Shakespeare & Company's Bill Barclay awarded prestigious Fox Foundation Fellowship

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LENOX, Mass — Shakespeare & Company is proud to announce that Company actor and Resident Music Director Bill Barclay has been selected by Theatre Communications Group (TCG) to receive a Fox Foundation Fellowship in the category of Extraordinary Potential to support his professional and artistic development.

Bill will travel with the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre to Bali to study traditional Balinese dance, shadow puppetry, music, and theatrical/religious ritual. In 2009/2010, he will devise new work as actor and composer in three 2-month residencies: with actor/playwright/composer Rinde Eckert; at The Mercury Theatre in Colchester, England; and with Compagnie Irina Brook in Paris, the theatre company founded by Shakespeare & Company’s Director-in-Residence, Irina Brook. Towards the end of his residency, he will develop his clown with Christopher Bayes. Bill then will help develop Shakespeare & Company's multi-disciplinary training aesthetic and will end his residency creating solo work with Tina Packer through a synthesis of poetry, music, movement, clown and ritual.

The William & Eva Fox Foundation and the Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for professional, not-for-profit theatre, recently announced its six recipients for its third round of the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships. The program, supported by the Fox Foundation and administered by the TCG, is designed to support an actor’s individual professional and artistic development, to enrich relationships between actors and not-for-profit theatres and ensure continued professional commitment to live theatre.

There are two categories in which recipients may be selected: Distinguished Achievement, for individuals who have considerable experience in professional theatre and with a substantial body of work, who receive $25,000 awards; and Extraordinary Potential, for early to mid-career actors who have completed their training within the last fifteen years, who receive $15,000 with up to an additional $10,000 available to relieve student loans. Host theatre companies receive grants of $7,500 in support of the residencies.


“Applying for a Fox Fellowship challenged me to dream up a roster of residencies that would most inspire, stretch, and move me creatively and personally,” says Barclay. “Knowing now that I actually get the rare and incredible support to do them fills me with a feeling as multifaceted as the proposal itself: an overwhelming mixture of thrill, excitement, and above all gratefulness for the Foundation and their desire to support the unique passions of artists committed to making theatre. Above all I get to share this opportunity with Shakespeare & Company, who has provided me with my foundation as an actor and composer. I could not be more curious about what is ahead.”

Round three recipients (and their host theatres) in the Distinguished Achievement category are Ellen Lauren (SITI Company) and Kate Valk (Wooster Group); recipients in the Extraordinary Potential category are Bill Barclay (Shakespeare & Company), Tami Dixon (City Theatre Company), Hoon Lee (Lark), and Zishan Ugurlu (La MaMa). The recipients will serve a four-month residency with their host not-for-profit theatre company. The alternates are Jonathan Daley (Milwaukee Rep) for the Distinguished Achievement fellowship and Rachael Holmes (Epic Theatre Ensemble) for the Extraordinary Potential fellowship.

“I am extremely impressed with the depth, strengths and promise of this year’s field and as a result, I have extended the awards to include a well deserved sixth recipient,” said Fox Foundation president Mr. Warren. “The Fox Foundation is proud to continue its longstanding financial support of extraordinarily talented actors. I also want to note the excellent work that TCG performs in the preliminary selection process and in the administration of the Resident Actor Program. I believe that the current synergistic relationship between the Foundation and TCG has and will continue to allow both organizations to expand their reach and bring truly gifted and exceptional actors to national attention.”
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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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