Western Mass Theatre News May 15, 2025

Your source for theatre events in Western Massachusetts.

Western Mass Theatre Newsletter View this email in your browser May 15 - June 4, 2025 This weekend: definitely don't miss Orlando at the Academy of Music. It's a marvelous adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel by Sarah Ruhl, and it's an incredible story exploring liberation through art, identity, gender, and more. This is a remount of the beautiful production done at the Shea last year.  Also this weekend: Dandy in the Underworld at CitySpace and auditions for HMS Pinafore!  The next issue will include events from May 22-June 11. 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 Valley Light Opera presents Auditions for HMS Pinafore May 15-17 in Hadley More Information and Sign Up Here Holy Smokes Theatre presents Dandy in the Underworld May 16 & 17 at CitySpace Easthampton Tickets and More Information 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 EHS Drama Club Presents: Little Shop of Horrors May 15 @ 6pm, May 16 @ 7pm, May 17 @ 7pm, May 18 @ 2pm Easthampton High School Auditorium, 70 Williston Ave, Easthampton MA 01027 Inspired by the 1950's B-horror movie genre, Little Shop of Horrors, is the cautionary tale of, Seymour, a struggling, love-struck, flower shop assistant and his encounter with an extraordinary plant that promises him fortune and fame, but at a VERY steep price....all to the tune of some of the catchiest songs in musical theater history!  Come support the EHS Drama department and treat yourself to a wonderful show!  Thursday, May 15th at 6:00PM  Friday, May 16th at 7:00PM  Saturday, May 17th at 7:00PM  Sunday, May 18th at 2:00PM  Tickets are $15 general admission, and $10 for students. ehsdramaclub.org or at the door. Produced with support from a grant through the Mass Cultural Council  PG-13 For mild swearing, themes of domestic violence, substance abuse and a man-eating plant! https://ehsdramaclub.org/ BROADWAY HIT MUSICAL WAITRESS AT MAJESTIC THEATER MAY 15 – JUNE 1  West Springfield’s Majestic Theater will present Waitress, the Broadway hit musical by Jessie Nelson, with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, from April 17 through June 1. The play, based on the 2007 indie film of the same name, follows the story of Jenna, a waitress at Joe’s Pie Diner in the south. Growing up, Jenna learned to bake from her mother, who had a pie recipe for just about every life situation. As an adult, baking becomes more than just a vocation, it’s her greatest joy and the best medicine for dealing with her dysfunctional marriage and the disappointments of her small-town life. Waitress features an eclectic cast of characters who bring this hopeful story to life and bring audiences on a journey full of new love, new life and finding out what a little sugar, butter and flour can do. The Majestic’s Associate Producing Director Sue Dziura will also direct this play. Danny Eaton is producing director, and Stephen Petit is production manager/stage manager. Associate Production Manager is Aurora Ferraro. Josiah Durham is scenic designer, Daniel Rist is lighting designer, and Dawn McKay is costume designer. Elisabeth Weber is music director. The cast includes Chelsea Nectow (Jenna), Gregory Boover (Dr. Pomatter), Yewande Odetoyinbo (Becky), Lyndsay Hart (Dawn), Nicholas Futris (Ogie), Michael King (Earl), Mark Dean (Joe) and Joshua Mason (Cal). According to Eaton, “Waitress certainly had a hugely popular Broadway run, and the music by Sara Bareilles is unexpectedly evocative. It fits in with all the other musicals we’ve staged here at the Majestic in that it’s more character-based and story-driven. Waitress is a musical that’s very grounded in real life, offering relatable characters and a compelling storyline.  And, of course, there’s pie! Granny’s Pie Factory in East Hartford will be our pie sponsor for the show, and their terrific pies will be for sale in our café.” 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 Holy Smokes Theatre Dandy in the Underworld May 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM and Saturday, May 17th, 8pm The Blue Room, City Space, Easthampton Premiere of original play, Dandy in the Underworld, a queer, erotic, horror, comedy by Holy Smokes Theatre Company and the House of Grotesque Burlesque Troupe. More Information The play focuses on a queer writer who wants to meet their inspirational muse but is uncertain if this seductive nymph is from their subconscious or from another dimension. Their journey to find out the answer brings them in contact with therapists, witches, writers, kinksters, and plant medicine. Expect terror, hilarity, and supernatural sex!  Holy Smokes Theatre is devoted to producing original works that seek to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Where irreverence is reverent and the profane are holy and vice versa. Affordable, adorable, accessible, irrepressible theater that is rough, raw and entertaining. Eggtooth Productions presents Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando for one night only on May 17 at 7:30 pm at the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, MA. Featuring Linda Tardif in the title role, this ensemble cast includes Kyle Boatwright, Lindel Hart, and Rich Vaden with Broadway makeup artist and beloved character Mr. Drag, Joe Dulude II, as Queen Elizabeth. This fantastical production offers lighting design by John Bechtold, costumes by Christina Beam, directed by Linda McInerney, and is stage managed by Nikki Beck. Orlando is made possible through the generous donations of the Markham Nathan Fund for Social Justice, the Community Foundation of Western Mass, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Parker On Main of Greenfield and is presented in support of the Academy of Music Theater’s new LGBTQ + program for teens.   Tickets are $20 and all students are free, available at https://aomtheatre.com/   Based upon the Virginia Woolf novel, this is the story of a young nobleman who is drawn into a love affair with Queen Elizabeth I. For a time, life at court is interesting enough, but Orlando yearns for something more. As he strives to make his way as a poet and lover, his travels through time and space keep him at the heart of a dazzling tale where gender and gender freedom shift regularly, often with hilarious results. Though deeply funny, the play is also heartfelt and moving, as Orlando seeks liberation through art, identity, gender, and time becoming a 20th century woman in the process.   An adaptation of the “longest and most charming love letter in literature,” written by Virginia Woolf for her lover, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is a theatrical, wild, fantastical trip through 400 years of history. About her play, Ruhl writes, “Woolf apparently wrote Orlando with more joy, buoyancy, and speed than any of her other novels. The character of Orlando, based on Virginia’s lover Vita Sackville-West, famously begins life as a man in the Elizabethan era, trots through a couple more centuries, dodging various lovers, and in the 18th century, after a long sleep, wakes up, a woman. Woolf wrote in a letter, ‘I have written this book quicker than any; & it is all a joke; & yet gay & quick reading I think; a writer’s holiday.’   Orlando was light years ahead of its time (1928) in terms of its expansive, fluid, liberatory views of gender and sexuality. Conversations around gender have changed monumentally in the culture since I first adapted this novel in 1998. At times it feels as though we are only now catching up to Virginia Woolf, who wrote in A Room of One’s Own that the ‘androgynous mind is resonant and porous…transmits emotion without impediment…is naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided.’”   This dreamy adaptation is a magical and poetic dance between gender and through time, a fantastical world in which courtly movement and biographical narration combine to tell the story of a being who lives outside of human expectations, and enjoys the liberation that being alive has to offer. The LAVA Center The Comedy Project May 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM The LAVA Center 324 Main Street, Greenfield The Comedy Project Revue will perform CPR on the public on Thursday May 22 at 7:00pm at the Lava Center, 324 Main Street in Greenfield.  Gadfly, Andrea CK and improv impresario Henry Balzarini are producers. Christine Benevenuto is the emotional support human for the project.  Featured artists have been crafting their craft since March in the Comedy Project workshops, a project of the Lava Center:  Singer, songwriter and funny human, Joanie Schwartz will be singing and it will be funny. She also wants to sell your house. You can get her card that evening.  Kate Lewis and Andrea CK will be processing their difficult childhoods in the form of stand-up comedy - because they are STILL STANDING!  Marian Kelner will tell her stories of being a Florida Woman (which she barely survived) and then she will be the straight woman (so to speak) in a skit with the esteemed Juliet Seaver. Juliet sometimes loses herself in an eastern European alter-ego with an indiscernible dialect - which Marian will translate for us.  Henry Balzarini will send in Zubinal Ginubi for a beautiful musical number. Henry will also be directing you - yes, you - in some home-made improv.  The show also includes a world premiere short play Republicans in Human Form with Shannon Chabot and Vanessa Query, writer/director Christine Benevenuto. The play is either political satire or science fiction. You decide!  As the fire marshall always says, seating is limited andrea@thelavacenter.org AUDITIONS & OPPORTUNITIES Summer Concert Series Stage Manager; Non-AEA The Majestic Theater in West Springfield, MA is actively seeking to hire a responsible, motivated individual to serve as Stage Manager for our Summer Summer Concert Series, featuring over 20 bands and at least 30 performances Responsibilities include: Pre-show communication with incoming bands, performer load-in and load-out, running performances which includes board operation of pre-set lighting, coordinating with front-of-house, coordinating and close communication with Sound Engineer to ensure the integrity of the production by monitoring sound levels and communicating effectively with the performers Requirements: Reliable transportation, ability to life 50 lbs, good verbal and written communication skills, Ability to work independently, Willingness to learn Hourly Pay; Hours vary per week 25-40 hours Mid-June-Mid-August Email Sue Dziura with questions and/or to apply for the position--sue@majestictheater.com Valley Light Opera Auditions for Valley Light Opera's Fall Show: H.M.S. Pinafore May 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM 5/16/25 @ 7 PM; 5/17 @ 10:00 AM Wesley United Methodist Church, 98 N Maple St, Hadley, MA VLO is delighted to announce auditions for Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass Who Loved a Sailor.  In VLO’s 2025 50th Anniversary production, the story of H.M.S. Pinafore comes forth like a lost novel by Jane Austen. Concerned with social status, rank, forbidden and/or unexpressed love, family, and societal pressures, this Regency era setting is the perfect platform for secrets, sighs, longing, and romantic frustration. The characters are real people, not cartoons – they feel deeply and react honestly, even within the trappings of their stylized lifestyle. Along with lyrical, beautiful singing, there will be a concentration on realistic (at turns dramatic and comedic) acting, and thoughtful character development. Also please note, we will be employing the use of British accents (for he is an Englishman!) and excellent diction, spoken and sung, will be of great importance. Sign Up Here Information can also be found at vlo.org. Springfield Community Theater of MA Final Auditions for Annie May 15, 2025 at 5:30 PM 52 Sumner Avenue, Springfield, MA We are still looking for a few male and female adult singer/dancer/actors for our family summer musical and of course any orphans! Please register! https://forms.gle/nWCfEPcUMoquYU166 The show will be performed August 1-3. Most rehearsals will start July 7 with leads rehearsing in June in the evenings. Comer prepared to sing 1 min of a song...without accompaniment, recite 1 minute scene or poem from memory, and do movement with our chorographer. Shakespeare & Company Free Community Day May 24, 2025 at 11:00 AM 70 Kemble St., Lenox, MA 01240 Shakespeare & Company will hold its second-annual free Community Day on Saturday, May 24 from 11 am – 4 pm, Memorial Day Weekend! This event features live demonstrations and performances, scavenger hunts, film screenings, food trucks with lunches and snacks for purchase, and dozens of other local nonprofits sharing the many ways we all serve the Berkshires – and beyond. For more information, call the Box Office at 413.637.3353 or visit shakespeare.org. https://shakespeare.org/ JACKMCT PRODUCTIONS Audition Announcement Auditions will continue until casting is complete. On-Line (Zoom) AUDITION ANNOUNCEMENT Now auditioning singers for Recording and Performance Project for DEMOCRACY: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL whose purpose is not only to entertain, but to inspire community dialogue, reflection, and meaningful political and social action to support and defend our democracy. Project is centered in Amherst, Mass.  Singers, please watch this short introductory video For more information please visit: www.jackmct.com Democracy: An American Musical was created to shine a light on the promise, practice, imperfections, and potential of democracy in the US. Right now, powerful forces are working to reshape our representative republic into something resembling an oligarchic autocracy. The goal is not only to engage and entertain, but to reach audiences on an emotional level with a non-partisan message: we cannot take democracy for granted. Through music and storytelling, I hope to inspire community dialogue, reflection, and meaningful political and social action to support and defend democracy.  The composer/playwright, John McDonnell Tierney has written five full-length musicals some of which have been produced Off-Broadway and in prestigious festivals. ArtsEZ 2025 Grant Round Deadline May 15, 2025 Artists, educators, and arts organizations in Northampton, Florence, and Leeds are invited to apply for funding to support creative projects that enrich their local communities. The ArtsEZ grants are made possible through proceeds from the Arts Council’s signature fundraising events, including The Silver Chord Bowl, Transformance, and First Night Northampton. This year, the council will award up to $8,000 in funding across multiple artistic disciplines, including dance, film and video, literature, mixed media, music, schools, theater, and visual arts. Individual artists and arts organizations will receive equal consideration for grants. Applicants must submit the ArtsEZ Spring 2025 Online-Only Application Form, which will be available on the council's website starting April 15. The form includes short-answer questions, a section to upload supporting materials, and a required project budget. Each applicant, whether an individual or an organization, may submit only one application. Projects must begin on or after July 1, 2025, and be completed by June 30, 2026. Applicants should review the ArtsEZ Spring 2025 guidelines to ensure they are eligible before applying. This grant program is made possible by the generous support of local businesses, arts organizations, and artists contributing to the Northampton Arts Council’s fundraising efforts.  LEARN MORE  Salmon Falls Climate Action Performances Oct 14, 2025 porches of Shelburne Falls and Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls We are looking for directors and actors for three performances in October/November of about 12 five-minute climate related plays in Shelburne Falls. They are moving, surprising, and, at times, funny. It's part of the Climate Change Theater Action. We can choose from 60 skits written by people from all over the world. WORKSHOPS & CLASSES Shakespeare & Company has announced its 2025 Summer Shakespeare Intensive, providing actors an opportunity to immerse themselves in the works of Shakespeare during our vibrant summer performance season. The Summer Shakespeare Intensive is modeled after the internationally acclaimed January Month-long Intensive and designed for undergraduate theater students, recent graduates, and early-career acting professionals. This year’s session will take place May 28 – June 22 and run for four weeks, six days a week, offering classes in Linklater Voice Work,  Monologue and Scene Work, Play and Stage Fight, Movement and Dance, the Actor-Audience Relationship, and more. Sheila Bandyopadhyay, director of the Center for Actor Training, explained that participants follow a progression of exercise throughout the program and work on scene studies, culminating in final performances open to company members, family, and friends.  “Our program is unique in scope and personalized attention,” she explained. “The participants train their voices, bodies, and imaginations, and the faculty works to offer each individual the support they need to advance to the next level of their craft.  “Alongside this is the strong community bond that develops between the actors themselves; friendships and professional affiliations that we hope will last a lifetime.”  Tuition is $5,850 and includes double-occupancy housing and breakfast provided each day, A limited number of single rooms may be available for an additional fee. A limited number of partial scholarships are available. For more information and to apply, visit shakespeare.org/actor-training, or email training@shakespeare.org. Photo Caption: Sofonyas Alebachew, at left, and Lidia Callau, right, during the 2024 Summer Shakespeare Intensive, held at Shakespeare & Company's Center for Actor Training in Lenox, Mass. The Shea Theater is delighted to offer their second annual Immersive Summer Theater Program for Kids ages 8-12! *July 7-18 session 1 *July 21- August 1 session 2 *9-3 Monday-Friday *Performance at 2 pm second Friday  *Two week attendance not required to participate  *Cost is $450 with some scholarships available Registration opens at sheatheater.org on February 10. Questions? Please reach out to sheatheaterartscenter@gmail.com Testimonial from last summer:  My child loved the Immersive Theater Camp at the Shea! The theater games were super fun and they loved all aspects of rehearsal and performance for Alice In Wonderland. Atticus and Enzo manage to be both clear and fun Directors, and are doing a wonderful job nurturing the next generation of immersive theater enthusiasts. It was a big highlight of the summer! Each day of the program will be dedicated to creating and rehearsing the immersive theater performance, as well as learning and participating in various acting games and workshops. The performers will rehearse and perform in an immersive theater show based on a fairytale, a Shakespeare play, or a myth. This Immersive approach encourages imagination, collaboration, and creativity while teaching acting and movement techniques in a nurturing and holistic environment. The medium of Immersive Theater is an innovative theater format that allows audience members to wander wherever they wish within a play, finding characters and scenes at their own will in different rooms and spaces. No audience member has the same experience; they all will see different scenes in different locations, piecing together the story as they go. And if being onstage is not for your child, there is lots of backstage creativity  to be invented, too. SESSION ONE-We will perform a theatrical version of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, rewritten by Atticus Belmonte and incorporating themes and elements from various versions of the Oz story. SESSION TWO-We will perform Cinderella, primarily inspired by the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel and collaging imagery from other versions and fairytales.  Atticus Belmonte is a 20 year old writer, director, actor, and theater major at Bard College. He is a founder of Patch Productions that he formed with his siblings and several friends taking his immersive theater pieces to the Shea where they have offered several productions. Enzo Belmonte is 17 years old and grew up doing theater, specifically Shakespeare and immersive theater. He has a special skill set in technical theater and will create lights and sound for the show. SUMMER NIGHTS YOUTH THEATER Now taking applications for our second annual FREE program for ages 12-17 In Easthampton, MA on the campus of Williston-Northampton School July 14-18 and July 21-25 Go to easthamptontheater.com for more information and check out our flyer.   Registration is now open! Is your creative kiddo ready for a fun-filled summer of channeling their inner wild creature, creating their own fairy tale, and discovering their inner clown? Does your tween or teen enjoy making things up on the spot, working as a team, and creating their own performances? Registration is now open for PIC Kids Summer with options for rising 2nd-9th graders. Younger artists (rising 2nd-5th graders) will adventure through the creative process as they explore theater, movement, visual art, and more. Each week follows a different theme, and all weeks will culminate in a sharing of the young artists' original work on Fridays at 2:30. Keep scrolling for detailed descriptions of each week. JUL 21-25        Growl and Groove JUL 28-AUG 1  Fairy Tale Mashup! AUG 4-8          Theatrical Clown 1 AUG 11-15       Theatrical Clown 2 9am-3pm each day  $350/week Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, 130 Pine St, Florence   Older youth artists (rising 6th-9th graders) will spend each morning playing comedy improv games, and then apply those skills and concepts to the afternoon sessions, working as an ensemble to create (devise) their own original performance. With improv you never know what's going to happen, so these creative kids will be taking risks, laughing, and figure it out as they go! All of this collaborative fun will culminate in a sharing at 2:30pm on the Friday of each session. AUG 4-8       Improvise and Devise 1 AUG 11-15 Improvise and Devise 2​ 9:00am-3:00pm each day  $350/week Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, 130 Pine St, Florence ​ Learn more and register! Summer Theater Workshops August 4-8, 8:30am-4:30pm 33 Hawley Street, Northampton MA This is a one week process-focused theater workshop that is tailored to the group's interest and skills. Ages 7-12 will explore storytelling, group work, improvisation, how to stage a theater production, and building social-emotional skills. Ages 15-18 will focus on monologues, partnered scene work, and how to create a character. Both groups perform for family and friends at the end of the week. Ages 7-12 is full day and Ages 15-18 is half day. https://www.nohoarts.org/theatre-and-film Theater enthusiasts are invited to go Behind the Curtain this spring and summer, through Shakespeare & Company’s series of discussions led by Shakespeare scholar Ann Berman. Held on select Saturdays throughout the spring and summer at the Shakespeare & Company campus, these free public talks offer audiences insight into the creative process of Season 2025’s productions, featuring directors, cast, and design team members as they explore themes, artistic choices, and behind-the-scenes stories. Behind the Curtain talks begin on Saturday, March 8, and continue through Saturday, August 16: June 21, 10:30 a.m. – The Victim with director Daniel Gidron (Rose Footprint Theatre, outdoors) July 5, 10:30 a.m. – Romeo & Juliet with directors Jonathan Epstein and Kevin G. Coleman (Rose Footprint Theatre, outdoors) July 19, 10:30 a.m. – The Piano Lesson with director Chris Edwards (Rose Footprint Theatre, outdoors) August 2, 10:30 a.m. – The Taming of the Shrew with directors Tina Packer and Allyn Burrows (Rose Footprint Theatre, outdoors) August 16, 10:30 a.m. – Mother Play with director Ariel Bock (Rose Footprint Theatre, outdoors) For more information and to reserve free tickets, visit shakespeare.org/talks-tours, or call the Box Office at 413.637.3353. Photo Caption: Ann Berman, far right, leads a series of free Behind the Curtain talks in the spring and summer at Shakespeare & Company. Pictured are director Dalia Ashurina (far left) and playwright/cast member Awni Abdi-Bahri of Three Tall Persian Women, which debuted at Shakespeare & Company last year. Photo by Eran Zelixon. 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. About Ann Berman Ann Berman holds a Master of Arts in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College, London, through a program that partnered with Shakespeare’s Globe. She also holds a Master’s of Education in Special Education from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in English from SUNY Binghamton. Before relocating to Berkshire County, she served as a longtime volunteer with the Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Boston. She taught Shakespeare’s plays at the Life-long Learning at Regis College program (LLARC), in tandem with what play ASP was performing at the time. Now a resident of Lee, Mass., Berman is also an active member of The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College (OLLI). 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 © 2025 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