Barrington Stage Company facts for kids
The Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
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| Formation | 1995 |
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| Type | Theatre group |
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Artistic director(s)
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Julianne Boyd |
Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is a well-known theater company in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. It was started in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Susan Sperber.
One of its biggest hits was the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. BSC helped create and first showed this musical in 2004. It became so popular that it moved to Broadway in New York City. The show won two major awards, called Tony Awards.
After this success, the Barrington Stage Company moved to a new, permanent home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Contents
Finding a Home
When the company first started, its shows were held at a high school in Sheffield, Massachusetts. In 2005, BSC bought an old building in Pittsfield called the Berkshire Music Hall. They fixed it up and renamed it the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. This theater has 520 seats for the audience.
In 2012, the company grew again. It bought another building and turned it into the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center. This center has two smaller stages. One is the St. Germain Stage, and the other is a 99-seat space called Mr. Finn's Cabaret.
BSC also has a building for its offices and for actors to practice their shows. To build the sets for their plays, they have a large production center. This is where all the scenery is built before it's moved to the stage.
History of the Mainstage Theatre
The main theater building has a long history. It was built in 1912 and was first called the Union Square Theatre. It showed live performances called vaudeville and later, silent movies.
Over the years, the building changed names and owners. Before BSC bought it, it was known as the Berkshire Public Theatre and then the Berkshire Music Hall. When BSC took over in 2005, they renovated it into the modern theater it is today. It opened as the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in the summer of 2006.
Famous Shows and People
Barrington Stage Company has produced many award-winning and popular shows. The company is known for its high-quality productions and for helping create new plays and musicals.
Hit Productions
Even in its first year, BSC won a big award for its play The Diary of Anne Frank. A few years later, its version of the musical Cabaret won several awards and was so popular it moved to a theater in Boston.
A play by Mark St. Germain called Freud's Last Session was a huge success for BSC. It was the company's longest-running show at the time. It was performed 61 times over two summers before moving to New York for a two-year run.
Another popular play was Becoming Dr. Ruth, starring Debra Jo Rupp. This play told the amazing life story of Dr. Ruth Westheimer. It covered her childhood escape from the Nazis, her time in Jerusalem as a scout, and her journey to becoming a famous media personality in America.
Other popular shows at BSC include:
- Follies (2005), a classic musical with a cast of famous actors.
- On the Town (2013), which later moved to Broadway.
- American Son (2016), a new play that also went to Broadway and was made into a Netflix film.
- Pirates of Penzance (2016), a fun-filled comic opera.
- Company (2017), a famous musical starring Aaron Tveit.
- West Side Story (2018), a new version of the beloved musical.
Creative Artists
Many talented people have worked with Barrington Stage Company. These artists help write, direct, design, and star in the shows.
- Actors
- Gretchen Egolf
- Jeff McCarthy
- Debra Jo Rupp
- Elizabeth Stanley
- Directors
- John Rando
- Designers
- Choreographers
- Joshua Bergasse
- Playwrights and Lyricists
- William Finn
- Joe Iconis
- Mark St. Germain
- Composers
- Jason Robert Brown
Creating New Plays and Musicals
Barrington Stage Company is dedicated to helping create new shows. Besides The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, many other new plays and musicals have started at BSC. By 2020, the company had produced 36 new works. Nineteen of them were so successful they moved to stages in New York City.
For example, several of Mark St. Germain's plays, like Ears on a Beatle and The God Committee, were first produced at BSC before having successful runs in New York.
The Musical Theatre Lab
In 2006, the company started the Musical Theatre Lab with Tony Award-winning composer William Finn. This special program helps young writers develop new musicals. It gives them a place to turn their ideas into full shows.
Many musicals from the lab have become very successful. The Burnt Part Boys was later produced at a major theater in New York. Other shows, like Calvin Berger and The Black Suits, were also produced at other well-known theaters after being developed at BSC.
Youth Theatre Program
BSC also has a program for local teenagers. The Youth Theatre program lets teens work with theater professionals to put on their own show. In 2019, they performed a new musical called Hansel and Gretel. After a pause, the program returned with a play called The SupaDupa Kid, based on a book by a local author.
