Berkshire Theatre Festival presents Samuel Beckett's classic tragicomedy Waiting for Godot, directed by Anders Cato, at the Unicorn Theatre. Waiting for Godot previews July 29 through August 1 at 8pm and August 2 at 2 pm. Opening night (press night) is August 2 at 8 pm. The production runs through August 23. Waiting for Godot changed the course of modern theatre when it opened in Paris in 1953. The play is at once a vaudevillian farce and a heartrending expression of our very existence.
Dublin-born Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) made his writing debut in 1930 with Whoroscope, a monologue with 17 footnotes in which the protagonist awaits his morning omelet and meditates on life's mysteries, time's passage, and death's approach. In World War II Beckett joined the French Resistance. Sought by the Nazis, he fled with his wife Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil to Southern France, where they hid for two and half years. Between 1946 and 1949 he produced Malloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable, novels written in French and translated by him into English. En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), written in 1949, established him internationally as a leading dramatist of the modern theatre. There followed Endgame (1957), Krapp's Last Tape (1959),
Happy Days (1961), and a series of short plays and pieces for the radio and television. Film, his only movie, appeared in 1967, starring Buster Keaton. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1969, the reclusive Beckett refused to attend the ceremony. But he did not stop writing until the very end.
David Adkins plays Vladimir. Adkins has been with BTF for twelve seasons, performing in Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Misanthrope, and The Father, among others. In New York he has worked with The Women's Project, National Actors Theater and Manhattan Theater Club.
Stephen DeRosa plays Estragon. DeRosa also performed in Love! Valour! Compassion!, as well as Lives of the Saints at BTF. He played Wilbur Turnblad in the Broadway production and First National Tour of
Hairspray. His other Broadway credits include Twentieth Century, Henry IV, and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
David Schramm plays Pozzo. Schramm played Mr. Burgess in this season's BTF production of Candida on the Main Stage. Previous seasons at BTF, he appeared in Heartbreak House, The Boys Next Door, A Member of the Wedding, and All the Way Home. Schramm appeared on NBC's Wings for eight seasons and is a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company.
Randy Harrison plays Lucky. Harrison appeared in BTF's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Mrs. Warren's Profession,
Equus, and Amadeus. On Broadway, he played Boq in
Wicked and appeared in A Letter From
Ethel Kennedy at MCC Theatre. Also joining the cast is Cooper Stanton, who plays A Boy. Stanton's previous BTF credits include The Miracle Worker and
A Christmas Carol. He has also worked with Shakespeare & Company and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Anders Cato directed Candida for BTF earlier this season. Some of his other BTF directing credits include Love! Valour! Compassion!, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing, and the world premiere of
Craig Lucas's adaptation of Miss Julie. He has also directed at George Street Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse, and La Jolla Playhouse.
The design team includes scenic designer Lee Savage, costume designer Jennifer Moeller, lighting designer
Jeff Davis, and original music and sound designer Scott Killian.
Waiting for Godot previews July 29 through August 1 at 8pm and August 2 at 2 pm. Opening night (press night) is August 2 at 8 pm. The production runs through August 23. Performances are Monday through Saturday evenings at 8pm with matinees at 2pm on Saturdays. A free post-show discussion between the cast and audience will be held following the August 4 performance.
High-resolution production photos will be posted on BTF's website. Please visit the online gallery at www.berkshiretheatre.org/gallery/2008.
Tickets range from $19.50 to $44. Students with valid ID receive a fifty percent discount. Additionally, half price tickets to Saturday matinees are available to full-time Berkshire residents (driver's license required to verify address). For additional ticket information, please call 413-298-5576 or visit www.berkshiretheatre.org. Box Office hours are Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm and one hour prior to curtain.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Berkshire Theatre Festival celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, making it one of the oldest professional regional theatres in the United States and the longest-running cultural organization in the Berkshires. Now under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, BTF presents theatre that matters—world premieres, contemporary works, and classics that speak to who we are in our world today. The 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 mission of BTF's second stage, the intimate Unicorn Theatre (122 seats), is to provide a home for emerging artists and new theatrical ideas. BTF's education program, BTF PLAYS!, reaches over 10,000 children annually through school residencies, touring performances, and summer performance training and writing programs. During the summer months BTF opens its doors to over 75 administrative, acting, and technical interns and apprentices.
