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Boston Theatre Works 2004-2005

Boston Theatre Works, which has a current success in Kimberly Akimbo at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, has announced plans for next season that include a guest appearance by Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company heavy hitter Jonathan Epstein. BTW will open its 2004-2005 season with the Boston premiere of Marc Wolf’s acclaimed one-person show about the treatment of gays in the military, Another American Asking and Telling. The material for this work was culled from interviews from straight and gay military personnel, lawyers, judges, professors, and politicians; Wolf sorts through it all, looking for the "human fallout." The production is set for the Boston Center for the Arts, to which BTW graduates for most of its season, October 7 through 23. Next up, Epstein plays Prospero in Jason Slavick’s staging of the Bard’s valedictory, The Tempest, at the Tremont Theatre, January 13 through February 6. Elliot Norton Award–winning actress Nancy E. Carroll joins the troupe for the Boston premiere of Tony (Angels in America) Kushner’s prescient play whose second act is set in Afghanistan at the height of Taliban rule, Homebody/Kabul, at the BCA February 24 through March 19. The season will concluded with "a hot new play from Off Broadway" as yet undetermined, April 28 through May 14, and the annual BTW Unbound, a festival of readings of new plays from around the country, May 16 through 22. BTW Unbound 2004, by the way, will be unleashed May 20 through 23 at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, where Kimberly Akimbo continues through May 16.

— Carolyn Clay

Who’s afraid of Edward Albee?

Pulitzer-winning playwright Edward Albee is no fan of critics, but he has condescended to let a few with an eminent namesake pay tribute to him. Albee will be Guest of Honor this Monday, May 17, at the 22nd annual Elliot Norton Awards, which, hosted by the Boston Theater Critics Association, honor the best of Boston theater. The date would have been the 101st birthday of dean of American drama critics Norton, who died last summer at the age of 100. Albee, who’s 75, is best known as the author of that Tony-winning 1962 existential and marital slugfest Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He won his Pulitzers for A Delicate Balance, Seascape, and Three Tall Women. His latest play, Homelife, a prequel to The Zoo Story, debuts on a bill with that seminal 1959 one-act, under the umbrella title Peter and Jerry, at Hartford Stage May 20 through June 20; for tickets, call (860) 527-5151.

— Carolyn Clay

Swan switch

One tradition in Swan Lake that’s all but inviolable is that Odette and Odile are danced by the same ballerina. Apart from making it easier to see how Siegfried could mistake Black Swan Odile for White Swan Odette, the double casting requires the ballerina to deliver good-girl innocence in acts two and four and bad-girl vamping and virtuosity (those 32 fouettés) in act three. But for one night in its Swan Lake run that opens tonight (May 13) at the Wang Theatre, Boston Ballet will break with tradition by giving us a good-sister/bad-sister act. At the evening performance on Saturday May 22, Boston Ballet principal Lorna Feijóo will dance Odette and San Francisco Ballet principal Lorena Feijóo will be Odile. Unless, of course, they put their heads together before curtain and decide to switch roles. Critics — and the rest of us — are advised to keep a sharp eye peeled. Tickets for that performance and the rest of the Swan Lake run (May 13 at 7 p.m.; May 14 at 8 p.m.; May 15 and 16 at 2 and 8 p.m.; May 18, 19, and 20 at 7 p.m.; May 21 at 8 p.m.; May 22 at 2 and 8 p.m.; May 23 at 2 p.m.) can be had by calling (800) 447-7400, or visit www.telecharge.com, or drop by the Wang Theatre box office, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District.

— Jeffrey Gantz

Beatrice Barrett

Boston Ballet has also revealed that the $3 million bequest to the company’s endowment that it announced last November is the gift of the late Dr. Beatrice H. Barrett, a long-time benefactor and former trustee. The bequest is the single largest contribution in Boston Ballet history and more than doubles the size of the company’s endowment. Returns on the Beatrice H. Barrett Performance Fund will support expenses associated with new work, the company announced, and will also establish the Beatrice H. Barrett Music Director/Principal Conductor Chair.

In its press release, Boston Ballet identified Dr. Barrett, who passed away last September, as "a behavioral psychologist who resided in both Lincoln and Chatham. She worked for nearly 30 years with those who are developmentally disabled, studying their learning capabilities, and applying her research toward more effective teaching methods. Her personal interests ranged beyond science to include not only dance and music but also contemporary art, sailing, and the environment."

For the past 10 years, however, I knew her as just Bea Barrett, the elderly but handsome lady who sat behind me on the first Friday evening of each Boston Ballet production. I’d tell her what I’d thought of the opening-night cast the previous evening; she’d tell me what I was missing (for example, that if former principal Devon Carney didn’t always look good, it was because he was busy making his partners look good). She’d complain that she couldn’t always find the Phoenix in Lincoln; I’d send her my reviews. She had a keen interest in the performance of the music (and an informed and enthusiastic opinion of current company music director and principal conductor Jonathan McPhee), so I wasn’t surprised that she endowed a music chair. She represented everything that’s good about Boston Ballet, and I miss her every time I go to the Wang Theatre.

— Jeffrey Gantz