Bertolt Brecht News

Early in the second act of My Vaudeville Man!, the captivating new musical at The York Theatre, Shonn Wiley, portraying eccentric dancer Jack Donahue, challenges four fellow vaudevillians to what's known as a tap drunk. Eventually, Buchanan will be a star on Broadway and a popular favorite at the Palace, but now he's a struggling 19-year-old kid who has taken to the bottle and is in need of quick cash. Each man throws five dollars into the pot, starts taking swigs from a bottle of rye and, most importantly, keeps dancing until only one is left standing. Wiley is the only one on stage, but he vividly paints the contest before our eyes, as Jack battles the endurance of his colleagues and his own inebriation until the competition turns violent. The piece is an extraordinary bit of dance drama, mixing humor, danger, grit and desperation, with Wiley's performance containing some of the best acting through dance we're apt to see this season.

The Guthrie is pleased to present Frank Theatre's production of By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr, March 12 - April 5 in the Dowling Studio. Single tickets are priced from $18 to $30, with opening night priced at $34. Tickets are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org. Tickets for a benefit birthday party on March 21, which will celebrate 20 years of Frank Theatre, are available by calling 612.724.3760. Set in rural Ireland, By the Bog of Cats mixes the trademark dark humor of the Irish with an uncompromising tale of abandonment and shocking self-sacrifice. Hester Swane (Virginia Burke) is an Irish 'tinker,' a woman born of gypsies, and tied to the bleak landscape of the bog where she has lived her whole life. Her younger lover, Carthage Kilbride (John Catron), with whom she has a daughter, is on the verge of a marriage to another woman that will bring him land, wealth and respect. Refusing to acknowledge that Carthage could ever leave her, Hester grips more tightly and tragically to the life she believes is rightfully hers. In this loose retelling of Euripides' Medea, Marina Carr blends the mythic with the modern, populating the Bog of Cats with misfits, witches, and ghosts. Following the highly successful run of their Ivey Award-winning production of The Pillowman during the Guthrie's 2007-2008 season, Frank returns to the Dowling Studio to bring its fearless, take-no-prisoners style to this bold and uproarious play.

In anticipation of its upcoming production of Eugene O'Neill's epic drama Mourning Becomes Electra, A Trilogy, The New Group proudly presents O'Neill and his Electra, an evening of conversation with Tony Kushner, Arthur and Barbara Gelb and Zoe Caldwell. This one night only special event takes place Friday, January 16 at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $20 and may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200. This event is free to New Group subscribers.

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Maxim Gorky's Philistines in a fresh new version by Andrew Upton, the co-artistic director of Australia's Sydney Theatre Company and an acclaimed adaptor of Russian plays.

The Living Theatre (19 Clinton St.), the oldest experimental theatre group still exisiting in the country, will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of THE CONNECTION by playwright Jack Gelber with a new production directed by Judith Malina. The Living Theatre will present the 50th anniversary revival in collaboration with New York City jazz musician Rene McLean, who will conduct a New York jazz ensemble. The Production will begin performances on December 30, 2008 and will open on Thursday, January 8, 2009. and will continue until Feburary 13, 2009. Judith Malina directs.

500 Clown Theater,, founded in 2000 and made a non-profit in 2007, presents its holiday hit ?500 Clown Christmas? for a limited holiday 2008 engagement during the first season of programming at North Central College?s Meiley-Swallow Hall.

There will be a post performance discussion on December 6 with company members, and director Dimiter Gotscheff. Moderated by renowned translator and UCLA Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, Michael Heim. The exclusive United States production of Berlin's most prominent and revolutionary theatre, The Volksb?hne, will be presented by David Sefton's UCLA Live's Seventh International Theatre Festival in a controversial production of Chekhov's first play, IVANOV, under the direction of Bulgarian born Dimiter Gotscheff. The play will be performed in German with English supertitles.

There will be a post performance discussion on December 6 with company members, and director Dimiter Gotscheff. Moderated by renowned translator and UCLA Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, Michael Heim. The exclusive United States production of Berlin's most prominent and revolutionary theatre, The Volksb?hne, will be presented by David Sefton's UCLA Live's Seventh International Theatre Festival in a controversial production of Chekhov's first play, IVANOV, under the direction of Bulgarian born Dimiter Gotscheff. The play will be performed in German with English supertitles.

Roust Theater Company offers $10 Holiday Ticket Special for Thanksgiving Weekend on MACBETH- Directed by James Phillip Gates.

500 Clown Theater,, founded in 2000 and made a non-profit in 2007, presents its holiday hit ?500 Clown Christmas? for a limited holiday 2008 engagement during the first season of programming at North Central College?s Meiley-Swallow Hall.

Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre's URBAN DEATH will close on November 22.

Roust Theatre Company presents William Shakespeare's MACBETH -- a bloody, unrelenting drama which looks so deeply at the tortured human psyche that it will be an intense and visceral R-rated 90-minute ride from start to finish, containing violence, nudity, and strong sexual content -- with previews set to begin November 13, prior to its official press opening November 17 at Theater 3 (311 West 43rd Street) in Manhattan. James Phillip Gates directs.

Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre's URBAN DEATH will close on November 22.

Joe's Pub has announced new additions to their upcoming lineup.

Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group strikes Greenwich Village like a lightning-bolt with URBAN DEATH - their ultimate and timely theatrical horror production.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) began previews for the New York premiere of Mike Daisey's IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING on Wednesday, October 15. This groundbreaking monologue about homeland security, created and performed by Mike Daisey and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, will run through Tuesday, November 30 with an official press opening tonight, Monday, October 27. Tickets are on-sale now.

JOE'S PUB has added three new additions to their upcoming lineup.

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA (James Bundy, Dean; Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean) presents MAN=MAN by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Gerhard Nellhaus, directed by Erik Pearson, October 28-November 1 at the New Theater (1156 Chapel Street, New Haven).

500 Clown Theater,, founded in 2000 and made a non-profit in 2007, presents its holiday hit '500 Clown Christmas' for a limited holiday 2008 engagement during the first season of programming at North Central College's Meiley-Swallow Hall.

Roust Theatre Company presents William Shakespeare's MACBETH -- a bloody, unrelenting drama which looks so deeply at the tortured human psyche that it will be an intense and visceral R-rated 90-minute ride from start to finish, containing violence, nudity, and strong sexual content -- with previews set to begin November 13, prior to its official press opening November 17 at Theater 3 (311 West 43rd Street) in Manhattan. James Phillip Gates directs.