Anna-Deavere Smith News

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) Crowded Fire's newly appointed Artistic Director Mina Morita unveiled the 2016 mainstage season lineup of three contemporary plays that continue to uphold the company's long tradition of producing boundary - pushing, thought-provoking theater. At a season-announcement party on Saturday, November 14th Morita addressed Crowded Fire donors, patrons, and artists saying "At Crowded Fire, we are unafraid of tackling big issues. We commit ourselves to true experimentation of form and content to question, disrupt, or complicate comfortable notions of cultural hierarchy."

MCC Theater presents the New York premiere of John Pollono's LOST GIRLS. The production is directed by Jo Bonney who last collaborated with playwright John Pollono on MCC's critically acclaimed production of Small Engine Repair. LOST GIRLS opens tonight, November 9. It is scheduled through November 29, 2015.

On November 16 & 17, Performance Space 122 (PS122) is presenting two special nights of Eric Bogosian's 100 Monologues series to benefit PS122's move next year back into their home in the East Village.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Diane Paulus, Artistic Director, will present a reading of TRANS SCRIPTS, a groundbreaking new play about transgender identity, written by Paul Lucas, and directed by Jo Bonney, at OBERON on Monday, November 23 at 7:30PM. 

TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, and PBS just launched the first ever TED TALKS LIVE, a six-night speaker event featuring TED Talks, short films and performances at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) in New York's famed Theater District.

Berkeley Playhouse at the historic Julia Morgan Theater begins the family series of their eighth season with Peter Pan.

MCC Theater presents the New York premiere of John Pollono's LOST GIRLS. Golden Globe nominated star of stage and screen, Piper Perabo-who recently completed five seasons of the USA's popular drama series 'Covert Affairs' for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, and was last seen onstage in the Broadway and MCC Theater productions of Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty-stars alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach (HBO's 'Girls'), Meghann Fahy (Next to Normal), Tasha Lawrence (Good People, The Whale), and newcomers Lizzy DeClement and Josh Green.

The play imagines a meeting between Anne Frank and Emmett Till.

Arena Stage announces the 2015/16 programming for Actors Arena, a professional development and community-building forum for experienced D.C.-area actors.

TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, and PBS have announced additional participants for the first ever TED TALKS LIVE, a six-night speaker event featuring TED Talks, short films and performances at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) in New York's famed Theater District.

The New York Public Library's annual Library Lions Gala, recognizing individuals for their outstanding achievements in the fields of art, culture, scholarship, and letters, will be held at the Library's landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Monday, November 2.

Berkeley Playhouse at the historic Julia Morgan Theater begins the family series of their eighth season with Peter Pan.

In partnership with the University of Utah School of Medicine's Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities, UtahPresents brings the powerful one-man play Mercy Killers to the Eccles Auditorium at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Mercy Killers, written and performed by Michael Milligan and directed by Tom Oppenheim, will be performed on Friday, November 6 at 7:00 PM, with a talkback following the performance. Tickets are $20, with a $5 ticket for U of U students and a $10 ticket for non-U students and youth 18 and under, and are available at 801-581-7100 or utahpresents.org.

To benefit their 2016 return to their East Village home, Performance Space 122 (PS122) and Executive Producer Anson Mount bring together widely acclaimed playwright Eric Bogosian and director Jo Bonney, along with their close friends, for two-nights of hand-selected, intimate performances from Bogosian's 100 Monologues series.

Barrington Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, will present the new play VEILS by Tom Coash, from tonight, October 1, through October 18, with a press opening Sunday, October 4 at 3pm..

Mercy Killers is in the tradition of American playwrights from Arthur Miller and Clifford Odets, to Tony Kushner and Anna Deavere Smith, in capturing political and social reality in powerful story and unforgettable character. 'Over 60% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are the result of medical debt. What most people don't realize is that the majority of those bankruptcies, the person involved actually had insurance at the onset of their health crises,' says Milligan. This discovery led him to collect stories from people suffering financial disaster on top of chronic illnesses.

The Kesselring Prize for playwriting -- given by the National Arts Club in New York since 1980 -- returns this year following a six-year hiatus with the announcement that Lucas Hnath is the recipient of the 2015 Kesselring Prize. Hnath was submitted by The Actors Theatre of Louisville for his new play The Christians, which debuted there at the Humana Festival and is currently playing off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. The play is directed by Les Waters.

MCC Theater has just announced the the New York premiere of John Pollono's Lost Girls, BroadwayWorld has confirmed.  Golden Globe nominated star of stage and screen, Piper Perabo-who recently completed five seasons of the USA's popular drama series "Covert Affairs" for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, and was last seen onstage in the Broadway and MCC Theater productions of Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty-stars alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach (HBO's "Girls"), Meghann Fahy (Next to Normal), Tasha Lawrence (Good People, The Whale), and newcomers Lizzy DeClement and Josh Green. 

The Philadelphia Theatre Company announced today that it has repurchased the iconic Suzanne Roberts Theatre from TD Bank, thanks in large part to a spirited community effort led by the Roberts family that raised over $3 million and enabled PTC to reclaim its longtime home, which is the final piece to its remarkable fiscal and artistic turnaround.