"MCLA’s location provided me with endless opportunities to gain professional experience in the arts. I had a lot of fun working as a tour guide at MASS MoCA and in the education department at the Berkshire Museum, which allowed me to figure out what kinds of jobs I would like and to meet a lot of interesting arts professionals along the way. MCLA’s small size helped me develop close working relationships with my favorite professors who always took time to advise me on academic and professional concerns. I really felt like they were with me all the way."
Monica Henry ’07 Education Coordinator, Clark Art Institute
News & Press Releases
Oct. 17, 2008
NORTH ADAMS, MASS – The Fine and Performing Arts Department at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will present “Picnic at Hanging Rock” by Laura A. Shamas as its major theatre production this fall.
Performances will take place Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 22-25, in Venable Theatre on MCLA campus, at 8 p.m.
The public is invited to attend this annual student play, which takes place during MCLA’s Fall Family Weekend.
Tickets are $2, and may be reserved by calling (413) 662-5123.
“This play created an eerie and ominous atmosphere charged with suppressed longings and erotic possibilities, and features a multi-leveled set and period costumes,” said MCLA Fine and Performing Arts Professor Bonnie Bishoff, the play’s director.
“Picnic at Hanging Rock” is about a trip by a party of girls from an exclusive private school, who travel to Hanging Rock in Victoria's Mount Macedon for a picnic on St. Valentine’s Day, in 1900. The excursion ends in tragedy when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish after climbing the rock. Only one girl is ever seen again; no reason for the disappearance of the students and their teacher is given, and the one girl who returned had no memory of what had happened to the others.
The play examines the bizarre disappearances and the ensuing investigation of the other students, the faculty and the community.
The cast includes local students, Trista LaBonte ’10 of North Adams, Jessica Carty ’10 of Lee, Christopher Dellea ’10 of West Stockbridge, Kelsey Metts-Murphy ’10 of Pittsfield and Gordon Polglase ’11 of Lanesboro.
The production’s designer and technical director is Andrew Hoar. Costumes were designed by Dawn Shamburger.
