A Peek Behind the Curtain with Theater Faculty Sara Katzoff

Theater faculty Sara Katzoff's roots go deep with Bard College at Simon's Rock. Not only is Katzoff an alum, but Simon's Rock has been part of her life since she was four years old. Both of her parents are teachers and lived in the Berkshires off and on throughout her childhood. However, Simon's Rock was not top of mind for Katzoff until she started high school. Already passionate about theater, she was involved in the Fall Festival of Shakespeare with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA while attending Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, MA. Fall Festival involves nine local high schools in the Berkshires and hosts an intensive residency culminating in a 90-minute cut of one of Shakespeare's plays. This was a joyful place for Katzoff and allowed her to meet other students who were also passionate about theater.

Leaving Monument for Simon's Rock would be hard for Katzoff because it would mean leaving behind the Fall Festival. However, Katzoff’s mind was made up after seeing a show with Simon’s Rock theater faculty Karen Beaumont at Shakespeare and Company. Moved by Beaumont's incredible energy, Beaumont put a bug to Katzoff’s's ear. Sophomore year came, and Katzoff was sure she was ready for something more — even if it meant leaving the beloved Fall Festival behind.

The move to Simon's Rock to start college early was fortuitous. Karen Beaumont went on to be Katzoff's senior thesis advisor. Beaumont directed most productions on campus and served as a pivotal part of designing the new Daniel Arts Center. She influenced Katzoff's interest and career in theater ever since. Beaumont was also a primary influence in Katzoff’s interest in pursuing the specific niche of physical theater — a theatrical medium focused primarily on the element of storytelling via the human body, featuring heavily stylized movement, often instead of dialogue.

Katzoff found her fellow cohort particularly incredible and felt this was the place for her. The journey to graduation was not linear and Katzoff explored living in California and working as a professional actor, as well as studying at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre before completing her BA degree. Existing since the 1970s in California, Dell'Arte is one of only a few American programs specifically for physical theater. With a focus on creating work in dialogue with the place it's being performed, or site-specific theater, Dell'Arte emphasizes the art of creation for actors rather than only as interpreters. Without a traditional role of the playwright, the work becomes inherently collaborative. Not surprisingly, this suited Katzoff well.

In 2002, Katzoff returned to Simon's Rock and finished her BA degree. Her senior thesis exemplified her interest in physical theater with a play devised with 15 students, integrated live music, exploring what it means to be part of an assembly line, and crafted collaboratively with other students. Here, Katzoff presented this work as a metaphor for becoming an adult, going through the process of liberal arts education.

After graduation, Katzoff remained close to Beaumont, helping her with her teaching, while Katzoff bounced between New York City and Great Barrington.

In 2005 (the year many of her current students were born), Katzoff had a big year. The Daniel Arts Center was built on campus, and the Berkshire Fringe Festival was founded by Katzoff and another Simon's Rock alum, Timothy Ryan Olson '95, along with co-founding Artistic Director Peter Wise. This festival was presented with multiple alumni, interns, and apprentices from Simon’s Rock.

Katzoff had noticed as a younger artist in the Berkshires that local theater was becoming financially inaccessible.It felt important, cites Katzoff, to create a festival that supported emerging artists and playwrights, telling stories that weren't being told in other theaters, and spreading a mission to make theater accessible and affordable to see in person. This effort included pick-your-own-price nights, free performances, and workshops offering free training. These productions featured many professional actors, but also gave opportunities to hopeful non-actors, from local nurses to farmers.

From there, the festival truly blossomed. The Berkshire Fringe was an international festival drawing together over 500 artists and producing upwards of 100 new works of theater, dance, music, film and multimedia works over the course of its 9 year residency at Simon's Rock. National press for the festival included the New York Times, New York Sun, Boston Globe, American Theater Magazine, National Public Radio, and regional outlets (Berkshire Magazine, Chronogram, Metroland, Times Union, Eagle, Record, Rural Intelligence, and more).

Katzoff’s theater education continued with her receiving a Master of Fine Arts from Boston University. Katzoff continued to direct, perform, and teach extensively across the country. After exploring the theater world in so many ventures, it felt right, shares Katzoff, to return to Simon's Rock. In November 2022, Katzoff directed her first play at Simon's Rock, as a new faculty member, entitled RIOT. Created and devised by the internally acclaimed Wardrobe Ensemble, RIOT is an epic tale of violence, greed, and cheap sofas. Set in a lamp-lit showroom, RIOT integrates live music, early 2000s nostalgia, and eyewitness accounts to reimagine the story of an actual riot that broke out during the grand opening of an infamous Swedish furniture store in north London.

The selection of RIOT felt full circle to Katzoff. The play was written by nine young theater makers based in Bristol, UK, who were also coming out of an education program and wanted to continue working in theater. These writers wanted to explore what it means to be a young person in the 21st century. They stumbled upon this infamous IKEA right store and asked: What could cause seven thousand people to storm the building, fighting over plant pots and curtains? The writers looked inward, using a healthy dose of humor and music, to investigate why we seem so driven by materialism, consumerism, and, ultimately, anger.

RIOT had its original US premiere at the Liebowitz black box theater here at Simon's Rock in 2012. This premiere had been hosted by Berkshire Fringe in conjunction with the Wardrobe Ensemble. Katzoff was moved by the play , which she describes as a beautiful story of how young people have agency and make their own paths. She says this is a very Simon's Rock story.

From RIOT onwards, through her work in theater education, Katzoff hopes students are exposed to creative work that is less well-known, and she hopes they see there are many ways to tell a story. Education, Katzoff shares, is about introducing students to other forms of storytelling by giving them lots of tools and ideas. Her specialty is creating new plays and ways of sharing narratives. It's a great time, Katzoff notes, to expand what theater can mean for students as they grow into playwrights, actors, and other creatives.

For Katzoff, this is an exciting time to return to Simon's Rock. Upon arrival, she has been hearing from different departments about collaborating and feels a real blessing in this collaborative spirit. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a notably hard few years for art, especially those performed live in person and for students. But out of that darkness comes a valuable moment for expansion and creative thinking, a time for rebuilding and reuniting the community — just as Katzoff has always practiced in her work.