Lenox - Shakespeare & Company celebrates its Autumn Gala with a star-studded evening honoring Nathaniel Hawthorne's 200th Birthday and benefiting the Company's world-renowned Training and Education Programs with Hawthorne Revisited.
Starting at 5pm on Saturday, October 9, the three-part evening begins with privately-hosted dinners at elegant inns, restaurants, and nearby homes followed by the special presentation at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall. The Gala celebrations culminate in a finale champagne and dessert reception at Shakespeare & Company's Founders' Theatre.
The Gala is the Company's major fundraising event of the season, with tickets priced from $100 to $1,000 per person. The evening is projected to earn over $75,000. For tickets and information please call the Gala Hotline at (413) 637-1199 ext. 113. A special ticket price of $50 also is available for patrons wishing to attend the performance-only portion of the evening at Ozawa Hall. These tickets may be purchased through the box office by calling (413) 637-3353 or on-line: www.shakespeare.org.
Hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Mike Wallace of CBS News and Co-editor of "60 Minutes," Hawthorne Revisited is a special presentation written and produced by Gordon Hyatt (Nathaniel Hawthorne Bicentennial Project Director, Shakespeare & Company Gala Chair and Trustee) and directed by Shakespeare & Company's Founder and Artistic Director Tina Packer.
The presentation includes selected readings from Hawthorne's works and performances by actors Jane Fonda, David Strathairn, and Marisa Tomei.
Complimenting the Gala's evening events, the Company also is offering two special afternoon celebrations on October 9: a performance of Mrs. Pringle's Porch, written by local playwright Juliane Glantz; and the chance to view and ride an elegant coach from the turn of the century sponsored by The Berkshire Coaching Weekend, which will make a stop at Shakespeare & Company at Noon.
A delightful and whimsical tale, especially for children and those young of heart, Mrs. Pringle's Porch is inspired by Hawthorne's novel, Tanglewood Tales. This performance will play on the Company's outdoor Rose Footprint theatre at 11:00 am and is FREE and open to the public.
For further information on the 3-day Berkshire Coaching Weekend and to reserve a coach ride package that includes Shakespeare & Company's Gala, please contact Susan Bronson, Director of Development, at (413) 637-1199 ext. 113. Coach rides on October 9 begin at Orleton Farms in Stockbridge at 10:30 am, arrive at Shakespeare & Company at Noon followed by lunch, and finish with a return ride to Orleton Farms where a hospitality wine and cheese buffet is offered along with a special private viewing of the coach collection.
Hawthorne Revisited ProgramPart I:
Privately-hosted dinners will begin at 5:00 pm, each featuring elegant culinary delights. Dinners will be hosted at several fashionable restaurants from Lenox to Great Barrington and at private homes throughout Berkshire County. Shakespeare & Company artists, actors, special guests, and Trustees also will attend the dinners.
Part II:
Following dinner, at 8:00 pm, guests will proceed to Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall for a unique evening of Hawthorne Revisited, directed by Tina Packer. The opening musical overture and recessional will be performed by the Infinity Brass Quintet and will include music from Hawthorne's era as well as the premiere performance of an original Hawthorne Fanfare and Meditation by composer Dan Cooper, commissioned by Shakespeare & Company to honor the author's Bicentennial. An illustrated profile of Hawthorne's life delivered by Mike Wallace, the event host, will be followed by readings from his novels by Jane Fonda, David Strathairn, and Marisa Tomei. Selected readings will include The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun, as well as Hawthorne's notes about his writing techniques, views from his Civil War report, Chiefly About War Matters, and a scene from Carol Gilligan's stage adaptation of The Scarlet Letter.
Part III:
After the performance, guests will arrive at Shakespeare & Company's Founders' Theatre, 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, to enjoy a champagne and dessert finale where tables will be set up throughout the theatre and Josie's place allowing guests to explore the various spaces of Founders'. Tina, the cast of Hawthorne Revisited, and other Company actors and special guests are also invited to join the event. The dessert reception is catered by From Ketchup to Caviar in Lee, MA.
"Our last Gala, also in the fall, was tremendous fun," says Packer. "It's wonderful to be able to celebrate with all our friends after the frenetic pace of the summer season, and to honor the birth of Nathaniel Hawthorne, an artist who also lived and struggled here. One of America's most notable writers lived, wrote, and was inspired by the beauty and strength of this area, and I can't think of a better way to salute the potent legacy he left behind than to celebrate his words and works with wonderful actors, and, of course, the inimitable Mike Wallace. Shakespeare & Company has been adapting and producing plays inspired by Berkshire writers for over two decades, including Carol Gilligan's The Scarlet Letter. It is an honor to work with Jane, David, Marisa, Mike, and Gordon on this very special night dedicated to our Training and Education Programs."
"This year's Gala, and Hawthorne Revisited, brings Shakespeare & Company into the forefront of this year's Bicentennial events celebrated in Salem, Concord, and the Berkshires," says Hyatt. "It is here that Hawthorne wrote The House of the Seven Gables and here where he formed his influential friendship with Herman Melville. The program not only draws from Hawthorne's works but from dramatic scripts inspired by Berkshire authors that have been performed at Shakespeare & Company. Carol Gilligan explored the feminist strengths of Hawthorne's memorable character, Hester Prynne, in her stage adaptation of The Scarlet Letter; Richard Nelson considered the bleak plight of the authors seeking financial success before American literature had come of age in his screenplay, The Shock of Recognition, and Juliane and Stephen Glantz speculate on the erotic undertones of the Melville/Hawthorne relationship in A Tanglewood Tale. We have outstanding talents to guide us through this exciting exploration: America's senior investigative and documentary journalist, a legendary, charismatic leading lady, a young actress of imaginative performing versatility and an actor of compelling, authoritative force. With Tina directing, we are offering an original exploration of American literature through the art and artists of theater marshaled with a journalist's historical perspective."
Shakespeare & Company Gala Chair Gordon Hyatt
Gala Committee
Diane Arseneau, Janet Carey, Lee Elman, Monroe England, Charles Flint, Dr. Donald and Phoebe Giddon, Juliane Hiam Glantz, Vicki Grayson, Jeff Konowich and Wendy Laurin, Leslie B. and Nanette Lewis, Ellen Masters, Annette and Michael A. Miller, Carole Murko and Jim Finnerty, Helga Orthofer and John Kaiser, Gail Shaw, Mona Sherman, Ingrid Taylor, Jacqueline Togut, Harriet Vines, Andrea and
Arthur Waldstein, Rose Zoltek-Jick
Board of Directors
Michael A. Miller, Chairman; Tina Packer, President; James Michaelman, Treasurer; Dennis Krausnick, Clerk Jerome Berko, Elayne P. Bernstein, Allyn Burrows, Janet Carey, Kevin G. Coleman, Linda Benedict Colvin, Neil J. Colvin, Diana de Vegh, Jonathan Epstein, Dr. Gerald and Roberta Friedman, Phoebe Giddon, Gordon and Carole Hyatt, Bruce Kelly, Michael Kluger, Teddi C. Laurin, Leslie B. Lewis, Frances Martinson, Harry Matthews, Annette Miller, Dr. Josephine Murray, Helga S. Orthofer, Charles R. Schwager, David A. Smith, Robert B. Strassler, Arthur Waldstein, Dorothy A. Weber, Fareed Zakaria, Rose Zoltek-Jick
Jane Fonda An Oscar and Emmy award-winning actress, Fonda now focuses her efforts on community service and social change with much of her work devoted to a program she founded in 1995, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. Long known for activism and advocacy on environmental issues, human rights, and the empowerment of women and girls, Fonda is currently writing her memoirs to be published by Random House.
Gordon Hyatt Project Director for the Hawthorne Bicentennial, Hyatt is a documentary film producer and writer with over 30 years experience in commercial and public television. For the bicentennial he invited distinguished writers, critics, and scholars to contribute original essays and articles for Hawthorne Revisited. Published by the Lenox Library, the book is distributed by the University Press of New England. An exhibition and book reception celebrating Hawthorne opens at the Welles Gallery of the Library on October 2. With a long interest in the work of Hawthorne and Herman Melville, he also organized Call Me Melville, a gala celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Moby-Dick, where Peter Jennings hosted the 2001 event at Ozawa Hall and included performers Ossie Davis, Sam Waterston, Edward Herrmann, Tina Packer, and Fritz Weaver. Hyatt was raised in Lee and lives in New York and Stockbridge with his wife, Carole. He is a Trustee of Shakespeare & Company and serves on the Chesterwood Council.
Tina Packer President, Founder, and Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, Packer has directed 49 productions with the Company, including most of the canon and last season's critically-acclaimed King Lear and The Fly-Bottle (a world premiere). Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she won the prestigious Ronson Award for Most Outstanding Performer with RADA. In Britain, she was an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performed in the West End, and acted with repertory companies in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leicester, and Coventry, as well as the BBC and ITV television. She has also appeared as Edith Wharton and Shirley Valentine numerous times to critical acclaim. She was Artistic Director of the Boston Shakespeare Company in the 1980s and is the subject of the WGBH documentary Sex, Violence and Poetry: A Portrait of Tina Packer, and Helen Epstein's biography The Companies She Keeps. She was the 1999-2000 Arts Recipient of the Commonwealth Award, the state's highest honor for excellence in the arts. Tina is the recipient of more than 18 awards, honors, fellowships, and doctorates. She has lectured or been the keynote speaker at over 30 colleges and universities. Her 2000 book, Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership & Management, co-authored with Columbia Business School professor John O. Whitney, was published by Simon & Schuster. Her second book, Tales From Shakespeare, published by Scholastic Inc. was released on Shakespeare's birthday this year to critical acclaim and has just gone into a second edition.
David Strathairn For over 20 years, the versatile and award-winning actor has appeared and starred in numerous stage and film productions, including The Firm, Lost in Yonkers, A Dangerous Woman, The River Wild, Losing Isaiah, Dolores Claiborne, A League of Their Own, Memphis Belle, Dominick and Eugene, At Close Range, Iceman, Silkwood, Lovesick, and several films by notable director John Sayles, including City of Hope, Eight Men Out, Passion Fish, Limbo, Matewan, The Brother from Another Planet, and Return of the Secaucus 7.
Marisa Tomei Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress for her role in My Cousin Vinny, Tomei also received an Academy Award nomination for In the Bedroom. Other diverse credits include Anger Management, The Guru, Happy Accidents, and What Women Want. On stage Tomei was recently seen on Broadway opposite Al Pacino in Oscar Wilde's Salome. She will be seen this fall co-starring in Paramont's What's It All About, Alfie opposite Jude Law.
Mike Wallace Co-editor of 60 Minutes since its premiere in 1968, Wallace's no-holds-barred interviewing techniques and enterprising reporting are well known, and his numerous and timely interviews read like a Who's Who of newsmakers. In September 2003, he received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Other professional honors include 19 Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Awards, a Robert E. Sherwood Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
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