Christopher Durang News

Three generations divided by race, culture and time connect when a white Southern woman discovers old love letters leading her to an African American half-brother.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine and 'an invaluable New York institution' by The New York Post, will conclude its star-studded Fall 2009 season with the first joint engagement of the club's founder MICHAEL FEINSTEIN and Emmy and Tony Award winning Broadway and TV star DAVID HYDE PIERCE from December 1 - 30

Sigourney Weaver, John C. Reilly and Alia Shawkat will join Anne Heche and Ed Helms in the upcoming Fox Searchlight comedy 'Cedar Rapids', according to a report from Variety. Shooting has already begun on the project that was written by Phil Johnston and directed by Miguel Arteta.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director, Tim Sanford; Managing Director, Leslie Marcus) and the Vineyard Theatre (Artistic Director, Douglas Aibel; Executive Director, Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell) have announced that four-time Helen Hayes Award-winning director Joe Calarco (Shakespeare's R&J) has joined the creative team of the upcoming new musical THE BURNT PART BOYS by Mariana Elder (book), Nathan Tysen (lyrics) and Chris Miller (music).

Celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy presents a special evening of her multi MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends on Tuesday, November 17th (7PM) at the New York hotspot Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues). 'The More The Merrier Duets & More...' will feature an evening full of duets and multi-voice musical partnering.

Encore Entertainment Productions is pleased to present Owen Davis' The Haunted House, directed by Tom Holmes. The Haunted will play a limited engagement at The Crowne Theatre in the Producer's Club (358 West 44th St. New York 10036.) Performances are October 25 through November 3. Press are invited to all performances.

The American Theatre Wing has announced an online essay contest in conjunction with the release of its original book, The American Theatre Wing presents The Play That Changed My Life: America's Foremost Playwrights on the Plays that Influenced Them, available December 1.

PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY, three one-act plays to benefit the charitable organization Cause Celebre. The night will feature performances by Joan Copeland, Tandy Cronyn, Rose Gregario, Bernie McInerney, Marian Seldes, Michael Citriniti, Talia Castro-Pozo, and Lee Van Bradley. Performances take place November 1 through November 22. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Columbia Psychiatry.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of THIS, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]).

Girl Crazy, the first Encores! production of the New York City Center season, will star Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight and Marc Kudisch and will run November 19 - 22. Girl Crazy, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with Guest Music Director Rob Fisher, has music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan.

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE starring Tony Award nominee André De Shields will open at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta on October 28th. David Mamet's dark comedy will run through November 15th. The cast also features Ariel Shafir.

Lucy fans get ready. The new play I Loved Lucy by Lee Tannen has been adapted by the author from his best-selling memoir of the same name for a special (invitation only) second NYC staged reading on Tuesday, October 27th.

Encore Entertainment Productions is pleased to present Owen Davis' The Haunted House, directed by Tom Holmes. The Haunted will play a limited engagement at The Crowne Theatre in the Producer's Club (358 West 44th St. New York 10036.) Performances are October 25 through November 3. Press are invited to all performances.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) has announced that Laura Benanti, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Michael Cerveris, Maria Dizzia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Wendy Rich Stetson, and Chandler Williams will be featured in its upcoming production of IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, to be directed by Les Waters.

Lucy fans get ready. The new play I Loved Lucy by Lee Tannen has been adapted by the author from his best-selling memoir of the same name for a special (invitation only) second NYC staged reading on Tuesday, October 27th.

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE starring Tony Award nominee André De Shields will open at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta on October 28th. David Mamet's dark comedy will run through November 15th. The cast also features Ariel Shafir.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, the city's premier producer of new American theatre, reaffirms its commitment to supporting new plays by American playwrights with its STAGES series, a new play reading series, beginning Monday, October 19 at 7PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets) during the run of its current production, Humor Abuse starring Lorenzo Pisoni. The opening program will be a reading of Silverhill by Philadelphia playwright Thomas Gibbons, directed by Richard Corley, who has directed PTC's mainstage productions of Broken Glass by Arthur Miller, A Question of Mercy by David Rabe, The Woods by David Mamet, and Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies.

A new musical about a runaway slave who becomes one of America's first Black Cowboys will debut this fall when CROSS THAT RIVER is presented by The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Patricia Harris, starting October 12, 2009 at TBG Theatre (312 West 36th Street - 3rd Floor) in New York City.

A Noise Within (ANW), the critically acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents a new adaptation of FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY's towering masterpiece CRIME AND PUNISHMENT created by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus, which opens Saturday, October 17 and closes Thursday, December 17, 2009 (previews begin Saturday, October 10).