Barrington Stage Company

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is a regional theatre company in The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. It was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director, Julianne Boyd, and Managing Director, Susan Sperber, in Sheffield, Massachusetts. BSC has committed itself to a three-fold mission: to produce top notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways of bringing new audiences into the theatre, especially young people.

In 2004, BSC developed, workshopped and premiered the hit musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Following the successful Broadway run, which nabbed two Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Featured Actor, BSC made the move to a more permanent home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Previously housed in the Consolati Performing Arts Center at Mount Everett High School in Sheffield, Massachusetts, BSC purchased and renovated the Berkshire Music Hall in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Its 520-seat Mainstage Theatre is now located on 30 Union Street. In 2008 it signed a 5-year lease on an old VFW to house its Stage 2 venue, a small black box space. In 2012 the company secured the purchase of the VFW turning it into the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, including the St. Germain Stage (formerly Stage 2) and a 49-seat space dubbed Mr. Finn's Cabaret.

Originally named the Union Square Theatre, the Mainstage theatre hosted vaudeville acts, stage shows, and eventually, silent pictures. In 1983, the venue became known as the Berkshire Public Theatre, which produced plays until 1994. In 1994 the space changed hands once again and became the Berkshire Music Hall.

When Barrington Stage Company purchased the building in 2005, it underwent a full renovation and became the 520-seat venue you see today, opening its doors in the summer of 2006.

Outside of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, many other new works have seen their world premieres at BSC. In the last seven years, BSC has produced 11 world premieres. In 2003, BSC produced The Game, a musical based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, Mark St. Germain's Ears on a Beatle, The God Committee and Freud's Last Session, all plays that transferred to New York for Off-Broadway runs. In 2005, BSC workshopped and then premiered Cusi Cram's Fuente.

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