Registration is required for all events–whether or not a charge is involved. Club members register for themselves and their guests by using our online system, by emailing us, or by calling our office at 212-697-5300. Of course, we welcome any questions about any of the events that we’ve created.
Note: In-Person Events at the Club have resumed as of July 7th*
Upcoming Events at the Club
Registration is required for all events–whether or not a charge is involved. Club members register for themselves and their guests by using our online system, by emailing us, or by calling our office at 212-697-5300. Of course, we welcome any questions about any of the events that we’ve created.
Williams at the Movies: The Films of Charles Brackett
Fridays, March 13, 20, 27 at 6:00pm; FREE to attend
Charles Brackett was an exceptional individual: a Williams College graduate and Harvard-trained lawyer who joined the Allied Expeditionary Force during WWI and received the French Medal of Honor. A novelist with 5 published books and New Yorker drama critic, Charles was an Algonquin Roundtable regular. He collaborated with writing partner Billy Wilder on 13 feature films, and was a writer and/or producer of more than 40. His films won 4 Oscars including Best Picture for The Lost Weekend; Best Original Screenplay for Sunset Boulevard and Titanic; and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Lost Weekend—and six Oscar nominations. He served as president of the Screen Writers Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awarded him an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1958.
An undergrad member of Cap and Bells who graduated in 1915, Charles was a life-long devoted Williams alum. He frequently visited Williamstown during his long career, and its significance for him is reflected in the fact that when he first traveled East with his new writing partner, Billy Wilder, one of his stops was Williams. All 3 films will be introduced by Jerry Carlson ’72, film historian and Chair of the Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College of CUNY. For Titanic we will be joined by Jim Moore, Brackett’s grandson and biographer.
March 13 – Ninotchka (1939) Starring Greta Garbo as a Soviet envoy and Melvyn Douglas as her Parisian foil, in a romantic comedy set against a serious political backdrop. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay.
March 20 – Sunset Boulevard (1950) Hailed by Roger Ebert as “ the best drama ever made about the movies,” Gloria Swanson and William Holden star in this bleak look at Hollywood’s dark side.
March 27 – Titanic (1953) Starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwick, and winner of an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In “Titanic,” Bracket snuck in a subtle homage; the ship’s orchestra is heard to play the fight songs of both Williams and Amherst.
With Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival
Monday, March 30 6:30 p.m. reception, 7:00 p.m. program Free for Club members, $15 for guests
Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield will discuss the American theatrical landscape and the process of creating world-premiere work for the stage in Williamstown, on Broadway, off-Broadway, and beyond.She will also give guests a preview of what’s to come for Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2020 season.
Greenfield will be joined by Adam Rapp (director playwright of The Sound Inside), Bess Wohl (playwright of Grand Horizons), Robert O’Hara (director of A Raisin in the Sun, Slave Play, and the upcoming revival of A Streetcar Named Desire at WTF), and David Cromer (director of The Sound Inside and The Band’s Visit).
For 65 years, Williamstown Theatre Festival, recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, has brought emerging and professional theatre artists together to create a thrilling summer festival of world-premiere work alongside fresh, new revivals.Under Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield, WTF commissions, develops, and produces new plays and musicals, many of which go on to fill theatres around the world.WTF is represented this season on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside, The Rose Tattoo, Grand Horizons, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier,and Lempicka, among others.Cost of Living, which premiered at WTF, was the recipient of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Mandy Greenfield is Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival. At WTF, she expanded the New Play Development initiatives of WTF with the establishment of a New Play & Musical Commissioning Program.Prior, Mandy served as Artistic Producer of Manhattan Theatre Club where she produced more than seventy-five world and American premiere plays and musicals, both on and off Broadway.The work she has commissioned, developed, and produced has garnered every major theatrical honor including the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Lucile Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award, Obie Award, and the Kleban Prize.The recipient of a 2017 Lilly Award, Mandy serves on the Advisory Board of the Drama League and The Relentless Award.She has been a judge and director of The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.She is a graduate of Yale University.
Robert Frost: This Verse Business
Monday, May 11 6:30 p.m. reception, 7:00 p.m. program Free for Club members, $15 for guests
Robert Frost returns to the stage in A.M. Dolan’s This Verse Business.Played by Emmy-winning actor Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue’s Detective Greg Medavoy), Frost’s poetry is heard afresh and his great wit witnessed once more in Clapp’s critically acclaimed performance.
Robert Frost, who “barded around” the country for nearly half a century, shares his poetry from memory, including his dramatic masterpiece, “The Death of the Hired Man,” and his witty, “wild surmises” on religion, science, politics, and art.He’s the rascally platform performer, and then, later, the artist at home, alluding to family, and “believing” his next poem into existence.
Gordon Clapp, Williams ’71, is best known for 12 seasons on NBC’s NYPD Blue (Emmy award, 1998), and was nominated for a Tony Award in Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber.He assumes the role of Judge Taylor on Broadway in To Kill A Mockingbird this March.A native of New Hampshire, he’s had Frost in his pocket for 50 years.
“A seamless piece of theater which Clapp delivers with authentic New England wit and charm…a must see.”(Broadway World)
Event Cancellation Policy Free Events: Please call, email, or go online to cancel your reservation by noon on the day of the event to avoid a $10 no-show and guest fees. Paid Events: Occasionally events are final sale or have a final sale date, so please check the full event description prior to making your reservation. If an event has no final sale date listed, please cancel two business days prior to the event to avoid being charged the full price of the event.
