Photo Flash: Berkshire Theatre Group presents William Mastrosimone's Extremities

Berkshire Theatre Group presents William Mastrosimone's Extremities at The Unicorn Theatre which opened on July 13 and runs through July 27 at 8pm.

Tickets to Extremities are $45 and preview tickets are $35. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street, Pittsfield; at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage Ticket Office at 83 East Main Street, Stockbridge; by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org. All plays, schedules, casting and prices are subject to change.

In William Mastrosimone's psychological thriller, a young woman is violently attacked in her own home. However, once the tables turn, Extremities raises provocative and difficult questions about rape and its aftermath, violence and its justification, justice and its reliability. Who will be held responsible in this riveting game of cat and mouse?

"Much of Extremities deals with our violent nature," said Kate Maguire, Artistic Director and CEO at Berkshire Theatre Group. "It also deals with the issues of how men and women speak to each other, how they act with each other, and who's going to get the better of each other. It's one of those plays that provokes and brings up things about each one of us that we often don't like to face."

Chosen as a Summer Arts Critic's Pick by The Boston Globe, Extremities is directed by original cast member Karen Allen. She starred in the original 1983 off-Broadway production in the lead role of Marjorie.

The cast includes Molly Camp as Marjorie, Kelly McCreary as Terry, James McMenam as Raul and Miriam Silverman as Patricia.

Artistic Staff Bios:
Karen Allen (Director) returns to BTF having directed Michael Weller's Moonchildren in 2011. Most recently she was seen on stage in the Rattlestick Theatre production of Jon Fosse's A Summer Dayat the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC and will direct Lucy Thurber's new play Ashville for Rattlestick at the Cherry Lane later this summer. Karen attended George Washington University and began to work in the theatre in Washington, D.C. with the Washington Theatre Laboratory whose work was inspired by Polish director, Jerzy Grotowski. In 1976, she moved to NYC to study and to begin a life in the theatre. Her theatre roles on and off Broadway have included The Monday After the Miracle (Theatre World Award) directed by Arthur Penn, Extremities, The Glass Menagerie, The Miracle Worker, The Country Girl, Beautiful Bodies, Temporary Help and Speaking in Tongues. In 1981, Karen came to the Berkshires and to BTF for the first time to play Gittel in William Gibson's Two for the Seesaw. She has also worked at The Williamstown Theatre Festival (Tennessee Williams: A Celebration, The Royal Family, Glass Menagerie) and at Shakespeare and Company's As You Like It. Films include: Animal House, The Wanderers, A Small Circle of Friends, Shoot the Moon, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Starman, Until September, The Glass Menagerie, Scrooged, Malcolm X, King of the Hill, The Sandlot, Falling Sky, Poster Boy, The Perfect Storm, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and White Irish Drinkers. Television roles include: East of Eden, Secret Weapon, The Challenger, All the Winters That Have Been, My Horrible Year and last years' November Christmas with Sam Elliot. Karen is on the faculty of the theatre department at Bard College at Simon's Rock where she began to work as a director with a production of Joan Ackermann's The Batting Cage. She has also taught at the Lee Strasberg Institute in NYC and is a member of the Actor's Studio.

Cast Bios:
Molly Camp (Marjorie) Broadway: The Heiress. Off Broadway: Close Up Space (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional: Are You There McPhee? (McCarter Theatre, John Guare world premiere), Crimes of the Heart (McCarter Theatre), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Berkley Rep, Syracuse Stage), Annie Bosh is Missing; Lightyears to the Delling Shore; Out of Orbit (Sundance Theatre Lab), Mrs. Miller Does her Thing (Vineyard Theatre). TV/Film: The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Gossip Girl, All My Children, Sponge.

Kelly McCreary (Terry) Kelly McCreary is new to BTG, but no stranger to these mountains, having appeared at the Williamstown Theater Festival in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Eurydice, and Kilroy Was Here. More stage credits include Passing Strange (Broadway), Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages), Precious Little (Clubbed Thumb), and Caroline, or Change (Center Stage). Recently, McCreary starred as Tyra Dupre in the CW series, Emily Owens, M.D. More TV credits: I Just Want My Pants Back (MTV), White Collar (USA); Rubicon (AMC); Cyberchase (PBS). On film: Being Flynnand How to Follow Strangers. An alumna of Barnard College, McCreary also trained at the Chautauqua Conservatory Theatre Company, British American Drama Academy (London), and The Actor's Center in New York. McCreary is proud to make her BTF debut in a play that contributes to the conversation about making the world safer for victims of rape to tell their stories and see justice done.

James McMenamin (Raul) James was most recently seen on stage at The Old Globe in Good People directed by Paul Mullins. Off Broadway: The Bad Guys (Second Stage Uptown) Suicide Inc.(Roundabout Theatre) Middletown (Vineyard Theatre) Our Town (Barrow Street Theatre) BFE(Playwrights Horizons) Armed and Naked & Mag-7 (Naked Angels) Regional: Our Town (Broad Stage) At Home at the Zoo (Arena Stage) Prayer for My Enemy (Intiman Theatre & Long Wharf Theatre); Loves Labor's Lost, The Sisters Rosensweig (Huntington Theatre); BFE (Long Wharf Theatre); Chekhov Cycle, Three Penny Opera, The Skin of our Teeth (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Cobb, The Rose Tattoo (Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble); Joan (Edinburgh Fringe); Anita Bryant Died for Our Sins (Florida Studio Theatre). TV and Film: Inside Amy Schumer, The Word, The Good Wife, I Just Want My Pants Back, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order and Guiding Light.

Miriam Silverman (Patricia) NY Theatre: Finks (EST- Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Actress), Septimus and Clarissa (Ripe Time), The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull), Hamlet (Public Theater); Bone Portraits (EST/Stillpoint); The Calamity of Kat Kat and Willie (Babel Theater Project). Regional: All's Well That Ends Well; The Liar; The Dog in the Manger (Helen Hayes Nomination), Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Moonchildren (Berkshire Theater Festival); Peer Gynt (Guthrie Theater opp. Mark Rylance); Awake and Sing! (Arena Stage); As You Like It (Folger Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer, The Seagull, Shapeshifter, and others (Trinity Rep). TV/Film: Pan Am, Law & Order CI, Better Days Ahead, A Midsummer Night's Dream. BA and MFA from Brown University. Miriam is a member of the Actors Center Workshop Company, a Shakespeare Theatre Company Affiliated Artist and a recipient of the 2011 TCG Fox Foundation Fellowship.

Extremities
by William Mastrosimone
directed by Karen Allen

With scenic design by John McDermott, costume design by David Murin, lighting design by Shawn E. Boyle, sound design by Scott Killian and fight choreography by Lisa Kopitsky.

For more information about this performance, please visit our website a twww.berkshiretheatregroup.org.

Photos by Abby LePage

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