Barrington Stage Company Launches National New Play Contest; Deadline This April!

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announced today the creation of The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a national new play contest.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $25,000 from Barrington Stage Company. Submissions are being accepted now through April 30, 2018.

"We are thrilled that Bonnie and Terry Burman have given us this incredibly exciting opportunity to expand and continue our commitment to new work and emerging voices, a vital part of BSC's mission" says Artistic Director Julianne Boyd.

In addition to the $25,000 cash prize, the Grand Prize winner will receive a developmental staged reading with a professional cast and director, all travel and housing covered for the staged reading, and a possible full production at Barrington Stage Company. Two runners-up will each receive $5,000, and a developmental staged reading with a professional cast and director.

Final play selections will be announced in October 2018 and will be read by the New Play Contest Committee, comprised of distinguished artists and playwrights. Winners will be announced in December 2018.

The play must be a new, unproduced full length play; be free and not attached to any producers or directors; be able to be performed with 8 actors or less; be wholly original and not an adaptation or translations of existing foreign language plays. The playwright must be a U.S. resident and may only submit one play for consideration. The play must be endorsed by a professional theatre, commercial producer or literary agent. There is no fee for entry.

For more information about the submission process and to apply for the inaugural Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, visit barringtonstageco.org/about-the-company/new-play-award.

In 2018, BSC will present the World Premiere of The Royal Family of Broadway, a masterful musical comedy love letter to the Great White Way. For the Cavendishes the show must go on! Set in the 1920's and loosely based on the legendary Barrymore family, it centers on three generations of actors: an aging imperious grande dame, a Broadway star looking for love, a self-centered boozing leading man who has fled to Hollywood, and a promising ingénue - each having to make pivotal choices in their lives.

With a book by Tony Award winner Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), music and lyrics by Tony Award winner William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Falsettos, Artistic Producer of BSC's Musical Theatre Lab), choreography by Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Joshua Bergasse (On The Town, "So You Think You Can Dance") and direction by Tony Award winner John Rando (On The Town, Urinetown), The Royal Family of Broadway will begin previews on June 7, 2018 on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. Opening is set for June 13, 2018 and will run through June 30, 2018.

In celebration of the 100th birthdays of Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins, BSC will present West Side Story, based on conception by Jerome Robbins, with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The world's greatest love story takes to the streets in this landmark Broadway musical. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is transported to modern day New York City, as two young lovers find themselves caught between warring street gangs. Their struggle to survive in a world of hate, violence and prejudice is one of the most innovative, relevant and heart aching musicals of our time. Directed by Julianne Boyd, West Side Story will feature choreography by world-renowned dancer, choreographer, and Tony nominee, Robert La Fosse. West Side Story was originally produced on Broadway by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince by Arrangement with Roger L. Stevens. Previews begin July 27, 2018 on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. Opening is set for August 1, 2018 and will run through August 26, 2018.

2018 Season Passes are now on sale and available at www.barringtonstageco.org or by calling 413-236-8888 or visiting the Mainstage box office (30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201). Single tickets for The Royal Family of Broadway and West Side Story will be available in March 2018.

Barrington Stage Company is a professional award-winning Equity regional theatre located in the heart of the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, MA. It was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and has a three-fold mission: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre-especially young people. Barrington Stage garnered national attention in 2004 when it premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which later transferred to Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards. In 2009, Mark St. Germain's Freud's Last Session ran more than ten weeks on Stage 2 and later moved Off-Broadway and played for two years. St. Germain's Becoming Dr. Ruth (which premiered at BSC as Dr. Ruth, All the Way in 2012) played Off-Broadway at The Westside Theatre in fall 2013. BSC's all-time record-breaking musical, On the Town was originally produced at BSC in 2013. In 2014, it opened on Broadway with BSC as a co-producer, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. In 2016, Barrington Stage swept the? first Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards by winning 20 out of the 25 awards. In 2016, BSC produced three World Premieres; Presto Change-O, Broadway Bounty Hunter, and American Son, which won the Laurents/Hatcher Award for Best New Play. In 2017, BSC won the Best of the Berkshires Reader's Choice for Best Live Theatre.