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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON TUESDAY, JUNE 18, PLEASE

THE TONY AWARD-RECOGNIZED
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES SPECIAL SUMMER PROGRAMMING

2024 SPECIAL TONY AWARD^® RECIPIENT
ALEX EDELMAN
RETURNS TO WTF WITH A NEW COMEDY OFFERING
JOINED BY MAGGIE CRANE
SATURDAY, JULY 20 AT 5 PM & 8 PM

TONY AWARD WINNER
GAVIN CREEL
IN CONCERT TO BENEFIT WTF
SUNDAY, JULY 28 AT 3 PM

New York, NY (June 18, 2024) – Today, Interim Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced special programming for the summer season featuring 2024 Special Tony Award^® winner Alex Edelman and Tony Award and Olivier Award^® winner Gavin Creel.

On Saturday, July 20 at 5 PM and 8 PM, the good boy comes home. After a wildly successful run of Just For Us on Broadway, for which he received a Special Tony Award^®, and on the recently released HBO special, Edelman returns to Williamstown with a fresh batch of all new comedy. Called “one of the funniest minds of his generation – or maybe any generation” (Washington Post), this new stand-up show will delight and enlighten. Edelman will be joined by Williamstown’s very own comedian, Maggie Crane, who according to Entertainment Now, allows us “to not only find the funny, but also to find the empathy.”

Alex Edelman’s limited run will be on the MainStage and tickets will go on sale to the public at noon on Thursday, June 20. Tickets will be available to Festival donors at the $250 level and above today, Tuesday, June 18.

On Sunday, July 28 at 3 PM, Creel and his band-mates Madeline Benson and Chris Peters will host an up-close and spectacular afternoon of music to benefit Williamstown Theatre Festival. Called “endearing, funny, and relatable” (Time Out New York), Creel will charm audiences with a repertoire blending musical theater classics and pop covers, along with compositions from his new show Walk on Through, based on a commission from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that takes us on an intimate journey of discovery and transformation through the lens of the art that captures his imagination.

Proceeds from Gavin Creel in Concert benefit Williamstown Theatre Festival. Join us after the show for a celebratory toast.

Gavin Creel in Concert will play the specially created Festival Stage inside the MainStage Theater. Tickets are extremely limited and will go on sale to the public at noon on Thursday, June 20. Tickets will be available to Festival donors at the $250 level and above today, Tuesday, June 18.

Gavin Creel will also be in residency at the Festival along with Madeline Benson and Chris Peters. They will join the previously announced playwrights-in-residence Kamilah Bush, John J. Caswell, Jr., Peggy Noonan, and Ellis Stump.

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2024 WTF SUMMER SEASON

The season’s fully staged shows will be produced in a new space for the Festival: the intimate 150-seat CenterStage, a state-of-the-art versatile performance space in Williams College’s ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance (1000 Main St, Williamstown, MA 01267) that includes orchestra and balcony seating on three sides. The CenterStage season will include Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Mama, Part II of The Dragon Cycle, directed by Andrew Russell from Tuesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 14, and the world premiere of David Ives’ Pamela Palmer directed by his longtime collaborator Walter Bobbie (Chicago, Venus in Fur) playing Tuesday, July 23 through Saturday, August 10.

In the MainStage, Emmy^® and Golden Globe Award^® winner Rachel Bloom will bring her critically acclaimed musical comedy Death, Let Me Do My Show, directed by Seth Barrish, from Friday, July 5 through Sunday, July 14.

“WTF IS NEXT,” the expansive glimpse into a new vision for the Tony Award-recognized Festival taking place Thursday, August 1 through Sunday, August 4 throughout the community of Williamstown. This ambitious new model will surround WTF’s regular summer programming with a robust schedule of not-to-be-missed experiences. From the moment they arrive and throughout this special weekend, guests will be immersed in activities and events that combine the transformative power of theater with the stunning natural beauty of the Berkshires: memorable morning and midday activities, curated experiences, vibrant late-night programming, and more. Central to “WTF IS NEXT” is the Festival’s commitment to fostering community and deepening connections through a broadened concept of theater. For ticketing information, a complete itinerary, and updates on the “WTF IS NEXT” weekend, please visit: www.wtfestival.org/main-events/wtf-is-next2024/ 

And WTF’s beloved cabaret series will return to the specially created Festival Stage in the MainStage Theater, curated by Asmeret Ghebremichael, with Tony Award^® nominee Christopher Fitzgerald advising, and music direction by Joel Waggoner.

The Plastic Bag Store, created, written, designed, and directed by Robin Frohardt, with music by Freddi Price, produced by Pomegranate Arts, and presented with MASS MoCA (housed in Building 1: 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247) runs Thursday, May 9 through Monday, September 2.

WTF’s Fridays@3 reading series, curated by the Festival’s Artistic Associate, Lianna Rada-Hung will take place at 3 PM in the Auditorium at the Clark Art Institute (225 South Street, Williamstown, MA 01267). This year’s lineup includes at the very bottom of a body of water by Benjamin Benne, directed by Cat Rodríguez on Friday, July 12; SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA by Beth Hyland on Friday, July 19; Indigo Dreams by Melis Aker, directed by Kate Whoriskey on Friday, July 26; and KILL CORP by Sofia Alvarez, directed by Portia Krieger on Friday, August 2.

This year’s developmental workshops include Alone & Alive written and performed by Joel Waggoner, directed by Brandon Ivie taking place July 18-20; and Marcel On The Train by Marshall Pailet and Ethan Slater, directed by Marshall Pailet, produced by Mix and Match Productions (Maxwell Beer and Mitch Marois) taking place July 30-31.

ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL

For seven decades, the Tony Award-recognized Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theater 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 Sterling K. Brown, Ty Burrell, Charlie Day, Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Chris Pine, and George C. Wolfe, 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, the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living, and Lempicka.

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

BIOGRAPHIES

ALEX EDELMAN One of the most critically hailed comedians of his generation, Alex Edelman is best known for solo shows that blur the line between his stand-up comedy roots and narrative-driven storytelling. His last offering, Just For Us, played more than 500 performances all over the world before premiering as an HBO original comedy special in April of 2024. Along the way, it made award-winning stops in Melbourne, Edinburgh, London, and numerous sold-out runs in New York, where Edelman joined a small group of comedians who have played on Broadway with a three-month stretch at the Hudson Theatre. He has previously won the prestigious Foster’s Best Newcomer prize at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his debut one man show, Millennial, only the second American ever to have done so and the first since 1997. In 2024 Alex was the recipient of a special Tony Award and was named to the Time100 list of most influential people. Edelman will next appear in Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut for Netflix, Unfrosted, alongside Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant and more. He is currently developing a movie with A24 that he will write, direct and star in with Marc Platt and Stephen Levenson producing. His debut non-fiction collection, I Don’t Belong Here, recently sold to Avid Reader at auction. Beyond his front-of-camera work, Alex was a staff writer on The Great Indoors for CBS, a story editor on Teenage Bounty Hunters for Netflix, and the head writer for Saturday Night Seder, which raised over $3.5 million for the CDC Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund, and featured talent such as Andy Cohen, Billy Porter, Dan Levy,  Fran Drescher, Idina Menzel, Jason Alexander, Rachel Brosnahan, and many more. He has written for outlets such as The Atlantic and The Believer, has written and produced documentaries for the US State Department and ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, and spent more than a decade working as a speechwriter for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox.

GAVIN CREEL most recently wrote and starred in the world premiere MCC Theater production of Walk On Through, a new theater piece inspired by the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Creel is also a Tony Award winner for his performance as “Cornelius Hackl” in Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce. After making his Broadway debut in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which he received his first Tony nomination, Creel went on to star in the Broadway productions of Hair, (Tony Award nomination), Into The Woods, Waitress, The Book Of Mormon, She Loves Me, and La Cage Aux Folles. Gavin received an Olivier Award for his portrayal of “Elder Price” in the London Production of The Book Of Mormon and also appeared on the West End in Mary Poppins, Hair, and Waitress. On television, Creel has performed a solo PBS concert special with “Stars on Stage,” appeared in the premiere episodes of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series “American Horror Stories” and played “Bill” alongside Julie Andrews in Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. As a songwriter, he has released three original albums: “GOODTIMENATION,” “Quiet,” and “Get Out.” A native of Findlay, Ohio, Gavin is a proud graduate of University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, a recipient of a Hermitage Artist Retreat Writing Fellowship, and, with Walk On Through, was a featured composer at The O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference.

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