April 2024

We hope this finds you and yours well as we embrace a lovely spring. On our part, we have been a team of busy bees eagerly preparing for a momentous summer. We know you’ll share our excitement and anticipation when you hear about what we have in store...

This summer, a return to so many beloved Williamstown Theatre Festival mainstays, also sets in motion a vibrant new journey for the Festival. We celebrate a 70th Anniversary Season that brings us back to fully staged productions. In a landscape humbled by the closures of regional theaters nationwide, your generosity in recent years has afforded us the time and space to architect a bold new vision for the future that ensures we thrive by expansion rather than survive by shrinking—an extraordinary opportunity bolstered by our extraordinary community. The work is just beginning, and your continued support enables a runway for a sustainable future. In a joyous nod to what’s to come, this summer we are producing “WTF IS NEXT,” an expansive four-day preview of the future of the Festival, running August 1 through 4. We hope you’ll join us in Williamstown for this very special event.

Our season will feature two fully staged productions on the CenterStage, Sarah Porkalob’s hilarious and poignant Dragon Mama, and David Ives’ new play Pamela Palmer, a noir spin on an existential romance. We’ll also have a fully staged production of Rachel Bloom’s hit musical comedy, Death, Let Me Do My Show, in the MainStage Theater. We’re excited to debut a new kind of experience for the Festival: we’ve partnered with MASS MoCA to bring you a singular immersive exhibit entitled The Plastic Bag Store. While this is primarily a visual art experience, performances are seamlessly embedded to bring the piece to life. We believe partnerships with our cultural brethren in the Berkshires are a wonderful way to make exceptional things happen in our backyard. On top of welcoming back fully staged productions and a co-produced exhibit, WTF is bringing back our acclaimed cabaret series on the intimate Festival Stage, Fridays@3 new play reading series at The Clark, Artists-in-Residence program, workshop performances, and more to be announced soon.

Bringing the Festival back to full-scale productions and laying the groundwork for a thrilling new chapter are not possible without a community of supporters like you cheering us on every step of the way.

Now more than ever, we are relying on your generosity to propel us into the future. This is a consequential moment for WTF’s continued existence. We remain energized by your steadfast commitment to our organization, knowing that we’re still here because you believe that we should be. We don’t take that responsibility lightly. We hope you’ll consider making a gift to the Festival to honor what’s been, and to be a part of what’s next.

You won't want to miss it.

Warmest regards,
Jenny & Raph

Jenny Gersten
Interim Artistic Director

Raphael Picciarelli
Managing Director, Strategy & Transformation

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The range of human experience over the last year is vast; its meaning and how it will shape and change us, unknown. Theatre artists—through the conventions of live dramatic storytelling—examine that very range, process it, and help us, as individuals and a culture, to interpret and understand it.

This year, more than any year prior, Williamstown Theatre Festival is counting on your generosity and willingness to join us in imagining a vision for the future that is even more extraordinary than the distinguished achievements of the Festival’s first 66 years.