#Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center

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There were one hundred very fortunate people including me in the audience for this concert.

I have heard Hugh sing “Music of the Night” on Broadway—almost ten years ago—and many times since then in concert. Now that Phantom on Broadway has ended, he approaches this song with a wistfulness which makes his performance that much more reflective and beautiful.

“Music of the Night” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.”

Hugh Panaro with Joseph Thalken, piano and Brian Holtz, bass.  “Hugh Panaro in Concert,” Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, Barrington Stage Company.  The Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Monday August 21, 2023

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REVIEW: "Hold These Truths" at Barrington Stage

REVIEW: “Hold These Truths” at Barrington Stage

[chrisnyc99]

at Barrington Stage's Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center https://www.instagram.com/p/Chs2t1JOqb_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[corcoranproductions]

Congratulations @lenakaminsky on your amazing performance as Sharon in Steven Levenson’s compelling play “If I Forget,” on US, #Israel, identity and inheritance. The play, and your performance, were one of the highlights of a terrific summer. @barringtonstage #theater #berkshires (at Barrington Stage's Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2WbfjfJcvm/?igshid=q8jl23abr3io

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Typhoid Mary" at Barrington Stage

REVIEW: “Typhoid Mary” at Barrington Stage

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REVIEW: "The Cake" at Barrington Stage Company

REVIEW: “The Cake” at Barrington Stage Company

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REVIEW: "The Chinese Lady" at Barrington Stage

REVIEW: “The Chinese Lady” at Barrington Stage

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REVIEW: "Harry Clarke" at Barrington Stage Company

REVIEW: “Harry Clarke” at Barrington Stage Company

by Macey Levin              The one-man play, Harry Clarke by David Cale, featuring Mark H. Dold and produced by Barrington Stage Company, is receiving an insightful and enthralling production at the Tartell Family Outdoor Stage diagonally across from the Mark St. Germain Stage on Linden Street, Pittsfield.             At the age of eight Philip Brugglestein mutates into Harry Clarke – a Brit,…

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Barrington Stage Company Receives $1 Million Gift from Sydelle and Lee Blatt (Pittsfield, MA) Barrington Stage Company, the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, is honored to announce a major gift of $1 million dollars from Board member Sydelle Blatt and her husband Lee.

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Barrington Stage Company Opens 25th Anniversary Season with “Hold These Truths” (Pittsfield, MA– April 2019) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, kicks off its 25th Anniversary season with…

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Barrington Stage Company Presents The PlayWorks Weekend – A Staged Reading Series (Pittsfield, MA) Celebrating its 25th Anniversary Season, Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, presents The PlayWorks Weekend, a staged reading series of new plays with performances May 10-12 at the St.

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REVIEW: "Harry Clarke" at Barrington Stage Company

REVIEW: “Harry Clarke” at Barrington Stage Company

by Macey Levin

             The one-man play, Harry Clarke by David Cale, featuring Mark H. Dold and produced by Barrington Stage Company, is receiving an insightful and enthralling production at the Tartell Family Outdoor Stage diagonally across from the Mark St. Germain Stage on Linden Street, Pittsfield.

            At the age of eight Philip Brugglestein mutates into Harry Clarke – a Brit,…

[larryland]

Berkshire Musicians Billy Keane & Matt Cusson Headline Holiday Cabaret at Barrington Stage

Berkshire Musicians Billy Keane & Matt Cusson Headline Holiday Cabaret at Barrington Stage

(Pittsfield, MA) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announces local Berkshire musicians Billy Keane and Matt Cusson will headline a Holiday Cabaret on Sunday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret (36 Linden Street). Tickets are $25 for table seating and $20 for a barstool by calling…

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(Pittsfield, MA– August 2019) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, presents by popular demand, an encore engagement of Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata.

Hold These Truths stars Joel de la Fuente (Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle) reprising his Drama Desk-nominated role in this solo play inspired by the life of Gordon Hirabayashi.

  Directed by Lisa Rothe (Irish Repertory Theatre’s Wild Abandon), Hold These Truths will have eight performances September 20-26 at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center (36 Linden Street).

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Unsung American hero Gordon Hirabayashi fights passionately for the Constitution against an unexpected adversary: his own country. During World War II, he defies the US government’s orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry, launching a 50-year journey from college to courtroom and eventually to a Presidential Medal of Freedom. A story filled with hope, this play will leave you cheering for a man who stood up for the true meaning of patriotism.

  Hold These Truths has scenic design by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, costume design by Margaret E. Weedon, lighting design by Cat Tate Starmer, sound design by Daniel Kluger. Production Stage Manager: Mary K. Botosan.

  Joel de la Fuente (Gordon Hirabayashi) makes his debut for Barrington Stage Company in Hold These Truths. Most recently, the play was awarded three Theatre Bay Area Awards for its run in San Francisco, including Outstanding Principal Performance, as well as garnering a Drama Desk Nomination in New York City for Outstanding Solo Performance when it debuted in 2012. On television, Joel plays Chief Inspector Kido on The Man in the High Castle, one of Amazon Studios’ most watched original series. He also portrays Dr. Johann Pryce on Netflix’s second original series, Hemlock Grove, and can be seen in perpetual reruns on Law & Order: SVU, where he played TARU Tech Ruben Morales for 10 seasons. Currently, he appears as President Datu Andrada on Madam Secretary for CBS. Joel has performed in theaters all over the world, as both an avid classical theater actor and as a developer of new work. He is an alumnus of Brown University and the Graduate Acting Program at NYU.

  Hold These Truths is sponsored in part by Carol and Alfred Maynard & Dick Ziter and Eric Reimer.

  Performances: Friday, September 20 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, September 21 at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 p.m.; Tuesday, September 24  and Wednesday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, September 26 at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center (36 Linden Street). Tickets: $53 matinees and $58 evenings. Barrington Stage Box Office: 413-236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

Actress and playwright Jeanne Sakata, whose talents span across TV, film, voiceover and stage, is currently delighting New York audiences as struggling but spunky “Mom” in the Off Broadway premiere of the brilliant new comedy Do You Feel Anger? at the Vineyard Theatre, as well as TV audiences in the recurring roles of genius scientist Lenore Shimamoto/Mayor Saito on the animated TV series Big Hero 6, based on the Disney smash hit movie, and three national commercials. Jeanne’s nationally acclaimed solo play Hold These Truths (2013 Drama Desk Nomination, Outstanding Solo Performance; 2019 Theatre Bay Awards, Outstanding Production, Principal Performance and Direction) has had over twenty productions across the country, and will be produced in the 2019-20 season at Barrington Stage, San Diego Rep, and People’s Light and Theatre, after sold-out and extended runs last year at Arena Stage and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. In April 2019, Hold These Truths will also be available internationally as a special audio recording, produced by L.A. Theatre Works. The play has also been produced in recent years at Pasadena Playhouse, ACT Seattle, Portland Center Stage, Guthrie Theater, PlayMakers’ Rep, Perseverance Theatre, Honolulu Theatre for Youth (Daniel Dae Kim, co-producer), Terra Nova Collective, Silk Road Rising, Coachella Valley Rep, Plays and Players, and New Century Theatre. Premiering with the East West Players in Los Angeles, and then Off Broadway with the Epic Theatre Ensemble, the play was workshopped by the Lark Play Development Center and the New York Theatre Workshop. Hold These Truths is now published by Ageloff Books and available on Amazon, and it is on display at the Library of Congress Playwrights Archive in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection in Washington DC, where the Jeanne Sakata Collection was established in July 2011.

  ABOUT BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY

  Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is an award-winning regional theatre located in Pittsfield, MA, in the heart of the Berkshires. Co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, BSC has a three-fold mission: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre—especially young people.

Barrington Stage commissioned and produced the world premiere of Christopher Demos-Brown’s American Son, which also won the Laurents/Hatcher Award as Best New Play by an Emerging Playwright in 2016 and recently concluded a Broadway run, starring Kerry Washington. Barrington Stage first garnered national attention in 2004 when it premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which later transferred to Broadway where it won two Tony Awards. In 2009, BSC premiered Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session, which later moved Off Broadway and played for two years. St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth (which premiered at BSC as Dr. Ruth, All the Way) played Off Broadway at the Westside Theatre. BSC’s all-time record-breaking musical On the Town was originally produced at BSC in 2013 before transferring to Broadway, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. In 2016, Barrington Stage swept the first annual Berkshire Theatre Awards by winning 20 out of the 25 awards. In 2017, BSC produced the much-lauded revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company, starring Aaron Tveit. In 2018, BSC produced the critically-acclaimed production of West Side Story in honor of Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins’ 100th birthdays. BSC has won the Best of the Berkshires Readers’ Choice for Best Live Theatre for the past three years. 2019 marks BSC’s 25th Season Anniversary.

Barrington Stage Brings Back “Hold These Truths” By Popular Demand (Pittsfield, MA– August 2019) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, presents by popular demand, an encore engagement of…

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

History and artistry have merged on the St. Germain Stage of the Barrington Stage Company in a rare and wonderful way to bring us a one-man play that couldn’t be more timely. Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths, starring Joel de la Fuente as scholar and civil rights champion Gordon Hirabayashi (1918-2012), is a galvanizing portrayal of a courageous patriot, a man I never learned about in school, and I suspect you never did either.

Hirabayashi, who was to become a Quaker, was born in Washington state to Japanese immigrant parents. After finishing high school, Hirabayashi attended the University of Washington. In 1940, he won a fellowship to attend a summer leadership conference at Columbia University, where his awareness of the ever-growing conflicts in Europe and the Pacific grew. When he returned to Seattle, he registered with the Selective Service as a conscientious objector.

The principled and idealistic Hirabayashi fervently believed in the U.S. Constitution, and was shocked to find that, as a U.S. citizen, his rights were not protected. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an executive order called for all people of Japanese history to be excluded from the West Coast. Hirabayashi, who saw that the imposed curfews and evacuations conflicted with the Constitution, felt he had no choice but to resist. Instead of submitting to the relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps, he turned himself in to the F.B.I., believing that he would create a test case that would ultimately prove the government’s treatment of Japanese-Americans was unconstitutional. While his plan didn’t work out as he’d imagined, he bore years of imprisonment not only with remarkable grace and courage, but with his core beliefs fully intact.

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On Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s elegantly designed minimalist set, beautifully supported by Cat Tate Starmer’s lighting design and Daniel Kluger’s sound design, Joel de la Fuente honors Hirabayashi’s life and Jeanne Sakata’s equisitely rendered script with an unforgettably dynamic performance. The actor embodies Hirabayashi through 50 years, and plays a variety of characters with equal skill and gusto. De la Fuente is riveting, seamlessly moving through the events and people in Hirabayashi’s life in portrayals that are nothing short of luminous. The 90-odd minutes fly by, yet deliver a gratifyingly full portrait of an American hero who, I hope this fine play brings Hirabayashi the wider recognition he has certainly earned.

Hold These Truths runs through June 8, 2019. I hope you are able to get a ticket. I think we can all use a reminder of what a real patriot looks like.

Barrington Stage Company presents Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Lisa Rothe, from May 22-June 8, 2019, on the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street in Pittsfield, MA. Scenic design by Mikiko Suzuki McAdams, costume design by Margaret E. Weedon, lighting design by Cat Tate Starmer, sound design by Daniel Kluger. Production Stage Manager: Mary K. Botosan. Starring Joel de la Fuente.

Performances: Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m.  Tickets: $15-$50. Barrington Stage Box Office: 413-236-8888 or online at www.barringtonstageco.org.

REVIEW: “Hold These Truths” at Barrington Stage by Roseann Cane History and artistry have merged on the St. Germain Stage of the Barrington Stage Company…

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Barrington Stage Company Presents “Well Intentioned White People” (Pittsfield, MA) Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires (Pittsfield, MA) under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, is proud to present the world premiere of…