Bill Irwin and Jacob Ming-Trent to Join Eden Espinosa & More at WTF Cabaret

The Williamstown Theatre Festival’s (Jenny Gersten, Interim Artistic Director) famous WTF Cabaret returns tonight at 8 PM and will be hosted by Jeff Hiller with Tony Award winner Bill Irwin and Jacob Ming-Trent joining previously announced performers Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Jon-Michael Reese, and Natalie Joy Johnson at the ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance (1000 Main St, Williamstown, MA). Additionally, Miriam Poe joins the cast of this weekend’s reading of the blistering backstage farce Paris, ACTORS!. WTF also announces 2023 Artists-in-Residence Brysen Boyd and Sanaz Toossi, whose 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning play English was the winner of the Festival’s 2020 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. In addition, Laura Benanti and Miranda Ferriss Jonesare in residence developing the new musical, The Precipice.

 

The WTF Cabaret is curated in partnership with Tony Award nominee and Festival mainstay Christopher Fitzgerald. Joel Waggoner will serve as music director withStephanie Layton as associate music director.

 

Below is the schedule and performers (subject to change) for the following two weekends of the WTF Cabaret:

 

· 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.

 

Each weekend of the Festival, the WTF Cabaret series will play 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.

 

Hamish Linklater’s blistering backstage farce Paris, ACTORS!, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, will be this weekend’s presentation as part of the Main Stage Reading Series. Miriam Poe is joined by the previously announced cast that includes Linklater, his longtime partner and Tony Award nominee Lily Rabe, and Gus Birney, Jeremiah Maestas, Noah Robbins, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Stuhlbarg, 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. 

 

The readings of Paris, ACTORS! will be held on Saturday, July 22 at 3 PM & 7 PM and Sunday, July 23 at 3 PM. Tickets are $40, and seating is general admission. Additional casting for the remaining plays in the Main Stage Reading Series will be announced at a later date.

 

The creative team of the new musical The Precipice will be in residency at the Festival until July 21. The piece features book, music, and lyrics by Miranda Ferriss Jones, additional music by Jeff Chimenti, direction by Annie Tippe, with Anna |UnwinMorton serving as dramaturg. Tony Award winner Laura Benanti will serve as Creative Producer as well as performer. This residency is made possible with the Angel Support of Bob Weir and Bridget Placek.

 

 

UPCOMING AT THE FESTIVAL

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

 

FRIDAYS@3 READING SERIES

 

Friday, July 21

Plunder and Lightning

By Cindy Lou Johnson

Directed by Portia-Krieger/">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

 

Jeff Hiller started performing at UCB in NYC, eventually becoming a regular cast member in ASSSSCAT. Hiller is currently a series regular on HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere” and has had recurring roles on “American Horror Story,” “30 Rock,” “The McCarthy's,” “Impastor,” “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” and was a series regular on the Pop Network's, “Nightcap.” Guest star roles include “Psych,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Broad City,” and “Community.” Films include Greta, Set it Up, Morning Glory, Ghost Town, and Adam. Jeff has appeared on Broadway (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson), Off-Broadway (Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, Silence!, Heartbreak House), in Shakespeare in the Park (Midsummer..., Love's Labour's Lost), and in Disney's Hercules with Public Works. Jeff has performed solo shows at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. Jeff was a Moth StorySlam host and has told stories for Risk!, Nights of Our Lives, and many other shows. He is a cast member of improv show Raaaatscraps which performs Sunday nights at Caveat in NYC. 

 

Bill Irwin is an actor, director, writer, and clown. His original works include: The Regard of Flight; Largely New York; Fool Moon; Old Hats; The Happiness Lecture; and others. His theater credits include The Iceman Cometh, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Goat, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and On Beckett, an evening of passages from Samuel Beckett’s work. Television appearances include “The Dropout,” “Legion,” HBO’s “Confirmation,” “This Is Us,” and Mr. Noodle in “Elmo’s World.” His film credits include Spoiler Alert, Rachel Getting Married, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Eight Men Out, and Interstellar. His work has been honored with Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barrymore, and Helen Hayes Awards. He is also a recipient of Guggenheim, Fulbright, MacArthur, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

 

Jacob Ming-Trent. Television “White Famous” (Showtime), “Watchmen” (HBO), “Ray Donavan” (Showtime), “Feed The Beast” (AMC). Additional TV credits include “Only Murders In The Building” (Hulu), “WU-TANG: An American Saga” (Hulu), “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “God Friended Me” (CBS), “High Maintenance” (HBO) and more.

Film: Superfly, The Forty-Year-Old Version, The Snakes, R#J, Possession of Hannah Grace, The Bygone, Julie Taymor's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and others. Broadway: Shrek, The Musical (Original Cast), Hands on a Hardbody (Original Cast). Off-Broadway: The Alchemist (Redbull Theater/ Lortel Award nomination), Merry Wives (Public Theater/ Drama Desk Award nomination), Father Comes Home From The Wars (Public Theater/ Lortel Award), Twelfth Night (Public Theater), Cymbeline(Public Theater), Mother Courage (Classic Stage Co.), Merchant of Venice (TFANA), A Midsummer Night's Dream (TFANA), Widowers Houses (Epic Theater), The Tempest (Public Theater), and On The Levee (Lincoln Center). 

 

 

ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE BIOGRAPHIES

 

Laura Benanti. Ms. Benanti first took Broadway by storm at the age of 18 as Maria in The Sound of Music, and has subsequently starred in ten more Broadway shows (musicals, straight plays, comedies and dramas) including Into the Woods, Nine (opposite Antonio Banderas), Gypsy (for which she won a Tony® Award), She Loves Me, My Fair Lady, and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower opposite Amy Schumer and Keegan Michael Key. Her flourishing television and film career have included widely acclaimed appearances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as Melania Trump, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick... Boom! and roles on Hulu’s Life & Beth, “Inside Amy Schumer”, as well as “Gossip Girl”, “Younger”, “Nashville”, “Supergirl”, and the highly anticipated second season of “The Gilded Age”. In film, Benanti starred in Netflix’s Worth opposite Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan, Here Today opposite Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish, and the upcoming Sony Pictures comedy No Hard Feelings opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew Broderick. Also a book author and creator of the HBO Max special “Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020” based on her viral social media movement: #sunshinesongs, Benanti released a self-titled audio album for Sony Music Masterworks and tours the world performing solo concerts alongside highly celebrated musicians and orchestras.

 

Miranda Ferriss Jones, a Vermont-born songwriter, theater creator, and performer, draws inspiration from her biracial identity and multicultural upbringing to explore feminine identity and challenge societal binaries in her work. After studying at Yale University and LAMDA, Miranda moved to San Francisco where she received angel investment from Bob Weir to bring “The Precipice" to life with pianist Jeff Chimenti. Now, she is incredibly honored to embark on the next phase of "The Precipice'' development with Broadway star Laura Benanti at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her upcoming concept album, "Spiral Bound," featuring collaborations with Benanti and other talented femme artists, will debut at Joe's Pub in November. Miranda's dedication to women's stories is evident in the success of "Showing Up," which has had two sold-out runs in Vermont, and "Weave," a musical about 19th-century female sculptors, developed in collaboration with poet Richard Edelman and her BMI musical theatre workshop cohorts. Through her coaching practice and workshops, Miranda empowers women to tap into their artistry and claim the power of their voices. Miranda lives in Montclair, NJ where she is proud to be raising two young feminist sons—Leo and Will—with her husband, Ben.

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning ENGLISH (co-production Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and WISH YOU WERE HERE (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible, released 2020). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (Launch commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). In television, Sanaz recently staffed on INVITATION TO A BONFIRE (AMC); A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (Amazon); FIVE WOMEN (Marielle Heller/ Big Beach); and sold an original idea, THE PERSIANS, to FX with Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields attached as Executive Producers. Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award, the 2022 recipient of The Horton Foote Award and, most recently, the 2023 recipient of the Best New American Play Obie Award. MFA: NYU Tisch

 

Brysen Boyd is playwright, TV writer, and essayist originally from Tacoma, WA. He served on the writing staff for HBO’s “Succession” (in a position created for him), is the inaugural Playwright-in-Residence at Reverie Theater Company and is a proud member of Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theater and Liberation Theater Company’s Residency Program. His plays include Family Sideshow (O'Neill Conference Semi-finalist, 2022 Juilliard Finalist, Winner of KC-Melting Pot National New Play Competition), Closing Costs on 6101 Nyanza (Blue Ink Award Semi-finalist, Kennedy Center Short Play Semi-finalist) and others. His work has received support from Tin House, the Kennedy Center, Sewanee Writers Conference, Columbia University, Napa Valley Writers Conference, Kansas City Melting Pot, Seattle Playwrights’ Saloon and others. Having come to playwriting and creative nonfiction in undergrad by way of his first love, television, his goal in life is to write stories that make others feel as excited as 9-year-old him felt when watching David and Keith on “Six Feet Under.” Writing means everything to him – second only to his miniature wiener dogs, Simon and Alvin. B.A., Boston College MFA., Columbia University

 

 

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.

 

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