Ars Nova News

Working Artists Theatre Project, in collaboration with the David Lynch Foundation, presents a staged play reading benefit of James McLure's companion comedies Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon under the title 1959 Pink Thunderbird, featuring a cast of Broadway talent. All proceeds will benefit the Operation Warrior Wellness Project in teaching War Veterans with PTSD Transcendental Meditation.

The 2014 Clarence Derwent Award for most promising female and male performers on the New York metropolitan scene has gone to Whitney Bashor and Steven Boyer. The announcement was made by Arne Gundersen, president of the Actors' Equity Foundation, which administers the award.

After a sold out presentation at Ars Nova's ANT Fest last June, DEBUTANTE. returns to New York City for its world premiere production. Written by Ryann Weir, created & directed by Annie Tippe and produced by Robb Nanus (Andrew Lippa's I Am Harvey Milk), the production will be staged at the Bernie Wohl Center (647 Columbus Avenue). Scroll down for a first look at the cast in action!

SPACE on Ryder Farm, a nonprofit artist residency program housed on a working organic farm in Brewster, NY, announces members of its 2014 resident writers group, The Working Farm.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the world premiere of An American Soldier, June 13-14, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. An American Soldier features music by composer Huang Ruo and a libretto by David Henry Hwang. This new work, to be performed in English, is the second hourlong opera created under the auspices of the American Opera Initiative, WNO's commissioning program for contemporary American opera. An American Soldier is directed by David Paul and a chamber orchestra is conducted by Steven Jarvi; both are alumni of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

Stage Left Theatre has announced added performance for their hit production of Principal Principle by Joe Zarrow, as well as the programming for its 33rd season - Against the Grain. The company will offer three mainstage productions that center on characters who choose to fight against the expectations placed on them by others - for better or for worse.

Joe's Pub has just announced their lineup of cabaret and burlesque shows for May and June 2014. Featuring Erin Markey, Amy G, and more, the acts are sure to please!

Profiles Theatre Artistic Directors Darrell W. Cox and Joe Jahraus announce the titles for the 26th Season featuring a full slate of new and challenging works premiering at the Profiles Theatre Complex on North Broadway. The upcoming season features six productions including the Midwest premieres of Reasons to be Happy by Neil LaBute, the award-winning play The Other Place by Sharr White, the world premiere of Genius by Kate Walbert and a new premiere for spring 2015 to be announced soon. Additionally, Profiles' acclaimed production of Hellcab by Will Kern, one of Chicago theatre's longest running hits and a seasonal favorite at Profiles for the past two years, returns again for the holiday season. These six productions alternate between Profiles' two venues, The Main Stage at 4139 N. Broadway and The Alley Stage at 4147 N. Broadway.

Noor Theatre Artistic Director Lameece Issaq, Executive Director Maha Chehlaoui, and Producing Artistic Director Nancy Vitale announce the world premiere of The Myth Project. This director-driven workshop production in three parts from Director/Writers Kareem Fahmy, Noelle Ghoussaini, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh, will run from tonight, May 1 - Sunday, May 4 at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theatre.

New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Producing Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Deputy Artistic Director; Jaynie Saunders Tiller, Managing Director) will present workshop presentations of new plays by Jam artists Dipika Guha (The Architecture of Becoming with Women's Project), Mary Elizabeth Hamilton (current member of EST's Youngblood), and Anna Moench (The Pillow Book at 59E59; Gormanzee at The Flea) as part of The New Georges Jam On Toast, a brand-new play festival featuring work by The New Georges Jam, a 'performance gym' for early-career female playwrights and directors founded in 2010 by Lucy Alibar, Jess Chayes, and Portia Krieger. The works in progress will be directed by Sarah Krohn (Victor Frange Presents Gas at Incubator Arts Project; 2013 Boris Sagal Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival), Pirronne Yousefzadeh (QVC with Partial Comfort; The Tenant with Woodshed Collective), and Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Colt Coeur's Fish Eye at HERE; Missed Connections with Ars Nova). The festival will also feature cabaret-style pieces and special presentations by Sofia Alvarez (Between Us Chickens at South Coast Rep), Eliza Bent (Blue Wizard/Black Wizard at Incubator Arts Project; The Hotel Colors at The Bushwick Starr), Mary Birnbaum (Artistic Director of art.party.theater.company), Katie Brook (She Is King at Dixon Place; American Realism at The Invisible Dog), Meghan Finn (Take Me Home with Incubator Arts Project/3LD; Erin Courtney's The Service Road; Mac Wellman's AFAR at Dixon Place), Morgan Gould (co-creator of Young Jean Lee's Untitled Feminist Show),Caroline V. McGraw (2013 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow), and Mia Rovegno (The Civilians' Pretty Filthy II at Joe's Pub; We Play for the Gods with Women's Project).

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will continue its engagement at JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater on Sunday, May 18 at 9:30 PM with a celebration of the pop diva Janet Jackson. After a highly-successful season at 54 Below, The Meeting* has returned to its downtown roots this year with shows through May. The Meeting* has been called "delicious and delightfully droll" by The New York Post, and "hilarious and sardonic" by The Village Voice. A recent story for Slate.com called the evening "so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight." The April show will feature special guests to be announced.

Lesser America will present the World Premiere of Lucas Kavner's (Fish Eye with Colt Coeur/HERE Arts Center; Love Money at Ars Nova) Carnival Kids, June 5-28 at TBG Theatre (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue). The production will be directed by Stephen Brackett (Buyer and Cellar at Barrow Street) with Assistant Director Drew Foster. The cast and creative team will be announced at a later date.

Joseph Heller's war time satire Catch-22 comes to Birmingham Repertory Theatre from May 20 -24. The novel, published in 1961, has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It is often cited as one of the greatest novels of all time, ranking 11th in the 2003 BBC survey The Big Read.

Single tickets to the American premiere of THE LION, the new musical written and performed by 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Songwriting Award winner Benjamin Scheuer, directed by Sean Daniels are available today, Friday, April 25. The five-week limited engagement for THE LION will begin previews on Tuesday, June 10 and open Thursday, June 26 as the second production of MTC's 2013-2014 season of The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center - Stage II (131 West 55th Street).

Hilarious music duo MEL & EL are back with a brand new edition of their long- running monthly comedy show. THE MEL & EL SHOW returns to NYC at Stage 72, 158 W. 72 Street, tonight, April 25th at 7:00PM.

BAY STREET THEATRE NEW WORKS FESTIVAL will take place this weekend, April 25-27 at the Bay Street Theatre on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, NY. The Festival is produced in Association with SPACE on Ryder Farm.

Tonight, April 24, 2014, producer Robb Nanus (Andrew Lippa's I Am Harvey Milk) announces the opening of DEBUTANTE., a new play written by Ryann Weir and created and directed by Annie Tippe.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's The Totalitarians, a high-energy political comedy. The play explores the vacuous double-speak we invent for political gain and how this language insinuates itself into our everyday lives, relationships, and culture. Nachtrieb's work was last seen at Woolly with Season 29's Boom (2008), which went on to become the most widely produced new play in the country. Woolly Company Member and Andrew W. Mellon Playwright in Residence Robert O'Hara-the playwright and director of Season 31's Bootycandy (2011) and the playwright of Season 29's Helen Hayes Award winning Antebellum (2009)-will direct.