Revolutionary History Comes Alive in Performances at Pittsfield Cemetery
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — For two weekends, the veil between past and present will lift, bringing Pittsfield's Revolutionary War-era founders to life, particularly the women who challenged the male-dominated 18th-century hierarchy.
The Berkshire History Theatre and Berkshire County Historical Society have collaborated to put on a performance of the play "Shades of the Revolution," written and directed by local historian Sally Filkins.
On Sept. 17-19 and 24-26, community members are invited to walk the historic cemetery, which came into general use in 1768, stopping at six historically significant sites along the route.
The roughly two-thirds-mile walk takes about an hour and 25 minutes, though visitors should allow extra time depending on audience size and walking pace. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for ages 13 to 18 and seniors 65 and older, and can be purchased online or at the event.
The promenade-style play uses ghostly narrators to revisit Revolutionary-era Pittsfield while inviting audiences to measure the founders' stated values of liberty, equality, and freedom against the present day.
"I think when people know more about their history, first it gives people great pride [and] great awareness of the community's past," Filkins said.
The play debuted in 2011 as part of Pittsfield's 250th anniversary, marking the city's incorporation in 1761. While women played an important role in the original production, they take on a more prominent role in this year's performance, Filkins said.
Hearing the stories of the women and founders and remembering the contributions they made for equality, liberty, and freedom is especially important today because of "the precarity of our democracy at this time," she said.
"So I think it's very important that we be reminded of the founding of our democracy and the sacrifices and the courage that it took, and what it takes to maintain a democracy," Filkins said.
"I suppose, I'm fighting against some of the political activity that I find repulsive in America today."
The cast also includes a furrier historical figure: Chien Royal de Lafayette, the Great Pyrenees known as the royal dog of France who accompanied General Lafayette to America.
The greater emphasis on women also reflects an effort to bring forward stories that have historically been overlooked or diminished, Filkins said
"Women have made a much greater contribution, as have any minority group, than the writers of history, who by large have been until very recently, heterosexual white males, will admit," Filkins said.
"As a matter of fact, there's a movement now to deny the realities of slavery, the realities of our massacre and ill treatment of the indigenous Native American populations, or anything in our history that isn't squeaky clean, and nobody's history is squeaky clean. That is absolute bunk."
The "Shades of the Revolution" production will celebrate the founders' contributions while also confronting their flaws and prejudices, including religious and economic biases, she said.
Lesley Herzberg, executive director of the Berkshire County Historical Society at Herman Melville's Arrowhead, said much of the society's programming aims to bring history to life while presenting both its positive and difficult chapters so the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
The production is part of the society's Berkshire 250 "Road to Revolution" programming.
Although much of the initiative is focused on 2026, events will continue through 2028, including a commemoration of the Battle of Bennington organized in partnership with the city of Bennington, Vt.
"Even though July 4th is over, there are so many more stories about the revolution that we'll be telling, and throughout all of this programming that comes to support this," Herzberg said.
Tags: berkshire county historical society, local history, revolution,
