Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam - Soldier's Stories Resonate

The Things They Carried at Barrington Stage April 15-17.
Tim O'Brien and David Rabe both served in Vietnam and lived to write about what they saw and felt. Rabe wrote for the stage and his Vietnam plays - "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel," "Sticks and Bones," "The Orphan," and "Streamers," are still popular, perhaps because of the parallels they offer with Iraq and Afghanistan today.

Tim O'Brien wrote a book - a masterpiece, really - "The Things They Carried," and it will receive a staged reading April 15-17 at Barrington Stage Company. It is part of The Big Read currently being celebrated throughout the City of Pittsfield.

And it's the performances planned by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Producing Director Richard M. Parison, Jr that will likely be the most memorable and moving. The book has long been known to have the power to change the way people think about that war (or any war for that matter) and to understand how the first hand experience is nothing like the media drawn images we substitute for the real thing.

Actors participating in “The Things They Carried: A Staged Reading” include Tim Rush as Tim O’Brien, Alex Cendese and MacCleod Andrews as two soldiers in the Vietnam War, and Hannah Koczela (BSC’s “Carousel”) in the role of Tim O’Brien’s 11-year-old daughter.

Tim O'Brien's book about the men who live through endless war will come to life through a staged reading.
Three readings will be presented on Friday, April 16 and Saturday, April 17 at 7p.m. at the BSC Mainstage, 30 Union Street , Pittsfield. In addition to the Friday and Saturday readings, a matinee reading will be presented on Thursday, April 15 at 12:30p.m. for invited local schools and Vietnam veterans. Tickets are available for a suggested donation of $10 for adults, $5 for Vietnam veterans and youth ages 18 and under. Tickets may be reserved by calling the Box Office at 413-236-8888 or online at barringtonstageco.org

Today, Tim O'Brien teaches writing at Texas State University. His book, based on the events he experienced in 1969, is a series of short stories, slices of life as lived by the guys on the ground. When you talk with veterans of wars, you often get well-rehearsed war stories, or stoney silence and one word answers. The experiences are harrowing, but often uplifting too. It takes writers like o'Brien to give them substance and form. And an ensemble of gifted actors and directors to bring them to life on stage. This is one of those rare moments.

Far from home and love. Maya Alleruzzo Photo.

What Did They Carry?
They Carried Each Other.

"They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks. The carried standard fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots.

They carried the M-16 assault rifle. They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-70 grenade launcher, M-14's, CAR-15's, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66mm Laws, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence. They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes.

Some carried napalm, CBU's and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworms and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones - real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: "Don't mean nothin'!"

They carried memories

For the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed - or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said "Dear God" and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die.

They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world. "

The Problem with ART (The Play by Yasmnina Reza)

After a seven year run in London, brilliant productions all over the world, Reza Yasmnina's adult comedy Art is making its way to the Berkshires in 2010. The problem isn't the play which is delightfully hilarious. It tells the story of a man who buys a large canvas painted white with "fine, diagonal white scars" for an outrageous sum and then defends the purchase to his friends.

The play is not really about art as much as how middle class men communicate - or rather, don't. Playwright Reza takes a distinctly French feminist skewer to the ways of these typical men. When the discussion turns to "what is art" it is really just one male seeking validation from his peers. We may hear them discussing the purchase, but in truth we are observing the nature of male friendships.

Which is Yasmina Reza, the best writer since Neil Simon or Theresa Rebeck, or both?
Art is a play that takes conflict and differences and makes a darkly comical stew of them. The roles are delicious, and such notables as Tom Courteney, Ken Stott and Albert Finney (the original West End cast) have appeared in it. The three parts are roles that actors can really get their teeth into and perfect their comic timing and subtleties.

John Procaccino, Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman in the Steppenwolf (Chicago) 2009 Production of ART.
Well, what's the problem with Art you ask? Isn't this a sure-fire winner that the cultural Berkshires will eat up? Well, yes and no. The first hurdle comes with its very title, "Art" which can be off-putting to many people. Previous regional productions have had praise heaped upon them, and still the audience stayed away in droves. Regular theatre goers may have been put off by the title, believing it to be too arty-tarty for their taste, As you can see from the sample at the top of this entry the poster that is most often used conveys that artsy feel, not one of an insightful comedy. It is the illustration being used on the Clark Art Institute site promoting an upcoming staged reading.

But I detect some poor communication and cooperation between our arts institutions. It is wonderful news to see that the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Williamstown Theatre Festival are collaborating to present a free staged reading of Art at the Clark on February 5 at 7 PM (reservations required - call the Clark at 413-458-0524).

But nowhere on the Clark's website nor in its promotional materials does it happen to mention that Art is also coming to the Berkshires this summer in a fully staged production at Barrington Stage Company, which will run from July 22 to August 7 on their main stage. I could find no reference to the Clark or Williamstown Theatre Festival on the Barrington Stage website either. They should be working together to figure out some cross pollination, don't you think? Something along the lines of "Now that you've seen Art at Barrington Stage, see it in person...at the Clark." And vice versa: "Now that you've seen our Art at the Clark, see the drama behind it at Barrington Stage."

WHen a play is as tough to sell as this one - despite having received 125 productions in 30 translations to date - the logic of cross promotion to help develop audiences for all three institutions is obvious. Instead we have cultural institutions that appear more concerned with their own "branding" (as if they are a commodity like aspirin or frozen pizza) than reaching out and informing and intriguing museum and theatre-goers.

Most importantly, whether an arts aficionado or a theatre maven, do not miss the staged reading. It will delight and surprise you at how witty and on the mark Yasmnina Reza is. And in six months, when the full theatrical version is unveiled with sets, lights, well rehearsed cast and all, you will be able to rediscover the work, and enjoy it from another director's viewpoint. This is the way that the depth of the theatrical experience expresses itself.

I can only assume that this failure to communicate is a lapse, an oversight, and will soon be corrected. Or that it is in the works. One can hope.

NEA Awards Grants to Six Berkshire Cultural Organizations

The grants were announced by new NEA chair, Rocco Landesman.

Both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) have completed a new round of funding. The NEA has selected six organizations in the Berkshires, while the NEH looked, but came up empty.

As might be expected, large, well known Berkshire based organizations like Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow and The Clark Art Institute were among those blessed, and so was the feisty Barrington Stage Company - for its Musical Theatre Lab project. It runs each summer under the watchful eye of composer William Finn (he of Spelling Bee fame).

But two smaller, literary organizations were also selected, the Orion Society based in Great Barrington, and the Tupelo Press, recently arrived in North Adams and headquartered at the Eclipse Mill. While the Berkshires have long been home to visual and performing artists, the tradition of literary lights living here is also well established, going back to Herman Melville whose home in Pittsfield was named Arrowhead and Nathaniel Hawthorne who had a small cottage in Lenox.

The NEA grants were made under the Access to Artistic Excellence program and chosen from more than 1,600 applications. Access grants "support the creation and presentation of work in the disciplines of dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, media arts, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts."

Here is a summary of the six grants made in the Berkshires:

The workshopped Calvin Berger is typical of the Musical Theatre Lab's best work. Top left to right - Michael Perreca (Other Stages Producer), Justin Paul (Musical Director) and Stephen Terrell (Director and Choreographer); Bottom row l-r: The Cast of Calvin Berger - Aaron Tveit, Elizabeth Lundberg, David Perlman and Gillian Goldberg. Photo by Charlie Siedenburg.

Barrington Stage Company Inc.
Pittsfield, MA. 
$25,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Musical Theater
. To support the Musical Theatre Lab. The program provides emerging composers, lyricists, and book writers the opportunity to develop new works of musical theater in a supportive environment with an experienced management team.

In talking to Artistic Director Julianne Boyd about the Musical Theatre Lab, she noted that quite a few musicals and performers got their start there. The 2007 musical Burnt Part Boys gets produced in New York this Spring. And in Summer 2010, Nikos Tsakalakos and Janet Allard musical Pool Boy (first workshopped by BSC last summer) will get a fully staged production.

Earlier, the musical workshop of Calvin Berger brought Aaron Tveit to the public's attention, and he "got his equity card through that show," she noted. Tveit has since gone on to become much in demand in American musical theatre, being featured in Next to Normal which went from Arena Stage to Broadway, and assuming the Leonardo DiCaprio role in the new musical Catch Me If You Can which is in preparation for Broadway.

Each summer, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket becomes the world's center of contemporary dance.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Inc., 
Becket, MA. 
$90,000 
CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
. To support residencies and performances of dance companies. The project will include a Creative Development Residency, presentation of national and international dance companies, and audience engagement and educational programs.

The BSO's Contemporary Music program takes place at Tanglewood in Lenox/Stockbridge. Ozawa Hall is the concert hall used for these concerts, and it too opens to their glorious lawn.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (on behalf of Tanglewood Music Center)
 Boston, MA. 
$45,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence.   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music. 
To support the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Tanglewood Music Center. The 70th anniversary festival will honor the resident composers who have led composition activities for the festival over the past seven decades.

Orion Magazine is at the junction of art, science, politics and the environment. It serves as an intellectual, spiritual and discussion center for the conservation movement.

Orion Society
, Great Barrington, MA. 
$15,000 
CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature. 
To support feature-length pieces of literary prose in Orion magazine. A bi-monthly literary and visual arts journal devoted to exploring the relationship between people and the natural world, the magazine currently has 20,000 subscribers.

The Clark Art Institute may be battling over expansion with their NIMBY neighbors in Williamstown, but its role as the steward for the world's greatest art has never been challenged.

Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, 
Williamstown, MA. 
$75,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum. 
To support the exhibition Picasso/Degas, with accompanying catalogue and education programs. The exhibition is being organized in association with the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.

Tupelo Press publishes innovative, unpredictable and visceral poetry by authors such as the young luminary Larissa Szporluk's. Her Embryos and Idiots is sly, seductive and spare.

Tupelo Press, Inc.
, North Adams, MA
. $25,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence.   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature
. To support the publication and promotion of new collections of poetry and international literature. Proposed authors include Gary Soto, Ellen Doré Watson, Michael Chitwood, Megan Snyder-Camp, Rebecca Dunham, and Stacey Waite.

Bill Finn Weekend at Barrington Stage Company

William Finn has been nominated or won Tony's for his Falsettos and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, as well as numerous Drama Desk nominations and awards.

If it's Labor Day Weekend, it means it's time for Bill Finn, a composer of many award winning Broadway shows to put his pen down and direct the spotlight to the young, up and coming writers of music and lyrics whom he has been mentoring. With Finn there are always pleasant surprises that we are fortunate enough to share. As busy as he is, Finn found a few minutes to bring us up to date.

"The process of getting established is difficult," says Finn, so "we introduce the new voices first to the Berkshires, and then the world." Turns out Finn has a special twist up his sleeve for this weekend, too. Something beyond the annual rendition of Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists you probably don’t know but should... which plays Friday, September 4 and Saturday, September 5. He has surprises slated for that show of course.

But as the announcer in the infomercial says, But wait! There's more!

A second event has been added on BSC's Stage 2 where Finn's Musical Theatre Lab, now in its fourth season, will present a reading of a new musical, Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom by Zachary Elder and Sara Cooper. Performances will take place at BSC’s Stage 2 space, 36 Linden Street , Pittsfield , on Saturday, September 5 at 4pm and Sunday, September 6 at 7:00pm. The show stars Catherine Cox and Leslie Kritzer, with direction by Joe Calarco.

Finn has put aside his current work on the score for Little Miss Sunshine for these end of summer shows. (The musical version of this classic will be directed by James Lapine and is destined for Broadway.) Though we won't hear any music by Finn, he promises a night to remember. Finn takes the stage to tell the stories behind the music, how it begins as an idea and takes shape.

"It's a really interesting look into the creative process," says Finn, people always enjoy a look behind the curtain. "You're constantly amazed at how talented some of these young people are." Finn is more like a coach than a teacher, and loves working with the evolving composers and lyricists. "Besides, seeing them before they are known names, and trying to pick out the ones who are going to succeed is always fun," he adds.

Most of what happens on stage is unique, surprising, and collaborative, with the creative hand of BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd guiding it all. Things are tinkered with right up to the last minute. All the work is fresh and new, though if you are a musical theatre addict you probably have heard one or two of the songs at earlier Theatre Lab events. Finn narrates this fresh, fun introduction to new voices in musical theatre.

(LtoR) Singers Sally Wilfert, Nikki Renee Daniels, Pearl Sun
Directed by Julianne Boyd, this is a Labor Day weekend celebration of extraordinary new songs. Finn shares with the audience what makes a good lyric, why some work and others don’t – you’ll feel as if you’re in a master class in songwriting taught by the master himself. Matt Castle serves as musical director.

Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists you probably don’t know but should… features the talents of Nikki Renee Daniels (Les Miserables), Frank Galgano (Naked Boys Singing), Doug Kreeger (BSC’s The Human Comedy and off-B’way’s ROOMS: A Rock Romance, Howie Michael Smith (Avenue Q), Pearl Sun (Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas), and Sally Wilfert (BSC’s Spelling Bee and Off-B’way's Make Me A Song).

(L to R) Singers Frank Galgano, Doug Kreeger, Howie Michael Smith

The composers and lyricists represented are Becca Anderson, Will Aronson, Sara Cooper, Eric Day, William Finn, Kat Harris, Yui Kitamura, Hannah Kohl, Dimitri Landrain, Dan Marshall, Bill Nelson, Yea Bin Diana Oh, Sean Patterson, Eric Price, Frank Terry, Joel Waggoner, and Chris Widney.

The songs of Eric Price and Kat Harris will be included.
Meanwhile, on Stage 2, Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom (MITMOAW) is a two-person comic tragedy about the troubled relationship of a woman who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her estranged daughter who moves back home to Brighton Beach to take care of her.

Finn describes Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom as "Funny and heartbreaking; and moving in many unimaginable ways. This is a story of a mother and daughter trying gamely to hold on to what they remember of each other...it's amazing how painful hilarious can be.”

Directed by Joe Calarco (BSC’s The Burnt Part Boys and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick), with music direction by Vadim Feichtner (Spelling Bee), Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom stars Catherine Cox (Footloose, Baby - Drama Desk Award, Oh, Coward!) and Leslie Kritzer (A Catered Affair, Rooms: A Rock Romance, Legally Blonde, Hairspray).

Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom was developed at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where Elder and Copper met and received their graduate degrees.

Barrington Stage Company’s Musical Theatre Lab fourth annual edition of Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists you probably don’t know but should… will play Friday, September 4 and Saturday, September 5 at 8pm at Barrington Stage ( 30 Union Street ). Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom will take place at BSC’s Stage 2 space, 36 Linden Street , Pittsfield , on Saturday, September 5 at 4pm and Sunday, September 6 at 7:00pm. $15 suggested donation for Stage 2 while the Main Stage Tickets are $35. You can call 413-236-8888, or order online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

Half Price Tickets in Berkshires, MA

There are four half price ticket buying locations in the Berkshires


Even in our lightly populated Berkshires, there is so much going on that we have developed three half-price ticketing operations which have offerings ranging from Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow and Barrington Stage Company to Shakespeare and Company and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals.. The four locations are in Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Adams and Chatham, NY.

This past summer I detailed its operation and hours for Berkshire Fine Arts. You can read it here: Half Price Tickets in the Berkshires article

This Wonderful Life at Barrington Stage Sparkles with Life and Love

Tom Beckett as Ernie the Taxi Driver (Kevin Sprague Photo)

In the film It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey discovers that his life has made a difference to a whole town. In this rewarding and unusual one-man version of the classic story, Pittsfield's Barrington Stage Company has given their little city a sparkling new Christmas tradition that is bound to warm the hearts of its residents for many years to come. It is so good, I am already planning to take some friends to see it again. Yes, it is that kind of show, so far superior to anything you see on the tube that you don't mind turning off the computer, the Blackberry, the iPhone and switching into full focus mode.

What is amazing about this production is how a few talented people took a classic story, and with props, lighting and sound turned it into a sweeping epic of one man's journey through life. This stage adaptation of the 1946 film was written by Steve Murray and conceived by Mark Setlock. All it requires is one indafatigable actor with unlimited energy reserves and a photographic memory to take up some thirty roles during the course of a nonstop 85 minute journey. The show is performed without intermission.

One Actor Fills the Stage With Life

There's no need to recount the familiar story line here, but for the most part it remains faithful to the original screenplay, even though it runs a full hour less than the film. This tightening up of the script is one reason the action on stage never stops, and the audience's attention never wavers. In a one person show, so much depends on the quality of the actor, in this case Tom Beckett. Beckett is probably best remembered for his role as the sound effects man, Mr. Foley, on the AMC series Remember WENN.

Beckett has an impressive Broadway and off-Braodway resume as well, one of many extraordinarily gifted actors who like George Bailey eke out a modest existence, in this case by performing on America's stages. This is his first appearance in the Berkshires, and I hope that we see him again in many other roles in the future. His talent and range are impressive, especially considering that this was his first "one-man" show. He played young and old, male and female, nasty and nice.

George Bailey discovers his past matters

This Wonderful Life was directed by Andrew Volkoff, who also directed last summer's I am My Own Wife and the 2007 hit Fully Committed at Barrington Stage. This show demonstrates that Volkoff is far from content to stay with the same bag of tricks, he has clearly invented many new ones, and each one-man show he does is more multi-dimensional than the previous one. Artistic Director Julianne Boyd sure knows how to pick 'em.

The design team includes Brian Prather (scenic designer), Jeff Davis (lighting designer), Jacob A. Climer (costume designer) and Brad Berridge (sound designer). Renee Lutz is production stage manager.

Desperation on the Bridge

In the first half of the show we see the character of George Bailey as a self-sacrificing good guy, full of optimism and willing to defer his own needs in order to help others. In this day and age, as in 1946, this was a hard thing to do. But then - and now - there were - and are - such people among us, quietly doing the right thing. We often take them for granted. Who among us has not had that dark moment of utter despair, as George Bailey had at that snowy bridge, when all seemed hopeless.

Watching that scene touched off a bit of the jaded cynic in me, making me feel more like the evil Mr. Potter than a human being, but as it played out, those selfish feelings were overwhelmed by a sense of camaraderie with George, and it is such moments that give us catharsis in the dark of a theatre. We see we are not alone in our problems.

The Happy Ending (All photos by Kevin Sprague)

In the tradition of great storytelling, there is a happy ending. Sweet but not saccharine. Actually it is a bitter-sweet moment, one in which tears of happiness and relief merge, with the net effect of an audience leaving the theatre happy, refreshed and glad to be alive.

And that is the miracle of this Barrington Stage Company production. It renews the spirit, gives us hope, and encourages us all to be more selfless and kind, even when we don't get many thanks.

Well, here's a warm thank you to Barrington Stage. This Wonderful Life is the best Christmas present anyone in the Berkshires could ask for!

This Wonderful Life runs through December 20 at Barrington Stage's Stage 2 located at 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7, Friday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8 and Sunday at 3. You can call for tickets at 413-236-8888 or online at Barrington Stage Co.org

One note: In welcoming the opening night audience, Julianne Boyd explained that due to state budget cuts a chunk of money they were counting on was sliced away, and that to meet a challenge grant, they still needed to raise an additional $70,000 to replace it by the end of December. It's time for those of us in the Berkshires to step up to the plate. This is a company that puts the magic of theatre into our lives not only in the Summer, but year round.