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BERKSHIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES SOME 2009 CASTING
Randy Harrison, David Adkins among favorites to return to the Festival this summer

Berkshire Theatre Festival Artistic Director Kate Maguire is pleased to welcome back several of BTF’s favorite actors as cast members for the Festival’s 2009 season. Randy Harrison (“Queer as Folk”) will play Oswald in a brand new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic Ghosts. David Adkins (BTF’s Waiting for Godot), Colin Lane, and Keira Naughton (BTF’s The Book Club Play) will appear in Faith Healer. Tommy Schrider and James Barry (BTF’s Caretaker) will return to reprise their roles in this season’s revival of The Einstein Project. Greg Keller (BTF’s A Man for All Seasons) will be featured in the regional premiere of Sick. Stephen DeRosa (BTF’s Waiting for Godot) will play Mel in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue. As previously announced, David Garrison (“Married . . . with Children”) is Red Barber in the one-man show Red Remembers this fall.

This will mark Randy Harrison's fourth summer with BTF after having previously appeared in Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Mrs. Warren's Profession, and last summer's critically acclaimed production of Waiting for Godot. Randy has also appeared as Boq in Wicked on Broadway and A Letter for Ethel Kennedy at MCC in New York. For Ghosts, Randy will once again be working with director and fellow BTF alum Anders Cato. Anders and dramaturg James Leverett will be creating a brand new adaptation of Ghosts for this summer’s production.

David Adkins, Colin Lane, and Keira Naughton will team up to bring Brian Friel’s powerful character piece, Faith Healer to the Unicorn Theatre, directed by Eric Hill. David is celebrating his 13th season at BTF after wowing critics and audiences with his performance at Vladimir in last summer’s hit production of Waiting for Godot. He was previously seen at BTF in Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Misanthrope, and The Father, among others. In New York he has worked with The Women’s Project, National Actors Theater and Manhattan Theater Club. Faith Healer will mark Colin Lane’s Berkshire Theatre Festival debut. Colin’s previous work includes A Touch of the Poet and Molly Sweeney on Broadway as well as work at The Irish Rep, Arena Stage, American Repertory Theatre, Capital Rep, and Yale Rep. Keira appeared last year as Ana in BTF’s production of The Book Club Play. She has previously appeared on Broadway in The Rivals, Dance of Death, and Three Sisters, as well as regionally at the Kennedy Center and Arena Stage among others..

Tommy Schrider was first seen on BTF stages in the non-equity company of the BTF’s original run of The Einstein Project by Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein. This summer, he will rejoin director Eric Hill in re-creating Einstein, the man who moved this world to a new age. Tommy has also appeared at BTF in A Man for All Seasons, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and in New York at Irish Rep, Classic Stage, and New York Theatre Workshop. For this production, he will once again be paired with James Barry in the role of Werner Heisenberg. James was seen at BTF last summer in The Caretaker opposite Tommy and Jonny Epstein. James has previously been seen at BTF in This is Our Youth, The Who’s Tommy, The Misanthrope, and Amadeus, among other roles.

Greg Keller will take on the part of Jim in this season’s black comedy Sick, written by Zayd Dohrn. Greg has been seen at BTF in A Man for All Seasons, The Glass Menagerie, A Dream Play, and This is Our Youth. He has also been seen on Broadway in Uncle Vanya and The Rainmaker and Off-Broadway at CSC, Lincoln Center, and Roundabout Theatre.

Stephen DeRosa will be taking on the role of Mel Edison in Neil Simon’s comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue, directed by Warner Shook. Stephen also appeared last summer at BTF as Estragon in Waiting for Godot. He has also been seen at the Festival in Love! Valour! Compassion! as well as Lives of the Saints. He played Wilbur Turnblad in the Broadway production and first National tour of Hairspray. His other Broadway credits include Twentieth Century, Henry IV, and The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Kate is thrilled to have these enormously talented actors returning to the Festival this summer. "We have really been fortunate to have developed such great relationships with so many truly talented artists. Each of these actors have helped form a wonderful feeling of community with our directors, designers, and staff that, along with our friends, neighbors, and patrons, creates the Berkshire Theatre Festival family. It’s that BTF family that makes this such a special place each year.”

The 2009 BTF Season

Main Stage

Broadway by the Year®- Created/Written/Hosted by Scott Siegel with an All-Star Cast
Presented by special arrangement with The Town Hall in New York City.
Previews: June 19, 20
Opening Night: June 20
Closes: June 27
Since 2002, this critically acclaimed cabaret series has become what Show Business Weekly deems, "…an invaluable and entertaining jewel in the cabaret crown of New York". For the first time ever, this amazing evening of show tunes from Broadway’s glorious past is presented in the Berkshires. This strictly limited engagement has been called by The New York Times, "Witty, breezily paced. . .informative. . .valuable. . .the right perspective of lighthearted nostalgia.”

The Einstein Project by Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein
Directed by Eric Hill
With Tommy Schrider as Albert Einstein and James Barry as Werner Heisenberg
Previews: June 30, July 1, 2, 3, 4
Opening Night: July 4
Closes: July 18
The Einstein Project humanizes an immortal figure. Through conversations with his son, his wife, and his colleagues, Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein present a vulnerable, fiendishly intelligent Albert Einstein trapped between his beliefs and his duty. A fascinating portrait of the man who, however reluctantly, ushered in the atomic age. Originally presented in the Unicorn Theatre, BTF Director Eric Hill turns to the Main Stage to re-invigorate this extraordinary production.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue by Neil Simon
Directed by Warner Shook
With Stephen DeRosa as Mel Edison
Previews: July 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Opening Night: July 25
Closes: August 8
Mel and Edna Edison, a middle-aged couple living in New York, find their luck is quickly deteriorating during a terrible heat wave and a garbage strike. When Mel cracks under the pressure, his family intervenes in an attempt to nurse him back to his old self, with predictably unpredictable results. World renowned playwright Neil Simon presents a comical, and sometimes sad, look at the pressures placed upon a working class family that ripples with his trademark crisp dialogue and quirky, hysterically memorable characters

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Adapted by Anders Cato and James Leverett
Directed by Anders Cato
With Randy Harrison as Oswald
Previews: August 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Opening Night: August 15
Closes: August 29

A woman struggles to keep several terrible family secrets, the implication of which are only worsened by a puritanical Pastor, a lascivious son, and her own guilt-ridden, well hidden past. Full of dark symbols, Ghosts exemplifies Henrik Ibsen’s uncanny ability to overturn Victorian social values by using them as the damning elements in his work. Now, BTF favorites Director Anders Cato and Dramaturg James Leverett present a brand new translation of this classic of the theatre.

Unicorn Theatre

Berkshire Theatre Festival Unicorn performances are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm; Wednesday evening at 7pm; and Saturday afternoons at 2pm for Faith Healer and Red Remembers. The opening and closing productions have slightly different schedules — please see details below. Prices range from $19.50 to $44.

Faith Healer by Brian Friel
Directed by Eric Hill
With David Adkins, Colin Lane, and Keira Naughton
Previews: May 21, 22
Opening Night: May 23
Closes: July 4
Francis Hardy has an unusual job. He, his wife, Grace, and his loyal manager, Teddy, travel across the British Isles performing a series of almost vaudevillian faith healings. But like any professional, Hardy begins to worry about losing his talent, or whether or not he ever really had one. The strain is felt by his wife, observed by his manager, and so grips Francis that he becomes obsessed with curing the incurable, no matter the cost.

Candide Music by Leonard Bernstein, Book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, Lyrics by Richard Wilbur
Other lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and John LaTouche
Directed by Ralph Petillo
Previews: July 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Opening Night: July 11
Closes: August 15
Based on Voltaire’s novella, Candide is the story of a young man’s journey of self-discovery as he tries to find his place in a world that appears to be growing increasingly hostile. Alternately funny and poignant, Candide features some of the most recognizable music in the American canon and has proven to be a crowd favorite.

Sick by Zayd Dohrn
Director TBA
With Greg Keller as Jim
Previews: August 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
Opening Night: August 22
Closes: September 6
Regional Premiere
A small home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is the only safe haven for the children of the Krebs family. But despite Mrs. Krebs’ attempts to protect her family with scrubbers, masks, and isolation, the delicate balance is brought to the breaking point when her husband’s academic career brings a stranger into their safe house. In its Northeast Premiere, Sick seeps onto the stage as a terrifying family drama filled with dark comedy, mistrust, and shocking realism.

Red Remembers by Andrew Guerdat
Directed by John Rando
With David Garrison ("Married. . . With Children") as Red Barber
Previews: September 11, 12
Opening Night: September 12
Closes: November 1
World Premiere
Well into retirement, Red Barber, the former announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, invites the audience into an intimate, beautifully nostalgic story about his life, the history of baseball, and the core values of humanity in an ever changing world. The honor, loyalty, and perseverance of America and its favorite pastime are not lost upon Red, and he ensures they shall not be lost to us.

About Berkshire Theatre Festival

Founded in 1928, Berkshire Theatre Festival is one of the oldest professional regional theatres in the United States and the longest-running theatre in the Berkshires. Now under the helm of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, BTF presents theatre that matters—world premieres, contemporary works, and classics that speak to who we are in our world today. The Main Stage (408 seats), cataloged by the National Register of Historic Places, was originally designed and built by Stanford White as the Stockbridge Casino in 1888. The mission of BTF’s second stage, the intimate Unicorn Theatre (122 seats), is to provide a home for emerging artists and new theatrical ideas. BTF’s education program, BTF PLAYS!, reaches over 10,000 children annually through school residencies, touring performances, and summer performance training and writing programs. During the summer months BTF opens its doors to over 50 administrative, acting, and technical interns and apprentices. For more information about Berkshire Theatre Festival, please visit www.berkshiretheatre.org.