Williamstown Theatre Festival announced numerous notable changes to its operations this week, including the immediate abolishment of its ambitious seven-show summer season.
"Beginning in 2022, the number and scale of Williamstown Theatre Festival's programmatic activities will match its capacity to support the staff and trainees who make the Festival possible," reads the announcement, published Thursday on the festival's website. "This will lessen the intensity and sense of urgency once endemic to WTF's workplace."
The announcement comes after a Los Angeles Times investigation, published in September 2021, in which 25 current and former workers alleged that the Massachusetts summer theater festival exposed them to repeated safety hazards and a toxic work culture under the guise of prestige. Its artistic director Mandy Greenfield resigned the following month; Jenny Gersten was appointed the festival's interim artistic director.
