Kate Burton, John Cariani & More Join Williamstown Theatre Festival Performances

Williamstown Theatre Festival has revealed additional casting and artists for the final week of the Festival’s summer programming. At the WTF Cabaret, Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Kate Burton and Tony Award nominee John Cariani join the previously announced Eden Espinosa, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Jon-Michael Reese, Eleri Ward, and Samantha Williams along with host Jaye McBride. The Main Stage reading of The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh will feature Obie Award winner Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Erica Ito, and Danny Wolohan, joining the previously announced Obie Award winner Michael Chernus and Tony Award nominee Alison Pill. And finally, the Fridays@3 reading ofWipeout, the new play by Aurora Real De Asua and directed by Maggie Burrows, will feature Drama Desk Award nominee Candy Buckley, Brett Gray, andGabrielle Policano, joining the previously announced Becky Ann Baker and Emily Kuroda. 

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

The WTF Cabaret will play at the ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance (1000 Main St, Williamstown, MA) on Thursday and Friday at 8 PM and Saturday 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.

The Pillowman is part of 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. The reading will be held at the ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance (1000 Main St, Williamstown, MA) with performances on Saturday at 3 PM & 7 PM and Sunday at 3 PM. All performances of The Pillowman are currently sold out and the waitlist for cancellations is at capacity.

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. 

Finally, the Friday@3 reading of Wipeout will be held at the Clark Auditorium (225 South Street, Williamstown, MA). Tickets are $15; seating is general admission with reservations required.

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, Demond Green, Andy Grotelueschen, Dorcas Leung, Darrell Purcell, Justine Horihata Rappaport, Eliseo Román, Tally Sessions, Salome B. Smith, and three-time Tony Award nominee Mary Testa.

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

Kate Burton. WTF: Hapgood, Beyond Therapy, The Corn is Green, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Water’s Edge, The Winter’s Tale, Hedda Gabler, The Matchmaker, The Rivals, The Learned Ladies, The Royal Family, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Carthaginians, Beyond Gravity, Counsellor At Law, Three Sisters, The Rover, Wild Oats, The Greeks, Cherry Orchard, The Front Page, Cyrano de Bergerac. Broadway: Present Laughter, Hedda Gabler, The Elephant Man, The Constant Wife, Some Americans Abroad, Spring Awakening, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, An American Daughter, Wild Honey, Company, Doonesbury, Jake’s Women, Alice in Wonderland. West End: Three Sisters. Film/TV: “Dumb Money,” “The Anne Frank Gift Shop,” “Our Son,” “Inventing Anna,” “The Dropout,” “Unfaithful,” “Ice Storm,” “127 Hours,” “2 Days in NY,” “Liberal Arts,” “Where’d You Go,” “Bernadette,” “Celebrity,” “Big Trouble in Little China,” “Homeland,” “Empire Falls,” “Scandal,” and “Grey’s Anatomy”. Three Tony noms, three Emmy noms, Emmy winner. Professor at USC/Brown. Brown/Yale grad.

John Cariani. Broadway: Caroline, or Change (Stuart Gellman); The Band’s Visit (Itzik); Something Rotten! (Outer Critics Circle Award nom.); Fiddler on the Roof(Tony Award nom.; Outer Critics Circle Award). Off-Broadway: The Atlantic, The Public, Transport Group. Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Center Theatre Group, Barrington Stage Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Several films, including Showtime (with Robert De Niro), Elephant Sighs (with Ed Asner), and Scotland, PA (with Christopher Walken). Television: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Blacklist,” “The Good Wife,” and “Homeland”; recurring roles on “Law & Order” (CSU Tech Beck), “Numb3rs,” and “The Onion News Network.” Concerts: Ragtime with the Boston Pops. Playwright: Almost, Maine; Last Gas; LOVE/SICK; cul-de-sac.

MAINSTAGE READING BIOGRAPHIES

Quincy Tyler Bernstine. New York theater (selected): Marys Seacole (Lortel Award); Our Lady of 121st Street; The Amateurs; As You Like It; Small Mouth Sounds; Peer Gynt; Grand Concourse; 10 out of 12; The Nether; Mr. Burns; Neva; We Are Proud to Present a Presentation…; born bad; Red-Handed Otter; Family Week; Ruined (2009 OBIE, Clarence Derwent, Audelco Awards); In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play); The Misanthrope; A Small, Melodramatic Story;Matt & Ben, ‘nami; (I am) Nobody’s Lunch; The Ladies. Film (selected): The Tender Bar, White Noise, Manchester By The Sea, Easy Living, Still Alice, Ned Rifle, Red Hook Summer, While We’re Young, Hungry Hearts, Rachel Getting Married.  Television (selected): “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Evil,” “The Equalizer,” “Julia,” “Power Book II: Ghost,” “Power,”  “Ray Donovan,” “The Code,” “Modern Love,” “High Maintenance,” “The Good Wife,” “The Blacklist,” “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Madame Secretary,” “The Leftovers,” “The Strain,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Law & Order: SVU/Criminal Intent.”  Education: Brown (BA), UCSD (MFA). 2019 OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Performance, Cullman 3rd Award for Extraordinary Creativity (LCT 2019); 2015 Lilly Award, Charles Bowden Award (New Dramatists).

Erica Ito can be heard as Clara on the My Heart Says Go Studio Cast Recording alongside Jessie Mueller and Javier Muñoz. Theatrical credits include Rock Medea at Joe’s Pub and 42nd Street at Bucks County Playhouse. You can catch Erica weekly on the actual play RPG series Tabletopnotch and on Seaweed Brain: A Percy Jackson Podcast. BFA: The University of Michigan. Mahalo nui loa, Telsey!

Danny Wolohan Broadway: Camelot, Macbeth, West Side Story, To Kill a Mockingbird. Off-Broadway: The Low Road, Assassins, An Octoroon, The Flick, Pocatello, Patron Saint. Regional: What the Constitution Means to Me, Court Life, Gnit. LCT3: Verité. TV: “When They See Us,” “The Blacklist,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Elementary,” and “Veep.” Film: White Noise.
 

FRIDAYS@3 BIOGRAPHIES
 

Candy Buckley. Most recently Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret at Barrington Stage and The Witch in Sarah Ruhl’s Becky Nurse of Salem at Lincoln Center. Broadway: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Scandalous, Cabaret, After the Fall, Ring Round the Moon. Off-Broadway: Drama Desk nomination for The Petrified Princeat the Public, all-female Taming of the Shrew at the Delacorte, The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters Playwright’s Horizons. Regionally: A Delicate Balance at the Guthrie, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at The Old Globe, Company at Buck’s County Playhouse, Kill Local at La Jolla Playhouse. Company member four seasons American Repertory Theater: Hedda Gabler, Macbeth, King Lear, Misalliance. Company member 11 seasons Dallas Theater Center: All the King’s Men, The Cherry Orchard, Lady Audley’s Secret. Television and film: “The Kill Room" with Uma Thurman, “Rare Objects” with Katie Holmes, “Treme,” “The Americans,” “Blue Bloods,” “WeCrashed.” Recipient: Princess Grace Statuette for outstanding achievement in theater.

Brett Gray can currently be seen as a series lead, in Boots Riley’s highly anticipated new Certified Fresh new series "I’m A Virgo", currently streaming on Prime Video. The series is a coming-of-age joyride about Cootie, a 13ft tall young Black man in Oakland who has been sheltered his whole life and explores the outside world for the first time – Brett plays one of his friends and offers the comedic relief in the series. It is such a fun, fantastical show that covers friendships, finding love, navigating awkward situations, and even encountering a real-life superhero. Brett’s role is integral to a plotline that centers around the social justice movement. Brett is best known for his hilariously charismatic performance as “Jamal Turner” in Netflix’s hit series "On My Block", which garnered critical acclaim when it debuted in early 2018. On the heels of that show, Brett has been able to gain millions of fans all over the world. On the dramatic side, Brett has also appeared in the Emmy-winning limited series from Ava DuVernay “When They See Us” in addition to his work on stage in an Off-Broadway production of The Secret Life of Bees. Another huge passion of Brett’s is music. He released his last EP “Blue” in 2020. Brett formed the idea off of the well-known “blue periods” from artists like Picasso and Joni Mitchell and drew upon the emotional revelations that most experienced in lockdown during the pandemic. The tracks range from soulful R&B to more upbeat hip-hop/dance beats, something for everyone but with a common through line that speaks to his aesthetic.

Gabrielle Policano is a New York-based actor and poet. A recent graduate of Boston University's BFA acting program, her theatre credits include Let the Right One In (Berkeley Rep) and Richard II (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage). She is also an award-winning spoken word poet, having performed regularly with the Inspired Word and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. gabbypolicano.com

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.