Big Table Productions is excited to host a Fundraiser For Good: A reading of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis on Friday April 17 at 8 p.m., at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company.
As a novel written in 1936, the 2016 theatrical adaptation by Tony Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen tells the story of a Vermont newspaper editor caught in the whirlwind election of a larger-than-life Presidential candidate, Buzz Windrip. Brash, bold, charming, and funny, Buzz takes the White House and then the country by storm. Minute Men are deployed throughout the nation to enforce order. Lockdowns commence. Martial law is declared. And then, the citizens begin to respond.
The original play premiered in 1936, presented by the Federal Theatre Project; it opened simultaneously in 18 cities across the country. In response to the play’s anti-fascist message and nationwide impact, The Dies Senate Committee was created. It shut down the Federal Theatre Project and then went on to serve as the model for Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee hearings.
Acclaimed director Judy Braha (Co-Artistic Director at Great Barrington Public Theater and former head of the MFA Directing program at Boston University) is on board to direct.
“As historian Heather Cox Richardson constantly points out- history continues to repeat itself,” she said.“In this incredibly fraught moment for our country, we can find power, resilience and inspiration from revisiting relevant stories of the past. This passionate response to the political climate of that time now reverberates against our 2026 reality.
“A group of Berkshire- based theater artists gather together at the Tina Packer Playhouse to read It Can’t Happen Here on April 17; to gather with community, to shed some light, to raise funds for essential non-profits. Please come join us!”
This reading is presented as part of a nationwide series Fundraisers For Good: A Reading of It Can’t Happen Here (ICHH2026.org) set to take place throughout 2026.
Tony Taccone, adapter of the play and long-time Artistic Director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, expressed his deepest thanks to all those working on producing It Can’t Happen Here.
“As current events come to resemble the terrifying fiction of the play, it is important that we use the material as a call to action. Just as Sinclair Lewis raised the alarm in 1933 against populist tyranny, we do the same. Nothing less than the future is at stake.”
Tickets are affordably priced at $10. All funds raised will be donated to Volunteers In Medicine and The Giving Garden.
For tickets please visit https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/it-cant-happen-here-a-fundraiser-for-good
