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Carew Travel invites you to join our cultural excursion to the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. For 19 years we partnered with the Theatre Development Fund in offering theatre- rich tours around the world and Tdf has endorsed our annual trip to the Berkshires. This trip includes reserved seats for four performances, coach transportation from New York city, daily breakfast, 3 dinners, 3 lunches, museum admissions, 3 nights accommodations.
Visit the picture-perfect Berkshire towns where you will have tickets for Tanglewood , Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Williamstown Festival, Berkshire theatre Festival. Tour The Clark Institute, Chesterwood and Boscobel . DEPOSITS DUE May 1, 2010
1. Friday , July 23
We meet our guide at our central midtown Manhattan location (30th Street @ 7th Avenue) at 9:00am and depart, traveling aboard a comfortable private motor coach to the beautiful Berkshires in Massachusetts. After lunch, we tour Chesterwood in Stockbridge, the first of one of the charming towns you visit. You’ll see the same view of Monument Mountain that convinced Daniel Chester French to select this location to live for thirty summers, the studio where he worked, the gardens and woods that gave him peace, and the home where he lived with his family. You will also be able to explore an in-depth exhibit of his life and his most famous sculptures, and see the annual Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood .We continue to Pittsfield and check in at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, centrally located near all the theatres and sites on your tour. Renovated in 2009, this full-service hotel features a beautiful sky-lit, heated indoor swimming pool, whirlpool, sauna and fitness center as well as a restaurant, lounge and pub.
This evening we enjoy a welcome dinner before our first included performance at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductor James Levine conducts the BSO in All Mozart Program in the Shed, featuring The Abduction from the Seraglio. (Lunch) (Dinner)
2. Saturday, July 24
In the morning we visit the Berkshire Museum which has an excellent collection of paintings by Hudson River School and other 19th-century American artists, including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole. The Berkshire Museum's collection of 19th and 20th century sculpture features work by American and European artists who embraced the Romantic interest in heroic and exotic stories of the ancient past. We have lunch and take a backstage tour of the Berkshire Festival Theatre. Founded in 1928, Berkshire Theatre Festival is one of the oldest professional regional theatres in the United States and the longest-running cultural organization in the Berkshires. We see a performance of The Guardsman, the beloved comedy by Ferenc Molnár. Terrified that his wife is bound for infidelity, an actor decides to test her loyalty by doing what he does best: putting on a character. And so begins this mirthful tale of treachery, deception, and assumed identities that has inspired three separate films. The cast of Broadway veterans includes Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson (Enchanted April) and Tony Award winners Richard Easton (The Invention of Love) and Mary Louise Wilson (Grey Gardens.) We return to our hotel and have dinner, followed by our third performance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, an international dance organization that is widely recognized as the "mecca" of dance. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company present a new full evening work inspired by Abraham Lincoln and celebrating the slain president’s 2009 bicentennial. Eminent choreographer Bill T. Jones has a Tony Award for Spring Awakening, received the MacArthur Genius Award in 1994, and directed the current Broadway hit, Fela. (B/L/D)
3. Saturday, July 25
We spend the day in Williamstown, the picturesque, quintessential Berkshire village. We visit the renowned Clark Institute, founded by Robert Sterling Clark, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, and his wife Francine. This special summer exhibit focuses on two of the great artists of the modern period, exploring Pablo Picasso’s lifelong fascination with the life and work of Edgar Degas. The Clark is the exclusive North American venue for this exhibition which explores the depth of the Spanish artist’s fixation through dramatic pairings and groupings that have never been brought together in this ambitious way. At the Williamstown Theatre we have tickets for our fourth performance, John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation. This brilliant comedy can be summed up in a few sentences that Ouisa Kittredge directs at the audience: “I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation....It’s a profound thought....How every person is a new door, opening up into other worlds." Enjoy a matinee performance of this Williams Theatre Festival production. We return to Pittsfield for our farewell dinner. (B/L/D)
4. Sunday, July 26
We check out of the hotel and travel to Boscobel. Situated on a bluff on the east bank of the Hudson River and overlooking the United States Military Academy at West Point, Boscobel House & Gardens offers its visitors inspirational views of the river and the Hudson Highlands. Completed in 1808 for the States Dyckman family, Boscobel House is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in the country. It contains an extensive and important collection of Federal-period furniture and decorative arts, many of which were crafted by premier New York cabinetmakers Duncan Phyfe and Michael Allison. There is a magnificent rose garden, orangery, herb garden and glorious scenery. We have lunch and continue to New York City and anticipate arriving at approximately 6:00pm (B) (L)
This engaging experience includes:
- Round trip private coach transportation from New York
- Coach at disposal throughout tour
- 3 nights accommodations at the Crowne Plaza Pittsfield
- Breakfast daily, 3 dinners; 4 lunches
- Tickets for four performances:
- Tanglewood, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Berkshire Theatre Festival
- Admissions to: Clark Art Institute, Chesterwood, Berkshire Museum, Boscobel
- On site services of Carew Travel tour escort
PROGRAM PRICES
Per person (double occupancy) from New York: $1399
Single Supplement: $250
(Based on 20 person minimum)
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