Nobel Prize-Winner Luigi Pirandello's NAKED Begins At The Unicorn Theatre, 9/27

Written by Nobel Prize Award-winner Luigi Pirandello, in a new version by Nicholas Wright, Naked begins performances Thursday, September 27 at 7pm at The Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA.

Opening night is set for Saturday, September 29 at 7pm. Directed by Eric Hill (BTG: At Home at the Zoo, The Homecoming, Poe), the production features: David Adkins (Homeland BTG: The Petrified Forest, At Home at the Zoo) as Alfredo Cantavalle; Haley Aguero (BTG: Tarzan, The Music Man) as Emma; James Barry (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson BTG: The Caretaker, The Who's Tommy) as Franco Laspiga; Jeffrey Doornbos (A Thousand Miles Behind) as Consul Grotti; Tara Franklin (Sleep No More BTG: At Home at the Zoo, The Homecoming) as Ersilia Drei; Barbara Sims (A Streetcar Named Desire BTG: Benefactors) as Signora Onoria; and Obie and Drama Desk Award-winner, Rocco Sisto (The King and I BTG: The Homecoming) as Ludovico Nota. This production is sponsored by Lead Sponsor, Bobbie Hallig; Furlano and Arace, PC; The Westifeld News Group; Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Shubert Foundation.

Hailed as one of the greatest playwrights of all-time, Nobel Award-winner Luigi Pirandello's Naked, delves deep into the struggle of self-identity, and the tendency to skew reality to benefit desires of the heart. The production follows the story of a woman, in the midst of questioning her existence, as the men around her impose their view of her into the world.

Stated in Nobel Lectures, "Pirandello's characters attempt to fulfill their self-seeking roles and are defeated by life itself which, always changing, enables them to see their perversity. This is Pirandello's humor, an irony which arises from the contradictions inherent in life."

Tickets for Naked are $45, and $52 for Previews. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street, Pittsfield or by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org. The Ticket Office is open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sundays 10am-2pm or on any performance day from 10am until curtain. All plays, schedules, casting and prices are subject to change.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Luigi Pirandello (Playwright) (1867-1936) was born in Girgenti, Sicily. He studied philology at Rome and at Bonn and wrote a dissertation on the dialect of his native town (1891). From 1897 to 1922 he was professor of aesthetics and stylistics at the Real Istituto di Magistere Femminile at Rome. Pirandello's work is impressive by its sheer volume. He wrote a great number of novellas which were collected under the title, Novelle per un anno (15 vols., 1922-37). Of his six novels the best known are Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904) [The Late Mattia Pascal], I vecchi e i giovani (1913) [The Old and the Young], Si gira (1916) | [Shoot!], and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1926) [One, None, and a Hundred thousand]. Pirandello wrote a large number of dramas which were published, between 1918 and 1935, under the collective title of Maschere nude [Naked Masks].

Nicholas Wright (Playwright, New Version of Naked) is a leading British playwright. His plays include: an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's novel The Slaves of Solitude (Hampstead Theatre, 2017); an adaptation of Pat Barker's novel Regeneration (Royal & Derngate, Northampton, 2014); Travelling Light (National Theatre, 2012); The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre, 2011); Rattigan's Nijinsky(Chichester Festival Theatre, 2011); The Reporter (National Theatre, 2007); a version of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin (National Theatre, 2006); an adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (National Theatre, 2003-4); Vincent In Brixton (National Theatre, 2002; winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play); a version of Luigi Pirandello's Naked (Almeida Theatre, 1998); and Mrs Klein (National Theatre & West End, 1988). His writing about the theatre includes Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century, co-written with Richard Eyre.

Eric Hill (Director) directed Berkshire Theatre Group's production of At Home at the Zoo (Zoo story), The Homecoming, Thoreau or, Return to Walden; Poe; Benefactors; A Christmas Carol; Oklahoma!; A Chorus Line; The Who's Tommy as well as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Neil Ellenoff Stage at the Mount. Additional BTG directing credits include: Macbeth, Endgame, Faith Healer, The Einstein Project, Amadeus, The Glass Menagerie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Caretaker. Previous acting credits include Deathtrap, A Man for All Seasons, Dimetos, The Father, and Scrooge in the annual A Christmas Carol.

David Adkins (Alfredo Cantavalle) has performed in numerous productions at Berkshire Theatre Group over the last thirty years. He is an Artistic Associate at BTG and appeared this season in The Petrified Forest, and last season's At Home At The Zoo (Zoo Story) in which he was honored with a "Berkie Award" for Outstanding Performance in a Lead Role. He has worked On and Off Broadway, in resident theatre's across the country and guest starred extensively on television, most recently on Homeland. Others include: Blacklist, The Good Wife, Elementary, The Americans (two seasons), Happy-ish, Without a Trace, a pilot directed by Forrest Whitaker, the Ben Franklin mini-series on PBS and more.

Haley Aguero (Emma) was seen at BTG this season in Tarzan, in 2017 as Marian in The Music Man and in 2016 as LeFou in Beauty And The Beast. Haley is a recent graduate of Valdosta State University with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Some of her favorite credits at VSU include: Ado Annie (Oklahoma!), Cinderella (Into The Woods) and Natalie Haller (All Shook Up). haleyaguero.com

James Barry (Franco Laspiga) is always proud to return to BTG. Last season, he was honored by the Berkshire Critics Association with the Best Director of a Musical Award for Million Dollar Quartet (at BTG's Unicorn Theatre). As an actor, recent BTG credits include: The Caretaker, The Who's Tommy and A Thousand Clowns. Locally, he also works often with the Chester Theatre Company where his credits include The Aliens, Sister Play, Arms On Fire and Wittenberg. Broadway/Nat'l Tour: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Million Dollar Quartet. TV: Difficult People. As a composer, his work was featured in the Studio Theatre productions of Three Sisters and No Sisters, and his album Embrace Yourself Tonight is streamable and available on vinyl LP through Etsy. Proud New Neighborhood company member. James and cast mate/better half Tara Franklin live with their 7-year old son in Williamstown.

Jeffrey Doornbos (Consul Grotti) is proud to be making his first appearance with the Berkshire Theatre Group. Jeffrey recently starred in the soon to be released feature film, A Thousand Miles Behind (@lemoynestreetpictures), is a veteran of film, television and theatre in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and has appeared at the O'Neill Theatre Center, and recently in two Storyhorse Documentary Theatre productions (dir. Jeremy Davidson and Mary Stuart Masterson), with BTG's own Eric Hill. He will soon be traveling to Chicago for a reading of his new play Extinction based on his upbringing in the Dutch Reformed enclaves of Western Michigan. Jeffrey also produced the award-winning feature film From The Head, was a long-time performer and director with the internationally known Blue Man Group and has a penchant for photography (dutchcouragephotography.com). He splits his time between the East and West Coast with his wife Caroline Diani, with whom he runs a home goods store (dianiliving.com).

Tara Franklin (Ersilia Drei) BTG credits include: At Home at the Zoo, The Homecoming, Mary & Edith, The Lion In Winter, The Puppetmaster of Lodz, Birthday Boy, The Guardsman, Ghosts, A Man For All Seasons, Educating Rita, Amadeus, Equus, The Misanthrope, Peter Pan, Dimetos and A Dream Play. Off Broadway: Sleep No More (Punchdrunk). Regional: Bar Mitzvah Boy, Sister Play (Chester Theatre Company), Burning Desire (Seven Angels), Henry V, Love's Labours Lost, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nebraska Shakespeare Festival), Translations, The Trojan Women, Red Noses and Misalliance (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (Lookingglass Theatre Company) and Gravid Water (Improv Olympic). Film: Labor Day. Tara holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Connecticut.

Barbara Sims (Signora Onoria) Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire; Noises Off. Off Broadway: Entertaining Mr. Sloane with Alec Baldwin; Juno and the Paycock; Arms and the Man directed by Roger Rees (Roundabout Theatre); The Hope Zone with Olympia Dukakis (Circle in the Square); Horton Foote's Night Seasons and Laura Dennis (Signature Theatre); Communion; Trip to Bountiful with Ellen Burstyn; Laughing Wild. Regional: multiple productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Group, Geva Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, Stages Repertory Theatre and Houston Shakespeare Festival. Film and TV credits include: Law & Order: SVU, Guiding Light, End of the Line, Cornflower Blue (PBS Films). Directing Credits include: Tartuffe, Vinegar Tom for Bard College Simons at Rock. Barbara co-wrote and performed in Through the Looking Glass, an original work presented at the Unicorn Theatre as a benefit for the Berkshires Women Writers Festival. Barbara is a Co-Curator and director of Made in the Berkshires Festival of Berkshire art and artists.

Rocco Sisto (Ludovico Nota) BTG: The Homecoming. Barrington Stage Company: The Birds, His Girl Friday. Broadway: The King and I, Amadeus, Seminar, A Month In The Country, Once In A Lifetime, The Comedy Of Errors. Recent Off Broadway: Enrico IV (Cherry Lane), Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (Theatre for the Romantic Century), Extreme Whether (LaMama), The Lightyears (Playwrights Horizons) Old Fashioned Prostitutes, The Bacche, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale (among others for The Public Theater); Tis Pity She's a Whore, Loot, Volpone (Red Bull Theater); Quills, Kaos (NYTW); Measure for Measure; Souls of Naples (TFANA); Iphigenia 2.0; The Harlequin Studies (Signature Theatre). Films include: Donnie Brasco; Frequency; Eraser, Carlito's Way; A Bird on the Air; and the cult favorite, The American Astronaut. Television: The Blacklist; Madame Secretary; Blue Bloods; The Sopranos; Law & Order; Star Trek: The Next Generation; and more. He has received 3 Obie Awards, including one for Sustained Excellence, a Drama Desk Award-Nomination and a Drama League Award.

The Colonial Theatre, founded in 1903, and Berkshire Theatre Festival, founded in 1928, are two of the oldest cultural organizations in the Berkshires. In 2010, under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, the two organizations merged to form Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG). Berkshire Theatre Group's mission is to support wide ranging artistic explora

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