Free, Community Performance will be Offered in Pittsfield on Saturday, April 15
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Shakespeare & Company will stage a free, community presentation of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare at the Berkshire Athenaeum on Saturday, April 15 at 1:30 p.m., featuring the cast of the Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare and directed by Kevin G. Coleman.
This production of Romeo and Juliet features Travis Ascione, Cameron Davis, Ptah Garvin, JoJo McDonald, Stephanie Neuerburg, Savanna Padilla, and Naire Poole, with costume design by Shakespeare & Company Costume Director Govane Lohbauer and production design by Devon Drohan.
Marilyn Manning, a member of The Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum Program Committee, said the group is pleased to provide Shakespeare and Company with a performance space in Pittsfield.
“This is an opportunity for the patrons of Pittsfield’s public library to enjoy, without cost, a play performed by one of the premier theater companies in Berkshire County,” she said.
Allyn Burrows, artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, said the Company is thrilled to be able to offer this classic tale of star-crossed lovers to the Pittsfield community.
“Furthering these connections with this powerful story and this vibrant poetry is very gratifying, and we hope it continues,” he said.
Additionally, Jeffrey Konowitch, vice chair of Shakespeare & Company’s Board of Trustees and co-chair of S&Co’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee, said “It is a great opportunity to bring the Company’s work to a new venue.”
“These community performances will help us continue a key goal of our IDEA committee: to connect with and learn more about new audiences, and to bring those diverse audiences to theater in the Berkshires.”
The Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare has introduced Shakespeare to schools, colleges, community centers, and other venues since 1982, sending touring productions of Shakespeare’s plays along with a variety of related workshops across the Northeast U.S., and beyond. These performances reach more than 20,000 students, teachers, and audience members each year.
For more information, visit shakespeare.org, or call the Box Office at (413) 637-3353.
This production is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
The 2023 Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare’s cast of Romeo and Juliet includes:
Travis Ascione
(Tybalt / Paris / Prince Escalus / Peter)
Ascione is an actor and educator based out of Chicago, Il. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Westminster College, a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from The University of Southern Mississippi, and is a Certified Practitioner and member of the Lessac Training and Research Institute. Past roles include Macbeth (Macbeth), Charles II (Nell Gwynn), and Sky Masterson (Guys & Dolls).
Cameron Davis
(Romeo / Sampson)
Davis is making his Shakespeare & Company debut this year. He’s recently appeared as Fish in The Royale (Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado); Sheriff in Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Creede Repertory Theatre); Donalbain in Macbeth; Stokes in How to Catch Creation (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Belize in Perestroika, Frederick in The Rover; Avery in The Flick (Oregon Center for the Arts), and Tom in Actually (Black Swan Project).
Ptah Garvin
(Lord Capulet / Balthasar)
Garvin is making his Shakespeare & Company debut this year. Originally from Atlanta, Ga., he is a recent graduate of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, where he received his MFA in acting. Some of his previous credits include Pipeline (The Warehouse Theatre); Our Town, Twilight Los Angelos 1992, Julius Caesar (FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training).
JoJo McDonald
(Mercutio / Lord Montague / Sister Joan)
McDonald is an actor, tap dancer, and teaching artist based in Queens, N.Y. She has taught at Shakespeare & Company and in other community art initiatives such as Community Access to The Arts in Great Barrington, Mass., and They Dance For Rain in Nairobi, Kenya. McDonald studied at Williams College and completed the Month-Long Intensive at Shakespeare & Company in January 2020.
Stephanie Neuerburg
(Nurse / Friar Lawrence / Abraham)
Neuerburg is a Chicago-based performer, writer, and podcaster. Her theater work has been featured at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., among others. Her poetry has been published in Okay Donkey, Lazy Women, and dirt children literary magazines, and her original play Science Night was a finalist for the John Cauble Outstanding Short Play award. When not performing, she works as a docent on the architecture boat tour on the Chicago River.
Savanna Padilla
(Lady Capulet / Benvolio)
Padilla is an Actor and Teaching Artist originally from Humboldt County California. Her theater-credits include: Shakespeare in Love, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, Off the Rails (U/S, Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Pick Me Last (La Jolla Playhouse); Life Sucks (Cygnet Theatre); Christmas Contigo (Oregon Cabaret);The Refugee Hotel (Latinx Play Project); The Madres, The Return of Tartuffe (Ashland New Plays Festival); The Epic of Gilgamesh (Oregon Fringe Festival); Dream Hou$e (Latinx New Play Festival); Written in Stone (La Jolla Playhouse WOW Fest); Saints Go Marching (Ingenio Milagro Festival).SOU credits: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Secret Garden, The Crucible, Little Shop of Horrors, Caliban’s Dreams, Horse Girls. UC San Diego credits: Shame Spiral, Life is a Dream, Orestes 2.0, Elektra, HEAP, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. BFA in Acting: Southern Oregon University, MFA: UC San Diego.
Naire Poole
(Juliet / Gregory / Lady Montague)
Poole is fresh off of her performance as Margaret/the Sexton in Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare & Company, where she also featured as Elizabeth Darcy in a staged reading of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley. Other past roles include: Antigone (Antigone), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), three (hang), Dave Moss (Glengarry Glenross), and Hamlet (Hamlet). When she isn’t tackling roles that explore complexity in interpersonal relationships, she is a Director and Teaching Artist; ablaze to adjust theatrical structures into inclusive, healing, and meaningful spaces.
Photo Caption: The Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare will present a free performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Berkshire Athenaeum on Saturday, April 15. From left to right are Naire Poole as Juliet, Stephanie Neuerburg as the Nurse, and Cameron Davis as Romeo. Photo by Katie McKellick.
Additional photos are available here.
About Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, and attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of more than 150 artists.
