BASIC Berkshires

Tinker Tots
2026-07-21 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-07-28 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-08-04 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-08-11 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-08-18 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-08-25 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-09-01 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-09-08 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) and 17 more dates | Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA, 012201
Come tinker and explore with the library and Pittsfield’s CFCE!
Each week children ages 0-2 (siblings welcome) and their caregivers engage in child-centered play, art, music, storytime, and sensory activities to encourage social, fine and gross motor, and pre-literacy skills.
¡Venga a jugar y explorar con la biblioteca y el CFCE de Pittsfield! Cada semana, los niños y sus cuidadores participan en juegos, arte, música, lectura de cuentos y actividades sensoriales centradas en los niños.
Children under the age of 10 must be accompanied by an adult 18+ at all times.
For more information call the Children’s Library: 413-499-9480, ext. 5.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum.
Attendance at library programs constitutes consent to be photographed; photos may be used in print or electronic publicity for the Berkshire Athenaeum.

Shakespeare & Company Presents: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
2026-07-30 14:00 - 2026-08-23 21:00 | Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240
Shakespeare & Company Presents: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

By Terrence McNally, Directed by Nicole Ricciardi

July 30-August 23 at 2 pm and 7 pm at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre

Set over the course of a single late night in a small Hell’s Kitchen apartment, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is a tender, funny, and deeply human play about two people standing at the edge of connection. Frankie, a guarded waitress, and Johnny, an earnest short-order cook, work together at a Manhattan diner. After their first date, they find themselves in bed—and talking through the night.
What unfolds is an intimate conversation filled with humor, vulnerability, and longing. Johnny, a hopeful romantic, believes he may have found something rare and real. Frankie, shaped by past disappointments, keeps her defenses firmly in place. As they circle each other—sometimes clashing, sometimes connecting—the play reveals the quiet courage it takes to risk love after life has left its marks.
Accompanied by the soft glow of Debussy’s “Clair de lune,” playing on the radio at Johnny’s request, McNally’s play blends gritty realism with gentle romance. Both funny and achingly honest, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune explores loneliness, resilience, and the possibility that even late in the night—and later in life—love may still be waiting.
Tickets are $40-$99 and are on sale now at shakespeare.org, or by calling the Box Office at (413) 637-3353
Content Advisory: Frankie & Johnny takes an honest, often funny look at two adults on the late-night hours of a first date. Please be advised that the production includes moments of sexual intimacy and brief nudity.

Shakespeare & Company Presents - Shake It Up: The Remix
2026-07-31 19:00 - 2026-08-03 21:00 | Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240
A blend of modern music and Shakespearean verse. Co-created by Allyn Burrows and Jacob Ming-Trent, Directed by Allyn Burrows

July 29-August 2 at 3:30 pm, 6 pm, and 7 pm at the Tina Packer Playhouse

The hit that had audiences on their feet returns—revved up and remixed. The Tina Packer Playhouse transforms once more into the Elephant Lounge for Shake It Up: The Remix, an exuberant mash-up of modern music and Shakespearean verse. Audiences are invited to clap, sing, stomp, and dance in the aisles as the players unleash a breathless, rocking revue

Tickets are $25-$78 and are on sale now at shakespeare.org, or by calling the box office at (413) 637-3353

Shakespeare & Company Presents: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Directed by Ariel Bock
2026-08-13 19:00 - 2026-08-30 22:00 | Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240
Shakespeare & Company Presents: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Directed by Ariel Bock

August 13-30 at 2 pm and 7 pm at the Tina Packer Playhouse

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most searching play—a gripping story of grief, conscience, and the cost of action. Haunted by his father’s ghost, a young prince must navigate a world of secrets, power, and betrayal, where nothing is as it appears. By turns thrilling, darkly funny, and deeply human, this August production brings Shakespeare’s language to life with clarity, physicality, and immediacy.

Tickets are $40-$99 and on sale now shakespeare.org, or by calling the Box Office at 413.637.3353
Free Youth Tickets are sponsored by the Harvey and Virginia Kimmel Family Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation. Learn more at shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Presents: Midsummer Dreamers, Created by Kirsten Peacock and Nick Nudler
2026-09-01 19:00 - 2026-09-03 21:00 | Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240
Shakespeare & Company Presents: Midsummer Dreamers, Created by Kirsten Peacock and Nick Nudler of Cosmic Mirth

September 1-3 at 7 pm at the Tina Packer Playhouse

Two lovers fall asleep angry—and wake inside a rare vision, challenging them to confront each other and themselves.
Blending the poetry of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with physical theater, aerial performance, and rambunctious comedy, Midsummer Dreamers reimagines Shakespeare’s classic as a surreal, seductive journey through a couple’s subconscious. Performed by just two actors, this 90-minute whirlwind explores love, resentment, reconciliation, and the mysterious forces that shape our inner worlds.
Tickets are $35 for Adults; $22 for Ages 13-22; $15 for Ages 3-12, and on sale now at shakespeare.org, or by calling the Box Office at 413.637.3353

Content Advisory: This production includes strobe lights, suggestive content, and brief staged violence.

Shakespeare & Company Presents: The Norwegians by C. Denby Swanson, Directed by James Warwick
2026-09-04 19:00 - 2026-10-04 21:00 | Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240
September 4-October 4th at 2 pm and 7 pm at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre

Set in a Minnesota bar where heartbreak is served alongside beer, The Norwegians is a sharp, surprising dark comedy about love gone wrong—and the lengths we go to set things right. Betty and Olive, two women reeling from romantic betrayal, hatch an unlikely plan: hiring a pair of Norwegian hitmen to deal with the men who wronged them.
Enter Tor and Gus, professional killers who turn out to be unfailingly polite, disarmingly gentle, and almost aggressively nice. As the women’s simmering rage collides with the hitmen’s courteous manners, the play finds humor in the contrast between Midwestern civility and the brutal business at hand.
With witty dialogue and a clever premise, The Norwegians explores the culture of America’s “flyover country,” where kindness runs deep—even in the most unexpected professions. At once dark, funny, and oddly tender, the play examines love, revenge, and cultural identity, reminding us that people are rarely what we expect and that even the politest among us may be capable of surprising extremes.
Tickets are $30-$88 and on sale now at shakespeare.org, or by calling the Box Office at 413.637.3353
