Barrington Stage Kicks Off 10x10 New Play Festival Today

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), under the leadership of Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director, and TriStan Wilson, Managing Director, presents the 10×10 New Play Festival, today, February 14 through March 3, part of the 2013 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival.

Actors Emily Taplin Boyd, Matt Neely and Peggy Pharr Wilson who performed in last year's 10X10 New Play Festival return, with Shakespeare & Company's Elizabeth Aspenlieder; Dustin Charles, Scott Drummond, and Hinsdale's Shea McIlquham making their BSC debuts.

This year's 10X10 New Play Festival productions:

There's No Here Here by Craig Pospisil. Christopher Innvar directs.
You Haven't Changed A Bit by Donna Hoke. Kristen van Ginhoven directs.
Christmas Eve, Many Years From Now by Martha Patterson. Frank La Frazia directs.
Freefalling by Aurin Squire. Julianne Boyd directs.
Camberwell House by Amelia Roper. Julianne Boyd directs.
The Wilderness by James McLindon. Christopher Innvar directs.
Context by John C. Davenport. Kristen van Ginhoven directs.
The Bounce by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Frank La Frazia directs.
The Stand-In by Brett Hursey. Julianne Boyd directs.
Higher Ground written and directed by Christopher Innvar.

The 10X10 New Play Festival Acting Company:

Elizabeth Aspenlieder - BSC debut. A long-time member of Shakespeare & Company selected credits include Parasite Drag (Joellen), The Winter's Tale (Hermione), Les Liaisons Dangereuses(Marquise de Merteuil), Bad Dates(Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance); Rough Crossing (Natasha), Ice Glen by Joan Ackermann; King Lear (Regan), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia), Richard III (Anne),Wit (Susie). Regional: Merrimack Rep: Bad Dates; Boston Theatre Works: Angels in America (Angel/multiple roles), Othello (Emelia). Canada: Eccentricities of a Nightingale (Alma), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Nora). Indy Films: Trigger Finger, Seriously Twisted. Upcoming: The Beauty Queen of Leenane at S&Co. this summer.

Emily Taplin Boyd - BSC: 10×10 New Play Festival (2012) and A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as readings including The Real Thing and Mrs. Lincoln's Seance. In New York she has worked at Marvell Repertory, and several off-off-Broadway theatres. She is currently starring in an independent feature Brooklyn, which is in production. She is also the Artistic Director of The Tinkers' Collective, whose award-winning production Andromache will be remounted in Manhattan this March. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago, LAMDA, and Bill Esper's class at his Studio. www.emilytaplinboyd.com

Dustin Charles - BSC debut. Regional: Dial M for Murder (John W. Engeman Theater), Proof, Barefoot in the Park, A Christmas Carol (One Man Show), Our Town (Skyline Theatre Co.), The 39 Steps, Dracula (New Stage Theatre), Boeing, Boeing (Penobscot Theatre), The 39 Steps (Allenberry Playhouse), Almost Maine, I Hate Hamlet (Cortland Rep.), The Drawer Boy, for which he earned a Broadway World Central NY Award for Best Actor in a Play, and Unnecessary Farce, for which he was nominated for a Syracuse Area Live Theatre Award for Best Actor. Film: Forged, Gentleman Jack, Black Forest, and "...The Making of...". BFA: Acting, Wright State University.

Scott Drummond - BSC debut. Off-Broadway: A Perfect Future (Cherry Lane), Hamlet (Theatre for a New Audience). Other New York credits: Roundabout, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company. Regional: George Street Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, The Shakespeare Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Film: Not Fade Away (Dir. David Chase). Television: Black Jack (pilot, Comedy Central), All My Children. Training: M.F.A., UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse; BFA, Southern Methodist University/Meadows School of the Arts.

Shea McIlquham - BSC debut. He appeared in last summer's Berkshire Children's Theatre production of Cinderella and was part of the Craneville Children's Chorus who sang in this year's Christmas at The Colonial with Mary Verdi concerts at The Colonial Theatre and Red Lion Inn. A resident of Hinsdale, Shea loves to play sports and video games and is always singing and dancing to his favorite music. This fifth-grader at Craneville would like to thank his Mom for supporting his dreams to be an actor.

Matt Neely - BSC: 10x10 New Play Festival (2012), The Crucible. Off-Broadway: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Hospital. Off-Off-Broadway: The Trial, The Heart of a Dog, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck), The Furies, Twelfth Night (Sebastian), Sex and Other Collisions, Marriage, Unreal City. Matt was the Associate Producer of the Emmy Award winning second season of Discovery Channel's Cash Cab. Education: MFA in Acting, Carnegie Mellon University and The Moscow Art Theater, BS in Theater, Skidmore College. Why not check out www.neelyair.com?

Peggy Pharr Wilson - BSC: 10X10 New Play Festival (2012), Guys and Dolls, The Crucible, To Kill A Mockingbird, Carousel, Laramie Project: Epilogue. BAT: Doubt. New York: Six Women with Brain Death (coauthor, and performed it also in Chicago, Dallas & Kansas City). Regional: Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado performing over 50 roles, including Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (Best Actress Ovation Award Denver Post), Shirley Valentine, A Moon for the Misbegotten and 3 Viewings. Other regional: Dallas Theatre Center, Theatre 3, Kansas City Rep, Unicorn, KC Lyric Opera, and Rose Theatre in Chicago.

Performances of BSC's New Play Festival are February 14 through March 3 at BSC's St. Germain Stage, located at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street. The press opening will be Sunday, February 17 at 3pm.

The 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the second year from February 14-24, 2013, and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC's 10×10 New Play Festival.

Christopher Donovan is Associate Producer, Tracy Wertheimer is lighting designer, Allison Smartt is sound designer and Olivia O'Brien is production stage manager.

Tickets to the 10×10 New Play Festival are on sale now. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $20 Thursday evening and Saturday/Sunday matinees; $25 Friday and Saturday evening. The first two Low Priced Preview performances on February 14 and 15 at 7:30pm are $15 for all tickets. Reserved seating. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Barrington Stage Box Office at 413-236-8888 (or toll-free at 855-TIX-2BSC) or visit www.barringtonstageco.org.

The festival is a collaborative effort spearheaded by Barrington Stage Company and the City of Pittsfield and coordinated through a steering committee that includes the Beacon Cinema, Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Berkshire Museum, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts and the City of Pittsfield, Mission Bar + Tapas, and y bar. Berkshire Gas is the lead sponsor of the 2013 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival. Additional support is generously provided by the following sponsors: Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Berkshire Magazine, The Berkshire Eagle,Lamar Advertising, Barrington Stage Company, and the City of Pittsfield.

Barrington Stage Company, a professional award-winning Equity regional theatre located in the heart of the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, MA, was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. Barrington Stage's mission is three-fold: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways to bringing new audiences into the theatre-especially young people. Barrington Stage garnered national attention in 2004 when it workshopped, and 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 2009/2010 Barrington Stage produced the world premiere of Mark St. Germain's Freud's Last Session, which later moved Off-Broadway and played for two years. Barrington Stage was voted "Best Live Theatre" by The Berkshire Eagle readers in 2011 and 2012 and was named "Best Theatre Company" in Metroland's Best of the Capital Region 2009-2012.

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