August Wilson News

August WilsonFor the very first time, the Estate of August Wilson has granted an organization the rights to record all 10 of these works. Kicking off on Monday, August 26 with 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' The Greene Space - the performance venue of public radio stations WNYC and WQXR -- will stage these readings before live audiences, and will make them present them as live video webcasts for viewers everywhere at www.thegreenespace.org. Ruben Santiago-Hudson, one of the leading interpreters of Wilson's work, is Artistic Director. The series has assembled a formidable group of 'Wilson Warriors' including Phylicia Rashad, S. Epatha Merkerson, Kenny Leon, Leslie Uggams, Anthony Chisholm and many others, along with Wilson first-timers including Taraji P. Hensonand Jesse L. Martin. Click below to watch interviews with the directors!

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 8/23/2013.

While 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' is generating Oscar buzz for its chronicle of several decades of African- American political life, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson masterfully documented a full century of the African-American experience in the 10 plays the make up the American Century Cycle. These works, nine of which have been staged on Broadway with stars including Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, among many others, showed the suffering, joys, and triumphs of African-Americans through searing, poetic and personal stories of everyday people in Pittsburgh, PA.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola has announced that Fetch Clay, Make Man, written by Will Power and directed by Des McAnuff, will begin performances tonight, August 23 at NYTW, 79 East 4 Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue. Opening night is set for Thursday, September 12 at 7pm. Fetch Clay, Make Man is scheduled to run through Sunday, October 13; tickets are on sale now.

Tonight, August 22, 2013, TeCo Theatrical Productions will close its 2013 speakers series with an intimate conversation with acclaimed actor, playwright, and Broadway legend Eugene Lee. Now in its second year, the series was designed to support the creative community and educate a larger constituency in appreciating the arts through quarterly events at the Bishop Arts Theatre.

Angelina Fiordellisi, Founding Artistic Director of Cherry Lane Theatre, announces the following productions for the company's 2013-14 season:

Tickets will go on sale today, August 18 at 12:00 pm for Milwaukee's return engagement of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing the Marcus Center on October 16-27, 2013.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 8/16/2013.

Stephen Sondheim and Wynton Marsalis will collaborate on A BED AND A CHAIR: A New York Love Affair, a new musical event featuring Sondheim's music arranged and performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. This Encores! Special Event, directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator John Doyle, with choreography by Parker Esse and musical supervision by David Loud, was conceived by Peter Gethers, Jack Viertel and John Doyle, and will run for seven performances, November 13 - 17 at City Center.

The Pasadena Playhouse presents the One Pearl and a Sphinx production of LETTERS FROM ZORA which will play a five performance, limited engagement starring Vanessa Bell Calloway. LETTERS FROM ZORA, written by Gabrielle Pina, directed by Anita Dashielle-Sparks with live music composed by Ron McCurdy is scheduled to play from tonight, August 15 - 18, 2013, with a press opening tonight, August 15 at 8:00 p.m.

The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC and WQXR, the state-of-the-art venue of the nation's most listened-to news/talk and classical public radio stations, will make history this fall when it creates, for the first time, exclusive recordings of all 10 of August Wilson's American Century Cycle Plays.

Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, will make its much-anticipated return to Columbus to play the Ohio Theatre September 17-29.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 8/9/2013.

Today in 1989, the first Broadway revival of Shenandoah opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 32 performances. Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah. The musical first opened at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1974 and then transferred to Broadway, opening on January 7, 1975. It ran on Broadway for a total of 1,050 performances, closing August 7, 1977. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won two, one for Best Actor in a Musical (John Cullum) and the other for Best Book of a Musical.

Everyman Theatre has announced the directors attached to each of its six productions for the upcoming 2013/14 season. Renowned and award-winning director Walter Dallas will be making his Everyman debut with BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK next spring. Susanna Gellert, hot off of her work with the MY AMERICA project at Centerstage, will both be making their Everyman Theatre debuts this season. Founding Artistic Director Vincent Lancisi will direct the first and last shows of the season - THE GLASS MENAGERIE and TRIBES, respectively. And returning to Everyman will be two audience favorites - celebrated directors Donald Hicken and Derek Goldman.

Single tickets for Long Wharf Theatre's 2012-13 season are on sale starting Monday, August 5.

Theater for a New Generation will present 'Freefall' by the highly celebrated Chicago playwright Charles Smith, directed by Mel Williams, at The Drilling Company Theatre, 238 West 78th Street, September 11 to 28. The play is a drama of two brothers who grew up in inner-city Chicago and have followed divergent paths into adulthood: one as a thief, the other as a policeman.