WTF s Mandy Greenfield: In-person season will be intense undertaking but Festival is ready berkshireeagle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from berkshireeagle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Williamstown Festival Will Take the Shows Outside
After a lost live 2020, the theater will stage a musical at a museum’s reflecting pool and an immersive show, all over town, based on real events.
Work by the writer and actress Zora Howard will be part of “Outside on Main: Nine Solo Plays by Black Playwrights” at the 2021 Williamstown festival.Credit.Screengrab
By Scott Heller
April 7, 2021, 9:00 p.m. ET
The Williamstown Theater Festival, which was forced by the pandemic to convert its 2020 season into a series of audio plays, will present live performances again this summer, though not in its indoor venues.
Michael Arden
(Photo: Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com)
After last year s Williamstown Theatre Festival season was put on Audible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 season will welcome back live audiences. Shows will play outdoors with social distancing and safety prioritized.
The season will kick off on July 6 with the world premiere of
Outside on Main: Nine Solo Plays by Black Playwrights, which will run through July 25. Guest curated by
Slave Play s Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara, this series of three shows celebrates Black artists and their voices through theatrical storytelling. Each performance consists of three of the nine 30-minute world premieres, created by Ngozi Anyanwu, France-Luce Benson, J. Nicole Brooks, Guadalís Del Carmen, Terry Guest, Ike Holter, Zora Howard, NSangou Njikam and Charly Evon Simpson. Written for actors of color, these productions will be helmed by directors Wardell Julius Clark, Candis C. Jones and Awoye Timpo on the front lawn of t
Williamstown Theatre Fest staging outside this summer
FacebookTwitterEmail 3
1of3The Williamstown Theatre Festival s mainstage and Nikos Stage performances take place at the 62 Center for Theatre & Dance at Williams College. (Robert Benson / Williams College Office of Public Affairs) Show MoreShow Less
2of3The view over the reflecting pool at the new Tadao Ando-designed visitors center at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Clark Art Institute photo/www.clarkart.edu) Show MoreShow Less
3of3
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The Williamstown Theatre Festival, which presented its 2020 productions in an audio format on the Audible platform, this year will perform its season outside.
One production will be on the lawn at the festival s home, the 62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College, another around the reflecting pool at the nearby Clark Art Institute, and the third is being described as an immersive theatrical experience at different spots in Willia
On Thursday, the WTF s artistic director met with the town s Board of Health to discuss the summer season that the festival officially unveiled on Wednesday night. Greenfield, who told the board that she always presumes we re on the brink of disaster, said she committed to the idea of an outdoor 2021 season way back in August. At that time, I got some pushback from people saying, By next summer, we ll be ready to be back indoors, Greenfield said. I thought, Maybe, but maybe we need to stay on the most conservative course imaginable so we can be back in Williamstown.