Arena Stage News

The A.R.T. won seven Elliot Norton Awards given by the Boston Theatre Critics Association honoring Boston's best theatre productions. The annual awards are named for Boston's dean of American drama critics, Elliot Norton, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, and were held last night, May 11 at the Citi Shubert Theatre.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater welcomed Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad with Event Chair and Arena Stage Board member Shawna Watley (Senior Policy Advisor with Holland & Knight) as the Honorary Chair for THE BLOOD QUILT World Premiere Celebration last night, May 7, 2015. The new play by Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, Our Lady of Kibeho) is directed by Kamilah Forbes and runs now through June 7, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater. Scroll down for photos from the opening celebration!

Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist Leslie Uggams will receive an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut, Storrs today, May 9 during the school's 2015 commencement ceremonies.

The Old Globe presents George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, helmed by celebrated director Jessica Stone, who recently made her Globe debut with Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has annonced that that audiences across the country will be able to enjoy OSF productions in their own theatres.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents the world premiere of Shining Lives: A Musical. Directed by Jessica Thebus and developed through Northlight's Interplay Series, the musical is adapted from the Northlight-commissioned play These Shining Lives. The production will run at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, from May 8 - June 14, 2015. Shining Lives: A Musical opens May 15 and 16, 2015.

For 2015 Theater at Monmouth has planned a season of Magic, Murder, and Mayhem! Season 46 peeks into nature of reality and illusion, pokes fun at the foibles and fables of romances young and old, and will prick-up the hairs on the back of your neck. From Shakespeare to Stoppard and Coward to James, the 2015 Season is sure to be a perception-altering ride.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is seeking proposals from playwrights, ensembles and theater companies interested in participating in the 2015/16 Kogod Cradle Series as part of the American Voices New Play Institute. Now in its fourth season, the Kogod Cradle Series supports the exploration and development of new and emerging work in the theater's intimate 200-seat Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. The application is available at http://arenastage.org/artistic-development/work-with-us/, and proposals are due June 15, 2015 for consideration for the 2015/16 season.

Second Stage Theatre has announced two New York Premiere productions for its upcoming 37th season.  The season will kick off in fall 2015 with the New York Premiere production of Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews' new musical, INVISIBLE THREAD (previously titled Witness Uganda), in association with American Repertory Theater, directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Finding Neverland, Pippin).  The season will continue in early 2016 with the New York premiere of Lydia R. Diamond's (Stick Fly) critically acclaimed play, SMART PEOPLE, directed by Tony Award Winner Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, Stick Fly). Two additional productions remain to be announced. 

The Muny announced today several principal cast members for the seven shows in its spectacular 97th season, which opens on June 15 with My Fair Lady. Full casts and companies will be announced throughout May.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad will join Event Chair and Arena Stage Board member Shawna Watley (Senior Policy Advisor with Holland & Knight) as the Honorary Chair for The Blood Quilt World Premiere Celebration tonight, May 7, 2015. The new play by Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, Our Lady of Kibeho) is directed by Kamilah Forbes and runs now through June 7, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater.

The Exchange today announced the artists and companies who will participate in its 2015 Orchard Project summer residency program. Twenty-two artists and ensembles (listed below) were selected from a competitive field of nearly 500 applicants to develop their big, new ideas at the Orchard Project. This will be the eighth summer - and the first summer in Saratoga Springs, NY - for the Orchard Project, a laboratory program where theatre artists and companies come to innovate, develop, and refine new shows. Past productions developed at the Orchard Project have gone on to be performed around the globe for over 500,000 people and to win awards from TONYs to Obies to Oliviers.

A young woman's spirit soars with newfound awareness in Tennessee Williams' quiet drama Summer and Smoke, where the freedom of youth collides with the expectations of society. Directed by Terry Schreiber, Summer and Smoke will be performed at the T. Schreiber Theatre, located at 151 West 26th Street, on the 7th Floor from tonight, May 6 - June 6. Member of the press are invited as of Saturday, May 9th.

Olney Theatre Center, a Mid-Atlantic destination for extraordinary theater performance and education, celebrates the 70th Anniversary of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel with a reimagined production of the classic musical, running April 15 - May 10, 2015 on the Mainstage.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: FISH IN THE DARK welcomes back a star, we find out this year's Theatre World Award winners, and THE AUDIENCE returns to the West End!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, announces the full cast and creative team for Dear Evan Hansen.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's 53rd Season opens with The Royal Family, the Tony Award-winning American classic by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Performances begin Wednesday, May 27th and continue through Sunday, June 21st at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Avenue (at Lancaster Road) in Madison. Individual tickets and subscriptions can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 973-408-5600 or by visiting ShakespeareNJ.org.

Factory 449's Washington, DC premiere of Radha Bharadwaj's CLOSET LAND is, in many ways, the kind of theatre that truly excites me.

Trinity Rep closes out Season 51: The Necessity of Human Connection with the world premiere of Tony-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl and composer Todd Almond's Melancholy Play: a chamber musical, directed by Obie Award-winner Liesl Tommy. Melancholy Play: a chamber musical runs May 28 through June 28, 2015 in Trinity Rep's Dowling Theater.

EXIT Theatre will host the World Premiere of RISE, the newest work by writer/performer Scott Barry, known locally for Solo Gig Squared, the critically lauded solo show about his time as a draft-pick for the San Francisco 49ers.