For more than seven decades, the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) has served as a haven for artists from all across the country. First opening on June 28, 1955, the festival has welcomed more than 14,000 artists to the Berkshires, according to the festival’s website. WTF has historically taken place in the Town every summer, but the group announced on Jan. 20 that from 2027 on the festival will move to a biennial summer schedule accompanied by year-round programming.
This decision comes after what WTF described as a successful 2025 season, with 15,000 attendee visits to full-scale productions that summer. In a press release, WTF leadership announced that this change is part of a broader agenda to institute the summer festival as an every-other-year event within a “year-round ecosystem of programming.” They aim to create a more “sustainable, resilient future” for the institution, enabling it to support audiences and artists beyond the Berkshires.
The 2025 summer festival was a season of firsts for the organization. The shows included the festival’s first ice performance and opera in its history. It also featured the opening of the first-ever festival-owned performance venue outside of the College’s campus with the inauguration of The Annex in North Adams. “This past summer offered a glimpse of what’s possible when an institution dares to evolve, and we are just getting started,” WTF Managing Director of Strategy and Transformation Raphael Picciarelli wrote in the press release.
Although the decision to switch to a biennial schedule might seem abrupt given the last festival’s success, for those who have been involved in WTF over the years the change was not a shock. During their time at the College, Raven Zhan ’24.5 spent all of their summers working at WTF, and returned to the festival as a props assistant in 2024 and 2025.
“I am not surprised at all that the theatre festival is put on pause,” Zhan wrote in an email to the Record.
Professor and Chair of Theatre Amy S. Holzapfel serves as a member on the Board of Trustees of WTF and expressed optimism about the changes. “Theatre is a collaborative art form that involves many players, offstage and onstage, working together to create something ephemeral and meaningful,” she wrote in an email to the Record. “This takes time and a lot of energy, and labor. I applaud WTF for recognizing that in order to move at the speed of trust, sometimes you need to slow down or give yourself a longer runway.”
Zhan noted that the festival’s summer 2025 programming faced challenges behind the scenes. Specifically, Zhan said they saw the festival fail to engage the Berkshire community.
“I wish they could reconnect [or] repair the relationship with the [’62 Center for Theatre and Dance], the College, the town, and the Berkshire [community] this summer,” Zhan wrote. “Some of the creative collective’s vision of WTF strikes me as gentrification.”
In their statement, the festival’s leadership noted that the new schedule aims not only to provide more programming but also to explore new revenue models. “There will also be dedicated efforts to explore Next Generation Learning Programs as well as new business and revenue-generating structures, including a for-profit producing entity and a digital subscription model that connects a global theatre community,” the press release said. “The expanded approach also includes a major investment in the creation of new and original work across theatre and adjacent storytelling forms.”
Kevin O’Rourke ’78, career program director and mentor at the theatre department at the theatre department, remains concerned about the economic impact of the new schedule. “WTF drew tourists to our town, and there is no question that this decision to skip a summer could be tough for the village,” he wrote in an email to the Record.
Zhan pointed to how budget issues have affected the festival in recent years. “WTF faces the problem a lot of other regional theatres face right now,” they wrote. Zhan sees the festival as struggling to balance engagement with the older audience that funds the operation while keeping up with the art world’s trends.
As the festival prepares for a new era of artistic innovation, it has announced that playwright, actor, and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris will return as director of the creative collective for the upcoming season, with the remainder of the collective membership to be announced later this year. Additional programming details will also be announced in the next few months, according to the press release.
Despite noting the festival’s issues, Zhan highlighted that those who have contributed to WTF still have hope for its future. “I returned to WTF year after year for a reason: I love the people there; a big family of young theatremakers chasing their dreams together,” they wrote. “But some part of the leadership has problem[s], and it needs to be fixed.”
Nevertheless, Zhan is rooting for the festival’s future success. “I love WTF and I hope it can come back strong,” they said.
