Interim Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced programming for the 2023 Williamstown Theatre Festival summer season. The season will feature a series of cabarets, readings, and special events that require minimal physical production and hold on to the summer theater festival’s inimitable vibe. The company has made the purposeful decision to take time over the course of the entire year to devote energy and resources to rethinking the Festival and its core operations for the future. The WTF 2023 season will kick off with comedian Hasan Minhaj in "Experiment Time" as he showcases and prepares new material for his latest work-in-progress. "Experiment Time" will play a strictly limited six-performance engagement from Wed July 12 – Sat, July 15 on the Main Stage at the ‘62 Center for Theatre & Dance. Then on Sunday, July 16, for one performance only,  Laura Benanti graces the Main Stage to share songs from her illustrious career.  For the remainder of the 2023 season, the Festival will have a new, uniquely created environment that puts artists and audience onstage in one intimate setting together. The 2023 Festival Stage, reimagined on the stage of the theater by designers Se Hyun Oh and Emily Schmit, is home to the inimitable WTF Cabaret and a new Main Stage Reading Series featuring popular plays and esteemed Festival artists. Christopher Fitzgerald will curate the return of the WTF Cabaret. Intimate, casual, and always surprising, these exhilarating evenings feature performances by Festival artists you know and love! The WTF Cabaret will take place over three successive weekends: Thurs July 20 – Sat July 22; Thurs July 27 – Sat July 29; and Thurs Aug 3 – Sat, Aug 5. Artists for each weekend will be announced shortly. The WTF Main Stage Reading Series lineup will include PARIS, ACTORS! (Sat July 22 & Sun July 23) by Hamish Linklater, featuring Hamish Linklater & Lily Rabe. Occupied Paris. 1944. Real life celebrity Nazi Werner Krauss is between projects. But the Party, desperate for a propaganda extravaganza in the City of Lights, has arranged a remount of his notorious Merchant of Venice produced by a French theater teeming with family secrets; THREE SISTERS (Sat July 29 & Sun July 30) by Anton Chekhov, featuring Louisa Jacobson. In this Chekhov classic, sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina yearn for the promise of Moscow while grappling with the tribulations of unrequited love and family drama at home. In the wake of their father’s death and a changing Russia, the women must face the reality of their choices and take responsibility for their uncertain futures; THE PILLOWMAN (Sat Aug 5 & Sun Aug 6) by Martin McDonagh.   When his brother admits to the murders and implicates Katurian and their troubled childhood, more complicated questions arise—is it really possible to separate art from artist? Additional details including creative team members and additional casting for the WTF Main Stage Reading Series will be announced shortly. For a full festival lineup including the FRIDAYS@3 READING SERIES and the ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE WORKSHOPS, please visit www.wtfestival.org. Press contact: DKC/O&M (212/695-7400)...