tristan’s greatest qualities is that he is ‘unflappable in the face of multiple crises’. Theater folk know the value of what that means and it’s not to be understated.” 

Jim Frangione continues, “I can’t imagine how Great Barrington Public Theater would have fared without his unscrupulous honesty, his vast expertise across several areas—whether it be forging contracts and agreements with artists, designers, playwrights, directors and technical staff, dealing with our union reps, or exhibiting his vast technical experience.”

Jim Frangione sums up, “I’m grateful for our friendship of many years. We’ll miss him for sure, but he won’t be far away. Much to our delight, he’ll still be serving on the board of the theater, keeping us honest and offering sage advice. We all wish Tristan and Peggy a rewarding next chapter as they travel the world, but always keeping the Berkshires, and all of us, close”.

In addition to his tenure at GB Public, Tristan Wilson has also worked for Barrington Stage Co and The Mahaiwe here in the Berkshires. Over his career Tristan has worked on theatre (Broadway, Off-Broadway and regionally), opera, dance, music, live television, radio, and special event productions. A few of his credits include: B’way – 42nd Street, Ten Unknowns, Chaucer in Rome and Invention of Love; Off-B’way – Three Hotels, Urinetown, Freud’s Last Session, Becoming Dr. Ruth and Force Continuum. Off-B'way clients include Atlantic Theatre, American Place Theatre, Jane St. Theatre, Lambs Theatre and Actor's Playhouse. PBS/Live from Lincoln Center – Hansel and Gretel produced by the Juilliard School and Live from the Kaplan Penthouse performances by Renee Fleming and Itzhak Perlman. Regional Theatres include Missouri Rep, Dallas Theatre Center, Creede Repertory Theatre and Theatre Three in Dallas. He also spent seven years on the production staff at the Juilliard School in Lincoln Center. He is married to Berkshires actress Peggy Pharr Wilson.

The Great Barrington Public Theater Annual Benefit will be a glamorous evening celebrating the continued success of the GB Public and a fabulous season full of world premiere plays. Auctioneer John Terrio returns to host and thrill the audience through the annual auction, with additional surprises along the way. It’s sure to be an evening to remember.