With 28 productions of his plays in our history, Tennessee Williams and the Williamstown Theatre Festival have had a long and impressive relationship.  To honor his 100th birthday, there's no better gift than an intimate new production of his masterwork by one of today's most inventive directors.  In the close quarters of the Nikos Stage, the audience will take up temporary residence in the stifling Kowalski apartment to witness Williams' turbulent tale of longing and delusion.

Streetcar Named Desire, A

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2011

Ken Hoyle is an ambitious hatchet man for a multinational company that sells defective baby formula in developing African countries.  His wife Barbara advises other young executive wives on life in the third world.  Their days as idealistic Peace Corps volunteers are far behind them - physically and metaphorically - and the succession of moral compromises has taken its toll. Jon Robin Baitz weaves a timely tale of corporate misdeeds, personal tragedy, and marital discord that takes us into the private thoughts of a man and a woman searching for answers and aching for redemption.

Three Hotels

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Comedian and playwright Lewis Black comes home to WTF with a modern day farce that mocks the all-too-human desire to shape our own destiny. It’s Courtney’s wedding day, and her mom, Delia, is making sure that everything is perfect. The groom is perfect, the dress is perfect, and the decorations (assuming they arrive) will be perfect. Then, like in any good farce the doorbell rings. And all hell breaks loose. So much for perfect.

<i>Supported by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation</i>

One Slight Hitch

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Nora Helmer has everything an affluent housewife could want: beautiful children, an adoring husband, a bright future. When a carelessly buried secret rises to the surface, her well-calibrated, though artificial, domestic ideal begins to crumble. Terrified by this new reality, Nora must choose between outward perfection and inner truth. Still bracingly relevant, Ibsen’s masterpiece, in a striking contemporary translation, offers no safer conclusions today than when it stormed stages of 19th-century Europe.

Doll's House, A

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Prepare to be bewitched and beguiled by Ten Cents a Dance, a new musical conceived by Doyle, who applies his signature style of engaging a company of actor-musicians to bring to life the extraordinary music of Rodgers and Hart. Crooner Johnny wistfully recalls his lifelong love affair of chorus girl Miss Jones, who is embodied by five women, each portraying a different stage of her life. As Johnny and Miss Jones take "Manhattan" under a "Blue Moon" while "Falling in Love with Love," you can't help but think "Isn't it Romantic?" - even if sometimes "The Lady is a Tramp." These and so many other unforgettable songs - filled with infatuation, longing, and enchantment - will sparkle like a glass of champagne on a sexy summer evening. "All you need is a ticket, come on big boy, ten cents a dance."

Ten Cents a Dance is a recipient of a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award and is presented with the generous support of James &amp; Virginia Giddens.

Produced in association with McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ

Ten Cents a Dance

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Pranks and hijinks abound in this raucous 18th- century comedy of big costumes, big sets, big hair, and even bigger laughs. Two well-bred young men arrive at the country estate of Mr. Hardcastle, intending to woo his daughter Kate and her cousin Constance, but when local mischief-maker Tony Lumpkin plays a practical joke on the city slickers, the Hardcastle household is launched into a dizzying, deliciously preposterous romp of mistaken identity.  True to fashion, Nicholas Martin assembles a fearless ensemble of comic all-stars and WTF favorites sure to thrill and delight.

She Stoops to Conquer

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Kay loves her older sister Emma. Or is it Christina? Christine? Matilda? After spending eight years institutionalized and medicated, Emma has changed more than just her name. Determined to get back the brilliant sister she remembers, Kay rents a cabin in the woods and she and her boyfriend Billy hide the sharp objects, from butcher knife to cheese grater. Perhaps quality time with loved ones, some home-cooked meals and games of Scrabble will succeed in restoring Emma to health where her psychiatrists have failed. In its East Coast Premiere, Bess Wohl’s lively, tender comedy explores the scope, limits, and sometimes dangerous side effects of familial love.

Touch(ed)

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Crafted from interviews between the cast and their own parents, You Better Sit Down is an alternately heartbreaking and hilarious look at the stories behind the statistics of one of the most prominent social phenomena of our time. Shockingly candid, these delicate parent-child conversations, with the actors playing their own parents, yield unique insights into falling in love, falling out of love, and rebuilding a life after the complex experience of dividing a family.

The Civilians, a New York-based theater company, creates original work derived from investigations into the world beyond the theater.

You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce

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The Festival's signature Free Theatre production returns to the outdoors with an appropriate setting: WTF's The Comedy of Errors takes place in a bustling, open-air Farmer's Market, like those made popular in old European cities, and which have been popping up in today's major metropolises, as well as on our own beloved Spring Street. Johanna McKeon directs this raucous, uproarious, and beloved classic. Bring a picnic, bring the kids, and enjoy a perfect Berkshire evening of al fresco theatre.

Comedy of Errors, The

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After Robert Hutchens - Fellowship Musical

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When You're Here - Fellowship Play

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All 2011 Programs

Streetcar Named Desire, A

Three Hotels

One Slight Hitch

Doll's House, A

Ten Cents a Dance

She Stoops to Conquer

Touch(ed)

You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce

Comedy of Errors, The

After Robert Hutchens - Fellowship Musical

When You're Here - Fellowship Play

W 57Williamstown Theatre Festival Logo57

All 2011 Programs

Streetcar Named Desire, A

Three Hotels

One Slight Hitch

Doll's House, A

Ten Cents a Dance

She Stoops to Conquer

Touch(ed)

You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce

Comedy of Errors, The

After Robert Hutchens - Fellowship Musical

When You're Here - Fellowship Play

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