Chicago Shakespeare Theater News

Chicago Children's Theatre (CCT) opens Season 8: Grow tonight with a delightful new production of A Year with Frog and Toad, the Tony-nominated musical based on the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel, directed by Henry Godinez. Performances run through November 24 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in action below!

The Chicago Philharmonic continues its season with Romantic Serenade on Sunday, November 10, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.

A Red Orchid Theatre (AROT) welcomes award-winning actor Kamal Angelo Bolden, director and long-time AROT artistic associate Shade Murray, and lighting designer Mike Durst into its storied Ensemble. Bolden, Murray and Durst are the most recent additions to the A Red Orchid Theatre Ensemble, which includes Lance Baker, Dado, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Danny McCarthy, Brett Neveu, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers, Natalie West and Craig Wright.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater kicks off this season'sWorld's Stage Series with Blind Summit's The Table, a production from the United Kingdom, which launches its first United States tour Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare for a limited two-week engagement, October 16 to 27, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights below!

Victory Gardens Theater kicks off its 2013-14 season with the Co-World Premiere of Appropriateby Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Gary Griffin. Appropriate is presented in association with Actors Theatre of Louisville and was developed, in part, by IGNITION 2012. Appropriate runs November 8-December 8, with the press performance on November 15, 2013, at Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater kicks off this season'sWorld's Stage Series with Blind Summit's The Table, a production from the United Kingdom, which launches its first United States tour Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare for a limited two-week engagement, tonight, October 16 to 27, 2013.

Casting has been announced for the national tour of 'The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess,' winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, which will open at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre on April 23 and play through June 1, 2014. (Preview on April 22.) The tour, accompanied by a 23-piece orchestra, is set to launch at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre this November.

Variety writes that KINKY BOOTS and A TIME TO KILL producer Daryl Roth has named Erica Lynn Schwartz as director of Daryl Roth Productions' DR Theatrical Licensing. She will replace Michael Barra.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) presents CPS Shakespeare! Othello, a citywide ensemble of 29 students and teachers from eleven Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high schools who develop and stage a fully realized production of William Shakespeare's Othello on CST's Courtyard Stage.

Writers Theatre continues its 2013-14 season with the Midwest Premiere of Port Authority by Conor McPherson, directed by William Brown. The production runs October 29, 2013 - February 16, 2014 at 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The press openings are November 6 and November 7, 2013 at 7:30pm.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announced today the release ofChicago Shakespeare Theater: Suiting the Action to the Word, a collection of original essays that furthers the study of William Shakespeare in performance and stagecraft through the exploration of the Theater's first twenty-five years. Respected scholars, artists and theater critics view Shakespeare through the lens of the theater's artistry, bringing together professional observations and scholarly examinations of CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines's productions as well as collaborations with world-renowned directors who have worked at CST, including Michael Bogdanov(The Winter's Tale - 2003); Edward Hall (Rose Rage: Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 - 2004) and Josie Rourke (The Taming of the Shrew - 2010).

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) presents The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by Artistic Director Barbara Gaines from December 3, 2013 to January 19, 2014 in CST's Courtyard Theater. Embraced by audiences as one of Shakespeare's most delightful comedies-and often called the first "situation comedy"-this high-spirited romp centers on the lovable rogue Sir John Falstaff, a character Shakespeare first brought to life in Henry IV. Now we find Sir John hard up for money, seeking to repair his depleted fortunes by wooing the two most prominent women in town. But his plans go awry with disastrous consequences, as the wooed Windsor wives see through Falstaff's schemes, and dupe him repeatedly. The musicality of Shakespeare's language will be underscored with the melodies of the post-war 1940s-evoking a yearning for the simple, country life. The production features Scott Jaeck as Sir John Falstaff, Kelli Fox as Mistress Page and Heidi Kettenring as Mistress Ford. Chicago Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor plays in CST's Courtyard Theater December 3, 2013 - January 19, 2014.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents Cyrano de Bergerac, launching the Theater's 2013-2014 Season. CST's new production of Edmond Rostand's timeless classic, adapted and translated by Anthony Burgess, marks the return to CST of director Penny Metropulos and film and stage actor Harry Groener, the duo behind the Theater's award-winning 2011 production of The Madness of George III. Featuring some of the most romantic and witty verse written for the stage, Cyrano de Bergerac is a poignant and entertaining homage to poetry, love and panache which will run in CST's Courtyard Theater now through November 10, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights below!

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) and The Second Cityannounce will celebrate the magical life of Bernie Sahlins tonight, September 30, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. in the Courtyard Theater of Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 East Grand Avenue.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents Cyrano de Bergerac, launching the Theater's 2013-2014 Season. CST's new production of Edmond Rostand's timeless classic, adapted and translated by Anthony Burgess, marks the return to CST of director Penny Metropulos and film and stage actor Harry Groener, the duo behind the Theater's award-winning 2011 production of The Madness of George III. Featuring some of the most romantic and witty verse written for the stage, Cyrano de Bergerac is a poignant and entertaining homage to poetry, love and panache which will run in CST's Courtyard Theater now through November 10, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announced today that it will honor its Founders and Presidents, past and present, at SHOW OFF!, a benefit concert celebrating 25 years of NAMT's Annual Festival of New Musicals on Sunday, October 20 at 7pm at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square).

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) announced casting today for two theatrical productions in November: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, the Iranian absurdist play about isolation co-presented with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), running Nov. 3-9, 2013, and Birds Do It, Bees Do It..., the annual cabaret performance Nov. 5, 2013, created by Rob Lindley and Doug Peck.

Three centuries of Italy's rich cultural heritage are on dazzling display when Carlo Colla & Sons Marionette Company (Macbeth, New Vic 2007) tells the timeless tale of a princess and her prophesied slumber in the U.S. Premiere of Sleeping Beauty from November 1 - 10, 2013 at The New Victory Theater. Part of the 'Year of Italian Culture in the United States,' this gem from the repertoire of Italy's oldest and most respected classical marionette company interprets Charles Perrault's original 1697 fairy tale 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood' with the accompaniment of Tchaikovsky's enchanting ballet score.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Sting's 'The Last Ship' and the Broadway In Chicago spring season, 'Oz' in 3D, updates on TV's 'The Sound Of Music' and 'Glee,' plus Groff at Ravinia, 'Lanyard Skynerd' at Martyrs, a road trip 'Ragtime' and more!