The Berkshires is to arts and culture what Napa Valley is to award-winning wine. From the eastern fringe of New York to the bustling university town of Northampton, the Berkshires have some of the best art museums, music venues, and performing arts centers on the East Coast.
The Berkshires have always been the classic summer-in-the-country destination. Today, the Berkshires’ homegrown, artisanal atmosphere is attracting home buyers looking for back-to-the-land sophistication and culture. And nothing says sophistication and culture like Barrington Stage Company, founded in 1995 in Pittsfield. As Oscar Wilde famously said: “The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.”
Curtain Up
For Barrington Stage Company, art turned to life in the summer of 2007. After a lengthy renovation, the BSC turned a 1912 vaudeville theater into a 520-seat, state-of-the-art showcase for the performing arts. Known as the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, it’s become an integral part of downtown Pittsfield and the go-to theater venue on the Greater Berkshire arts scene.
In 2016, the Barrington Stage Company swept the first Berkshire Theater Awards, winning 19 out of 25 total awards. BSC took honors for productions of The Pirates of Penzance, American Son, Broadway Bounty Hunter, and Kimberly Akimbo.
Take a Bow
The theater’s dominance at awards ceremonies should come as no surprise. Barrington Stage Company has produced award winners since its inaugural year in 1995, when its production of The Diary of Anne Frank won an Elliot Norton award from the Boston Theater Critics Association. Three seasons later, BSC won two Elliot Norton awards for its production of Cabaret, cementing the company’s reputation for excellence and winning accolades from the Boston Globe, which called the theater “one of the jewels in the state’s crown.”
BSC offers local teens ages 13 to 19 an Equity-production experience through its Youth Theatre program, which runs every summer from June to August. In addition to staging productions like The Wiz and Shrek Jr., Youth Theatre students attend Mainstage productions and take master classes taught by professional theater makers.
Barrington Stage Company attracts over 55,00 theatergoers a year, making it one of the fastest growing venues in Massachusetts. The season runs from May to October. Visit BSC online to explore the current season.
