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July 16, 2025 
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Dear Theater Fans,
Nancy Coleman here once again, writing to you with slightly diminished hearing after experiencing the eardrum-shattering screams of a Saturday night “Heathers” audience. (Nicole Herrington will be back in your inbox next week.)
In the Berkshires, the Williamstown Theater Festival is switching things up with a revamped performance schedule and a slate of shows curated by Jeremy O. Harris, the playwright behind “Slave Play.” The Western Massachusetts nonprofit, a longtime summer theater destination, has struggled to regain its footing in recent years. “This could be some colossal failure, and it might be a thing that means we don’t have the money to do another one,” Harris told Michael Paulson. “But what excites me is that everyone is going into this with all of the ambitions fully on the table.” Theater still plays a big role, with a new play by Harris and a production featuring Pamela Anderson. But also on the lineup: opera, dance, concerts and Tennessee Williams-inspired ice dancing.
And in Waterford, Conn., Alexis Soloski explored another New England theater mainstay: the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, a training ground for young artists. Its most celebrated program is the National Playwrights Conference, where writers including August Wilson, David Henry Hwang and Quiara Alegría Hudes have come to develop their work. But as the center’s budget shrinks, and as other new play incubators disappear, the O’Neill campus is facing an uncertain future.
Back in New York, Douglas Corzine dove into the backstage dynamics at the Little Island revival of “The Gospel at Colonus,” a fusion of Greek tragedy and gospel music directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury. Laura Collins-Hughes has the review: While the storytelling fumbles, she wrote, the music “would raise the rafters if there were rafters to be raised.” And for those outside the city, or those looking to watch it twice, Elisabeth Vincentelli brings good news in her streaming guide: The 1985 Philadelphia production with Morgan Freeman is on YouTube.
I leave you this week with a glimpse at the true stars of Broadway: not the Tony winners, nor the Pulitzer finalists, but the adoptable dogs and cats who filled Shubert Alley for one glorious Saturday at Broadway Barks. Who’s like them? Damn few.
Please reach out to us at theaterfeedback@nytimes.com with suggestions for stories or to offer your thoughts about our coverage. And urge your friends to subscribe to this newsletter.
Have a wonderful, theater-filled, dog-filled week,
Nancy Coleman
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