Western Mass Theatre News October 10, 2024

Your source for theatre events in Western Massachusetts.

Western Mass Theatre Newsletter View this email in your browser October 10 - 30, 2024 Do you know anyone who enjoys theatre? Would you send them this newsletter? Spread the word that there is a centralized place to find information about upcoming performances in Western Mass! And if you know of a show that didn't make it in this week, please send it my way. Every listing in the newsletter was submitted by a local theatre maker.  The next issue will include events from October 17-November 6. Submit upcoming events via the link below or by emailing me before Tuesday at midnight. Any questions, comments or feedback? Email me at westernmasstheatre@gmail.com Submit Your Theatre Event Exit 7 Players present Next to Normal  September 27 – October 13 at 37 Chestnut St., Ludlow  Tickets and More Information    Westfield Theatre Group presents Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle  October 18, 19, 25, 26 at the Westfield Woman's Club Tickets and More Information TheaterPlay - Spolin Improvisation Workshop Oct 10-Dec 12 at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, Florence More Information & Registration WAM Theatre and Central Square Theater present Galileo’s Daughter October 18-November 3 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox Tickets and More Informatio YOUR EVENT HERE $5 per week for your poster and ticket link in top billing! Email me to reserve your dates. Click to Access: Western Mass Theatre Personnel Spreadsheet PERFORMANCES Exit 7 Players Announce Fall Production of Next to Normal  October 11 – October 13, 2024 Friday & Saturday Performances at 8pm Sunday Performances at 2pm Exit 7 Players Theater, 37 Chestnut St., Ludlow  More info: (413) 583-4301 or at www.exit7players.org  The Exit 7 Players are pleased to announce its fall production of Next to Normal, taking place on the Paul R. Hamel Stage at 37 Chestnut Street, Ludlow, MA.  Next to Normal is the story of Diana Goodman and her family. Traumatized by the death of her infant son, Diana has lived with bipolar depressive disorder and delusional episodes for the past several years. The illness has affected everyone in her life, and has nearly torn her family apart on several occasions. Next to Normal, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, explores how one suburban household copes with crisis and mental illness. Winner of three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Score and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Next to Normal was also chosen as "one of the year's ten best shows" by critics around the country. Next to Normal takes audiences into the minds and hearts of each character, presenting their family's story with love, sympathy and heart, while exploring pressing contemporary issues of trauma, loss, mental health treatment, and the meaning of family.  This production is intended for audiences aged 13 and up, and contains themes and depictions of mental illness, profanity, discussions of self-harm and the loss of a family member.  For this production we are partnering with Empty Arms Bereavement, a nonprofit helping parents who have experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons, or infant loss. emptyarmsbereavement.org  For more information contact the Exit 7 Players at 413.583.4301 or admin@exit7players.org. Tickets can be purchased directly from our website. exit7players.org https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/exit-7-players/6644b8a7bfdeb50b25b86081 Intended for audiences 13+ Themes/depictions of mental illness, profanity, self-harm, loss of a family member Strobe lighting will be used in the performance MAJESTIC THEATER ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 27th SEASON West Springfield’s Majestic Theater has announced the lineup for its 27th season.  Producing Director Danny Eaton will present a five-play season that incorporates a mix of classic and original works featuring music, comedy and drama. First up is Shear Madness (September 5 – October 20) by Paul Portner.  Shear Madness has been acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World records as the longest running non-musical play in American theater history. It ran for over 40 years in Boston.  It’s a day like any other in the local Shear Madness Salon until suddenly the lady who lives upstairs gets knocked off.  In this “Whodunit” farce, the Majestic audience will have to match wits with the suspects to catch a killer in this record breaking and interactive solve-the-crime comedy. Shear Madness will be directed by Bob Lohrmann.  Producing director is Danny Eaton, and Sue Dziura is Associate producing director.  Production stage manager is Stephen Petit, Aurora Ferraro is Associate production manager, Dan Rist is set and lighting designer, and Dawn McKay is costume designer.  Cast members include Benita Zahn (Mrs. Shubert), Jeff Haffner (Nick), Jack Grigoli (Eddie), Elizabeth Pietrangelo (Barbara), Steve Sands (Tony) and Michael DeVito Mikey). Subscriptions to the five-play series will be accepted through October 20, but single tickets are now being sold to all five plays.  Prices for single tickets for the plays range from $35 to $38. Doors to the theater will open one hour before the start of a show, which is also when the café opens.  For more information, visit www.majestictheater.com Shakespeare & Company presents the World Premiere of Awni Abdi-Bahri’s Three Tall Persian Women, directed by Dalia Ashurina and staged at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre through October 13. This comedic play is about generational differences, grief, control, and learning to let go; but more than anything, it’s a love story to immigrant mothers. Golnar, a punkish Iranian-American millennial, returns home to her mother Nasrin for the anniversary of her father’s passing and walks into hoards of family memorabilia that her grandmother Mamani has moved in with her. Originally staged at Shakespeare & Company in 2023 as a reading in the Plays in Process series, Ashurina said that the play explores how and why societies police women’s bodily autonomy. “We see how the women in this play are restrained by societal expectations, even in the safety of their own home," she said, "and how being honest instead of staying ‘peaceful’ can help each generation learn valuable lessons from one another.” Tickets range from $22 to $72; for more information or to purchase tickets, visit shakespeare.org, or call the Box Office at (413) 637-3353.   About Shakespeare & Company Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, and attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of more than 150 artists. Valley Players Constellations 10/11 @ 7pm, 10/12 @ 7pm, 10/13 @ 2pm, 10/18 @ 7pm, 10/19 @ 7pm, 10/20 @2pm Munson Memorial Library (1046 South East Street, Amherst) The Valley Players’ present Constellations, Nick Payne’s play about fate, free will, love, multiverse theory, and honey. Constellations runs October 11–20, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm, at the Munson Memorial Library, 1046 South East Street, in Amherst. The play runs 1 hour and 15 minutes. Tickets are on a pay-what-you-can system and half of net ticket proceeds will be donated to Cancer Connection of Northampton https://valleyplayers.org/#auditions-tickets Constellations begins when Marianne, a theoretical physicist, and Roland, a beekeeper, first meet at a barbecue. The action then splinters into multiple lines of action that explore the different possibilities of their relationship, touching on fidelity, infidelity, marriage, cancer, ballroom dancing, quantum mechanics, beekeeping, and more. Branching across timelines, through humor and through tears, Constellations asks questions about choice and chance, love and death, and how the bond between two people can change with the change of just a single word or decision. Though the play is written for two characters, to explore its concept of a multiverse, the Valley Players production features a cast of eight local actors: Lindsey Campbell (Belchertown), Cici Drzik (Greenfield), Maddie Evans (Holden), Cory Flood (Orange), Sam Fox (Greenfield), Benjamin Hersey (Easthampton), Jim Merlin (South Deerfield), and Terrance J. Peters (Windsor, CT). The production is directed by Matteo Pangallo (Shutesbury), with assistant direction/stage management by Anna Morrissey (Northampton), lighting advising by Kate Cell (Shutesbury), costume design by Cheryl Hayden (Shutesbury), and set advising by Miles Herter (Amherst). The production is funded in part by a Projects & Festivals grant from the Mass Cultural Council. The mission of the Valley Players is to enrich the quality of life in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts by producing nimble, meaningful, and accessible community theater. The Valley Players is an entirely volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit that relies on the contributions of donors and business sponsors. All contributions are tax-deductible and go fully and only to support the organization’s mission and programming. Anyone who wants to donate or become a business sponsor, join the Valley Players contact list, or find more information about the group, can visit www.valleyplayers.org. K and E Theater Group Presents Promises, Promises at  Northampton Center for the Arts, October 11-13 & 17-19, 2024 K and E Theater Group is thrilled to announce its upcoming production of the beloved musical Promises, Promises, set to light up the stage, October 11-13 and 17-19, 2024. Audiences are invited to experience the wit, charm, and unforgettable music of this classic show, which promises to be a highlight of the theater season.   Based on Billy Wilder's acclaimed film The Apartment, Promises, Promises features a book by Neil Simon, music by Burt Bacharach, and lyrics by Hal David. The show first dazzled Broadway in 1968, earning critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, with a celebrated revival in 2010 starring Tony Award Winners Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. Now, K and E Theater Group is bringing this timeless story of ambition, romance, and the complexities of office life to local audiences with a fresh and dynamic production. Promises, Promises follows Chuck Baxter, a charming but lonely employee at a large insurance company who lends his apartment to his superiors for their extramarital affairs in hopes of climbing the corporate ladder. The show’s score includes unforgettable hits like “Say A Little Prayer,” “A House is Not a Home,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”, and the title song “Promises, Promises.” K and E Theater Group's production of Promises, Promises is led by Casey Dion as Chuck Baxter and Shealyn Berube as Fran Kubelik, and features Joshua Aaron Mason as J.D. Sheldrake, Myka Plunkett as Marge MacDougall/Mrs. Sheldrake, Gene Choquette as Dr. Dreyfuss, Aileen Merino Terzi as Miss Olson/Sylvia, Renee Bouldin as Mrs. Wong, Sadie Kennedy as Miss Della Hoya, Amanda Urquhart Tilghman as Miss Polanski, Henry DiNapoli as Mr. Kirkeby, Andre Ruiz as Mr. Eichelberger, Chris Webber as Mr. Dobitch, and David Webber as Mr. Vanderhof/ Karl. Choreography and Direction by Eddie Zitka, with musical direction by Elizabeth Monte.    Performances are: Friday, October 11, 2024 at 8:00 PM Saturday, October 12, 2024 at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM Sunday, October 13, 2024 at 4:00 PM Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 8:00 PM Friday, October 18, 2024 at 8:00 PM Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 2:00 PM The closing performance is scheduled for Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 8:00 PM.   All performances are at Northampton Center for the Arts, located at 33 Hawley Street in Northampton, Massachusetts. Tickets are $27 and general admission.   This production contains adult themes, depictions of substance use, and attempted suicide. Stage effects include bright moving lights.   Tickets are now available, and full performance details for Promises, Promises can be found at www.KETG.org. CitySpace Pay It Forward Series: Phoenix in the Holy Land October 12 at 7:00 PM October 13 at 2:00 PM 43 Main Street, Easthampton, MA 01027 “Phoenix in the Holy Land” is a play birthed in the crucible of the current nakba in Palestine the incident that spurred the PeaceBirds project. In November of 2023, we launched the socially-engaged project as artists in residence at Goddard College. Then developed into a one-act play, with the support of the Playwrights Circle of the LAVA Center in Greenfield. Several more poets are featured in the play, as well as the story of one town’s struggle to pass a ceasefire resolution.  Showtimes: Saturday, October 12 at 7pm  Sunday, October 13 at 2pm  Tickets: $15-$20 in advance  JuPong Lin makes socially-engaged art, poetry, and ceremony to honor our Beloved Earth and all her critters. Ghosts of Taiwan, her born-place, haunt her with ancestral cries to end colonialism and repair our relationships with our homelands. JuPong lives in Nipmuc/Nonotuck/Pocumtuc Land, known by its colonial name of Amherst, Massachusetts, and writes poetry with the Writing the Land project. She works for food and land justice with the Hampshire County Food Policy Council and the Land Justice Affinity Group. JuPong was a faculty member of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program at Goddard College for close to 20 years. “Phoenix in the Holy Land” is JuPong’s first play. https://www.cityspaceeasthampton.org/all-events/#/events JaDuke Theater The Play That Goes Wrong 10/12 at 7:00 PM, 10/13 2pm, 10/18 7pm, 10/19 7pm, 10/20 2pm Ja'Duke Performing Arts Center, Industrial Blvd, Turners Falls MA This show is a love letter to community theater, where anything... or everything... can go wrong. But the show must go on. https://eventtickets2u.com/jaduke-theater/the-play-that-goes-wrong Westfield Theatre Group presents  Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle  Directed by Tom LeCourt  October 18, 19, 25, 26 at 7:30pm  October 19, 26 at 2:00pm  Westfield Woman's Club, 28 Court St, Westfield, MA 01085 Tickets available at westfieldtheatregroup.com Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it's her 18th birthday, and even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, 103 goldfish, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century. In just 90 minutes, this poignant, touching, and funny play will take you through 90 years of Ernestine's birthdays, celebrating the ups, downs, loves, laughs, losses, highlights, heartbreaks, and extraordinary moments that make up one woman's ordinary life. https://www.westfieldtheatregroup.com/order-tickets Galileo’s Daughter A co-production of WAM Theatre and Central Square Theater Written by Jessica Dickey Directed by Reena Dutt at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre Shakespeare & Company,  70 Kemble St, Lenox, MA     Previews: Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at 7pm Opening/Press Night: Sunday October 20, at 2pm Berkshire Closing: Sunday November 3 at 2pm Tickets: $25 - $100: Friend: $25 Standard: $55 Supporter: $100 Central Square Theatre: November 14 - December 8, 2024 Rattled by a personal crisis, a playwright flees to Florence to study the letters between Galileo and his eldest daughter Maria Celeste. Caught up in the threats against her father, Maria must abandon her work and join a convent. The writer’s discovery of Maria’s strength and tenacity inspires her own pursuit of purpose. Alternating between past and present, this play is a personal examination of faith, forgiveness, and the cost of seeking and speaking truth. The Chicago Reader called it “a smart and poignant” story. For more information about the 2024 Season and WAM Theatre’s programs, events, and artists, please visit www.WAMTheatre.com. Life is Full of Drama: Storytelling Theater Workshop Performance Friday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. The LAVA Center, 324 Main St., Greenfield The LAVA Center is very excited to present a transformative theater and storytelling workshop group performance led by Brazilian actor and director Alex DeMelo. These two performances are the culmination of a six-week theater workshop led by DeMelo over the past two months. In this workshop, DeMelo has led participants through a process of story sharing, personal growth and community building. The result is a tight-knit and caring theater group. The workshop will culminate in these two public performances on Saturday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. Centered around the theme of Halloween, workshop participants will deliver a raw and emotional performance that showcases their work and personal growth throughout the workshop. It promises to be an exciting and emotional event. Admission is on a sliding scale, based on a pay what you can amount. This programming is made possible in part by grants from Mass Humanities, with funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and from the Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice. The LAVA Center strives to make its programming and events accessible to the widest possible range of community members. WAM Theatre’s Elder Ensemble presents Center of the Universe created and performed by the Elder Ensemble facilitated & directed by Michael Kennedy & KD McTeigue October 22nd at 3:30pm   The Elayne Bernstein Theatre  at Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA  For more information, and to reserve tickets: wamtheatre.com/elder-ensemble WAM Theatre is proud to announce Center of the Universe, an original performance created and performed by WAM’s Elder Ensemble. Directed by Michael Kennedy and KD McTeigue, Center of the Universe takes inspiration from the performers’ own lives, Greek mythology, and Galileo’s Daughter by Jessica Dickey –– WAM’s fall mainstage production. This free, one-time only event will be held on the afternoon of October 22nd at Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox. The Elder Ensemble, a multi-week creative workshop for Berkshire women over age 65, has met weekly at WAM Hub in downtown Lenox since early September.  Led by Kennedy and McTeigue, the seven performers generated material through writing exercises, improvisation activities and shared storytelling.” The result is a lyrical original performance that explores the paradoxical nature of our mundane, extraordinary human lives from the perspective of local elder artists. The Smith College Department of Theater presents Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi on October 23, 24, 25, and 26 at 7:30 PM in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre co-directed by Monica Lopez Orozco and Max Lerin ‘25. In this modern take on the life of the famous French queen, Marie is a symbol of aristocratic extravagance and artifice. But as revolution begins to brew in France, the political becomes deeply personal as the once popular Marie’s world comes tumbling down. With the light and breezy banter at the palace and the chants of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!” in the streets, Marie Antoinette holds a mirror up to our contemporary society that might also be entertaining itself to death. Tickets are $5–15 at smitharts.ludus.com. In Marie Antoinette, David Adjmi translates the gilded life of 18th century French aristocracy into the language of today’s entitled, cocooned ultra-rich. His play is grounded in history but is not a historical biography. Time Out New York called it a “jagged yet elegant historical riff…” adding “Adjmi complicates the satire by imbuing his doomed protagonist with intellectual vibrancy and genuine compassion.” Part satirical comedy, part history, part cautionary tale, Marie Antoinette speaks to a generation raised in the era of online celebrity worship where icons can be cancelled when cultural winds shift. “The society that Marie inhabited is not unlike where we are as a global society today,” says Assistant Professor of Theatre Monica Lopez Orozco who is co-directing the play with Max Lerin ’25. “The dawn of French democracy reminds me of our own country's struggles to come together for the greater good. I think this play has deep resonance as we head into an election season as a nation and have been examining and exploring aspects of freedom and activism as a community on campus.” David Adjmi is a Tony Award winning playwright from New York and was recently named one of the Top Ten in Culture by the New Yorker magazine. His work has been featured or profiled in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, American Theatre, LitHub, Electric Literature, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Currently, Adjmi teaches in the MFA program for Playwriting at Hunter College. Marie Antoinette premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 2012. The play had its New York premiere at SoHo Rep in October 2013. "I'm very interested in people whose compasses for their lives are a bit off," Adjmi says in an interview for Playbill. "They're struggling to understand both themselves and the role they're being asked to play in their lives and the lives of other people." The Smith College production features an ensemble cast of eleven students. In keeping with the tone of Adjimi’s play, the extravagance of Versailles and the brutality of the Revolution are presented through a contemporary pop culture lens. Students Alina Tschumakow ’26, set designer, and Rex Tans ’25, costume designer, along with lighting designer Lara Dubin and faculty sound designer Emily Duncan Wilson all bridge the 18th and 21st centuries to create Marie’s world as it descends from playful opulence to a painful reckoning. “I hope this play challenges people not to bury their heads in the sand and live in blissful ignorance of the problems in the world, but to wake up, open their eyes, and confront the world around them,” says co-director Max Lerin ‘25.  “We have a responsibility to each other to care about this world and the people in it, to not turn away from the injustices that we may be shielded from, but others are not.”  The show runs Wednesday–Saturday, October 23–26 at 7:30 PM in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre in the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $5–15 and available online at smitharts.ludus.com. Audiences should know that this play contains flashing lights, loud noises, strong language, and depicted violence. For more information including a complete content warning contact boxoffice@smith.edu. MAJESTIC THEATER PRESENTS A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN  OCTOBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 West Springfield’s Majestic Theater will present A Moon for the Misbegotten, Eugene O’Neill’s final and most personal play, onstage October 24 through December 1.  Set on a dilapidated Connecticut farm, the play focuses on Josie, a woman commanding and tough outside, sensuous and sensitive inside and Jamie Tyrone, a dissipated former actor with an astonishing capacity for alcohol. Josie’s father, Phil Hogan, a tenant farmer, suspects that Jamie intends to sell the farm to a hated neighbor and sets a plan in motion to bring Jamie and Josie together. This American classic play is a requiem about being able to love and be loved with a unique blend of comedy, tragedy, autobiography and imagination. The play will be directed by James Warwick.  Danny Eaton is producing director, and Sue Dziura is associate producing director.  Stephen Petit is production stage manager, and the associate production manager is Aurora Ferraro.  Chelsie Nectow is the stage manager, Greg Trochlil is the scenic designer, and the lighting designer is James MacNamara.  Costume design is by Dawn McKay and Alan Schneider is technical director. The cast includes Sue Dziura (Josie Hogan), J. T. Waite (Phil Hogan), Jay Sefton (James Tyrone, Jr.), Mike Hogan (Caleb Chew) and Tom Dahl (T. Stedman Harder).  Understudies include Tom Dahl, Myka Plunkett and Max Weinberg. Tickets to the show range from $35-$38 and can be purchased in person at the box office or by calling (413) 747-7797.  Box office hours are Monday – Friday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.  Doors to the theater will open one hour before the start of a show, which is also when the café opens.  For more information, visit www.majestictheater.com CitySpace Pay It Forward Series: In The Glow of This Room, We Gather October 25, 2024 at 7:00 PM Blue Room at CitySpace: 43 Main Street, Easthampton, MA 01027 Inspired in large part by the realization of how important it was to socialize in the years emerging from COVID19 lockdowns, “In The Glow of This Room, We Gather,” is Human Agenda Theater’s response to what it means to come together these days using methods of devised theater.  Human Agenda Theater celebrates the collaborative process of creating and sharing stories of the human experience through ground-breaking, interactive and weird forms of ensemble-based devised theater. They are committed to uplifting and integrating practices of pay equity/profit-sharing, radical accessibility and culture-building within their company and surrounding communities. Human Agenda Theater recently closed on their production of Gorgons by Megan E. Tripaldi and are currently working on an original show focused on the subject of gatherings.  Tickets:   $15 (General Admission)  $30 (General Admission and additional donation Human Agenda Theater) https://www.cityspaceeasthampton.org/all-events/#/events/113450 Cloudgaze Productions with support from Eggtooth Productions + Greenfield Savings Bank present  A HAPPENING IV: LEVIATHAN, An Immersive Festival Location:  Shea Theater Arts Center Great Falls, MA (Turners Falls) October 25 + 26, 2024 Tickets and information:  sheatheater.org Schedule: Friday 10/25/24 ticketed  6:45pm | Doors Open 7:00 - 10:00pm | Happenings Saturday 10/26/24 FREE 12:00 - 4:00pm | Behind the Scenes + special musical guest Saturday 10/26/24 ticketed  6:45pm | Doors Open 7:00 - 10:00pm | Happenings After three successful years, Cloudgaze Productions returns to present "A Happening IV: LEVIATHAN," a two-day multi-arts festival immersing participants in a theatrical world of myth, magic and mystery inspired by Moby Dick, Jonah, Zong! and other Nautical tales of Great Whales and shipwrecks. A true interdisciplinary feat, this festival brings together over 30 local performance artists, actors, musicians, and dancers staging original work as intimate theatrical interactions amidst large-scale installations. Featured Valley performers include actors from Eggtooth Ensemble with co-directors Sam V. Perry, Joshua Ruder, K Adler, and Ashley Kramer bringing their individual expertise to coalesce this cross-medium endeavor. Separated into two distinct evenings, audiences are invited to spend the weekend inside the belly of the Leviathan, a creature from the deep that has swallowed the Shea. Set within large-scale installations, traditional lines of performance blur as players weave in and out of multiple timelines and narratives. The main theater hosts continuous performances while otherworldly environments and stories unfold throughout the remainder of that building. Audiences are invited to explore independently and choose their own adventure. John Proctor Is the Villain By Kimberly Belflower Directed by Kyle Boatwright Oct. 25, 26, Oct. 30, 31, Nov. 1, 2 at 7:30 p.m. | Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. | Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. The Curtain Theater $5 students, seniors, Card to Culture, $17 general admission Content advisory: discussions of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and grooming. Recommended for children age 15 and up Dramatic. Hysterical. Crazy. Women and girls who say the unspoken often find themselves labelled. In Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain, which opens at UMass Theater on Oct. 25, a group of high schoolers in rural Georgia have no idea what they’re getting themselves into when they start a feminism club. As the Me Too movement gathers steam, secrets are uncovered in the community, and they come to see a classic play — The Crucible — with new empathy for the girls once branded as witches. John Proctor Is the Villain is an extremely timely, funny, sharp play, and director Kyle Boatwright suspects it will resonate with audiences of all ages. “This is set in 2018, and also, this could have been my own junior year High School class,” she says.  “We have the cheerleader, the jock, the good old boy, the nerd. They all have so much else going on underneath the surface,” Boatwright says, as the teens confront sexual assault, grooming, and related topics. “Even as the characters are calling out the predators of our time, ultimately they're also calling in others, encouraging growth and empathy.” Support and betrayal both come from unexpected corners. At the same time, this play is hilarious and cathartic, as the group reacts to the circumstances from an undeniably teenage perspective, calling on the wisdom of pop goddesses and staging a moment of wild release that celebrates their power and voice. “Laughter,” Boatwright points out, “is healing in many respects, and not just the act in and of itself — it can help us pull apart a traumatic event.” Production dramaturg David Keohane notes that Belflower wrote the play in consultation with students who were just out of high school. “The way that she's captured the language of young people translates so effectively,” he says. John Proctor Is the Villain is staged in the Curtain Theater, an intimate space that puts audiences in the classroom with our characters. Tickets are on sale now and will go fast, so make your reservation now! The Performance Project Shout! Elevate! Inspire! Performance Project Benefit Concert 2024 Oct 26, 2024 at 7:30 PM Edwards Church, 297 Main St, Northampton, MA Join us for an uplifting evening of inspired music, poetry, and theater with performances by: The Lost Tribe, Hartford-based Afro-funk fusion ensemble, poet Iyawna Burnett, and singer/global theater artist Fynta Sidime. Also featuring MC Stu Hibbert from WTCC and First Generation Ensemble. The event brings together communities from Hampshire, Hampden, and Franklin counties. SHOUT! ELEVATE! INSPIRE! celebrates youth voice and leadership, the arts, and justice work. Funds raised will support brilliant, creative youth leaders and cultural activists in the Performance Project’s First Generation and Ubuntu Arts Community. The Performance Project builds creative and celebratory spaces for BIPOC, immigrant and refugee youth to share their stories, cultures and languages. $25-$50 https://performanceproject.org/blog/ Play Incubation Collective presents a Community Conversation - Playwright Advocacy and Resource Sharing  October 27, 7-8:15 PM  The Workroom, 33 Hawley Street Join the PIC community as we gather with  Dramatists Guild Regional Rep Emma Palzere-Rae and Patrick Gabridge (former Eastern New England Dramatists Guild Regional Rep)  and your fellow playwrights to talk about the business side of writing new plays. We’ll chat about how the Dramatists Guild can help you protect yourself when entering into production and development agreements, go over the Dramatists Guild Bill of Rights, and swap resource information with our fellow writers.  Plus have some tasty snacks. Hosted by Play Incubation Collective in Collaboration with Dramatist Guild. Free to attend.   Registration Encouraged but not required AUDITIONS & OPPORTUNITIES Submissions now Open for 2025 PIC PIPS and Development Workshops In 2025, PIC will host 4-6 PIC PIPS and 2 Development Workshops at the Workroom (33 Hawley St, Northampton). PIC is seeking a wide selection of plays and musicals representing diversity amongst the writers (age, race, gender, location, experience, etc) and diversity in terms of writing genre and approach to storytelling for these programs. We are specifically looking for plays with the potential to spark community conversation.   What is PIC PIPS? PIPS stands for Plays In Progress Series. These are readings of new work in front of an audience. PIC casts full length plays from our roster of artists who come together on the day of the presentation for a live reading of the script in front of an audience. The playwright and an assigned dramaturg work together to develop questions to share with audience after the reading, and in this way the audience serves as a sounding board for further development of the piece. This is reserved for scripts in a variety of developmental stages. What is the Development Workshop? Development Workshop is intended for pieces that have a first full draft and could use an intensive period of writing and hearing the work out loud with actors. This opportunity provides developmental worksessions with actors and other support artists over the course of a number of consecutive days, culminating in a reading and developmental discussion with an audience. From today through October 18th, PIC is accepting submissions of full-length scripts-in-progress by local playwrights. Priority will be given to playwrights based in Hampshire, Hamden, and Franklin counties, but playwrights also based in Worcester, Berkshires, Northern CT, and Southern VT may apply. Submission Form Due By October 18th, 2024 Click to learn more about eligibility and to submit. LAVA Center Greenfield 25 HOUR THEATER FESTIVAL Nov 3, 2024 LAVA Center, 324 Main Street, Greemfield MA ACTORS!  Challenge yourselves and have a blast!  Join us for the 25 Hour Theatre Festival, produced by Christine Benvenuto and LAVA Center, Greenfield.  Saturday, Nov 2, late afternoon: A small group of playwrights will receive a prompt, grab the names of 2-3 actors from a hat and get busy writing a 10-15 minute play expressly for the performers they’ve been so fortunate as to pick. Actors ideally available for a brief zoom or phone call Saturday evening if the writer wishes. Sunday, Nov 3: rehearsals, MEMORIZING LINES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, an all-casts dress rehearsal at 4, and finally, two presentations of the plays, at 6 and 8 pm, one masked, one masks optional, at LAVA.  Please email headshot or selfie and the range you’re comfortable playing immediately if you’re game to jump in and swim with us. christinebenvenuto@hotmail.com Easthampton Theater Company Nov 12 and 13 at 6:00 PM AUDITIONS! Easthampton Theater Company is excited to announce auditions for the first production of our 2025 season, the classic Tony and Drama Desk award-winning play On Golden Pond.  More information, character descriptions, audition requirements, appointment link and audition form are located at this link: https://forms.gle/w2hWCKvgaTQ9pfm3A  Directed by Jason Rose-Langston Produced by Michael O. Budnick  We are seeking six talented and dedicated actors - three portraying adult males, two playing adult females and one playing a teen boy, for the roles of Norman, Ethel, Chelsea, Bill, Billy Ray, and Charlie. All roles are open; no roles are precast.  Synopsis: Norman and Ethel Thayer return for another Summer together at their beloved family lake house on Golden Pond. It’s an idyllic New England paradise where the loons sing good morning and Charlie the mailman delivers the mail by boat. Norman, turning 80, is convinced it will be his last time at the lake. During the course of the summer, the couple are visited by their adult daughter, Chelsea, her new fiancé, Bill, and his 13-year-old son, Billy Ray. This warm-hearted story is a meditation on aging and the long-term family wounds that drive us away from each other, but also can bring us together. Themes include facing the ravages of time, bridging the generational divides, and finding connection in the most unlikely places. Ultimately, the play shows us how we confront and accept each other with wit, humor, and above all, love.  Performance dates: Weekends of March 14th and 21st, in Easthampton, MA Tech Week (mandatory) starts March 9th. Rehearsals start: December 15th, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, with a break for the Holidays.  More information, character descriptions, audition requirements appointment link and audition form are located at this link: https://forms.gle/w2hWCKvgaTQ9pfm3A Auditions are by appointment only in the evening of November 12th or 13th with sign up information provided at the above link. Callbacks (if required) will be on November 20th in Easthampton.  Easthampton Theater Company is a production group created by Easthampton and nearby residents to bring quality community and regional theater productions to Easthampton and the Pioneer Valley. Its founding board and members are dedicated to establishing community-based live theater productions in Easthampton as a premier venue and destination for the region. Our recent productions include God of Carnage, Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Our performance venues include Williston Theater and CitySpace in Easthampton. We can be found on the web at easthamptontheater.com  Easthampton Theater Company seeks volunteers! No community-based theater exists without the much appreciated work of theater lovers who are willing to provide their time and expertise. If you are interested in any aspect of theater production for On Golden Pond or future productions, such as tech, set design or building, ushering, marketing, or board membership, and you have time and skills to offer, please contact us at info@easthamptontheater.com https://forms.gle/w2hWCKvgaTQ9pfm3A WORKSHOPS & CLASSES Phantom Sheep Players Game On! Improv Workshops 10/14, 11/11, 11/18 Unity House Players, 245 Porter Lake Dr, Springfield, MA Focusing on short form theater games with a different theme each week such as "storytelling", "guessing", "gibberish", "character swaps" and more. This is an all levels program perfect for those who are brand new to improv, as well as those experienced who want to develop their stage technique. Each person is challenged at their own pace. Facebook event $22 per week drop in rate. Bonus Halloween Themed Open Jam Oct. 28th! TheaterPlay Spolin Improvisation Workshop Oct 10, 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14, 21; Dec 12 6:30 PM Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, 130 Pine St. Florence, MA 01062 An 8-week workshop exploring Viola Spolin’s improvisational theater games with Steve Eldredge. https://TheaterPlaySpolin.eventbrite.com Viola Spolin's theater games are a form of actor training, but they’re also several other things:  * An intuitive learning system Spolin spent decades developing (first with children, then with adults) which only later evolved into “comedy improv” as it’s now known. While the workshop is filled with laughter, it is not focused on any individual “being funny”.  * A series of learning experiences guiding students to release fears and inhibitions and enter into playful engagement with each other, their five senses, and their environment. From this collaborative world, any imaginative journey can be shared with an audience.  * A foundation from which students can pursue either further improvisational training or a lively approach to script reading and scene work. Steve will be offering both kinds of training as follow-ups to this workshop. Submit your workshop, class, audition, performance, or any other theatre opportunity here! Western Massachusetts Theatre Companies Academy of Music Theatre Amherst Community Theater Arena Civic Theatre A.C.T. Youth Theatre Barrington Stage Company Berkshire Theatre Group Chester Theatre Company CitySpace Completely Ridiculous Productions Drama Studio Double Edge Theatre Easthampton Theater Company Eggtooth Productions Exit 7 Players Ghost Light Theater Great Barrington Public Theater Greenfield Community College's Theater Department Hampshire Shakespeare Company Happier Valley Comedy Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center Human Agenda Theater Ja'Duke Center for the Performing Arts K and E Theater Group Ko Theater Works/Ko Festival of Performance Majestic Theater Mount Holyoke College Rooke Theatre No Theater Northampton Community Arts Trust Northampton Playwrights Lab PaintBox Theatre Panopera Pauline Productions Performance Project Phantom Sheep Players Play Incubation Collective Plays In Place Real Live Theatre Serious Play Theatre Ensemble Shakespeare & Company  Shakespeare Stage Shea Theater Arts Center Silverthorne Theater Smith College Department of Theatre South Hadley Players Spindrift Theatre St. Michael's Players Starlight's Youth Theatre, Inc. Theater Between Addresses Theatre Guild of Hampden TheatreTruck UMass Department of Theater UMass Theatre Guild Unity House Players Valley Light Opera Valley Players WAM Theatre Ware Community Theatre Westfield Theatre Group Wilbraham United Players Williamstown Theatre Festival World and Eye Want to know even more about events in Western Massachusetts and beyond, including reviews, interviews, and previews? In the Spotlight, Inc. Berkshire on Stage Stagestruck ArtsBeat TV/Radio and News Column Local Theater Critic Max Hartshorne Copyright © 2024 Western Mass Theatre, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive the Western Mass Theatre Newsletter. This newsletter is published weekly on Thursdays and all information about upcoming performances and auditions is reader submitted. The newsletter is limited to information about theatre in Western Massachusetts. unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences