Welcome to Berkshire Voices

Created in 2017 by and for Berkshire-based playwrights, Berkshire Voices provides support and resources to assist writers at every stage of their career to develop new work in a supportive and constructive community. Through Berkshire Voices, playwrights, directors and actors with connections to the Berkshires come together to read new work and offer constructive insights, encouraging artistic relationships and collaboration across generations and experience levels.

  • Each year, Spring and Fall sessions are offered. Sessions last between 12 and 14 weeks. 

  • Meetings are held on Monday evenings from 7:00 – 9:00 PM.

  • The first Monday of each month meets in-person at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. All other meetings are held online via Zoom. 

  • At each meeting, scripts are read aloud followed by a feedback session where members share their reactions, thoughts, feelings, suggestions, and ideas about the piece. At the end of each session, public readings of plays developed within Berkshire Voices are shared in-person.

  • Public readings (3-4 per year)  and special workshops/offerings are held in-person at Saint James Place.

The goal is to improve scripts, hone writing skills, and – most important – to have a good time. What most members find is that the discipline of bringing work in and the exposure to other theater artists and their insights and practices is a great way to keep motivated and focused.

Michael Brady moderates working session with Peter Bergman, Steven Otfinoski and Nicki Wilson.

Berkshire Voices Skills Lab: Gregory Boover, Mac Dowd Whipple, Joshua Briggs work on a scene

Great Barrington Public Theater gives free public readings of works created by member playwrights, featuring local actors and directors. Readings are typically FREE with advance reservation. 

Interested in learning more or joining Berkshire Voices? Submit your contact information by clicking Learn More. Please send us a writing sample. Once you have submitted your contact information, email a 10-20 page writing sample to Berkshire Voices: bvmods.gbpt@gmail.com 

Berkshire Voices is supported in part by generous support from The Feigenbaum Foundation and grants from the following Local Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency:


Alford-Egremont Cultural Council
Great Barrington Cultural Council
Lee Cultural Council
Lenox Cultural Council
New Marlborough Cultural Council
Sheffield Cultural Council
Stockbridge Cultural Council

Berkshire Voices staged reading of Green Tiger Seven, directed by Kelly Galvin, featuring Ryan Winkles, Anne Undeland, KD McTeigue, MaConnia Chesser, Caitlin Teely, James Occhio, and Peter Bergman reading stage directions.

Laura Menzie, GBPT Artistic Director Jim Frangione, playwright Leigh Strimbeck, director Joshua Briggs and actor Rudy Mungaray take audiences questions following reading of Dog People, Oct. 17, 2022, at The Foundry, West Stockbridge.

Berkshire Voices workshop session with, left to right: Steven Otfinoski, Nicki Wilson, Steve Ashman, Elizabeth Nelson.

Great Barrington Public Theater presents Berkshire Voices.

GBPT's commitment to developing and presenting new voices and new plays by talent from and around the Berkshires fits perfectly with the mission of Berkshire Voices. GB Public provides administrative and production framework for crucial first readings by Berkshire Voices writers, where they can see, hear and experience their work, and receive beneficial feedback from the company’s artistic staff and audiences.

You can join us for a first look at new plays
by Berkshire Voices members.

GBPT regularly presents public readings of new plays by Berkshire Voices writers. For example, in December 2023 the audience got first look at Michelle Joyner’s new play, Iodine, at St. James Place

Tickets to readings are usually FREE!, (with a $10 suggested donation). Seating is limited. Sign up for GBPT news to hear about upcoming readings. Seats can be reserved when word goes out by emailing Tristan.GreatBarringtonPublic@gmail.com

GBPT has presented first-time readings of several other new plays by writers from Berkshire Voices, including Anne Undeland’s Lady Randy, which went on to a full production by WAM Theater in 2017; Jessica Provenz’s ONLINE, A Love Story in 140 Characters or Less; Andy Reynolds, In Between Without You; Michael Brady’s Green Tiger Seven; Elizabeth Nelson’s Colors Inside the Body and Jim Frangione’s Breakwater, which was produced by Great Barrington Pubic Theater in 2019.

Ryan Winkles and Raya Malcolm in Breakwater, 2019, first developed by Berkshire Voices.

In 2021, we presented The Queen of Fenway Court by Leigh Strimbeck and Queen of The Sea by Michael Brady. In 2022, audiences got a first look at The Group by Michael Brady; All I Had by Ellen Clarkson; Not Dark Yet by Billie Murray; and Dog People by Leigh Strimbeck. 2023 brought readings of Desperate Love by Richard Reiss and Iodine by Michelle Joyner. In the spring of 2024, there will be readings of two new plays, playwrights and titles to be determined soon. There will also be two public performances of new works, a 10-minute play festival featuring the work of Berkshire Voices writers, as well as a full-length play, titles to be announced in the coming weeks.