Playwrights, Actors Set for Berkshire Playwrights Lab New Play Benefit

Berkshire Playwrights Lab will present the Berkshire Playwrights Lab New Play Benefit on Friday, July 15 at 7:30pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, Mass.) All proceeds from this event support the Berkshire Playwrights Lab Free Reading Series. Tickets are $37 to $152 (the latter including an exclusive post-show reception with the artists). For tickets, call 413.528.2544 or see www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org.

The Berkshire Playwrights Lab New Play Benefit will feature world premiere readings of new short plays written especially for the occasion by Joe Cacaci, Richard Dresser, Kelly Masterson, Susan Merson, Alexis Perkins, and Anna Ziegler. In these six works, a septuagenarian congressman, wearing priestly garb, is discovered in a motel with a hooker; an apoplectic Hollywood producer becomes suspiciously obsessed with landing a mega star; a middle-aged couple is paralyzed with an irrational fear of their eight-year-old son; a face-off between a butler and a burglar takes an unexpected turn; a famous Hopper painting springs suddenly to life; and a grieving widow mourns her beloved husband.

The evening will be directed by Berkshire Playwrights Lab Co-Artistic Directors Joe Cacaci, Jim Frangione, Bob Jaffe, and Matthew Penn and feature actors Larry Bryggman, Jake Elitzer, Chris Hirsh, Dan Lauria, Brian Murray, James Murtaugh, Peter Riegert, Carol Schneider, Finnerty Steeves, Brooke Tibbs, Jennifer Van Dyck, Amy Van Nostrand, and Margot White.

Founded in 2007 by theater professionals Joe Cacaci, Jim Frangione, Bob Jaffe, and Matthew Penn, the Berkshire Playwrights Lab is the area's only theater dedicated exclusively to encouraging, developing, and presenting new plays. Through readings-and in the future through workshops and fully-staged productions-the Lab provides emerging and established writers with a professional and creative environment, while offering audiences the engaging and provocative opportunity to share in the dramatic evolution of premiere works. For more information, call 413.528.2544 or see www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org.

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