Great Barrington - Karen Allen will direct the upcoming production of Joan Ackermann’s The Batting Cage at Simon’s Rock College of Bard. The production will take place in the Studio Theater of the Daniel Arts Center from Thursday through Sunday, March 9-12.
Ackermann’s play shows us two estranged sisters staying at an inn in St. Augustine, Florida. They have traveled together to dispose of the ashes of their recently deceased sister, as she had requested. But the ashes are lost in the travel, and the two sisters are left to deal with each other. Complete opposites, they grieve in entirely different ways, each moving from one extreme reaction to the other. The results are poignant.
Karen Allen is teaching in the theater department and directing this production. She has starred in over 30 feature films, in including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Animal House, Starman, Scroodged, the Glass Managerie, and Falling Sky. She has also appeared in numerous stage productions both on and off Broadway, including The Glass Menagerie, Extremitires, The Country Girl, The Miracle Worker, and Speaking in Tongues.
She won a Theater World Award for her work on Broadway portraying Helen Keller in The Monday After the Miracle. She studied acting with Stella Adler, Warren Robertson, and at the Strasberg Institute in New York. She studied voice with Kristen Linklater. Ms. Allen is a member of the Actor's Studio and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She began her work in the theater as a student and company member of the Washington Theater Laboratory in Washington, D.C., an experimental theater company inspired by the work of Polish theater director Jerzy Greotowski. She attended George Washington University and was one of the creators and directors of the theater program at the Washington Project for the Arts, which brought theater companies from around the world to Washington, D.C.
Joan Ackermann, who adapted this play for the different age range of these actors, co-founded Mixed Company, a Great Barrington, Massachusetts-based theatre. In addition to The Batting Cage, Ackerman wrote the play Off the Map (she also wrote the screenplay); Zara Spook and Other Lures (1990 Humana Festival at Actor's Theatre of Louisville); Stanton's Garage (1993 Humana Festival); Don't Ride the Clutch; Bed and Breakfast; Rescuing Greenland; Isabella; A Knight at the Theatre and Back Story.
Ackermann's work has also been produced at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, Circle Rep, the George Street Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare & Company, The Berkshire Theatre Festival and the Mark Taper Forum. In addition to her stage work, she has written and produced for television. A special contributor to Sports Illustrated for six years, Ackermann freelanced for The Atlantic, Audubon, GQ, New York Magazine, Time, and other periodicals.
The productions will begin each evening at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday and Sunday. The play is not suitable for children. Donations will be accepted. For information, call 528-7293.
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North Berkshire Educational Study Updating Communities
By Breanna Steele & Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The steering committee for a regional study on secondary education is getting the word out to participating communities and asking for input.
The goal of the study is to focus on Grades 6 through 12 to understand current conditions across districts, hear people on their educational priorities, analyze strengths, opportunities, and challenges, and identify opportunities for future collaboration.
Steering Committee Chair Erin Milne, also a member of the Hoosac Valley Regional School Committee, introduced the study and why it was needed.
"We've been talking for decades about how the Northern Berkshire school communities can better collaborate with one another, rather than necessarily duplicating services," she told he Cheshire board. "And over time, it's become more and more of a pressing issue as our enrollment has been going down, but costs have been going up."
Hoosac Valley, North Adams, Mount Greylock Regional, Clarksburg, Savoy and Florida are participating in the study. A combination of declining population and rising costs are putting pressure on the districts, but the study will also look at educational opportunities that could come from collaboration.
In North Adams, Superintendent of Schools Timothy Callahan noted that "the reality is that in the North Adams Public Schools, our graduating class is now closer to what Lenox used to have as a graduating class 20 years ago ... So those are the realities, and what can we sustain, and what are the educational opportunities for our young people? Those are the questions that we're asking."
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The mission of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires is to facilitate growth for charitable organizations through shared resources, affordable services, and creative collaborations. click for more
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