SHADES OF THE REVOLUTION
September 17-19 and 24-26, 5:30 pm
Pittsfield Cemetery
The Pittsfield Cemetery is the setting for the play Shades of the Revolution being presented by the Berkshire History Theatre in collaboration with the Berkshire County Historical Society. The ghostly tale features Pittsfield’s Revolutionary War era founders—both famous and infamous—telling their stories of merriment, hardship, love, and death in colonial Pittsfield through a series of vignettes at various graves. While Pittsfield’s founding fathers receive their just dues, Shades focuses on the indomitable, outrageous Pittsfield women whose strength, intelligence, and iron determination often triumphed over the male dominated 18th century hierarchy.
Tickets are $20 adults, $15 students (13-18), seniors (65 and over), and can be purchased by using the BOOK NOW button. Tickets may be purchased on site (cash only), and will be available beginning 1/2 hour before the performance.
What to know before you go
Performances are cancelled in the event of rain.
Audience members must be able to walk 1/2 mile, on paved and dirt cemetery roads, at a leisurely pace, with numerous stops to view performances. Audience members are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes, and to bring lightweight folding stools or chairs if they would like to sit during the vignettes.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Sarah Deming – the first white woman to settle at Pontusaac Plantation, also the first white woman to bear a child in Pittsfield (played by Amanda Shenker)
Reverend Thomas Allen – the “fighting parson” (played by Phillip Becker)
Lucretia Williams – defender of the Pittsfield Elm (played by Susan Perry)
Hannah Dickenson – widow of Colonel William Williams, wife of Joseph Shearer; wealthy, brilliant, indomitable and relentless; victim of repeated murder attempts by her second husband (played by Liskin Van Pelt Dus)
Joseph Shearer – Hannah Dickensen’s second husband; community leader, philanthropist; repeatedly charged with attempted murder (Played by Jeff Belitsky)
Harriette Plunkett – socialite, community leader, activist, founder of Pittsfield’s first hospital, The House of Mercy (played by Anne Becker)
Emily Pomeroy – daughter of Pittsfield’s leading industrialist Lemuel Pomeroy; greatly enamoured of General Lafayette (played Samantha Blau)
Chien Royal de Lafayette – the Great Pyrenees, royal dog of France who accompanied General Lafayette to America (Played by Bastien Filkins)
Lemuel Pomeroy – laid the foundation for Pittsfield’s industrial success; owner of Pomeroy and Sons Woolen and Cotton Mills; wealthy, proud, bombastic…and afraid
Mary O’Hara – Irish immigrant mill worker who haunts Lemuel Pomeroy (played by Diane Arduini)
Shades of the Revolution, written and directed by Sally Filkins, premiered in 2011 in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Pittsfield’s incorporation as a town (1761).
Sally Filkins was playwright-in-residence at BCHS from 2011 – 2015. She is the author of The Melville Trilogy – “Melville, Haunted, Melvilles & Morewoods, and Melville’s Women,” among other historic plays. Her company, Berkshire History Theatre was in residence at BCHS from 2011 – 2015.
This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Pittsfield Cultural Council, and The Feigenbaum Foundation.
