Brits Off-Broadway News

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights writing in the English language. Chosen from over 150 nominated plays, the Finalists are:

Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre company is preparing to spend a month in New York this spring. The company is taking one of last summer season's hit shows, Alan Ayckbourn's A Brief History of Women, to the city to be part of the annual Brits Off Broadway festival organised by 59e59 Theaters. The show will be seen at the theatre - which is located at 59 East 59th Street - from 1 to 27 May.

London Playwrights' Workshop is partnering with musical theatre writing team Barlow & Smith to create the Women's Musical Theatre Initiative (WMTI), a new development programme for female musical theatre writers. The WMTI will launch with a cabaret 'Celebrating Female Songwriters' at The Pheasantry on 12 February 2018. The evening will be hosted by songwriters Barlow & Smith and will bring together a group of accomplished female songwriters to showcase new writing and to raise funds to support the initiative.

Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre is heading into the new year after a 2017 which saw its most successful summer season in a decade, a sell-out autumn half-term show, and a Christmas show which saw audience figures increase by over 10% on the previous year.

Set in a seaside hotel of halcyon childhood summers, this autobiographical play by award-winner Jane Upton journeys back to find a beloved Nana before she forgot who she was. Finding Nana was first seen at the Pleasance Courtyard at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, and now embarks on a tour of village halls and theatre studio spaces. Stacey Evans (Wolves are Coming for You, Pentabus) stars in this one-woman show.

Town Hall Theatre Generations Season 2017-2018 jumps into 2018 with Alan Ayckbourn's dark comedy, WOMAN IN MIND. WOMAN IN MIND will have 12 performances, including two previews, March 1 through March 24, 2018, at Town Hall Theatre Company, 3535 School Street, in Lafayette, CA. Tickets are $18 - $30, and are available through the Box Office at (925) 283-1557 or online at www.TownHallTheatre.com.

Multiple Tony Award winning producer Corey Brunish has had his new musical selected as a finalist for London's BEAM2018 Festival to take place in March of 2018.Out of 300 applicants, only 8 have been selected for a 25 minute presentation.Brunish wrote the musical with twins Dina and Rosabella Gregory.(fotos enclosed)The musical is called My Marcello and is a comedy about love in a small Italian village.

Written as a 'narrative for voices' by Alan Ayckbourn and brought to The Old Vic stage by Old Vic Baylis Director Annabel Bolton following its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival, The Divide unfolds in a dystopian society of repression and seething insurrection.

59E59 Theaters presents the NYC premiere of A REGULAR LITTLE HOUDINI, written and performed by Daniel LLewelyn-Williams and directed by Joshua Richards.

The first play to be funded by bitcoin makes a triumphant return with its London premiere, opening VAULT Festival 2018.

Following an ambitious year that culminated in the first rural tour of Richard Bean's epic farming saga Harvest, 2018 will see New Perspectives touring increasingly adventurous new theatre to spaces of all shapes and sizes, from mid-scale theatres to village halls. From rural Nigeria to modern Mumbai to the 1960's English countryside, the company will be bringing global stories to audiences across the UK.

London Classic Theatre today announce additional dates for their production of No l Coward's comedy masterpiece, Private Lives. Olivia Beardsley and Helen Keeley return to the production as Sibyl Chase and Amanda Prynne, and are joined by two new cast members, Gareth Bennett-Ryan (Elyot Chase) and Paul Sandys (Victor Prynne). The production tours to 16 venues in the new year, opening at Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford on 16 January, and concluding the run at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre on 21 April.

The Barrow Group Theatre Company (Seth Barrish and Lee Brock, Co-Artistic Directors; Robert Serrell, Executive Director), recipient of a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award, launches their 2017-2018 season with the New York premiere of Muswell Hill, a play by Torben Betts, in a co-production with The Pond Theatre Company. Directed by Shannon Patterson, the six-member cast features Jason Alan Carvell (War Horse), as Mat, Colleen Clinton (Proof) as Jess, Lily Dorment (Abigail's Party) as Karen, Richard Hollis (The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time) as Simon, John Pirkis ( Blue Bloods ) as Tony, and Sarah Street (Abigail's Party) as Annie.

The Barrow Group Theatre Company, recipient of a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award, launches their 2017-2018 season with the New York premiere of Muswell Hill, a play by Torben Betts, in a co-production with The Pond Theatre Company.

The Original Theatre Company and Ghost Light Productions will present a short tour ahead of a London run of Torben Betts's new play MONOGAMY, starring Janie Dee as Caroline Mortimer.

59E59 Theaters will present the NYC premiere of A REGULAR LITTLE HOUDINI, written and performed by Daniel LLewelyn-Williams and directed by Joshua Richards.

New Diorama Theatre has announced today that their Edinburgh Fringe hit show Secret Life of Humans is transferring for a five-week run, at the Brits Off-Broadway which runs at New York's 59E59 Theaters from 30 May until 01 July 2018.

59E59 Theaters will re-launch their Theater A subscription series for 2018.

Today, London's newest theatre announces its opening production. On November 1, The Playground Theatre will open its doors for the first time with the world premiere of Picasso by Terry D'Alfonso.

The cast has been announced for Picasso, the opening production at The Playground Theatre in West London's Ladbroke Grove.