J. Peter Bergman is the Director of Communications at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead. In the past he has been a writer for The Berkshire Eagle, Berkshire’s Week, The Advocate, The Berkshire Beacon, The Independent and still contributes to The Chatham Courier and Edge.com and Berkshirebrightfocus.com. He is a novelist, poet and author of short fiction. His book “Counterpoints” won the 2002 Friends of Charles Dickens Award. He has been a paid theater critic since he was 15 years old.
Tuesday, 27 Jun 2017 - It's as though the tale of what makes an American what an American is needs to be retold intensely at least once a decade.
Wednesday, 21 Jun 2017 - This is not your typical summer fare, not like the Hitchcock movie would have been: This is important theater presented in an important way.
Thursday, 15 Jun 2017 - Hadden – the author, the storyteller and the son – is an actor who can divide himself superbly into two similar men who are so very much alike.
Saturday, 3 Jun 2017 - Talented people are at work here. They make the everyday interesting and the fascinating obsessive.
Thursday, 1 Jun 2017 - "Shipwrecked!...." is a fine example of how an audience can be given more than it can handle and still come out feeling all right.
Thursday, 1 Jun 2017 - This production has a star-quality cast and the result of however much work went into it is simply stated as follows: You absolutely must get a ticket today and not miss this fabulous hit show -- period.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017 - This is a must-experience performance, so natural and so real it is as though he is channeling the man he portrays on the stage.
Sunday, 12 Mar 2017 - WAM is the only independent company to have collaborated with Barrington Stage Company, Shakespeare and Company, Berkshire Theatre Group and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Tuesday, 21 Feb 2017 - This is the way I like to begin spring. New plays that speak volumes in mere minutes. Fine performances that grow characters quickly and definitively.
Saturday, 18 Feb 2017 - Looking at this ambitious season it is clear that rather than expanding they are doing just a differently formatted season filled with the potential of excellent and fascinating presentations.
Sunday, 12 Feb 2017 - The Tina Packer will only offer one play this year instead of three plays which has been the recent norm.
Saturday, 11 Feb 2017 - The "season of celebration" has, in this era of uncertainty, a darkness that shows promise, especially with "Ragtime" leading off the main stage's season.
Saturday, 28 Jan 2017 - I like what this company of theatre professionals is doing even if I don't agree with every choice. I think it a very worthwhile effort and should be seen by everyone in the region who believes in live theater.
Friday, 2 Dec 2016 - Unlike other years where the jokes at the expense of politicians, local and national, are hooters, this season's barbs are blurred by everyone's sense of what is going on in the country.
Thursday, 17 Nov 2016 - Founded by North Adams resident and critic Larry Murray, from Berkshire On Stage, with the assistance of a small group of other devoted theater-goers and writers, the awards are intended to be a yearly celebration of the finest work done in the region between October 1 and September 30 every year.
Thursday, 13 Oct 2016 - Bigoted, mean-spirited men of business have always believed in their God-given right to rule the world they control. Seeing this play again, now, in this season of our political year, is a hysterically funny yet chilling experience.