BPL Gala June 5, with Lauren Ambrose, Jay Thomas, Treat Williams
Great Barrington — The Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) will present its Eighth Annual Multimedia Gala Celebration on Friday, June 5, at 8 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. The benefit evening will feature plays written for BPL by Chiara Atik, Joe Cacaci (BPL Co-Artistic Director), Richard Dresser and Dean Imperial. The Gala cast will include Lauren Ambrose, Jay Thomas, Treat Williams and others. In addition to the readings, “Love, Dad,” a film starring Treat Williams and a number of Berkshire-area “extras,” will premiere at the Gala.
Gala packages start at $250 and include the performance at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and reception next door at Castle Street Cafe. Gala tickets are available directly through BPL; call 413-528-2544 or visit www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org for more information. $50 show-only tickets are available through the Mahaiwe Box Office at 413-528-0100 or mahaiwe.org.
Proceeds from the Gala fundraiser help support BPL’s Free Staged Reading series throughout the summer. There is no admission cost for BPL’s readings (although reservations are required), providing area audiences a free opportunity to be part of the creative process through talkbacks and access to artists. This year’s readings take place on the following Wednesdays at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: June 24, July 15, July 29 and August 12.
Berkshire Playwrights Lab is the region’s only theater exclusively dedicated to the development of new plays. BPL’s mission is to provide new and established playwrights with a secure space in which they may develop new work and explore new avenues of creativity. More than 30 short and 35 full-length plays have been presented since 2007. Two plays presented under the BPL banner in recent years are being given full productions this summer. “Closure,” by Richard Dresser (BPL 2013), will be presented by New Jersey Repertory Company under the direction of Joe Cacaci and starring Wendie Malick and Gary Cole. “Mother of the Maid,” by Jane Anderson (BPL 2014), will be performed closer to home at Shakespeare and Company, directed by Matthew Penn and starring Tina Packer.
BPL plays go from the table to the stage in four days. Playwrights see their nascent works, still in development, acted by talented professional actors, allowing the writer to see where actors and directors stumble and what comes to life effortlessly. The talkback, held after every show, is an opportunity for the audience to have a role in shaping these new works. BPL playwrights state that the process is invaluable and saves them months of solitary labor. Past writers and performers have included Tony Shalhoub, Treat Williams, Dan Lauria, Wendie Malick, Eric Bogosian, Elaine May and David Mamet. Berkshire Playwrights Lab Co-Artistic Directors are Joseph Cacaci, Jim Frangione and Matthew Penn, all with long professional careers as actors, directors and writers for both stage and screen. Their complete bios may be found here: https://www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org/category/who-we-are/.
— D.S.
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Laura Didyk, Phoebe Kass Berkel exhibit at Stockbridge Coffee & Tea
Stockbridge — Stockbridge Coffee & Tea presents an opening reception for local artists Laura Didyk and Phoebe Kass Berkel on Friday, June 5, at 6 pm at 6 Elm Street. Light refreshments will be served. Their work will be on view from June 5 thru August 31, and show includes the visual text-based artwork of Laura Didyk and the drawings and paintings of Phoebe Kass Berkel.
Laura Didyk presents 8 archival prints from her Love Redacted series in the tradition of the erasure artwork of Tom Phillips (The Humument). Using pages torn from Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way and Marguerite Duras’s The Lover, Laura uses colored ink to hide and reveal already existing text, creating unexpected phrases and one-sentence poems. She stays loyal to the following definition of the verb redact: “To put into suitable literary form; revise; edit.”
“I’m trained as a poet, but this is a completely different medium and process. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had with language.” Her Love Redacted series can be viewed at https://loveredacted.com.
Phoebe Kass Berkel’s drawings, oil paintings, and watercolors, can be viewed on her website, phoebeberkel.com.
Laura Didyk has her MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama. Her poetry and nonfiction have been published in Diagram, Post Road, Alligator Juniper, Fence, and the Sun, among others, and her visual art has appeared in No Tokens magazine. She has been a writing fellow at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Originally from Northern California, she now writes, teaches, and makes art in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Phoebe Kass Berkel was born and raised in Northern Vermont and has been drawing and painting for 30 years. In addition to her more formal work, she is the creator of Tabby + Gom, a comic series for all ages. She is also a member of the band Pale Cowboy. Phoebe lives and works in Massachusetts with her husband Karl.
For further information, please contact Stockbridge Coffee & Tea at 413-931-7044.
