By Tony Simotes
Printed in the Berkshire Eagle, Wednesday, Oct. 28, Page A5
What a ride.
I’m one of that plucky gang who came up to the Berkshires and founded Shakespeare & Company back in 1978, and I’ve been back as an artist and teacher almost every year since. By any measure, I arrived this summer as Shakespeare & Company’s second-ever artistic director, taking over the reigns from founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, right in the thick of things with our season at full force.
I came back at a key moment in our history, when a fresh approach — informed always by the hard-earned wisdom of the past — is absolutely necessary. Change is hard, but it’s also necessary. And it’s an opportunity as well.
Many media outlets have reported on the bad news we’re currently confronting. They’ve done so responsibly and fairly, given some of the stark numbers floating around in a financial report prepared by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, in response to the request we made to the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The big picture presented by this report is indeed correct: We need to re-organize ourselves to find a better way to keep doing what we’re doing on our Kemble Street property. The accompanying part of this, one we’re not so sure has made it into the zeitgeist thus far, is that we’re already taking action, and are deep into the needed process of re-organization. Continue reading ‘Shakespeare & Company here for the long haul’
