Every day is opening night.

WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS UPCOMING 2022 SUMMER SEASON

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Aaron Meier / Briana Sanchez
rick@omdkc.com / aaron@omdkc.com / briana@omdkc.com
212 695 7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON TUESDAY, MARCH 15, PLEASE 

TONY AWARD®-WINNING
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF INDOOR PERFORMANCES
FOR ITS UPCOMING 2022 SUMMER SEASON 

FULL SEASON TO FEATURE  

“MAN OF GOD”
A NEW COMEDY THRILLER
BY ANNA OUYANG MOENCH
DIRECTED BY MAGGIE BURROWS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE
TUESDAY, JULY 5 – SATURDAY, JULY 16, ON THE NIKOS STAGE

“MOST HAPPY IN CONCERT”
SONGS FROM FRANK LOESSER’S “THE MOST HAPPY FELLA”
MUSIC & LYRICS BY FRANK LOESSER
CONCEIVED & DIRECTED BY DANIEL FISH
CHOREOGRAPHED BY JAWOLE JO WILLA ZILLAR
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE FISHER CENTER AT BARD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13 – SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, ON THE MAIN STAGE

“we are continuous”
WORLD PREMIERE WTF COMMISSION
BY HARRISON DAVID RIVERS
DIRECTED BY TYLER THOMAS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 – SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, ON THE NIKOS STAGE

SEASON TICKET BUNDLES AVAILABLE NOW
ADVANCE SINGLE TICKET RESERVATIONS CAN BE MADE BEGINNING MONDAY, APRIL 18,
AT WWW.WTFESTIVAL.ORG

HEADSHOTS OF THIS SEASON’S ARTISTS AVAILABLE HERE.

New York, NY (March 15, 2022) – Today, Interim Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced that the 2022 Williamstown Theatre Festival summer season, the Tony Award®-winning theater company’s 68th, will be a return to indoor performances featuring three productions: one production on the Main Stage and two productions on the Nikos Stage.

Gersten said, “We are thrilled to be returning to our home at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College. While this homecoming marks the Festival’s return to a familiar setting, it does not mean a return to ‘the way things used to be.’ This season will feature the same artistic excellence audiences expect from the Festival, but we are in the process of evolving and reimagining the way we engage our community of artists and theater-makers. The season will feature three productions that I hope will intrigue and enthrall. We look forward to bringing joy this summer—to our audience, to our Festival community, to our generous hosts at Williams College, and to the local residents, all of whom support Williamstown Theatre Festival in bringing these shows to life.”

Season ticket bundles, which include all three productions, are available starting today at 10 AM ET by visiting www.wtfestival.org or calling 413 458 3253. Advance single ticket reservations will be available starting Monday, April 18, by visiting www.wtfestival.org or calling 413 458 3253. For updates, please visit www.wtfestival.org.

Headshots of this season’s artists are available for download HERE with full permission granted for press usage (credit: photo courtesy of Williamstown Theatre Festival).

The season will begin with the comedic thriller Man of God by Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Maggie Burrows, the 2018 recipient of WTF’s Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship. The production will play on the Nikos Stage from Tuesday, July 5, through Saturday, July 16. Chaos ensues when four teenage girls on a mission trip to Bangkok discover a camera hidden by their pastor in their hotel bathroom. Do they do nothing and leave it to God or take matters into their own hands? The pressure builds quickly in this suspenseful comedy that interrogates justice, privacy, religion, the patriarchy, and who you follow on Instagram. Juxtaposing girl power with teenage angst, the girls’ different ideals emerge as they discover what it takes to fight back. Maggie Burrows returns to Williamstown to direct this funny feminist thriller by newcomer Anna Ouyang Moench. Man of God is produced in association with the Geffen Playhouse.

The second production of the season will be Most Happy in Concert, Tony Award-nominated director Daniel Fish’s reimagining of Frank Loesser’s critically adored score to the musical The Most Happy Fella. This fully staged production, featuring choreography by Jawole Jo Willa Zillar, will play the Main Stage from Wednesday, July 13, through Sunday, August 7. The Main Stage bursts back to life as twelve musicians and seven female-identifying and non-binary performers discover anew the magnificent and lush score for The Most Happy Fella by Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls). Conceived and directed by Daniel Fish (director of the Tony Award-winning revival of Oklahoma!) and choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zillar (MacArthur Fellow and founder of Urban Bush Women), Most Happy in Concert draws on a broad range of musical genres, reinvigorating the musical concert form to evoke thrilling new ways to experience and connect with this stunning music—a deep dive into love, desire, isolation, and connection. The production will also feature music arrangements by Daniel Kluger and Nathan Koci, vocal arrangements by Nathan Koci and Daniel Fish, and orchestrations by Daniel Kluger. Most Happy in Concert is produced in association with the Fisher Center at Bard.

The season will conclude with the world premiere of the WTF-commissioned play we are continuous by Harrison David Rivers, directed by WTF’s 2020 Bill Foeller Directing Fellowship recipient Tyler Thomas. The production will play on the Nikos Stage from Tuesday, August 2, through Sunday, August 14. Simon and his mother, Ora, have always been close. She’s been his champion, his defender, and his friend. But when a life-changing secret comes to light, can their bond survive? 2020 WTF Foeller Fellow Tyler Thomas directs this exquisitely-wrought WTF-commissioned play by Harrison David Rivers (Where Storms Are Born) that explores how people can change and how love can evolve.

Casting and design teams for all three productions will be announced in the coming weeks.

For the 2022 Summer Season, WTF has announced their COVID protocols, effective until further notice. All guests must be fully vaccinated and boosted to enter the theater and must present digital or physical proof and photo identification upon entry. Children under 12 and people with a medical condition or closely held religious belief that prevents vaccination may show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test in lieu of proof of vaccination. All guests must wear a properly fitting mask when inside the theater. For updated policies and to plan your visit, please visit: www.wtfestival.org

If you have additional questions regarding your visit, please contact our Box Office at 413 458 3253 or by email at tickets@wtfestival.org.

For more information about employment and professional training opportunities at the Festival, please visit www.wtfestival.org/work-learn.

“MAN OF GOD” BIOGRAPHIES

Anna Ouyang Moench is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced throughout the world. Her play Mothers premiered in NYC in Fall 2019 at the Duke Theater on 42nd with Playwrights Realm producing. Her play Man of God had its world premiere in 2019 at East West Players and will open at the Geffen Theater in May 2022. She is currently a supervising producer on “Severance” at Apple. Between seasons she worked on “Kings of America,” produced by Adam McKay and Amy Adams, at Netflix. Ouyang Moench is currently developing a half-hour dark comedy at HBO called “Severance” (yes, same name – different project) based on Ling Ma’s novel with Bill Hader executive producing. Additionally, she is adapting Jessamine Chan’s highly anticipated novel The School for Good Mothers for Endeavor Content and Freckle Films with Gemma Chan attached to executive produce and star. 

Maggie Burrows is a theater and film director living in New York City. She has worked with Atlantic Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, WP Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Geffen. She received her B.A. from Yale University, where she was a nominee for the Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the inaugural 2018-2019 BOLD Resident Director at Northern Stage, and the recipient of the 2018 Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship at Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2020, in collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Burrows co-conceived and produced James and the Giant Peach with Taika and Friends to benefit Partners in Health. Select theater credits: Trayf (Geffen Playhouse), On Your Feet! (The Muny), Indecent (Juilliard), Man of God (Geffen Playhouse), Damsels (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Sound of Music (Northern Stage), Spacebar (Wild Project). Film work includes her short Condolences and a GOTV video for Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization. Upcoming: Legally Blonde (The Muny), Zoe Sarnak and Alexis Scheer’s Shook, and Mark Sonnenblick’s new musical Devotion.

“MOST HAPPY IN CONCERT” BIOGRAPHIES

Daniel Fish is a New York-based director who makes work across the boundaries of theater, film, and opera. He draws on a broad range of forms and subject matter including plays, film scripts, contemporary fiction, essays and found audio. His 2019 production of Oklahoma! transferred to Broadway from St. Ann’s Warehouse and won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. Other work includes El Amor Brujo and The Diary of One Who Disappeared ( Opera National du Rhin), White Noise, inspired by the novel by Don DeLillo (Ruhrfestspiele Recklingshausen, Theater Freiburg, and  Skirball NYU), Michael Gordon’s opera, Acquanetta (Prototype Festival/Bard Summerscape), Don’t Look Back (Chocolate Factory), Who Left This Fork Here (Baryshnikov Arts Center, Onassis Center), Ted Hearne’s The Source (BAM NEXT WAVE, L.A Opera, San Francisco Opera), and Eternal, a video installation. His work has been seen at theaters and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe including, The Walker Arts Center, PuSH, Teatro Nacional D. Maria, Lisbon/Estoril Film Festival, Vooruit, Festival TransAmériques, Noorderzon Festival, the Chocolate Factory, the Public Theater’s Under The Radar, Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater, American Repertory Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater, Signature Theater, the Shakespeare Theater Company, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Staatstheater Braunschweig, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Residencies and commissions include the MacDowell Colony, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Mass MOCA, the Chocolate Factory, LMCC/ Governor’s Island.

He is graduate of Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies and has taught at the Juilliard School, Bard College, and the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for the Theater.

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar trained with Joseph Stevenson. After earning her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, she received her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1980 Jawole moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion.

In 1984, Jawole founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. She has created over 34 works for UBW, as well as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, Virginia Commonwealth University, and others. Jawole has also worked with collaborators including Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegal and Nora Chipaumire. In 2006, Jawole received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for her work as choreographer/creator of Walking With Pearl…Southern Diaries. Her company has toured five continents and has performed at venues including BAM, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. UBW was selected as one of three U.S. dance companies to inaugurate a cultural diplomacy program for the U.S. Department of State in 2010.

Jawole serves as the Director of the UBW Summer Leadership Institute, Founding Artistic Director and Visioning Partner of UBW and currently holds the position of the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University. She received a 2008 United States Artists Wynn fellowship, a 2009 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial, and a 2021 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Jawole has received honorary degrees from Tufts University and Rutgers University, along with a number of awards including the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the 2015 Dance Magazine Award, the 2016 Dance/USA Honor Award, the 2017 Bessie Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award for her work in the field, 2021 DanceTeacher Award of Distinction, and the and the 2021 Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, the Ford Foundation awarded Urban Bush Women as one of America’s Cultural Treasures.

“we are continuous” BIOGRAPHIES

Harrison David Rivers is an award-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His plays include Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown), The Bandaged Place (Playwrights’ Center, Roundabout), This Bitter Earth (Playwrights’ Center, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Penumbra, About Face, Theater Alliance, Richmond Triangle Players, The Road, InterAct, TheatreWorks Hartford), When Last We Flew (NYFringe, Diversionary, TheatreLAB, Real Live Arts, Out Front) and the  musicals Five Points with Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar (Theater Latté Da) and Broadbend, Arkansas with Ellen Fitzhugh and Ted Shen (Transport Group/Public). Harrison has received commissions from Roundabout, Yale Rep, Transport Group, Penumbra, TheatreWorks Hartford, the Public Theater, and La Jolla, among others. His television credits include “One Of Us Is Lying” (Peacock), “The Nevers” (HBO), “Wytches” (Amazon), and “The Plot” (Hulu). He is also adapting E. Lynn Harris’ novel “Invisible Life” for HBO. Harrison sits on the Board of Directors of the Movement Theatre Company and the Playwrights’ Center. He is a graduate of Kenyon College and the Columbia School for the Arts.

Tyler Thomas is a director, choreographer, and current Susan Stroman Award recipient. She has developed and staged work with the Vineyard Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights, Playwrights Center, Northern Stage, New Ohio Theatre, NYMF, The Flea, NYU Tisch, UCLA, Columbia University, and Lincoln Center Education. She is a former 2050 Fellow with New York Theater Workshop, Foeller Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival, member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and has been a Visiting Artist at the Athens Conservatoire in Greece, and Guest Artist at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. She is currently developing a stage production of the digital anthology, Lessons in Survival (New York Times Best Theater of 2020), created with the artistic collective, The Commissary, premiering at the Vineyard Theatre this spring.

ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL

For seven decades, the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theatre artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival of diverse, world premiere plays and musicals, bold new revivals, and a rich array of accompanying cultural events.

Artists are drawn to Williamstown Theatre Festival to make great theater in an environment conducive to artistic risk-taking. Matthew Broderick, Audra McDonald, Dominique Morisseau, Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Stroman, Uma Thurman, and Blair Underwood are just a few of the luminous theater artists who have worked at the Festival. Many others, including Chris Pine, Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Allison Janney, Sterling K. Brown, Brie Larson, George C. Wolfe, Ty Burrell, and Charlie Day, began their careers at the Festival.

Productions and artists shaped at the Festival fill theaters in New York City and around the world. Recently, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside, Grand Horizons, The Rose Tattoo, The Visit, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, and Lempicka, to name just a few. Cost of Living, which was developed and premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org.

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