Gay plays are a rarity in the Berkshires. So here’s some good news.

Yesterday the 10×10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage Company began its fifth annual Smörgåsbord of short plays  which plays to Feb. 28 at the St. Germain Theatre on Linden Street in Pittsfield. Included are two slices of life of special interest to Rainbow Seniors of the Berkshires, not to mention a whole bunch more on mainstream topics that are just as  delightful. They are The Book of Ruth by Joseph Samuel Wright which is set in a town very much like the one above in Fentress County, Tennessee. It’s the late 1920’s and Ruth returns from Knoxville with a plan how she and her friend, Grace, can escape from the prying eyes of everyone in town. Directed by John Miller-Stephany and starring Madison Micucci as Grace and Kelley Rae O’Donnell as Ruth, the question is whether to stay or leave.

In the oddly titled Turtles and Bulldogs by Scott C. Sickles, and again directed by Miller-Stephany could be a bromance, or something more.  Collin (Matt Neely) bumps into Barney (Andrew May), the guy he had a crush on in high school…thirty-five years later…at the cemetery. They have some catching up to do.  – Larry Murray