Page 14 - BusinessWest June 13, 2022

Lenox
Continued from page 11
based arts institution projecting not just a solid summer, but a solid year.
Indeed the theater company has extended its season into the shoulder months surrounding summer. Jaclyn Stevenson, director of marketing and communications, said the longer season is experimental, and will incorporate performances both indoors and outdoors.
“The new events really help the merchants. Our real goal is to hold events that bring people to Lenox who will eat in our restaurants and explore our shops.”
Last year when COVID numbers stubbornly stayed high enough to threaten Shakespeare and Company’s ability to stage indoor plays, plans for an outdoor theatre that was a “someday” project, moved on to the fast track.
“The Spruce Theatre was constructed in 90 days in the summer of 2021,” Stevenson said. Modeled after the amphitheaters of ancient Greece, the stage rests in front of several tall spruce trees that are incorporated into the design.
“When the idea for it was presented in the context of COVID, it was much easier for every- one to understand the vision Artistic Direc-
tor Allyn Burrows had for the theater,” added
Stevenson.
While the company
already had its outdoor Roman Garden Theatre that seats 280, the Spruce The- atre is a 500-seat facility with room to stage larger produc- tions. In fact, the opening play for the Spruce Theatre was a production of King Lear featuring actor Christo- pher Lloyd in the title role.
“Having Christopher Lloyd here to christen the stage was a real coup,” Ste- venson remembered. “It was the kind of fanfare we would not have been able to cre- ate otherwise in a COVID world.”
For this, the latest install-
ment of its Ciommunity
Spotlight series, Business-
West looks at how Lenox is
well-positioned to further
rebound from COVID and
take full advantage of what is expected to be a big year for the tourism sector — and commu- nities that rely on such businesses to fuel their economy.
Art and Soul
The Art Walk is a good example of an event that was created at the height of the pandemic after the town was forced to cancel its annual Apple Squeeze event. As an alternative to the town-wide festival, Nacht and others developed
Jaclyn Stevenson says Shakespeare & Company has extended its season into the shoulder months surrounding summer.
the Art Walk and scheduled it for the late-Septem- ber weekend when Apple Squeeze would have taken place.
The first Art Walk consisted of 40 artists set
up in different areas of town known as “artist vil- lages.” These villages were arranged to accommo- date only small groups of people with an empha- sis on foot-traffic flow to keep everyone moving through the exhibits.
The event received great feed- back and has quickly
Lenox
Continued on page 47
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14 JUNE 13, 2022
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
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