Surprise and Delight
- 17 hours ago
- 11 min read
Get an early start on the 2026 cultural season
By Benjamin Lerner
Spring 2026
The 2026 season is coming together beautifully, with performing arts venues busily preparing programming that feels both celebratory and reflective. The 250th anniversary of the United States quietly underpins much of the season, with questions of democracy, identity, stewardship, and creativity emerging in programming alongside a shared vision of cultural expansion and renewal. Now is the perfect time to begin marking your calendar and purchasing tickets. Jacob’s Pillow and Adams Theater are rolling out exciting new spring seasons, and other venues like Tanglewood and the Mahaiwe continue to offer year-round programming to get you through the quieter months leading up to the summer season.
We put together a preliminary guide of what we’re most excited about so far, with announcements still rolling in.
Adams Theater
Adams | adamstheater.org
The Adams Theater launches its first-ever mid-April spring season as a pilot step toward year-round programming. The season opens with Boca Tuya (April 20–May 2), hosting Princess Grace Award winner Omar Román de Jesús for a two-week Residency + Presentation developed in collaboration with Works & Process. This marks the 11th residency supported by the Adams Theater, reinforcing its role as a development hub for contemporary theater and dance.
In late spring and into the fall season, storytelling takes center stage with Selected Shorts (May 23), presented with Symphony Space. Music follows with three-time Grammy® winner Gustavo Casenave on piano (June 7). The Adams Theater joins statewide MA250 celebrations with a chamber performance led by Massachusetts inaugural poet laureate Regie Gibson (June 13) and a keynote conversation with essayist Stacy Schiff (June 20).
Full season and ticketing announcement at adamstheater.org.
Barrington Stage Company
Pittsfield | barringtonstageco.org
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Alan Paul, Barrington Stage’s 2026 season brings together Pulitzer Prize–winning plays, a landmark musical anniversary, uproarious comedy, and a world premiere—with more programming still to be announced.
At the Boyd-Quinson Theater, the summer season features two iconic works about life in the theater itself. A Chorus Line runs June 15–August 8, marking the musical’s 50th anniversary and its first appearance at Barrington Stage Company (BSC). Paul brings Broadway-caliber dance and deeply personal storytelling to Pittsfield, celebrating the vulnerability and resilience of performers. “Our aim to both surprise and delight this season,” shares Paul.
Later in the summer, Michael Frayn’s legendary farce Noises Off takes the stage (August 19–September 6). Directed by Gordon Greenberg, the production delivers fast-paced physical comedy and backstage chaos, making its BSC debut as one of the most beloved comic farces in modern theater.
The St. Germain Stage opens with Driving Miss Daisy (May 27–June 21). Directed by founding artistic director Julianne Boyd and co-produced with Palm Beach Dramaworks, the play stars Debra Jo Rupp, Ray Anthony Thomas, and Matthew Korinko. Spanning 25 years, the production traces an evolving friendship across lines of race, religion, and class, restoring the intimacy of Uhry’s original stage work.
New work remains central to BSC’s mission with the world premiere of Estate Sale by Keelay Gipson (June 30–July 25). Presented on the St. Germain Stage, the lyrical and deeply personal play explores grief, memory, and legacy through the act of clearing a family home, underscoring Barrington Stage’s role as an incubator for new voices.
Tickets are on sale at barringtonstageco.org. Look out for additional productions, concerts, cabarets, and the company’s annual gala on Sunday, July 26.
Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF)
Great Barrington | biffma.org
The centerpiece of the year arrives with the 20th Annual BIFF (May 28–31). The festival will once again bring independent filmmakers, artists, and audiences together across the region for screenings, conversations, and celebrations of global cinema. This year’s honoree is award-winning actor and Berkshire’s own Karen Allen. BIFF Opens with Steal This Story, Please! with award-winning journalist, author, and investigative reporter Amy Goodman in attendance. BIFF closes with the Sundance Hit Documentary about global tennis icon and activist Billie Jean King in Give Me the Ball! with director Elizabeth Wolff in attendance. Four Tea Talks include Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple; Oscar-nominated documentary director Yael Melamede in conversation author and filmmaker Kevin Smokler; acclaimed American screenwriter John Orloff known for Band of Brothers and Masters of the Air; and European Union filmmakers discussing filmmaking across borders. Plus 80-plus international and domestic narrative features, documentaries, and short films will be screened.
Festival passes are available now at biffma.org.
Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF)
Great Barrington | berkshireoperafestival.org
BOF’s 2026 Mainstage Production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor will be presented at the Mahaiwe (August 22, 25, and 28), sung in Italian with projected English translations. A free pre-show lecture by dramaturg Cori Ellison precedes the August 22 performance. BOF’s inaugural Resident Artist Program (July 6–August 28) culminates in André Grétry’s Zémire et Azor (July 31 and August 2).
Tickets available now at berkshireoperafestival.org/ticketing.
Berkshire Theatre Group
Pittsfield & Stockbridge | berkshiretheatregroup.org
Across its two historic stages, Berkshire Theatre Group’s (BTG’s) 2026 season emphasizes connection, civic engagement, and the enduring power of theater to bring people together. Under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire, the season favors empathy, dialogue, and shared experience.“Maybe the most important thing we can do right now is remind people of what’s human and what connects us,” says Maguire. That philosophy runs through the season’s mix of youth-driven productions; crowd-pleasing musical events; and intimate, idea-rich plays.
At the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, the season unfolds with a balance of accessibility and ambition. It begins with James and the Giant Peach JR. (April 24–26), a youth-centered musical that underscores BTG’s longstanding commitment to arts education and community participation. Later in June, the Colonial hosts Rhapsody: The Music of Queen (June 26–27), a high-energy concert experience that blends theatrical flair with the anthemic power of Queen’s catalog. July brings Project 1776 (July 2–16), a youth-led reimagining of the classic American musical, placing questions of democracy, compromise, and civic responsibility directly in the hands of young performers. The Colonial season concludes with The Legend of Georgia McBride (August 1–23), a buoyant, big-hearted comedy about identity, reinvention, and chosen family that brings the summer to a celebratory close.
At the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, the focus turns inward with a suite of character-driven works that explore family, memory, and moral choice. John & Jen (May 20–June 7) opens the season with a music-driven meditation on sibling bonds and generational influence. That exploration of legacy continues with The American Five (June 18–July 11), which examines the figures surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. during the creation of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Later in the summer, Lovesong (July 22–August 23) offers a tender portrait of long partnership and endurance, while Summer, 1976 (October 1–31) closes the season with a reflective look at motherhood, friendship, and the small moments that quietly shape a life.
Tickets are on sale now at berkshiretheatregroup.org.
Chester Theatre
Chester | chestertheatre.org
Chester Theatre’s 2026 season includes four very different plays that all have humor, courage, a little grit and a lot of discoveries.
R Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe by D.W. Jacobs and directed by Barbara Karger kicks the season off on June 19 and runs through June 28. Futurist, environmentalist, architect, inventor and geodesic dome designer Buckminster Fuller takes us on a wild journey from his childhood in Massachusetts, to meeting Albert Einstein, to his extraordinary inventions, explaining how doing more with less can save both humanity and the planet.
From July 2 to 12, Chester Theatre presents Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer) by Cheryl L. West and directed by Gilbert McCauley. Filled with music, humor and spirituality, this is the impassioned story of American civil rights activist and hero Fannie Lou Hamer, from her beginnings as the daughter of a sharecropper, to co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, to her historic speech at the 1964 Democratic Convention and beyond.
The premiere of Amchitka by Mark St. Germain and directed by Julianne Boy runs from July 24 to August 8. In a monitoring station at Amchitka, a volcanic island 170 miles off the coast of Alaska used for underground nuclear testing in the 1960s, three scientists find themselves cut off from the outside world as an event seems to be underway. But what? A new philosophical thriller by Mark St. Germain, author of Magdalene and Freud’s Last Session.
Winding up the season is Dear Alien by Liz Duffy-Adams and directed by Michelle Ong Hendrick, running from August 14 to 23. In this cheeky existential comedy, a reclusive advice columnist known as “Dear Alien” attempts to finish a book, respond to their readers, help the lovelorn, enlighten the confused, avoid financial ruin, hide from online trolls, escape desolation and explain the nature of human existence. All under a deadline.
Purchase tickets at chestertheatre.org.
Jacob’s Pillow
Becket | jacobspillow.org
Jacob’s Pillow is expanding its role as a year-round cultural institution, launching its first-ever spring season alongside the return of its 94th International Dance Festival in the summer. These initiatives reaffirm the Pillow’s place as one of the world’s most significant centers for dance presentation, creation, education, and dialogue. To mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a portion of the programming celebrates groundbreaking women who have shaped dance in the United States.
The spring season unfolds in the Doris Duke Theatre, beginning with the world premiere of Compañía Irene Rodríguez’s Flamenco Soul (April 24–26). The intimate solo performance, accompanied by live music, immerses audiences in the rhythm and intensity of flamenco through surround seating and state-of-the-art acoustics. The following weekend, Hari Krishnan and inDANCE present ROWDIES IN LOVE (May 1–3), a contemporary work for eight male dancers that fuses Bharatanatyam with global and queer movement vocabularies. Both performances include pre- and post-show discussions.
Spring also marks the launch of online education through The School at Jacob’s Pillow, extending the institution’s reach beyond its physical campus. Dance History 101, led by Wendy Perron (March 17–April 21), draws on the Pillow’s renowned archives to explore key moments in American dance. Experiencing Dance, led by Kate Mattingly (April 28–June 2), focuses on how audiences interpret and engage with dance across aesthetic, cultural, and historical contexts. Both weekly courses are open to participants of all backgrounds.
The summer dance festival begins with the Season Opening Gala on June 20, followed by ten weeks of performances from June 24 through August 30 across the Pillow’s three iconic stages: the Ted Shawn Theatre, the Doris Duke Theatre, and the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage. Week-long engagements typically run Wednesday through Sunday, with additional performances, talks, classes, and community events woven in.
Festival programming highlights include Paul Taylor Dance Company and Shamel Pitts | TRIBE (June 24–28); Urban Bush Women (July 1–5); Akram Khan Company (July 8–12); A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and Faye Driscoll (July 15–19); Circa Contemporary Circus (July 22–26); Gauthier Dance (July 29–August 2); the long-awaited return of San Francisco Ballet (August 5–9), appearing for the first time since 1956; the Martha Graham Dance Company, in its 100th anniversary year (August 12–16); Ballet Hispánico (August 19–23); and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (August 26–30).
An anchor of the season is the Martha Graham Dance Company engagement, featuring defining works including Night Journey (1947), Frontier (1935), and Immediate Tragedy (1937), alongside En Masse, co-commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and the BSO. The company also appears at Tanglewood on August 14, presenting For Martha—choreographed by Hope Boykin to a score by Christopher Rountree incorporating a recently recovered 49-second composition by Leonard Bernstein—alongside Appalachian Spring. The biennial Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award will be presented to Pitts, founder and artistic director of TRIBE.
A summer-long exhibition in Blake’s Barn explores Graham’s artistic and political voice during the 1930s. Additional performances animate the Henry J. Leir Stage throughout the festival, featuring artists from the Berkshires and beyond alongside appearances by student ensembles from The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
Member pre-sale begins March 9, with tickets available to the general public on April 9. Tickets for spring performances and registration for online courses are available now at jacobspillow.org.
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Great Barrington | mahaiwe.org
In 2026, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center enters a new chapter with two venues: the mainstage and the Indigo Room. “This will be our first summer fully operational in two venues,” says Executive Director Janis Martinson. “That expansion means more shows, more variety, more flexibility, and even greater representation of emerging artists and community-centric offerings.”
The Indigo Room is buzzing during the spring months with comedy, live music, and more. The Christian Sands Trio performs two shows (March 13). Indigo Comedy Night features NYC-based Adam Mamawala (March 14), and check out singer-songwriter Amanda Pascali (March 21), jazz and adult contemporary vocalist Jane Monheit (April 17), and more.
Summer highlights so far include Michael Feinstein (May 1), Railroad Earth (May 9), Ben Folds (June 5), Straight No Chaser (June 20), Tab Benoit (July 12), Tom Papa (July 18), and more.
Tickets are available at mahaiwe.org, by phone at 413-528-0100, or at the box office. Patrons ages 30 and under are eligible for $15 youth tickets for select mainstage events.
Tanglewood
Lenox | bso.org/tanglewood
A robust spring program at the Linde Center leads into an ambitious 2026 Tanglewood summer season that celebrates the nation’s 250th anniversary. The Linde Center hosts a series of intimate concerts, talks, and interdisciplinary events presented through the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI).
In May, TLI Presents program features Mirage with Hub New Music and Daniel Wohl (May 1); and a TLI Jazz concert featuring Jumaane Smith (May 8).
The summer season opens at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Yacht Rock Revue (June 21), followed by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (June 26). James Taylor and his All-Star Band returns on July 3 and 4. The BSO anchors July and August with a selection of symphonic and operatic highlights, including Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Seong-Jin Cho (July 10), where the Boston Ballet will perform excerpts from Swan Lake, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 with Emanuel Ax (July 11), and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with Joshua Bell (August 2). The Tanglewood Recital Series at Ozawa Hall features violinists Augustin Hadelich and Cho (July 9); the early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants (July 15); the Danish String Quartet (July 30); pianist Yuja Wang (August 19); and Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens (August 20), celebrating Silkroad’s 25th anniversary.
On July 17, Renee Fleming and Thomas Hampson joins the BSO to perform excerpts of Nixon in China by John Adams. An equally promising operatic performance follows on August 1, when the BSO presents Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, featuring a starry cast of Michael Sumuel, Ying Fang, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, and Susan Graham, among others. A series of high-profile recitals and performances curated by Yo-Yo Ma runs from August 4–9. Ma curates Tanglewood on Parade (August 4), featuring the BSO, the Boston Pops, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Additional Ma residency highlights include multi-cello programs, collaborations with vocalists and cross-genre explorations that reflect Ma’s lifelong commitment to cultural dialogue. After Keith Lockhart begins his 31st season as conductor of the Boston Pops with a performance on August 4, he leads the Pops in the ever-popular John Williams Film Night on August 15. Cynthia Erivo makes her Tanglewood Debut with the Pops on August 21.
On August 14, the Martha Graham Dance Company appears alongside the BSO in a program including Copland’s Appalachian Spring, co-commissioned with Jacob’s Pillow. The Popular Artist Series continues by celebrating the revolutionary spirit of Bastille Day with multi-Grammy®-winning artists Ziggy Marley and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue in an evening of high-energy reggae, funk, blues, and jazz (July 14). Also scheduled are “Weird Al” Yankovic (July 21), Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (July 28), Carrie Underwood (August 29), and Tedeschi Trucks Band (September 2). More pop artists concerts are bound to be announced.
Concerts continue to be added. For updates and to purchase tickets, go to tanglewood.org.
Shakespeare & Company
Lenox | shakespeare.org
Shakespeare & Company presents a wide-ranging season spanning summer through early fall. The season opens with Fireflies by Matthew Barber (June 19–July 19), followed by Twelfth Night (July 4–26) and Circus & the Bard: The Next Chapter (July 16–26). Hamlet runs July 30–August 23, with Plays in Process from July 28–30. Contemporary programming includes Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (August 6–23), Shake It Up: The Remix (August 26–30), and Midsummer Dreamers (September 1–3). The season honors founder Tina Packer with the Tina Packer Legacy Fund and a community celebration of life on May 31.
FLEXPass packages and individual tickets are on sale now at shakespeare.org.
WAM Theatre
Lenox | wamtheatre.com
The 2026 performance season includes the full production of Rooted (May 1 – May 16) by award-winning playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer (Be Here Now, The Last Yiddish Speaker), the Fresh Takes reading on June 14 of Amani by critically acclaimed playwright a.k. payne (Furlough’s Paradise, Some of the Boys), the Summer Soirée Benefit on July 26, the Fresh Takes reading of Gorgeous on August 16 by the celebrated playwright Keiko Green (Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play, Sharon), and the fall mainstage production of Camp Siegfried, October 15 – November 1, by Tony-Award-Nominee Bess Wohl (Liberation, Grand Horizons).
Tickets are on sale now at wamtheatre.com.
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