Barrington Stage Company turns 15

It may be a brisk autumn evening outdoors, but inside the theater, it’s a balmy mid-afternoon circa 1935 in Maycomb, Alabama, and Miss Maudie has just invited her neighbor, a girl nicknamed Scout, to smell her fragrant mimosa plants. A rickety fence, white paint peeling, winds past an aged tree draped in moss and casting a shadow across the proscenium. To Kill a Mockingbird has just begun a three-week run in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at Barrington Stage Company. Debra Jo Rupp, in overalls and carrying a metal watering can, plays the role of Miss Maudie, the show’s narrator—and as Rupp recounts in her distinctive voice why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird, the audience is drawn into the familiar story of lawyer Atticus Finch, his two children, and the trial that disrupts the fictional town of Maycomb.

Last fall’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird, an adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was not only a box-office success, but, perhaps more significantly, it marked a change in status for Barrington Stage. The upstart theater company—based in Sheffield, Massachusetts, for more than a decade before moving its operations north in 2006—is no longer a newcomer but an integral part of the Pittsfield community. This year, the fifteenth anniversary season for Barrington Stage Company (BSC), includes productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical, Carousel, the thriller, Sleuth, and the Tennessee Williams masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire, not to mention two plays on Stage 2, one a world premiere; new works from the Musical Theatre Lab; the Youth Theatre production; and a concert series, performed in three venues in downtown Pittsfield. This company of artists has put down roots.

On a Saturday afternoon in early March, Julianne Boyd is at home in Pittsfield. Dressed simply in dark slacks and an ivory blouse and wearing a businesslike pair of black-rimmed spectacles, she’s preparing to meet with set designer Brian Prather to start work on A Streetcar Named Desire.
“We’re just doing a strategic plan now,” says Boyd, BSC’s founder and artistic director, relaxing in an upholstered armchair in the parlor, “and looking back at our original mission as compared to our mission now, it hasn’t changed. It’s the same. To do top-notch theater, to do plays that aren’t done very often, to bring new life to older classics, and to develop new plays and musicals. And then to find innovative ways to get an audience into the theater, especially young people. So it’s great that that mission hasn’t changed. As a matter of fact, I think we have more of an opportunity to accomplish that mission, particularly the audience part of it, in Pittsfield.”

The great success of To Kill a Mockingbird and, along with it, the opportunity it provided to participate in a community-wide reading project, turned out to be the ideal finale for the 2008 season. When Megan Whilden, the director of cultural development for the city of Pittsfield, got a call from Barrington Stage about the fall show, it was the beginning of a successful collaboration between the city and the theater, as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program. “The book is so timeless, and it turned out to be so timely as well,” recalls Whilden. “It was just a month before the national election, and issues of race were coming up. It was a very important time to be reading and discussing that book.”

While the citywide project boasted over twenty community partners, the play was the cornerstone of the effort, says Whilden. BSC offered a number of special morning matinees for groups of children from Berkshire schools. One of the key actors in the show, Rupp, perhaps best known for her role as Kitty Forman on television’s long-running That ’70s Show, says she enjoyed the talkback sessions with the students after the performances. “To get up in the morning and have coffee and then perform for teenagers: if I can do that, I can do anything,” Rupp laughs.

More than two thousand people who had never bought a ticket to Barrington Stage before came to see To Kill a Mockingbird. For Richard M. Parison Jr., 40, who joined BSC last year as producing director, it came as a bit of a surprise. “I don’t think anyone realized until the end of the summer season and the Big Read started to kick in, both in the community and at Barrington Stage, just how big this was,” Parison recalls. “I remember standing in the back of the theater as people would walk in for the first time, and they saw the set and the lights, and it took their breath away.… And in that moment, I realized the enormity of what was going on.”

Mockingbird certainly resonated with local audiences. “Art was reflecting life for a lot of people in the audience,” Parison remarks. “I think that the people who had never been to our stage saw something that was very accessible for them. Something that clicked in a way that I don’t think anybody expected.”

In 1995, Boyd launched Barrington Stage Company with Susan Sperber, who had been a colleague at the Berkshire Theatre Festival (BTF), with a production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, a one-woman show about Billie Holiday, at a roadside pub in Housatonic, Massachusetts. This was after some years as a freelance director (which included, among other accomplishments, Boyd conceiving and directing the musical revue Eubie! that went from off-off-Broadway to Broadway and garnered two Tony Award nominations), followed by two years at the helm of BTF. At the time, Boyd explains, BTF was committed to a summer season, and Boyd saw an opportunity to start a new theater that would, eventually, produce shows year-round. “The main thing that I wanted to do,” she says, “was I wanted to reach the young people.”

Mary Ann Quinson, a family psychotherapist with a practice in New York City who has led the BSC board from its very beginning, says, “We were inventing it as we went along. We knew it was risky, but we all thought we could do it. We were optimistic; we had a plan; and we took it step by step.”
Their first steps were pretty sure-footed. Lady Day was a big success (the show has been restaged by BSC several times over the years), and the second production that first year, The Diary of Anne Frank, won a prestigious Elliot Norton/Boston Theatre Critics Award. In its third year, BSC’s production of Cabaret moved to Boston for an extended run and won six awards. It was an auspicious beginning.

Unable to find a theater in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, BSC rented the Consolati Performing Arts Center at Mount Everett High School in Sheffield, using the large auditorium as its main stage and constructing a second stage in the school’s cafeteria. “One of the reasons we began producing large musicals,” Boyd explains, “was because of the vastness of the space [in the high school auditorium].”

Some of the musicals performed in that auditorium were standouts: In 1999, when Boyd directed Mack and Mabel, famed composer Jerry Herman, with book writer Francine Pascal, came to Sheffield to work with her on revising the show; in 2003, BSC offered a brand new musical, The Game, based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In 2004, BSC developed and premiered the bright, brash, and very funny musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, which, of course, went on to Broadway, where it won two Tony awards. And the 2005 season included a hit production of Follies, which brought the show’s composer, Stephen Sondheim, literally to his feet, applauding.

“I do think it’s a rather remarkable story how this company has turned the Berkshire theater scene from the Big Three to the Big Four within such a short time,” says former Boston Globe theater critic (and Berkshire Living contributor) Ed Siegel. “The key has been Julie’s sharp ear for musicals, from the opening Billie Holiday show to the roaring success of Spelling Bee and Bill Finn’s involvement with the company. In between, of course, have been productions of Cabaret and Follies, among others, that have been better than their Broadway counterparts,” Siegel continues. “But it’s Spelling Bee, I think, that put them on the map nationally.” 

After a decade of successfully staging plays in a high school, Barrington Stage was more than ready to graduate. “We were looking for a permanent home right from the beginning. The school was never ideal,” Quinson explains. In 2005, its eleventh year, BSC purchased a 1912 vaudeville house on Union Street in Pittsfield. Renovated into a modern 520-seat theater, the venue boasts an intimate arrangement of seats and stage, top-notch acoustics, and good sightlines. The new Mainstage opened with Ring Round the Moon in August 2006. Last year, Barrington Stage transformed a large space in the VFW Hall on nearby Linden Street into a one-hundred-and-ten-seat black-box theater, giving the company the flexibility to offer small productions year-round.
“It all came together, and it’s turning out to be very good,” Quinson affirms. “No regrets at all.” There is still a little more than a million dollars to raise to pay for the theater purchase and renovation, a goal Quinson describes as manageable. Although, she adds, in this business, you’re never finished raising money.

Moving the theater company from its southern Berkshire base to a new home in Pittsfield might be characterized by some as risky, but, judging from the increase in tickets purchased by Pittsfield residents, the city has embraced Barrington Stage—and vice versa. “I’m thrilled with Pittsfield,” Boyd says, “because it’s located in the right place. It works.”

In 2006, inspired by the success of Spelling Bee and dedicated to the development of new musicals, the Musical Theatre Lab, curated and directed by composer and lyricist William Finn, was created. Finn has said that he wants Pittsfield to be “the epicenter of musical theater writing,” a goal he sees as being realized. “Absolutely. There are many weekends when there are many writers walking around,” Finn enthuses. “And we need more money and more young writers.” At the end of each summer season, Finn produces a revue called Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don’t Know But Should, for which the writers, he says, “have been coming up in droves. They are so young and energetic and deliriously happy to have their stuff done.”

For Finn, the move to Pittsfield has made sense, so much so that he purchased a house here two years ago. “Pittsfield … [was] ready to bust,” he says. “It just needed an agent to get it started. Julie was smart enough to realize that. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I think it’s a natural fit.”
Stage manager Renee Lutz has worked at BSC from the very beginning. “When the Union Street theater became available,” she says, “we went and looked at the building, and even in its old configuration, it felt like a good theater should feel.… Pittsfield has been great for us.”

Since the big move, Barrington Stage has had significant accomplishments about which to brag—including productions of West Side Story and last year’s triumphant return of Spelling Bee; comedies and dramas from Chekhov to Coward on the Mainstage; and the heart-tugging rendition of To Kill a Mockingbird that brought in so many new audience members. Boyd is justifiably proud of all these efforts, but is just as likely to talk about the community of artists she has worked to create.

Actor Christopher Innvar, who plays Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and Jigger in Carousel this summer, first met Boyd back in 2003, when he was cast in The Game. “My agent mentioned that they performed in a high school, and I thought, What have I gotten myself into? But the high school turned out to be a great facility.”

Innvar says that he and Boyd spoke the same language artistically, which led them to seek out more projects to do together; since then, Innvar has performed at BSC every summer but one. There are a number of actors that Boyd has cast year after year; and, as Innvar says, “it expanded into a creative family.” As a director, Innvar says, “Julie is very generous with actors. She encourages us to be brave, to take risks, to be creative in rehearsal.” Innvar appreciates having an artistic home at BSC. “Her plan to have a company of actors is a great idea,” he says. “The audience loves that; they become familiar with the actors; it builds community.”

Mark H. Dold, a New York City-based actor, is another piece of that ensemble, having been at BSC since 2004, when he was cast as Comte de Guiche in Cyrano de Bergerac. This year he portrayed C.S. Lewis in Mark St. Germain’s new play, Freud’s Last Session.

“After five summers in the Berkshires, I feel like I have a bigger, richer family,” says Dold. “It’s a communal thing that happens.” In rehearsal, Dold explains, Boyd “gets you to ride the biggest wave and trust the wave will carry you all the way to shore. It’s thrilling to work for someone like that.”

Playwright Mark St. Germain, who has had a number of his plays produced at BSC over the years, echoes the sentiment. “To me, BSC is really a home for artists; that’s important. To me, it’s been a lifeline. It’s my artistic home, it’s so important and it’s rare, and getting rarer.”

Lighting designer Scott Pinkney, 56, is working on Carousel and Streetcar this summer, one of many he’s spent at BSC. “There’s a comfort level among the designers and cast members, a familial atmosphere,” he says, “which is good when doing something that can be so emotionally and physically intense.”

That comfort level is especially important when exploring new work, a BSC specialty. A staged reading or a workshop production of a new piece connects with the audience in a special way; offering a bit of behind-the-scenes or in-on-the-ground-floor feeling. As St. Germain describes it, “people really have a sense of discovery. The audience is critical: it’s an enthusiastic, intelligent audience.”

Last year, BSC hosted two staged readings of St. Germain’s new play, Freud’s Last Session, and, says the playwright, “watching them helped shape the next rewrite. People can see the real journey of the piece.” There were talkback sessions after each reading, and, he recalls, people wanted to respond. “It was a terrific audience, full of comments and questions. The audience enjoyed being part of a new work.” The responses had a direct impact on the rewrites, and earlier this summer, a full production of Freud’s Last Session was done at Stage 2.

“How many theaters do two new works in a season?” Parison asks. “Some, but two new plays is a risk.… The artistic product and the artistic quality is first and foremost what we want to focus on. We want our audiences to be challenged and to be entertained, to be excited, and for that to happen you cannot eliminate risk.”

For Boyd, the success of Barrington Stage after fifteen years is “beyond my wildest expectations.” Settled in Pittsfield, Boyd now says, “I have to remember to listen to the people in the community. I have to think about what their needs are, how we can get them into the theater, what their concerns are.… So I have to think, this is what I want to do, will this work?” With Mockingbird, as with so much else Boyd has taken on, it has just worked. [JULY 2009]

Berkshire Living senior editor Lesley Ann Beck has long been a fan of musical theater; long enough to remember seeing the original Broadway production of  Man of La Mancha. Yes, that long.

Captions:

BSC’s October production of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Grace Sylvia, Christian Meola, and Debra Jo Rupp, was the centerpiece of Pittsfield’s community Big Read project. (Photo by Kevin Sprague/ Courtesy BSC)

Union Street in Pittsfield is now home base for Julianne Boyd and Barrington Stage Company, with a renovated theater, adjacent office building, and a second theater space just a few blocks away.

Julianne Boyd directs local author Frank La Frazia, who leads the BSC Playwright Mentoring Project for at-risk youth, in his one-man show, Living With It.

Susan Sperber and Julianne Boyd at BSC’s first office on Lake Buel Road in Great Barrington in 1995. (Photo courtesy BSC)

The 1997 performance of Cabaret with Jonathan Hammond won two Elliot Norton awards. (Photo courtesy BSC)

The cast of Follies with composer Stephen Sondheim who traveled to Sheffield for a performance. (Photo courtesy BSC)

Barrington Stage Company is known for musicals: Follies, in 2005, starred Donna McKechnie. (Photo courtesy BSC)

Julianne Boyd and Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist William Finn have both become part-time Pittsfield residents. (Photo courtesy BSC)

Finn’s 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was produced at BSC in 2004, going  on to a successful Broadway run. (Photo courtesy BSC)

Actors Christopher Innvar and Mark H. Dold, who consider themselves part of the BSC artistic family, in The Importance of Being Earnest, 2005. (Photo courtesy BSC)