Arena Stage News

The Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre kicks off its new season in August with the West Coast premiere of Chinglish. David Henry Hwang won three Obies and the Tony Award for Best Play with popular scripts like M. Butterfly and FOB. Now he's back with a canny comedy of cross-cultural errors. Two-time Obie-winner Leigh Silverman returns to the Roda Theatre to stage the play.

On July 20th at 8pm a mixture of Broadway talent and nightlife personas will gather at Elmo is Chelsea to celebrate the 25th Year of Marti Gould Cummings, Brad Gardner, and Joey Contreras. This annual triple birthday event will feature some of NYC's brightest talents celebrating these three young men. Elmo is located in Chelsea on 19th Street and 7th Avenue.

Yee-haw! It's time to start two-steppin' and boot-scootin' in the aisles, as Signature Theatre kicks off its 2012/13 season with the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, beginning performances on Tuesday, August 14.

Four-time Emmy Award-winner and Tony Award nominee Valerie Harper returns to Hartford to kick off the National Tour of Matthew Lombardo's madcap comedy LOOPED, January 24-February 6, 2013 at The Belding Theatre at The Bushnell. The original Broadway production will again be directed by Rob Ruggiero.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) presents Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, directed by Broadway veteran Terrence Mann, starring Sean Martin Hingston as the Pirate King, Steven Hayes as the Major-General and Connecticut native Diane Phelan as Mabel.

Alexander Greenfield will direct a cast that includes Kate Shindle (Wonderland, Legally Blonde), Alex Brightman (Wicked, Glory Days), Theresa McCarthy (Titanic, Floyd Collins), and Nicholas Rodriguez (Tarzan, One Life to Live, Arena Stage's Oklahoma) in a reading of Michael Finke's new musical REPORTING LIVE on July 25th at 12 and 4 p.m. as well as July 28th at 2 p.m. as part of the 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival Developmental Reading Series.

Casa 0101 Theater, Josefina Lopez, Artistic Director, and The Center for Collaboration with the Arts at Whittier College will present "Lorca in a Green Dress," written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Nilo Cruz, under the direction of Jennifer Sage Holmes at Casa 0101 Theater, 2102 E. 1st Street (at St. Louis Street), Boyle Height, Calif., on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 5:00 p.m., July 20 - August 26, 2012.

Casa 0101 Theater, Josefina Lopez, Artistic Director, and The Center for Collaboration with the Arts at Whittier College will present "Lorca in a Green Dress," written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Nilo Cruz, under the direction of Jennifer Sage Holmes at Casa 0101 Theater, 2102 E. 1st Street (at St. Louis Street), Boyle Height, CA 90033 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 5:00 p.m., July 20 - August 26, 2012.

La Jolla Playhouse has just announced casting for its upcoming production of An Iliad, a one-man adaptation of Homer's classic tale, adapted by Denis O'Hare (Tony Award-winning actor in Take Me Out) and Lisa Peterson (director of the Playhouse's Surf Report and Be Aggressive), based on a translation by Robert Fagles, directed by Lisa Peterson. A co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, An Iliad features Henry Woronicz as the "Poet," with Brian Ellingsen as the "Musician" and runs August 11 - September 9 in the Mandell Weiss Forum.

textTHE NORMAL HEART, which ran a limited run on Broadway last year, is currently playing Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. through July 29. Get a first look at the production below!

The Muny presents the third show of its 94th season, Disney's Aladdin, opening tonight through July 13, directed by Gary Griffin, and choreographed by Alex Sanchez.

The Amoralists are currently presenting the World Premiere of The Bad and the Better, written by Derek Ahonen, directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin and featuring The Amoralists acting ensemble. The acclaimed downtown theater company moved uptown for this six-week Off-Broadway run that began on June 14, and continues through July 21 at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, located at 416 West 42 Street between 9 and 10 Avenues in New York City. The show officially opened on June 19. Check out a series of portraits of the 26-member cast below!

2011 Tony Award-winning production plays until July 29, 2012

From new leadership and fresh artistic initiatives to hit shows including Into the Woods and The Whipping Man-CENTERSTAGE finished the 2011-12 Season stronger than ever. As it looks to its 50th Anniversary Season, the theater is poised to enter a new era as Baltimore's leading professional theater company and a major player on the national theater scene.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 21st season opens Friday with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and features William Michals and Dee Roscioli, two Broadway actors, as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett respectively.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's Artistic Director Molly Smith has announced that this July 2012 D.C.-area arts manager and artist David Snider will become the company's Director of Artistic Programming. Snider will be leaving Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT), where he has served since 2005 as producing artistic director and CEO, to bring his multi-faceted, award-winning talents to the artistic team of Arena Stage.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces that the documentation and dissemination activities of the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) will be relocated to Emerson College's Office of the Arts beginning July 1, 2012 in order to provide the research and academic setting these programs now need for their continued growth.

THE NORMAL HEART, which ran a limited run on Broadway last year, is currently playing Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., which was originally reported to be the opening stop on a tour. The Chicago Tribune revealed in a recent article, however, that the tour plans have been limited to the already announced engagements: Arena Stage, where it will run through July 29, and A.C.T. in San Francisco.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) presents Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, directed by Broadway veteran Terrence Mann, starring Sean Martin Hingston as the Pirate King, Steven Hayes as the Major-General and Connecticut native Diane Phelan as Mabel.

Producers Carole Black and Pat Mitchell announced today that EMOTIONAL CREATURE, the new play written by Tony Award®-winning playwright, performer, activist, and The Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler, will get a New York premiere this fall.