The Pillowman is part of the Main Stage Reading Series this summer.

They say life imitates art—but what happens when that art is horror? In a totalitarian dictatorship, young author Katurian is interrogated by the authorities after a string of child murders bears a striking resemblance to his grisly short stories. When his brother admits to the murders and implicates Katurian and their troubled childhood, more complicated questions arise—is it really possible to separate art from artist? Widely regarded as one of the greatest plays of the last 25 years, The Pillowman is as dark as comedies get and is sure to keep audiences glued to the edge of their seats.

Saturday, August 5 at 3PM & 7PM
Sunday, August 6 at 3PM

TICKETS
$35 plus a $5 processing fee per ticket

Seating is general admission.

Program, casting, and COVID-19 protocols are subject to change.

Williamstown Theatre Festival does not typically offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person, but for information about any show, we encourage you to contact the Box Office at (413) 458-3253.

Main Stage Reading Series

The Pillowman is part of the 2023 Main Stage Reading Series. Get up close and personal with beloved Festival actors performing new and classic plays on our specially created intimate 2023 Festival Stage. Watch as the creative process unfolds before you and experience these works in exhilarating new ways.

2023 Festival Stage

This summer, experience the Festival in a new, uniquely created environment that puts us all—artists and audience—onstage in one intimate setting together. The 2023 Festival Stage, reimagined on the stage of the theater by designers Se Hyun Oh and Emily Schmit, is home to our inimitable WTF Cabaret and a new Main Stage Reading Series featuring popular plays and esteemed Festival artists. Join us onstage for conviviality, fun, and a season of celebration!

“We are placing both the audience and the performers on stage together, making the auditorium the backdrop for this season. This gives everyone a unique opportunity to reflect on inhabiting this space together as creatives and spectators alike – consider the past, contemplate the future. It is also important, of course, to acknowledge that being present in the same space together is always a precious thing. We want to cherish this moment of being together and encourage you to take the joy you experience this season back home with you.” — 2023 Festival Stage Designers Se Hyun Oh and Emily Schmit

Artist Bios

Lila Neugebauer is an award-winning stage and screen director. Broadway: Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery. Recent Off-Broadway credits include Simon Stephens’ Morning Sun (MTC), Tracy Letts’ Mary Page Marlowe (Second Stage), Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody, Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife/The Zoo Story (Signature Theatre), Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves and Zoe Kazan’s After the Blast (Lincoln Center). As co-Artistic Director of The Mad Ones: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Ars Nova) and Miles for Mary (Playwrights Horizons) among others. Lila is an alum of the Drama League, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, an Ensemble Studio Theatre member, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Obie Award, Drama Desk Sam Norkin Special Award, and Princess Grace Award recipient. TV: “Maid” (Netflix), “The Last Thing He Told Me” (Apple TV+), “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Room 104” (HBO Max). Lila’s directorial feature debut Causeway, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry (Oscar nomination) is available on AppleTV+.

Quincy Tyler Bernstine. NY Theater (selected): Marys Seacole (Lortel Award); Our Lady of 121st Street; The Amateurs; As You Like It; Small Mouth Sounds; Peer Gynt; Grand Concourse; 10 out of 12; The Nether; Mr. Burns; Neva; We Are Proud to Present a Presentation…; born bad; Red-Handed Otter; Family Week; Ruined (2009 OBIE, Clarence Derwent, Audelco Awards); In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play); The Misanthrope; A Small, Melodramatic Story; Matt & Ben, ‘nami; (I am) Nobody’s Lunch; The Ladies.  Film (selected): The Tender Bar, White Noise, Manchester By The Sea, Easy Living, Still Alice, Ned Rifle, Red Hook Summer, While We’re Young, Hungry Hearts, Rachel Getting Married.  TV (selected): “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Evil,” “The Equalizer,” “Julia,” “Power Book II: Ghost,” “Power,”  “Ray Donovan,” “The Code,” “Modern Love,” “High Maintenance,” “The Good Wife,” “The Blacklist,” “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Madame Secretary,” “The Leftovers,” “The Strain,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Law & Order: SVU/Criminal Intent.”  Education: Brown (BA), UCSD (MFA).   2019 OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Performance, Cullman 3rd Award for Extraordinary Creativity (LCT 2019); 2015 Lilly Award, Charles Bowden Award (New Dramatists).

Michael Chernus. On the big screen, Michael has had numerous memorable roles in films like Men in Black 3, Captain Phillips, Spiderman: Homecoming, The Bourne Legacy,  Werewolves Within, Mistress America and co-starring opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Kindergarten Teacher. On television, Michael can currently be seen starring as “Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale” in the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ series “Severance”. He is perhaps most well known for playing Piper’s brother “Cal Chapman” in the groundbreaking Netflix series “Orange is the New Black”. He was also a series regular on the cult favorite Amazon original series “Patriot” as well as the World War II drama “Manhattan”. Most recently he starred opposite Rachel Weisz in the limited series “Dead Ringers” for Amazon. On stage, Chernus won the 2011 OBIE award and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for his work in the Lisa Kron play “In the Wake” at the Public Theater. At Williamstown he has previously appeared on the Nikos Stage in “Create Fate” (2005) and “Touch(ed)” (2011).

Alison Pill recently starred in the independent feature Eric Larue, directed by Michael Shannon, and starring opposite Alexander Skasgård and Judy Greer, which just premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2023 to terrific reviews. She can currently be seen starring in “Hello Tomorrow!” opposite Billy Crudup for Apple TV+ and will next star in the independent feature film, Young Werther opposite Douglas Booth. She also starred in the CBS All Access series “Star Trek: Picard”, Alex Garland’s FX limited series “Devs”, and the Amazon series “Them”. Pill’s other television work includes Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story: Cult”, the ABC drama “The Family”, the acclaimed Aaron Sorkin HBO series “The Newsroom”, the HBO drama “In Treatment”, “The Book of Daniel”, and “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Recent film credits include Peter Hedges film The Same Storm, All My Puny Sorrows, which premiered at TIFF in 2021, and the Oscar-nominated biopic, Vice, written and directed by Adam McKay, opposite Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Steve Carrell. Alison can also be seen in Miss Sloane, Hail Caesar!, Snowpiercer, Goon, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Milk, Dan in Real Life, Dear Wendy, and Pieces of April. Alison starred on Broadway in the Tony-nominated production of Three Tall Women, written by Edward Albee, directed by Joe Mantello, and opposite Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and for a Lucille Lortel Award for On the Mountain. She won The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble in the U.S. premiere of The Distance from Here.

Danny Wolohan. BROADWAY: Camelot, Macbeth, West Side Story,To Kill a Mockingbird. OFF-BROADWAY: The Low Road, Assassins, An Octoroon, The Flick, Pocatello, Patron Saint. Regional: What the Constitution Means to Me, Court Life, Gnit. LCT3: Verité. TV: “When They See Us,” “The Blacklist,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Elementary,” and “Veep.” FILM: White Noise.

Erica Ito. Erica can be heard as Clara on the My Heart Says Go Studio Cast Recording alongside Jessie Mueller and Javier Muñoz. Theatrical credits include Rock Medea at Joe’s Pub and 42nd Street at Bucks County Playhouse. You can catch Erica weekly on the actual play RPG series Tabletopnotch and on Seaweed Brain: A Percy Jackson Podcast. BFA: The University of Michigan. Mahalo nui loa, Telsey!