Former "Jacuzzi" Berkshire Eagle columnist debuts play on Oct. 15

Submitted by David Scribner

Berkshire Theatre Festival to Host Staged Reading by Juliane Hiam

On Saturday, October 15 at 7:30pm, the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge will host a reading of the new full length play Just Desserts by Juliane Hiam. Thereading will take place in the Unicorn Theatre with wine, cheese, anddesserts to be served before the reading and during intermission. The play is a Starving Artists Detective Agency Production and includes local and NewYork City- based actors. The cast includes Elizabeth Aspenlieder, JimBeaudin, Kit Flanagan, Lian Marie Holmes, and Mark Saturno. Ms. Hiam willdirect and Richard Sands will design the lighting.

Just Desserts is the story of a former supermodel, a nun, and a trophy bride who conspire against a philandering independent film producer named Marcus. Set mostly at the Sundance Film Festival, and centered around a surprise birthday party being thrown for Marcus at the height of his career, the play looks at the gross excess and superficiality of the ego-driven side of moviemaking. The play includes sexual and drug themes and strong language.

Juliane Hiam, (formerly Juliane Glantz,) is a local playwright and Berkshires native living year-round in Pittsfield. Her plays A Tanglewood ale and Mrs. Pringle's Porch were produced by Shakespeare and Company in recent seasons. Her newspaper column ³The World According to Jacuzzi² appeared weekly in the Berkshire Eagle, the Daily News Los Angeles, and several other newspapers in the Los Angeles area, and can currently be found at www.bimbopolitics.com. Juliane also wrote and directed the award-winning independent film Dead Silence which starred Shanee Edwards, Danny Aiello, Sally Kirkland, and Maureen Stapleton. She has written several screenplays, including The Genius and the Goddess, an adaptation of the Aldous Huxley novel Bacchus, and Sinning for Justice, all for CCC Filmkunst in Berlin.

Among the cast is Carrie Saldo, a former Berkshire Eagle and North Adams Transcript reporter who is now the Berkshire County reporter for WAMC Radio. She most recently appeared as "Greta" in the Mixed Company Theatre production of In Season. Carrie graduated from Manhattanville College with a BA in theatre and English. She was a member of the internship program at Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City and a featured performer in the production, Do Not Disturb. Other local theatre credits include Speed the Plow and Radio Paramus, an original comedy, both staged at the Workshop Playhouse. Carrie is also a multiple discipline dancer and sings from time to time, if only in the car and shower.

Richard Sands is an acclaimed director of photography in film, television, and still format. He has been Director of Photography on several feature films, Chief Lighting Technician on 30 more, Chief Lighting Technician on 140 television episodics/features, and Director of Photography on 20 commercials, including 3 Addy Award Winners and a Super Bowl spot. Four feature films he has worked on have been Academy-Award Nominated and three of those have won Academy Awards. He has also been Director of Photography for artist Gregory Crewdson for 7 years. Richard's photography has been featured in 3 books, 3 worldwide exhibits, in the New York Times, in Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, American Cinematographer, and on HBO and PBS. Richard lives in Lee with his wife Christina, two daughters, Emily and Olivia, two dogs, Lucy and Wilson, and a cat named Roo-Roo.

Just Desserts begins at 7:30pm at the Berkshire Theatre Festival¹s Unicorn Theatre. Tickets are general admission, suggested donations. Ms. Hiam will hold two more staged readings at the Unicorn Theatre in December and
April.