Event Program
Church on a Hill Meeting House July 11, 2024
Hello, Berkshires!
The Circus Arts Conservatory of Sarasota, Florida is proud to sponsor tonight’s panel discussion on the role of Performing Arts in our lives. All of the distinguished panelists, are leaders of longstanding arts organizations in the Berkshires, joined tonight by Pedro Reis of The Circus Arts Conservatory. For this panel, they come together to illuminate the fascinating world of performing arts, and share their personal stories and reasons for remaining devoted to them.
Moderated by historian and Williams College President Maud S. Mandel, the conversation is meant to delve into the point and power of performing arts…. for those of us who absorb them, for those of us who embody them.
We are so glad you have joined us!
Sincerely,
Your New Friends from Sarasota’s Circus Arts Conservatory
PS: Please arrive early and stay late! We will have pianist Amy Renak playing in the Meeting House of the Church on a Hill from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm, sponsored by arts-loving Berkshire resident Esther Messing, and we will also offer post-discussion refreshments, donated by Guido’s.
MAUD S. MANDEL - PRES. WILLIAMS COLLEGE
Maud S. Mandel, Williams’ 18th president, earned her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1989 and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan in 1993 and 1998, respectively. She moved to Brown University as a visiting assistant professor, eventually becoming professor of history and Judaic studies and dean of the collegeroles in which she served until joining Williams as president in July 2018.
Upon arriving at Williams, President Mandel engaged the community in articulating a vision for the college’s future through a strategic planning effort involving faculty, staff, students, alumni, families and friends. As one of the early outcomes of the process, Williams became the first school in the nation to launch an all-grant financial aid program. The process also gave rise to strategic academic initiatives to prepare students for a changing world in a manner reflective of Williams’ liberal arts excellence. An advocate for educational innovation that combines the best of new and old, she has encouraged important conversations about the educational import of technology and the creative arts. She has advocated effectively for a project, now underway, to support design and build a new home for the Williams College Museum of Art and the integrative arts at Williams. She has also supported faculty-led efforts to advance the curriculum across the humanities, physical, social sciences and interdisciplinary programs.
ALLYN BURROWS - SHAKESPEARE AND CO.
Shakespear & Company
Director of: The Tempest (2017), As You Like It (2018), Twelfth Night (2019) A Midsummer Night’s Dream(2023).
Shakespeare & Company performances: A Walk in the Woods, King Lear, God of Carnage, Or, King John, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV Part 1, among others.
As Artistic Director of Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Allyn directed and acted in numerous productions. Other Boston area performances include Can You Forgive Her (Huntington Theatre), Breaking the Code (Underground Railway Theatre), Shipwrecked (The Lyric Stage), The Seafarer and The Homecoming (Merrimack Repertory Theater), Five by Tenn (Speakeasy Stage). Elliot Norton Award for The Homecoming, King Lear, Five by Tenn; IRNE Award for Breaking the Code
Off-Broadway: Bug, Killer Joe, Louis Slotin Sonata, Closetland. Regionally: Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theatre, Long Wharf, Denver Center, Walnut St. Television: “The Broad Squad,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Against the Law.” Films include The Company Men, Julie & Julia, Manchester by the Sea, and Don’t Look Up.
PANELIST
ED GAZOULEAS - TANGLEWOOD
Director of the Tanglewood Music Center, endowed in honor of Edward H. Linde by Alan S. Bressler and Edward I. Rudman
Performer, educator and administrator, Ed Gazouleas has emerged as one of the finest teachers of his generation and his students are now orchestra musicians, chamber music players and teachers throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America.
Appointed to the viola faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music as a tenured professor in 2012, he joined the faculty of his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2017 and in recent years has also served as Artistic Director and Provost at Curtis. This summer he assumes the leadership of the Tanglewood Music Center as Director.
Mr. Gazouleas was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 24 years, where he held the Lois and Harlan Anderson Viola Chair and led the viola section on many occasions, notably with conductors such as Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, and André Previn. While in Boston, he was active in orchestra governance, chairing the orchestra’s artistic advisory committee and serving on the search committee that selected Andris Nelsons to be the orchestra’s music director.
Mr. Gazouleas is a 1984 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. He also attended Yale College.
KRISTY EDMUNDS - MASS MoCA
Noted curator, producer, artist, and arts leader Kristy Edmunds was unanimously appointed Director of MASS MoCA in October 2021 following a national search. Since then, Edmunds has proven to be a thoughtful listener in the effort to gain a deep understanding of the museum and the community at large, and a strategic thinker in laying the groundwork for MASS MoCA’s bold future. In her first two+ years, she has made catalytic shifts in programming, led an inclusive strategic planning process, and attracted significant funding for new initiatives including a full campus-wide facilities assessment and the implementation of a museum-wide digital strategy.
Prior to MASS MoCA, Edmunds was the Executive and Artistic Director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance in Los Angeles (CAP). In her 11 years at CAP UCLA, she transformed the organization into one of the nation’s most innovative platforms for producing and presenting contemporary performing art in all stage-based disciplines.
In recognition of her contributions to the arts, Edmunds was bestowed with the honor of Chevalier (Knight) de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2016 and was the inaugural recipient of the Berresford Prize from United States Artists in 2019.
KATE MAGUIRE - BERKSHIRE THEATER GROUP
Kate Maguire is the Artistic Director and CEO of Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) and oversaw the 2010 merger of Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, where Kate began in 1995, and The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. She believes in the transformative power of the arts to open doorways to growth and understanding the human heart, ultimately transforming communities. Kate collaborated with Actor’s Equity Association (AEA), state/local legislatures and healthcare leaders in July 2020 to gain approval from AEA to produce the first musical in the United States (Godspell) followed by an outdoor production of Truman Capote’s Holiday Memories in December, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As BTG’s Artistic Director and CEO, Kate has both artistic and administrative oversight. BTG presents diverse and award-winning work on stages including The Fitzpatrick Main Stage, Unicorn Theatre, The Garage and The Colonial Theatre. The education program serves 10,000 school children throughout the Berkshires. Kate’s career began as an actress at age 4 in Lowell, MA. She is a Board Member, former Treasurer and current Vice Chair of the Berkshire Business Roundtable and a Trustee of Berkshire Theatre Group. Kate received the Ruth Boraski “She Knows Where She’s Going” Award in 2014 and the Downtown Pittsfield Inc “Quattrocchi Person of the Year Award” in 2017. She was honored with the Larry Murray Award for Community Service in 2021 by the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association. Kate lives in Richmond with her husband, director and actor Eric Hill.
PEDRO REIS - THE CIRCUS ARTS CONSERVATORY
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Pedro Reis began circus training at the age of 12 at a local YMCA, developing his skills on the flying trapeze. He later went on to help found the first circus school in South Africa.
As an artist, in 1982, Pedro established The Survivors, a thrilling aerialist act that toured Europe and made its American debut with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1984. In 1987, Pedro became a solo artist, performing with The Big Apple Circus at Busch Gardens and The International Circus Festival of Monaco. Throughout his career, Reis has been invited to perform before a number of dignitaries including HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, HRH Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Family of Monaco, and former United States President Ronald Reagan.
In 1997, Reis and his wife, world-renowned aerialist Dolly Jacobs, combined their experience, passion, and dreams to create Circus Sarasota, a one-ring European style circus that is the only professional, not-forprofit circus in the state of Florida. In the years since its founding, Circus Sarasota has become a worldwide attraction for both area and global audiences. Now rebranded alongside Sailor Circus as The Circus Arts Conservatory, Reis and Jacobs have continued to elevate the awareness and appreciation of circus artistry through performance and outreach programs that involve area schools, youth organizations and care facilities community wide. As a lifelong veteran of the profession, Reis strives to elevate circus artistry to new heights while preserving its integrity and history in both the local and worldwide arenas.
PAM TATGE - JACOB’S PILLOW
Pamela Tatge is the Executive and Artistic Director of Jacob’s Pillow, an international dance festival, professional school, and archives located in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. Tatge is responsible for setting the artistic vision and strategic goals for all aspects of the organization.
In June 2017, Tatge spearheaded the creation of Vision ’22, a strategic approach to the Pillow’s development through 2022 that acts as the blueprint for enabling Jacob’s Pillow to become a year-round center for dance research and development. For nearly 17 years, Tatge served as the Director of the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, overseeing robust programming for dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts. Initiatives that were launched and developed during her tenure include the Creative Campus Initiative, integrating arts into non-arts areas of the curriculum; and the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance, the first-ever Masters degree in Performance Curation.
Tatge was named one of “The Most Influential People in Dance Today” by Dance Magazine in 2017 and is the recipient of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ 2010 William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming. She is also the recipient of the NAACP Berkshires Dunham Freedom Fund Award 2024, “An activist for Peace, Justice, Equity, and Equality in the Art of Dance.” Tatge holds a B.A. in History and an M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University.
