Williamstown Theatre Festival Announces Pre-Performance Events

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced a new venture with restaurant Hops & Vines, which will be providing expanded concessions and outdoor seating at the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance during the WTF season.

Hops & Vines concessions at WTF productions will feature a full bar, gourmet sandwiches, snacks, and dessert items including ice cream from SoCo Creamery. From Thursday through Saturday every week, Hops & Vines will also provide outdoor seating for patrons to enjoy before and after the show and will serve an outdoor BBQ menu featuring sliders, German sausages, grilled corn, and more. These expanded offerings are available to anyone, not simply theater patrons.

"I've missed the old lawn life around the Adams Memorial Theatre - there was a 'lawn culture' of friends from the audience and artists who mingled, which created a palpable buzz around the Festival, literally," said Gersten. "The board and staff shared a vision for recreating that at the '62 Center, and we worked together with the town and Williams College to make this new step possible. To see it come together with such a great and delicious local partner like Hops & Vines feels absolutely right and so fulfilling."

Hops & Vines Managing Parter David Aldecoa added, "Hops & Vines is thrilled to join forces with WTF and is committed to enhancing the experience of the Festival. The Festival has a strong significance to both our local community and summer visitors, so the opportunity to enter into this new venture with WTF is exciting. We look forward to welcoming theatergoers and their friends to enjoy a cocktail and lite fare before and during performances."

To inspire more "lawn culture" around the Festival, two special pre-performance events have been planned to engage audience and community members. On Tuesday, July 24th Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Haynes will be present for a pre-show discussion about his film, Far From Heaven (on which the current Main Stage musical is based), and on Friday, August 10th, the foremost contemporary translators of Russian literature, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, will talk about their first collaboration on a Russian drama, Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, which will have its world premiere on the WTF Main Stage in August.

As previously announced, the complete 2012 Williamstown Theatre Festival season runs from June 26 – August 19, 2012 and includes Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, a Preview Production of the new musical Far From Heaven, and a new translation of Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country on the Main Stage, with Lucy Boyle's The Blue Deep, Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man, and Katori Hall's WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! on the Nikos Stage. The season also included a special workshop production of David Byrne's Here Lies Love, which played at nearby MASS MoCA.

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