What if a family of Guys and Dolls-style gangsters moved to Downton Abbey-style London in order to escape certain, shall we say, entanglements? What if two of these wise guys fell hard for two tough dolls? And what if the formidable dame who runs the aforementioned criminal family developed an appetite for cucumber sandwiches? Director David Hyde Pierce gives us Oscar Wilde’s hilarious high society satire in a very new way. Welcome to the family.

The Importance of Being Earnest

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2012

Though only in her twenties, Lila Miller is stuck, while her mother, Grace, is perpetually in motion. When Lila returns home to her family's exquisite Hamptons house and garden with only a plastic bag and a broken heart, there's no nurturing to be found, except as pertains to horticulture. The same painful history that threatens to drive mother and daughter permanently apart ultimately evolves into the one realm where reconnection might be possible. The Blue Deep is an achingly honest and funny play about loss, growing up, and the benefits of aquaerobics.

The Blue Deep

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In 1987, WTF launched the popular outdoor Free Theatre with a production of A Study in Scarlet, the first saga in the Sherlock Holmes series.

Twenty-five years later, the legendary sleuth is back in this exciting new theatrical version of Conan Doyle’s final novel, The Valley of Fear, adapted by Free Theatre's original scribe, playwright Steve Lawson.

This two-act play shows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at their witty best— investigating a case of murder that is baffling Scotland Yard. First, we travel with the duo to an English country estate to pick up clues and crack the case. We then dig deep into this mystery's origins in America - illuminating a tale of violence and fear in Pennsylvania's coal country, where one man's life hangs perilously between ruin and redemption.

The Valley of Fear

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Meet Barney Cashman. He's a middle-aged restaurant manager who has a very nice married existence. But he's tired of existing; he wants to live — before it's too late. Maybe one afternoon of passion could be so exhilarating, so vivid, that the memory alone would sate his desire for more. Three women, three afternoons, three shots at living in Technicolor. As she did with her lauded WTF production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, director Jessica Stone reveals the humanity and the hilarity of this oft-overlooked early work of Neil Simon.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

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Theatre from scratch. America’s most talented young writers join forces with WTF’s Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Directing Fellows and actors from the Non-Equity Company to take an original play and musical from concept to performance in just eight weeks. Share in the excitement as we create these brand new works of theatre. WTF Donors at the Sustainer level and above receive first access to these limited seating events.

Tripolitania - Fellowship Play

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Within a throbbing dance club environment, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim deconstruct the astonishing journey of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos, from her meteoric rise to her descent into infamy. This wholly immersive spectacle combines disco beats, adrenaline-fueled choreography, and a remarkable 360-degree scenic and video environment — going beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes to explore true questions of power and responsibility. Neither period piece nor mere biography, neither play nor musical, Here Lies Love is a unique theatrical experience that raises the pulse and quickens the blood — all filtered through the remarkable vision of David Byrne, one of the great American artists of the last half century.

Produced in association with the Public Theater and supported in residence by MASS MoCA

Here Lies Love

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Cathy Whitaker seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel — with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, Far From Heaven is a powerful story of romance, betrayal, intolerance, and a woman grappling with her own identity in a society on the verge of great upheaval.

Far From Heaven

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From a desperate existence in a Victorian freak show to his days as the toast of London high society, the life of John Merrick, the Elephant Man, has fascinated the world for well over a century. Though his disfigurement brought notoriety, it was his unblemished inner humanity that most astonished those around him, compelling examinations of their own prejudices and beliefs. Shattering our illusions of normalcy, Pomerance weaves Merrick's tale into a parable on beauty, innocence, and human dignity.

The Elephant Man

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The Fellowship Program is an innovative program which challenges young theatre artists to develop original theatrical material under the aegis of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Directing Fellows each create a play or a musical theatre piece over the course of the summer with a playwright or young musical theatre team of their choosing. Collaborating with actors from WTF's Non-Equity Company, these practitioners walk into a room with just an idea for their project at the beginning of the summer. They then have ten days to workshop and develop their material with their cast which leads to a three-week, off-site incubation period where the creative team prepares a script with which to go into rehearsal. Once they return to WTF, the whole production has three weeks of rehearsal which culminates in four public performances. We truly believe, and have proof positive, that a new young theatre voice can be fostered in this structure; both plays and musicals created in this supportive environment have gone on to be produced at other theatres.

Becoming Sylvia - Fellowship Musical

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One week before her 30th birthday, the simple life of dutiful wife and mother Natalya is upended when the arrival of her son’s charming new tutor unleashes a whirlwind of love, lust, and jealousy. Both psychologically compelling and emotionally raw, Turgenev’s masterpiece reveals the disruptive nature of passion, intermixed with genuine loss and heartbreak, as Natalya and those around her are torn between moral responsibility and uncontrollable desire.

Month in the Country, A

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One-percenter Eden Higgenbotham lives a cushy Upper-East-Side life surrounded by equally affluent, vain, and snobbish friends. When a sudden stroke causes her to contract the very rare Foreign Accent Syndrome, which makes her speak uncontrollably with a Jamaican accent, she's forced to embrace a dramatically altered identity. Irreverent and hilarious, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! is a searing satire of race and class by the Olivier Award-winning writer of The Mountaintop, Katori Hall.

WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!

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All 2012 Programs

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Blue Deep

The Valley of Fear

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Tripolitania - Fellowship Play

Here Lies Love

Far From Heaven

The Elephant Man

Becoming Sylvia - Fellowship Musical

Month in the Country, A

WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!

W 58Williamstown Theatre Festival Logo58

All 2012 Programs

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Blue Deep

The Valley of Fear

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Tripolitania - Fellowship Play

Here Lies Love

Far From Heaven

The Elephant Man

Becoming Sylvia - Fellowship Musical

Month in the Country, A

WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!

W 58