August Wilson News

The August Wilson Monologue Competition, sponsored by The League of Chicago Theatres, Goodman Theatre, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and organized in Chicago by Derrick Sanders, will hold the Chicago Semi Finals on February 11, 2013, from 1:00pm-5:00pm at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Theatre and Music, 1044 West Harrison St. The Chicago Finals will be March 11, 2013 at 6pm at the Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn St.

Three-time Emmy Award© winner Charles "Roc" Dutton brings his critically acclaimed, autobiographical, one-man stage play From Jail to Yale: Serving Time on Stage to Chicago for the first time for two performances only, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts Performance Hall at the University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th Street, Wednesday and Thursday, February 20 and 21, at 7:30 p.m. The show tells the story of Dutton's journey from prison in Baltimore to the Yale University Drama School to theatrical and television success. Best known for his role in the 1990s television series Roc, Dutton is also a highly accomplished stage and film actor and a director-having originated roles in multiple plays by August Wilson and, most recently, directed and starred in the 2012 film The Obama Effect and the upcoming movie Must Be the Music.

"It's almost like being in love!" Goodman Theatre proudly announces a Summer 2014 production of the 1947 musical Brigadoon, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe-marking the first major revival of the musical in nearly 20 years. Award-winning Chicago director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell, hailed as "a theatrical magician" (Chicago Sun-Times) and "2012 Chicagoan of the Year" (Chicago Tribune) for her recent reinvestigations of American musicals, directs the piece in her Goodman debut. With permission from the Lerner and Loewe estates, the Goodman and Rockwell will consider some revisions to the book for this production. Only Goodman Subscribers and Groups are guaranteed priority access to Brigadoon tickets; subscriptions for Goodman's 2013/2014 Season (additional projects and dates for Brigadoon to be announced) will be available for purchase in March. Call 312.443.3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org.

In Two Trains Running, an optimistic ex-con enters the insular confines of Memphis Lee's diner and awakens a cast of older and skeptical characters to the possibilities of a new era. Set in the turbulence of 1969, a time much like today, Two Trains Running is one of the most humorous and politically potent of Wilson's 20th Century Cycle plays.

With this fourth foray into his Pittsburgh cycle, playwright August Wilson crafts another masterwork with THE PIANO LESSON. Wilson's play, once again, captures an era rich in detail in African American history, and ponders the meaning of the word legacy, and how it applies to different individuals. The Black Rep's current production is very nicely crafted and performed, and if you haven't seen it yet, there's still time. It's certainly a journey well worth taking.

Jujamcyn Theaters (Jordan Roth, President) and True Colors Theatre Company (Kenny Leon, Co-Founding Artistic Director) have announced the 5th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition will take place on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 p.m. at the August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street). The event, which is free and open to the public, features high school students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle performing monologues by the late, legendary American playwright.

Huntington Theatre Company presents the Boston competition of Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC), celebrating the writing of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright. Over 500 high school students from eleven Boston Public Schools will compete in the Boston Final competition on Saturday, February 9 at the Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The competition is free and open to the public.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2013 preview performances begin February 15, and the season will open Friday night, February 22 with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, directed by David Ivers. On Saturday, August Wilson's Two Trains Running, directed by Lou Bellamy, takes the stage, as does Lerner and Loewe's classic American musical My Fair Lady, directed by Amanda Dehnert. Sunday afternoon in the Thomas Theatre, Shakespeare's King Lear opens, directed by OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 1/25/2013.

The Broadhurst Theatre box office opens tomorrow, Friday, January 25 at 10:00 AM for LUCKY GUY, starring two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, in the final work by three-time Academy Award-nominee Nora Ephron and directed by two-time Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe. The Broadhurst Theatre is located at 235 West 44th Street. The production will play a strictly limited engagement. Opening night is Monday, April 1. Previews begin Friday, March 1.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the upcoming Gallery Crawl to take place today, January 25, 2013, from 5:30-9:00 p.m., in downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District. The Gallery Crawl is an urban showcase featuring a wide variety of thought provoking art exhibitions, live bands, DJs, dance, theater, and more. Everything from the traditional to the avant garde is on display for art lovers of all ages.

A delightful midwinter night's dream, ALMOST, MAINE by John Cariani will play TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford. The sweet and poignant comedy runs tonight, January 25 - March 3, 2013, directed by Amy Saltz.

The producers of JERSEY BOYS are pleased to announce that Andy Karl will be returning to the Broadway company on Tuesday, February 12. Karl assumes the role of ‘Tommy DeVito' following the departure of current star Jeremy Kushnier after the Sunday, February 10 performance.

Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis has played with everyone from Art Blakey and Miles Davis to Sting and the Grateful Dead, and he's led The Tonight Show Band. Now this NEA Jazz Master and his top-notch jazz quartet will stop at Jorgensen on Feb. 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. in 'An Evening with Branford Marsalis.'

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Cygnet Theatre is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. Cygnet Theatre is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support Gem of the Ocean, the first play of the August Wilson Cycle Plays. The grant also helps support outreach activities including post show forums and a presentation of Walking in the Shadows of August Wilson by Antonio T.J. Johnson. In total, nine San Diego non-profits received grants in this latest round of funding totaling $213,000.

The Broadway League announced that Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, co-hosts of Emmy Award-winning talk show 'LIVE with Kelly and Michael,' will serve as the 2013 KIDS' NIGHT ON BROADWAY National Ambassadors. In the video below, the duo chats about the importance of the event and why they are lending their names to the cause.

Today in 2005, Little Women opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 137 performances. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth - and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Intercut with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio. The Broadway cast included Sutton Foster, Maureen McGovern, Janet Carroll, Jenny Powers, Megan McGinnis, and Amy McAlexander.