I ' m really glad I did. I won ' t work on a more important film than this.
Stanmeyer: How important is this film to you?
Burns: It’ s not so much to me; it’ s the subject matter. For the first time in human history, people are going to be citizens and not subjects. That ' s a big, big deal, and we kind of don ' t appreciate it. We ' ve allowed our own awareness, not just in general history, but of the makings of our country, to atrophy, and that ' s a dangerous thing that makes you susceptible to all the things the founders were worried that we would be susceptible to. There ' s a virtue— as the word that they use all the time— in a knowledge of what ' s going on because they were looking for a virtuous population that would be worthy of citizenship. They saw this as sort of the highest ideals of humankind, and they were right. This changed the course— as the Declaration suggested— of human events. I just wanted to understand it in a way that I never fully understood it before, to understand the tick tock of the battles, to understand the major characters, and to discover all the other interesting people who were part of it.
Stanmeyer: It’ s pretty incredible that the American Revolution even succeeded.
Burns: The odds— if Las Vegas was around when it started— are zero. There ' s no way. And I can go on and on about why it happened, but a lot of it has to do with the idea that what started off as sort of arguments between British citizens over their rights— taxation and representation and whether they were going to go over and take over Indian land, or whatever it would be— suddenly got broken out into natural rights. This was the Enlightenment. So, it isn ' t just how come we ' re not getting the same rights as British citizens have in England, it’ s these are natural rights, so that“ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Then you ' ve let the genie out of the bottle, and you create a revolution that will be, for centuries to come, a model for the aspirations of humankind around the globe. That ' s a pretty big deal.
Stanmeyer: Obviously, you ' re drawn to history instead of fiction, and in a general sense, with all of what you ' ve created. Why is that?
Burns: There ' s as much drama in what was and what is as anything the human imagination can dream of. In fact, you find stuff taking place in history— at least the American history that I ' ve covered— that you would tell to a Hollywood producer, and they ' d say,“ Get out of here. No one would believe that.” People say,“ What ' s the most surprising thing?” Every day for
THE VICTIM by Lawrence Goodman Directed by Daniel Gidron
Featuring Annette Miller
JUNE 19 – JULY 20 Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare Directed by Kevin G. Coleman & Jonathan Epstein
JULY 12 – AUGUST 10 Outdoors at the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre
THE TAMING
OF THE SHREW by William Shakespeare Directed by Nicole Ricciardi
AUGUST 14 – 24 Tina Packer Playhouse
WORLD PREMIERE
OUTDOOR THEATER
SHAKE IT UP: A SHAKESPEARE CABARET Created by Allyn Burrows & Jacob Ming-Trent Directed by Allyn Burrows
JULY 1 – 6 Tina Packer Playhouse
AUGUST WILSON’ S
THE PIANO LESSON
Directed by Christopher V. Edwards
JULY 25 – AUGUST 24 Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
CIRCUS & THE BARD
AUGUST 21 – 31 Tina Packer Playhouse
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Beautiful homes. Happy clients.
CELEBRATING JEWISH PLAYS AN IMMERSIVE WEEKEND OF STAGED READINGS
OCTOBER 10 – 12 Tina Packer Playhouse & Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Get Tickets: 413.637.3353 SHAKESPEARE. ORG
OUTDOOR THEATER
An Introduction to New Works
AUGUST 26 – 28 Outdoors at the Rose Footprint Theatre
SEASON 2025
MOTHER PLAY
A PLAY IN FIVE EVICTIONS by Paula Vogel Directed by Ariel Bock
AUGUST 29 – OCTOBER 5 Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
A Lively, Costumed Reading SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
by Kate Hamill Based on the novel by Jane Austen Directed by Ariel Bock
DECEMBER 12 – 14 Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
96 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday July 2025 2023