2024 PRODUCTION

As You Like It

Saturday, June 29, 6pm
Dead Branch Farm
92 North Road, Chesterfield MA

For our 2024 production, Hilltown Theatre Anonymous presents As You Like It. Free admission, reserve online.

Produced in association with the Anonymous Theatre Company in Portland OR. Supported by Hilltown Vision Fund, a local nonprofit serving as our fiscal sponsor, and with grants from the Cultural Councils of Cummington, Worthington, Chesterfield, Hinsdale-Peru, Plainfield, Huntington, and Goshen, local councils supported by the Mass Cultural Council.

Hilltown Theatre Anonymous: A Journey of Magic, Community, and Theatre

A Night of Surprise

Hilltown Theatre Anonymous is an annual theatre event in Western Massachusetts. Each year, we come together to tell/re-tell/un-tell one of Shakespeare’s stories through the prism of our Hilltown community.

Our shows are cast and rehearsed in secret, which means that each actor meets one-on-one with their director. 

On the night of the performance, everyone sits in the audience. The actors speak their first lines from their seat in the audience, and then make their way onstage.

What Makes Our Shows Special?

  • An Artistic Collage: Expect a blend of Shakespeare's text, heartfelt testimonials, original songs, and embodied storytelling as we explore what in these time-tested stories still speaks to us, to our everyday lives, our relationships with each other, with our work, our world!

  • Tailored Rehearsals: Our process embraces each performer individually. From the seasoned actor to the theatre newbie, we nurture and shape every talent.

Our Philosophy

Engaging creatively strengthens the bonds of community. By balancing surprises with ample support for our actors, we aim to intensify the magic of theatre without the undue pressure.

The goal of Hilltown Theatre Anonymous is to foster delight, spontaneity and connection. We invite everyone, especially those who've felt alienated by the classics, to rediscover Shakespeare and public art through a deeply personal lens, and to encounter their own community in a new, revitalizing way.

Testimonials from actors and audience

  • Twelfth Night (2022) and Hamlet (2023) are two of the most powerful experiences I have had in the theater. These two productions re-confirmed my faith not only in the power of art, but also in the resourcefulness and innate creativity of people working together in community. Erica Terpening, through her own enormous energy, creativity, and generosity is doing extraordinary work not only as a theater maker and director, but also as a community builder.

    WENDELL BEAVERS
    North Adams, MA

  • Hilltown Anonymous is pure genius, a true testament to how a community can come together, create, work hard, and weave together something spontaneous and beautiful. In our digital age, it is an analog light in the dark, shining brightly into a community to make us laugh, cry, and feel alive.

    ADRIAN ALMQUIST
    Plainfield, MA

  • Innovative’ doesn’t quite express it. It was like watching my community pull off a huge, spontaneous, magic trick — to their surprise and our delight. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

    CHIP ROUGHTON
    Hadley, MA

  • Life-changing for me and my family.  Shakespeare has never come so alive, felt so modern and present, or been so inspiring and relatable. Hilltown Anonymous already feels like something we can’t live without.

    CHRISTOPHER LANEY
    Cummington, MA

  • As the Dean for Social Action at Bard in the Hudson Valley, I work at an institution that is always trying to create communal experience that energizes and informs the collective. Anonymous achieved these things in an extraordinary way. I cannot wait until next year's offering.

    PAUL MARIENTHAL
    Hudson Valley, NY