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Barrington Stage Company 2020: New meaning for 'the show must go on!' - Berkshire Eagle

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Julianne Boyd is founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, which was established in 1995 at Consolati Performing Arts Center at Mount Everett Regional High School in Sheffield. The company presented its first season in Pittsfield in 2006. BSC now performs at Boyd-Quinson Mainstage on Union Street and the smaller St. Germain Stage in the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center on Linden Street.

Boyd recently took the time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions about the impact of 2020 and about her hopes for 2021.

Q: How would you characterize 2020?

A: Difficult and unpredictable but ultimately exciting and tremendously rewarding. We were able to show, through all of the struggles of getting a season on, that art has healing power — it brings people together to transcend their individual problems and share some humanity for a few hours. It was difficult because our superb staff never worked harder or more hours to bring safe and exciting theater to the community.

Q: What were the most formidable challenges you faced? What strategies did you devise to deal with them?

A: The largest challenge was finding a way to do theater safely, examining every aspect of a patron’s experience, from the moment a person enters our theater space until the moment he/she leaves. We examined that experience and strategized what we would need to do — air filtration system, state-of-the art filters, sanitation, removal of seats (indoors), spacing of seats, sanitation (outdoors) — to have the safest and most comfortable experience for our audience. We needed to communicate to patrons the safety measures we had put into place before they bought tickets, whether we’d be indoors or outdoors under a tent. We also needed to get permission from Equity, the actors’ union, to allow actors to work in our space — it took about two months and many forms and conversations but we did it!

Q: What would you say were your most satisfying or rewarding accomplishments in 2020?

A: First: Pivoting from indoor theater to outdoor theater in less than a week when (Gov. Charlie Baker) would not allow Phase 3/Step 2 — allowing indoor theater — to begin, and then teching the show (creating the sound and light cues) outside under near-hurricane conditions. It gave the expression “the show must go on!” an entirely new meaning. It was a gigantic, exhausting but ultimately exciting group effort and made me realize how fantastic our staff, our designers, our stage manager and our actor (Mark H. Dold) are. We will be forever bonded because of that experience.

Second: Seeing Mark H. Dold on opening night take the first bow in a theater in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic began. It was thrilling to see the audience rise to their feet in tears, happy to be in a theater, sharing an experience with others for the first time in months.

Q: What are the most significant lessons you learned and/or discussions you had in 2020 and how are those lessons and discussions shaping your thinking about 2021 and perhaps beyond?

A: First: Be nimble and be prepared to pivot. Our staff is prepared for anything in 2021.

Second: Our Board and staff never thought about not doing theater in 2020 but instead on how to do theater in 2020. We will continue to stay positive and come up with creative solutions in 2021, no matter what curve ball is thrown our way.

Third: We met a number of new community partners who were tremendously supportive as we moved ahead with our season. We want to continue building on those relationships.

Fourth: Doing virtual readings as well as filming shows on the stage in an empty theater (beginning in September) increased our national audience significantly. We hope to continue with a hybrid model in 2021, doing live theater as well as filming some of the shows.

Q: What is/are your hope(s) for 2021?

A: My hope is we all get vaccinated, we begin to return to some kind of normal life, we produce great theater both outside under a tent and inside on the Mainstage (with the seats still removed and with maximum seating of 160 for cautionary measures). And finally, next year this time, we hope and pray COVID-19 will be behind us.

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