2024 Berkshire Theatre Critics Award Winners Announced

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The 2024 Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards, aka The Berkies, were presented on Monday, Nov. 11 in the Zion Lutheran Church Community Room in Pittsfield.

Presenters included J. Peter Bergman, Paul Sugarman, Mark G. Auerbach, Macey G. Levin, Barbara Waldinger, and Paula Kaplan-Reiss. The ceremony opened this year with a special opening number written and performed by Paula Kaplan-Reiss, with Gary P. Kaplan at the piano. Patrick White, local actor, director, and founder of Harbinger Theatre, announced plans for The Capital Region Festival of Theatre, scheduled for June of 2025.

Pittsfield-based Barrington Stage Company (BSC) was acknowledged with their productions of Next to Normal, La Cage Aux Folles, Primary Trust, and Boeing, Boeing taking home many top prizes. The Mac-Haydn Theatre, in Chatham, NY, tied with BSC artists in the categories of Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Direction of a Musical, and with artists from the Berkshire Theatre Festival for Outstanding Sound Design.

Easthampton resident Jay Sefton was awarded the Berkie for Outstanding Solor Performance and the Sally and Robert Sugarman Award for World Premiere of a NEW Play for Unreconciled, a one-man play he wrote with Mark Basquill that was presented by the Chester Theatre Company last summer. The Sugarmans' son, Paul, was on hand to present the award to Sefton.

Stage manager Hope Rose Kelly was honored with a special award in memory of Robert J. Bruyr, a stage manager by profession and a founding member of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association who passed away in April. His widower, J. Peter Bergman, presented the award.

The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater was presented to the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon, CT, for their community and education efforts.

Nominated twice in the lighting design category, John Sowle of the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY, took home that award for his work on The Glass Menagerie. Leigh Strimbeck won Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Play for her performance as Amanda Wingfield in that production.

The Berkshire Opera Festival's production of Faust by Charles Gounod won the Berkie for the Outstanding Production with Fewer Than Six Performances.

Winners and nominees also represented the Ancram Center for the Arts, Capital Repertory Theatre (aka theREP), Dorset Theatre Festival, Ghent Playhouse, Great Barrington PublicTheater, Harbinger Theatre, Hartford Stage, Living Room Theatre, The Majestic Theater, Schenectady Civic Players, and Shakespeare & Company. For a full list of nominees visit berkshireonstage.blog

For the first time Westfield Community Programming livestreamed the awards ceremony. It was broadcast on westfieldtv.org, and is currently posted to YouTube on WSKB Community Radio's platform.

1. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play:

Kate MacCluggage, Boeing Boeing - Barrington Stage Company

2. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play:

Kyle Haden, Primary Trust, - Barrington Stage Company

3. Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play or Musical:

Christopher and Justin Swader, The Beauty Queen of Leenane - Dorset Theatre Festival

4. Outstanding Choreography (TIE)

Paul McGill, La Cage Aux Folles – Barrington Stage Company

Mandy Modic, Something Rotten - Mac-Haydn Theatre

5. Outstanding Direction of a Musical (TIE)

Alan Paul, Next to Normal - Barrington Stage Company

John Saunders, The Fantasticks - Mac-Haydn Theatre

6. Outstanding Costume Design of a Play or Musical (TIE):

Govane Lohbauer, The Comedy of Errors - Shakespeare and Company

Rodrigo Munoz/Benjamin Weigel, La Cage Aux Folles, Barrington Stage Company

7. Outstanding Solo Performance:

Jay Sefton, Unreconciled - Chester Theatre Company

8. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical:

Madison McBride, Next to Normal - Barrington Stage Company

9. Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play or Musical:

John Sowle, The Glass Menagerie – Bridge Street Theatre

10. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical:

Adante Carter, Next To Normal - Barrington Stage Company

11. Outstanding Direction of a Play:

Jennifer Chang, Primary Trust - Barrington Stage Company

12. Outstanding Sound Design of a Play or Musical (TIE):

Sean McGinley, West Side Story - Mac-Haydn Theatre

Joanna Lynn Staub, Young Frankenstein - Berkshire Theatre Group

13. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical:

Natalie Joy Johnson, Next to Normal - Barrington Stage Company

14. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical:

Alex Michaels, La Cage aux Folles - Barrington Stage Company

15. Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Boeing Boeing - Barrington Stage Company

16. Outstanding Production with Fewer Than Six Performances:

Gounod’s Faust, Directed by Jonathon Loy - Berkshire Opera Festival

SPECIAL AWARD in memory of Robert J. Bruyr

    Stage Manager: Hope Rose Kelly

17. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play:

Justin Weaks, Primary Trust - Barrington Stage Company

18. Sally and Robert Sugarman Award for World Premiere of a NEW Play:

Unreconciled by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill - Chester Theatre Company

19. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play:

Leigh Strimbeck, The Glass Menagerie – Bridge Street Theatre

20. The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater was presented to the Sharon Playhouse for their community and education efforts.

21. Outstanding Production of a Musical:

Next to Normal, Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, Music by Tom Kitt. Directed by Alan Paul. Barrington Stage Company

22. Outstanding Production of a Play:

Boeing, Boeing, by Marc Camelotti, translated by Beverley Cross & Francis Evans. Directed by Julianne Boyd. Barrington Stage Company

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.