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Cast from the Wardrobe Ensemble chat with audience members before "Riot."
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Pi Clowns delight in Clownolio!
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Under the Table's Matt Chapman and Josh Matthews surreal black comedy about two brothers saying goodbye.
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A small army of volunteers spent days erecting staging and decorating prior to Berkshire Fringe's kickoff gala.

Berkshire Fringe Festival Excels in New Home

By Joe DurwinPittsfield Correspondent
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Sweet Soubrette plays at one of several free concerts throughout the festival, held in the former Notre Dame Church.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A major change of venue has not altered the fundamental artistic essence of The Berkshire Fringe, as its 10th season has played out in a whirlwind of theater, song, and assorted buffoonery in the more centralized urban location of one of Pittsfield's most rapidly changing neighborhoods.
 
Fringe founders Sara Katzoff, Timothy Ryan Olson and Peter Wise said the move from the Daniels Arts Center at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington to the repurposed former Pittsfield church known as Shire City Sanctuary has been a positive experience on several levels.
 
"For the most part it's been really great for us. It feels like a much better match for what we do," said Katzoff
 
"It's nice seeing new people that we've never seen before," said Olson. "I've seen many more new faces this year than I have in the past."
 
Katzoff said free concerts held throughout the festival have benefited from the curiosity of pedestrian traffic in a way that hasn't been a factor in previous years. There has also been a contingent among the festivalgoers of those with fond memories of the former Notre Dame Church itself, which previously has only been open to the general public sporadically for a handful of events.
 
"A lot of people that have stopped in have some relationship to the church, and it's been really interesting to talk to people about their stories," Katzoff said.
 
The sanctuary, recently approved for expanded uses, is one component of increased activity in a part of downtown that has been undergoing significant transition. Across the street on Melville, the former Notre Dame School was recently renovated and reopened as high-end apartments, and the blighted former convent adjacent to it demolished. Across First Street, Blueline Designs is in planning to convert a former candlepin bowling alley into a community greenhouse, and around the corner the Pittsfield Common is in the final stages of a $ 4.6 million reconstruction process.
 
"It's definitely a challenge," said Wise, of transitioning to the 1896 church. "But we spent a lot of time planning it in advance, and it's all gone according to plan."
 
Armed with a decade's experience in providing Fringe performance, the trio ably adapted the kind of content that has made them successful to the vagaries of their new venue, which include the ambient sound effects of police sirens and adjacent railroad tracks, along with the lighting nuances of stained-glass windows.
 
"To some extent, we have to acquiesce to what the space is, and just embrace that," said Wise. "Beyond that we've done as much as we possibly can to make it a real professional environment for our artists."
 
Instead of a detraction, the unusual urban cathedral setting in many ways seems to infuse and complement the theatrical fare, which ranges from "Riot," the frantic-paced semi-musical tale of civil unrest in a familiar big-box furniture store, to the slapstick sibling rivalries and hump-backed hijinks in the appropriately named "Hunchbacks of Notre Dame."  
 
"It feels weird to be singing songs about such bad women in such a beautiful religious space," acknowledged Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette, while strumming a ukelele between two melodically bawdy ballads at one of the free early evening concerts.
 
This year's festival is a kind of reunion, incorporating many familiar elements of the past decade's flavor.
 
"The biggest change this year is that we invited specific artists back to the festival to help celebrate our tenth year," said Olson, who said this year's festival was held on a more invitational basis with favorite artists from past shows presenting either new work, a throwback to past shows, or both, as in the case of two companies this year.  
 
The trio agreed that while this was planned prior to knowing they would be relocating the festival to Pittsfield, working with troupes that they knew well has made the transition easier.
 
"There's been so many unknowns with coming to a new city and a new space," Wise said. "So to have all returning staff, and artists that we know already, has been great."
 
Despite its smaller size and budget compared to other theatrical organizations in the Berkshires, the Fringe festival has earned a name and reputation that extends far beyond the Berkshires.  On the opening night of performances, Katzoff shared an encounter she had just had with a couple from Ohio, who had driven to the area specifically to attend the festival.
 
"I'm not used to that," Katzoff told iBerkshires. "People don't usually come to the Berkshires for our thing, they come for something else and then they come to Fringe while they're here."
 
"I think our mission has always stayed the same, nothing has really changed much from past years to now in the very basic idea of what we do," summarized Olson. "Which is to present new original work by emerging artists, create work in a nontraditional way, and keep ticket prices affordable."
 
The Berkshire Fringe hosts two shows Sunday night, at 7 and 9, and wraps up Monday night with performances at 5 and 8.

Tags: arts festival,   church reuse,   community theater,   music,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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