Alabama Shakespeare Festival News

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE, take over the Grandel Stage on March 24th The Black Rep opens the third mainstage production of Season 33. The show features the music of legendary horn player Louis Jordan. Lead character Nomax, whose girlfriend has left him and who is without money, finds Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe, and Little Moe emerging from his 1930's-style radio to comfort him. They sing the hit songs of songwriter and saxophonist Louis Jordan, whose new slant on jazz paved the way for rock and roll in the 1950s.

The Fountain Theatre will close the first production of its 20th Anniversary Season, the West Coast premiere of Ifa Bayeza's daring, folk and gospel-infused The Ballad of Emmett Till, on April 25th. Shirley Jo Finney (Yellowman) directed Bernard K. Addison, Rico E. Anderson, Lorenz Arnell, Adenrele Ojo and Karen Malina White in the five-week run.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, one of the country's leading theatres in the creation of new stage works, will produce the world premieres of Nobody and The Fall of the House this spring. Produced in a series called Provocative Premieres, Nobody will run March 12-28 and The Fall of the House will run April 9-25. Both plays have been developed through ASF's prestigious Southern Writers' Project new play development program. The Provocative Premieres are suggestive, stimulating and extreme, promising to take audiences to the edge.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents its season finale 42ND STREET, April 23rd through May 8th, 2010.

TheatreSquared announced today the lineup for the second annual Arkansas New Play Fest, a celebration of new works by emerging playwrights. The festival will feature staged reading performances of new plays and, in its fourth year, the Northwest Arkansas 24-Hour Play-Off, a marathon competition awarding a $1,000 Jury Prize.

They're funny, they're Southern, they're dysfunctional-and they're bound for the South Coast Repertory stage this spring.

The irresistible, finger-snappin' and toe-tappin' Tony® Award-winning musical revue, Ain't Misbehavin', a celebration of the music of Thomas "Fats" Waller, will end its run at the San Jose Repertory Theatre's stage April 18th.

Adventure Stage Chicago (ASC) presents the final production of their 2009-2010 season: the Midwest Premiere of THE GHOSTS OF TREASURE ISLAND, adapted by Eric Schmiedl from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island. THE GHOSTS OF TREASURE ISLAND features music and lyrics by the band Captain Bogg and Salty and is directed by Amanda Delheimer (The Cay, The Ash Girl).

They're funny, they're Southern, they're dysfunctional-and they're bound for the South Coast Repertory stage this spring.

Black Rep to present ART by Yasmina Reza May 5 - 23, 2010, a play which takes a profound look at the nature of friendship. When well-to-do Serge purchases an expensive painting it causes his best friend to question not only his taste, but his moral fiber as well. What do we really know about our friends and can friendship survive when we discover an unexpected, hard to believe truth about someone we think we know?

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Lauren Schmiedel, Managing Director) presents the World Premiere of the musical Langston in Harlem book by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, with music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes and directed by Kent Gash, with musical direction by Barry Levitt and choreography by Byron Easley.

After its sold out run at New York's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater BUA's West New York Premiere of 'Slipping' begins performances April 16.

Libby Appel, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Emerita, will receive the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Lauren Schmiedel, Managing Director) will present the World Premiere of the musical Langston in Harlem book by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, with music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes and directed by Kent Gash, with musical direction by Barry Levitt and choreography by Byron Easley.

Jasmine Guy, celebrated American star of television, film and Broadway, will join the cast of Pearl Cleage's The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One-Hundred Years. This world premiere co-production will be directed by the Alliance's own Susan V. Booth at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Sept. 24 - Oct. 3 and then at the Alliance Theatre Oct. 20 - Nov. 14.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Lauren Schmiedel, Managing Director) present the World Premiere of the musical Langston in Harlem, featuring a book by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, with music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes and directed by Kent Gash, with musical direction by Barry Levitt and choreography by Byron Easley. Langston in Harlem began previews on Friday, April 9. The opening is set for Thursday, April 15, 2010 and will initially run through May 2, 2010.

Autumn Hurlbert, Lori Prince, and Michael Puzzo are set to star in Killing Women, by Marisa Wegrzyn and presented by kef productions. The production runs at the Beckett Theatre May 13- June 5 and will be directed by Adam Fitzgerald. Additional casting is yet to be announced.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will close its production of the World Premiere of A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK, a new play by Kia Corthron (Breath, Boom at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Force Continuum) and directed by Obie Award winner Chay Yew (Durango at The Public), on April 11th.

North Coast Repertory Theatre presents: A classic and gripping theatrical event not to be missed...GHOSTS.

Adventure Stage Chicago (ASC) presents the final production of their 2009-2010 season: the Midwest Premiere of THE GHOSTS OF TREASURE ISLAND, adapted by Eric Schmiedl from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island. THE GHOSTS OF TREASURE ISLAND features music and lyrics by the band Captain Bogg and Salty and is directed by Amanda Delheimer (The Cay, The Ash Girl).