POSTER BOY, Starring Taylor Trensch and More, Opens This Weekend at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Williamstown Theatre Festival hosts the opening night for the third Nikos Stage production of the 2016 Season Saturday, July 30th at 8:00pm with the world premiere of POSTER BOY (July 27th-August 7th).

Inspired by actual events surrounding the 2010 suicide of Tyler Clementi (Taylor Trensch), a college student who brought national attention to cyber-bullying, POSTER BOY is a new American musical by Tony Award-nominated composer Craig Carnelia and playwright Joe Tracz. A community of gay men in an online chat room come together to discover what drove one of their own to take his life. Directed by Olivier Award-nominee Stafford Arima, and movement by Danny Mefford, this provocative and moving new musical lays bare the complexity of protecting our privacy, identity and humanity in the digital era.

Due to a family emergency, Rohan Kymal withdrew from the production during rehearsals. Levin Valayil (Bollywood and Vine) replaces him in the role of Dharun.

The cast also includes Jerry Dixon (If/Then), Katie Lee Hill (The Wilderness), Jose Llana (The King and I), Taylor Trensch (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime), Stephen Wallem ("Nurse Jackie"), and Noah Zachary (I am Anne Hutchinson/I am Harvey Milk).

POSTER BOY begins previews tomorrow, July 27th, and is scheduled through Sunday, August 7th. There will be a special Lawn Talk before the show on July 31st, and a post-show talkback will take place after the August 2nd performance.

Tickets for all Williamstown Theatre Festival productions can be purchased online at wtfestival.org, by phone at 413-597-3400, or in person at the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance Box Office at 1000 Main St (Route 2), Williamstown, MA 01267.

Under artistic director Mandy Greenfield, Williamstown Theatre Festival, recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, creates renowned productions of both world premiere plays as well as revivals of some of the great works of the Western theatrical canon. Since 1955, Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought together gifted emerging theater artists with our country's finest theater professionals to produce a vibrant summer season in the Berkshires, while simultaneously running one of the country's top training and professional development programs. In 2015, the Festival launched a New Play Commissioning Program as well as a community-immersive theatre initiative, which unites professional theater artists with Berkshire residents to create new work. Playwrights under commission include Fernanda Coppel, Melissa James Gibson (co-commission with Second Stage), Halley Feiffer, Matthew Lopez, Jiehae Park, Benjamin Scheuer and Lucy Thurber. Additionally, each summer the Festival produces an array of unique cultural events including family-friendly theater, Late-Night Cabarets, music concerts and comedy. The artists and productions shaped at the Festival each summer fill theaters in New York, around the country and abroad. Recent critically acclaimed productions launched by Williamstown Theatre Festival include: Sam Shepard's FOOL FOR LOVE directed by Daniel Aukin, starring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell; Bernard Pomerance's THE ELEPHANT MAN directed by Scott Ellis, starring Bradley Cooper; John Kander, Frank Ebb and Terrence McNally's THE VISIT, directed by John Doyle, starring Chita Rivera, among many others. For more information, visit www.wtfestival.org.

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