10 x 10 Festival at Barrington Stage Company is start for new Artistic Director
>> Barrington Stage Company is presenting its 12th annual 10×10 New Play Festival through March 5.
This year will be slightly different because it is the first without BSC founder Julianne Boyd who served as Artistic Director for the past 27 years. She retired last year.
It is, in a sense, the public’s first experience with Alan Paul who took over the position last September. Paul was the Associate Artistic Director of the prestigious Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
In a recent telephone interview, Paul said except for the fact that he loves to
laugh, this evening of ten ten-minute plays will not reveal much about his own artistic inclinations. He
does admit that because he is directing five of the plays audiences might get to observe his attitude towards staging a play. His tastes tend towards making the familiar seem fresh.
He does express a sense of joy that 10×10 is his first interaction with the company’s audience base. “As I connect with people from the area on a daily basis, I get the sense that this is a special event for the community.” He continues, saying that part of the anticipation is having a lighthearted theater experience in the middle of February is psychologically therapeutic.
However, he also gets a feeling of ownership from the community about the event. “This not something being created for the summer crowd. The audiences will be local and regional,” he says. He identifies western Massachusetts and the
Albany-Troy-Saratoga region as his base audience.
Paul’s enthusiasm is palpable as he says how much he is enjoying the time spent in the rehearsal room.
While at Shakespeare Theatre Company he directed over 75 productions between 2007-2022. Though he loves Shakespeare and other classic playwrights, he says he also loves musicals. Indeed, he reveals that he was influential in the first musical being produced at STC.
Indeed, his productions of “Camelot,” “Kiss Me Kate,” and “Man of La Mancha,” musicals with a strong literature base, rank as the company’s #2, #3 and # 4 highest selling productions.
As for 10 X 10, he hap