A WALK THROUGH WILLIAMSTOWN WITH BECKY ANN BAKER
A Walk Through Williamstown is our weekly series celebrating the town that supports WTF every summer, and the artists who return year after year. Every Sunday, join one of our artists as they chat with us at their favorite local spot.

BECKY ANN BAKER [14th WTF Season] Currently on stage in: Off the Main Road through July 19th
Favorite Williamstown Spot: Sand Springs Pool

What do you love most about Sand Springs Pool?
My first summer was 1985, and I’ve been coming to Sand Springs ever since. I forget which Native American tribe was first using the naturally fed spring but it’s been here for a long time. I’m a daily swimmer, everywhere I go, and this is my very favorite swimming pool anywhere, ever because it’s fed by a natural spring, there are no chemicals added, and the temperature is very cold. I like the fact that it’s cold and it makes me swim faster. It is incredibly refreshing in the summer. A great place to relax and lay down in a lawn chair, read a cheap, cheesy magazine and get away from whatever the pressure you’re under.

What keeps you coming back to WTF?
I’ve gotten to know Williamstown, the town and the community, really well – we’ve made real friends here. Even in seasons when we’re not working at the Festival we’ll come up and stay with a friend and see the shows. It’s turned into a wonderful community for us. The Festival itself does such high quality work so it’s a really nice place to both work and relax at the same time. It’s an unusual combination. It’s also such a small community of artists so you get to hang out with a lot of your closest friends, and it’s always a different mix of friends.

How would you describe Off the Main Road in five words or less?
Oh gosh….sexy, dramatic, heart-breaking, violent, and funny.

What’s your best swimming stroke?
Freestyle. Although when I raced as a kid in seventh grade, the only year I really raced, it was the breaststroke. But I’m a freestyler.

If you weren’t acting at WTF, what other job would you like to have at the festival?
Stage manager, by far. I have always thought I was really a closet stage manager. Many of the stage managers I work with know this about me and they’ll let me put things on the callboard for them. It’s my natural, organized, very German ethnicity that makes me want to order everybody around and be the stage manager. So that would be definitely my job.