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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON THURSDAY, MAY 22, PLEASE

TONY AWARD^®-WINNING
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL CASTING
FOR THE UPCOMING SUMMER SEASON (W71)

TONY DANZA, VIN KNIGHT, AND APRIL MATTHIS
TO JOIN PAMELA ANDERSON, NICHOLAS ALEXANDER CHAVEZ
& MORE IN THE CAST OF
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’
“CAMINO REAL”
DIRECTED BY DUSTIN WILLS 

TONATIUH, EMMA RAMOS, JULIAN SANCHEZ,
CHRISTOPHER GEARY, AMANDLA JAHAVA,
ATO BLANKSON-WOOD, AND JAMES CUSATI-MOYER
ARE THE FIRST ACTORS TO BE ANNOUNCED FOR
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
JEREMY O. HARRIS’
“SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE”
DIRECTED BY KATINA MEDINA MORA

ELIZABETH LAIL
JOINS THE COMPANY OF
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’
“NOT ABOUT NIGHTINGALES”
DIRECTED BY ROBERT O’HARA

SINGLE TICKETS FOR “MANY HAPPY RETURNS,”
“THE THINGS AROUND US,” AND “UNTITLED ON ICE”
TO GO ON SALE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
TUESDAY, MAY 27 AT NOON ET

WWW.WTFESTIVAL.ORG 

HEADSHOTS FOR TONY DANZA AND MORE HERE

New York, NY (May 22, 2025) – Today, Managing Director, Strategy & Transformation, Raphael Picciarelli and Managing Director, Operations & Advancement, Kit Ingui, announced additional casting for the upcoming Tony Award®-winning theater festival’s 71^st season (W71). The complete Festival takes place from Thursday, July 17 through Sunday, August 3. Weekend passes for all productions are on sale now. Single tickets for Camino Real, Spirit of the People, Not About Nightingales, and Vanessa are currently available with single tickets for Many Happy Returns, The Things Around Us, and Untitled On Ice going on sale starting Tuesday, May 27 at noon ET at www.wtfestival.org. Donors receive advance access starting Thursday, May 22.

The inaugural Creative Collective, a new collaborative leadership model, is led by Tony Award nominee Jeremy O. Harris, with actor, model, and co-founder of the online book club “Library Science,” Kaia Gerber and her co-founder Alyssa Reeder, entrepreneur and producer Alex Stoclet, and dancer and member of American Theatre’s “2023’s 6 to watch,” Christopher Rudd.

W71 is a multi-disciplinary theatrical eruption that investigates and celebrates playwright Tennessee Williams, as well as the spaces he inhabited and inspired. This Festival is not nostalgic, and these artists are not simply heralding this canonical icon. They are diving deep, scrutinizing the conditions that influence human behavior, and asking the question, “who tells our stories and why do they tell them the way that they do?”

Emmy Award® and Golden Globe Award® nominee Tony Danza, who previously starred on Broadway in productions of Eugene O’Neil’s The Iceman Cometh and Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge along with musical comedies like The Producers and Honeymoon in Vegas will return to the stage in Williams’ Camino Real (Saturday, July 19–Sunday, August 3 on the MainStage) as ‘Casanova,’ alongside Vin Knight as ‘Gutman,’ and two-time Obie Award winner April Matthis as ‘Gypsy.’

They join the previously announced Golden Globe® and SAG Award® nominee Pamela Anderson as ‘Marguerite,’ Emmy Award winner Nicholas Alexander Chavez as ‘Kilroy’ and Whitney Peak as ‘Esmerelda.’ This is the first significant revival of Camino Real since the 1999 Williamstown production, reimagined and directed by Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award-winning theater and opera director Dustin Wills. The final two actors for the 24-member company of Camino Real will be announced shortly.

Williamstown Theatre Festival also announces initial casting for the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’ Spirit of the People (Thursday, July 17–Friday, August 1 on the MainStage), directed by Katina Medina Mora. The cast will feature Tonatiuh, who is starring opposite Jennifer Lopez in the upcoming Bill Condon-directed “Kiss of the Spiderwoman,” for which he received flawless reviews following the Sundance premiere, Emma Ramos, Julian Sanchez, Christopher Geary, Amandla Jahava, Tony Award^® nominee Ato Blankson-Wood, and Tony Award nominee James Cusati-Moyer. Additional casting for Spirit of the People will be announced shortly.

While attending Yale School of Drama, Harris worked on early drafts of what would become his breakout hit Slave Play. Blankson-Wood and Cusati-Moyer were part of very early readings of Harris’ Slave Play and went on to star in the New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop where it became the most talked about play in years. The production transferred to Broadway and received 12 Tony Award nominations, including Best Play for Harris and Best Featured Actor in a Play for both Blankson-Wood and Cusati-Moyer.

Finally, W71 announces that Elizabeth Lail, who rose to fame as the star of “Once Upon A Time” and the first season of the Netflix series “You,” will join the cast of Not About Nightingales (Thursday, July 17 – Sunday, August 3 on the NikosStage), directed by Tony Award nominee Robert O’Hara (A Raisin in the Sun at Williamstown and Slave Play). Lail replaces the previously announced Sydney Lemmon who, due to scheduling conflicts, departs the production.

TICKETING

Patrons who buy a Weekend Pass are guaranteed tickets to eight core projects, and the option to add additional events to their itinerary. Weekend Passes for Williamstown Theatre Festival are on sale now at www.wtfestival.org.

Single tickets for Camino Real, Spirit of the People, Not About Nightingales, and Vanessa are currently available with single tickets for Many Happy Returns, The Things Around Us, and Untitled On Ice going on sale starting Tuesday, May 27 at noon ET at www.wtfestival.org.

ABOUT W71

The complete 2025 Williamstown Theatre Festival will include:

Camino Real (Saturday, July 19–Sunday, August 3 on the MainStage). Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award-winning theatre and opera director Dustin Wills’ reimagination of the play by Tennessee Williams will star 2024 Golden Globe Award and SAG Award nominee Pamela Anderson as ‘Marguerite,’ Emmy Award winner Nicholas Alexander Chavez as ‘Kilroy,’ Emmy Award^® and Golden Globe Award^® nominee Tony Danza as ‘Casanova,’ Vin Knight as ‘Gutman,’ Obie Award winner April Matthis as ‘Gypsy,’ and Whitney Peak as ‘Esmerelda.’ Wills brings what New York Magazine calls his “mad scientist zeal” back to Williamstown to reimagine this sprawling Williams epic written in the lead up to the McCarthy trials. Camino Real, Williams said, is “…a play that is less written than painted. A play that is painted? Why not! At least I could try. I did. And here it is.”

The Camino Real is a dead end, a police state in an imagined Latin-Mediterranean-American country, and an inescapable condition. Characters from history and literature such as Don Quixote, Casanova, and Camille inhabit this phantasmagoric plaza where corruption and alienation have nearly destroyed the human spirit. Enter Kilroy, played by Chavez, a prize-winning boxer and all-American fella with “a heart as big as the head of a baby.” In an ambitious first significant revival since the ‘99 Williamstown production, Camino Real unfolds over a series of sixteen dizzying “blocks” and is a clarion call to the Romantics of the world – drowning in an ocean of cynicism, suspicion, and censorship – to use their indefatigable spirit as a life raft. Also featuring live music composed by Dan Schlosberg. The ensemble features Frankie J. Alvarez, Ato Blankson-Wood, Juanita Cardenas, Cindy De La Cruz, Arya Gatson, Christopher Geary, Rob B. Kellogg, Florencia Lozano, Smaranda Luna, Emma Ramos, Marquis Rodriguez, Julian Sanchez, Socorro Santiago, Ryan Shinji, Henry Stram, and Marlon Vargas.

Camino Real will feature scenic design by Kate Noll and Dustin Wills and lighting design by Barbara Samuels. Additional casting and creatives will be announced in the coming weeks.

Not About Nightingales (Thursday, July 17 – Sunday, August 3 on the NikosStage), by Tennessee Williams and directed by Tony Award nominee Robert O’Hara (Williamstown’s A Raisin in the Sun and Slave Play), is a front row seat to America’s prison industrial complex that is too often avoided and denied featuring feature Brian Geraghty, Emmy Award nominee William Jackson Harper, Elizabeth Lail, and SAG Award winner Chris Messina. The rest of the ensemble will also include Michael Benz, Nick Craven, Skyler Gallun, Ben Getz, Iván Marcel Hernandez, Joe Goldammer, Malik James, Sam James, Dan Katz, Annie MacNamara, David Mattar Merten, and Gabriel Portuondo.

Not About Nightingales will feature costume design by Sophia Choi, scenic design by Diggle, sound design by Palmer Hefferan, and lighting design by Alex Jainchill. Additional casting and creatives to be announced in the coming weeks.

1938. Hitler is invading Austria, Stalin is putting on show trials, America is lynching Black people, thousands are rotting in state prisons, the world is slowly climbing out of the Great Depression, Hollywood is filming The Wizard of Oz and auditioning for Gone with the Wind, all while a 27-year-old Tennessee Williams is pulling all-nighters to finish a blistering homoerotic Prison Drama. He would never live to see a production of this early masterpiece. Not About Nightingales is a front row seat to America’s prison industrial complex whose atrocities are too often avoided and denied. O’Hara will immerse us in this searing testament to what happens when we cage men, remove their humanity, and let them rot while the ‘outside world’ is run by rich, entitled gangsters.

The world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’ Spirit of the People (Thursday, July 17–Friday, August 1 and the MainStage), “one of the most hotly anticipated events in theater” (GQ), will be directed by Katina Medina Mora. The cast will feature Tonatiuh, Emma Ramos, Julian Sanchez, Christopher Geary, Amandla Jahava,Tony Award nominee Ato Blankson-Wood, and Tony Award nominee James Cusati-Moyer. Spirit of the People features lighting design by Barbara Samuels and scenic design by Kate Noll. Additional casting and creatives for Spirit of the People will be announced shortly.

Late at The Annex (Thursday, July 17 – Saturday, August 2 at The Annex). Each weekend features a series of late-night music experiences. Artist line up and more information to be announced in the coming weeks.

Untitled on Ice (Friday, July 18 – Saturday, August 2 at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Skating Rink). Director-Choreographer Will Davis will conceive, direct, and choreograph new work with U.S. Ice Dancing Champions Maia & Alex Shibutani, to take place at the Foote Ice Skating Rink. Full title for the piece, casting, and additional creative team members for this world premiere will be announced later this spring.

The “categorically imaginative and radical” (The New Yorker) Heartbeat Opera is creating a brand-new adaptation of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti‘s Vanessa directed by R.B. Schlather (Thursday, July 17 – Sunday, August 3 at The Annex) for Williamstown this summer. Barber was one of the most celebrated American composers of the 20^th century, and Vanessa was a hit upon arrival at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958 and won the Pulitzer. It could have remained in the canon as one of the great American operas of all time, but its unique brand of gothic creep and fiercely emotional music did not jive with the overly academic tastes of the time, and over the following decades, the piece receded into near-obscurity. The directors of Heartbeat Opera, “an enterprise that has already contributed more to opera’s vitality than most major American opera companies,” (New York Times) have planned a reinvention of this classic, stripping away the gewgaws and doilies of its original imaginings, and allowing the riveting extremes of these palpable characters to break through. Heartbeat’s version pares the work down to five singers, trapped inside their own circumstances. Adapted by Jacob Ashworth, newly arranged by Dan Schlosberg, musical direction by Jacob Ashworth and Dan Schlosberg. Featuring Inna Dukach as ‘Vanessa’, Ori Marcu as ‘Erica’, Joshua Jeremiah as ‘Doctor’, Roy Hage as ‘Anatol’, and Mary Phillips as ‘Baroness’. The team also includes Terese Wadden (Costume Designer), and Peregrine Heard (Dramaturg).

Many Happy Returns (Friday, July 18 – Sunday, August 3 at The Annex), the acclaimed dance piece co-created and choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes and co-created and written by Robbie Saenz de Viteri.

It’s a dance version of a memory play. With movement and language, Barnes and Saenz de Viteri create a shared character, a woman in the middle of her life who moves with total clarity but can’t stop revealing the doubt she’s desperate to dance over. Many Happy Returns is a hilarious, heartwarming look back at who we thought we were and a communal search for solace in who we’ve become. Many Happy Returns casting will be announced later this spring.

The Things Around Us (Thursday, July 17 – Friday, August 1 at The Annex), the new solo musical created and performed by Ahamefule J. Oluo and produced by Roya Amirsoleymani.

This narrative stage show is a collection of seemingly unrelated stories and anecdotes that swirl and dance with a live musical score created through looped trumpet, clarinet, and drums. From acclaimed Seattle musician and writer Oluo (Now I’m Fine; Susan at On the Boards), this dark and humorous, uplifting and bleak, deep, and silly work is about trying and failing to find order in chaos.

VENUES & ADDRESSES

MainStage and NikosStage
’62 Center for Theatre & Dance
1000 Main Street, Williamstown, MA 01267

The Annex
North Adams Gateway Center
245 State Road, North Adams, MA 01247

Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Skating Rink
1267 South Church Street, North Adams, MA 01247

ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL

After seven decades of helping to shape the American theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival is bringing emerging and professional artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival that expands the expression of theater and its essential role in society. The Festival will continue to produce the world premiere plays and musicals and bold new revivals that it’s come to be known for, while expanding into other forms of theatrical expression that brings many art forms together in exciting and innovative ways.

Williamstown Theatre Festival has always been, and continues to be, a creative hothouse for established and emerging artists and their work. More than 75 productions have transferred from the Festival to other regional theaters, Off-Broadway, and Broadway, with many productions being adapted for television and film. Thousands of actors, writers, designers, directors, and aspiring theater professionals from all fields that have come through the Festival to challenge themselves and their craft have gone on to prominence and recognition on Broadway, in Hollywood and beyond.

Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org. A complete new website will launch later this month.

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