Christopher Durang News

Philadelphia Theatre Company will present the world premiere of Terrence McNally's newest play The Golden Age as part of its 2009-2010 season. Following its run in Philadelphia, the PTC production will move to the Kennedy Center as part of its 'Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera' Festival.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will hold its annual Spring Gala Benefit on Monday evening, April 27th at Guastavino's (409 East 59th Street).

The Emergent Arts Company presents an evening of comedy March 26 through 29 at The Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award-winner in years is coming to Cleveland. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will open at PlayhouseSquare's PalaceTheatre and play for 16 performances, March 3-15. Spring Awakening is part of the KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare. Spring Awakening swept the 2007 Tony Awards? winning eight out of its eleven nominations, including Best Musical, Best Director (Michael Mayer), Best Book (Steven Sater), Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones), Best Orchestrations (Duncan Sheik), Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams), Best Featured Actor (John Gallagher Jr.).

Who Wants Cake? solves the mystery of what to do late nights in the month of March when they present their production of Christopher Durang's The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From along with two other short Durang plays. The Hardy Boys... will play for an exclusive three-week run at Ferndale's The Ringwald Theatre from Friday, March 13th through Saturday, March 28th . For this late night extravaganza, Who Wants Cake? will offer low-price tickets for $10.

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February 25 at 10:00 AM, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will be accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of INKED BABY, a new play by 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn nominee Christina Anderson in her Off-Broadway playwriting debut. A total of 40 tickets will be available via the online lottery.

The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program and Young Conservatory present the world premiere production of Volleygirls, Rob Ackerman's funny and moving look at the spirit and passion of team sports, directed by W. D. Keith. Featuring actors from the graduating class of the A.C.T. M.F.A. Program and young actors from the Young Conservatory, Volleygirls spikes a spirited, heartfelt look at a down-and-out high school volleyball team. Following a string of losses and facing their biggest rival, the girls of Saint Agnes hatch a wild plan to turn their flailing team around-while their self-defeating coach must confront his 'loseritis.'

McCarter Theatre Center announces the complete cast of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Rebecca Taichman. A co-production with Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, Twelfth Night begins performances in the Matthews Theatre on Tuesday, March 10 and runs until March 29. (Press opening Friday, March 13). Shipwrecked in a foreign land without family, friends or possessions-what's a girl to do? Identity is under siege in the labyrinth of misconceptions that is Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's bewitching comedy of unquenchable desire, self-deception and misdirected love. This fantastical, timeless production-helmed by rising-star director Rebecca Taichman-is a real sensualist's delight: full of longing 'all as hungry as the sea' and awash in ethereal charm.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (David Van Asselt, Artistic Director and Sandra Coudert, Managing Director) continues its 14th anniversary season with the World Premiere of That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, a new comedy by Sheila Callaghan, directed by Kip Fagan (Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Nelson). Performances begin Tuesday, February 10th. Opening night is Monday, February 23rd at 7pm. The show will run through Sunday, March 15th.

Gettysburg Stage continues its sixth season with a double feature: Christopher Durang's dark comedy 'Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You' and John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Doubt,' opening March 7 at Keefauver Center, Gettysburg. 'This marks the first time we've offered two plays in one evening,' notes Gettysburg Stage board president Jim Krut. 'Not only is this an exceptional value, we're proud to offer challenging plays with great artistic merit and relevance.'

The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) presents the fifth production of its 2008-09 Season: Samuel Beckett?s iconic masterpiece Endgame, directed by Marcus Stern, at the A.R.T.?s Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge. The production begins performances on Saturday, February 14 and runs through Sunday, March 15; it will be available for press viewing from Wednesday, February 18 at 7:30pm.

Hudson Stage announces its Spring Mainstage production- the New York premiere of Westchester resident Richard Dresser's quirky, laugh out loud comedy, The Pursuit of Happiness. The show runs April 17th- May 2nd, and asks the timely ethical question: How far would a parent go to get their child into the college of their choice?' This play is about the cost of winning', notes Dresser. Mr. Dresser is a noted playwright whose works have been widely produced in regional theatres, NYC, and Europe. He penned the Off-Broadway hit, Rounding Third and is perhaps best known for the long-running popular TV series, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. The production will be directed by Sheryl Kaller, who recently helmed the Christopher Durang musical, Adrift in Macao at Primary Stages in NYC, and NY Stage and Film at Vassar. Included in the cast is Denise Bessette, Hudson Stage co-founder who last appeared with the company in Kimberly Akimbo. Dan Foster and Olivia Sklar are executive producers.

Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Arts Program and Columbia Stages Present MASTERPIECES: Part Two of SPRING, a Series of Three Springtime Events Celebrating Columbia's M.F.A. Playwriting Class of 2009 Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Arts Program and Columbia Stages present MASTERPIECES, the second event in SPRING, a celebration in three parts of Columbia's M.F.A. Playwriting Class of 2009. In MASTERPIECES, each playwright presents a staged reading of a full-length play in various locations around New York City.

Baltimore's newest gang of artists, Nine Imaginary Cows Theater Collective, presents a brand-spanking-new work for the stage: There Have Been Other Men in My Wife's Bed (A Marital Arrangement for 3 Actors), running February 26 through March 7 at Theatre Project (45 West Preston Street, Baltimore). Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8pm for both weeks, with a special 7pm performance on Sunday, March 1. Ticket prices are $20 for General Admission, $15 for Seniors and Artists, and $10 for Students. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling Theatre Project at 410-752-8558, or online by visiting missiontix.com. For more information, visit www.theatreproject.org.

Join celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy when she celebrates Oscar with an evening featuring Academy Award-winning songs and winners as the theme of her Multi MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends on Monday, February 16th (7:00PM) at the New York hotspot The Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street - between 5th & 6th Avenues).

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 Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced complete casting today for Christopher Durang's WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM. Laura Benanti, Audrie Neenan, and Richard Poe will join the previously announced Amir Arison, David Aaron Baker, Kristine Nielsen, and John Pankow in this world premiere comedy, directed by Nicholas Martin. WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM begins previews on March 24 and runs through April 26 with an official press opening on Monday, April 6 at 7 PM.

Blue Coyote Theater Group is proud to present the NY premiere of David Johnston's CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS, directed by Kyle Ancowitz, Gary Shrader and Stephen Speights. CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS begins previews on Wednesday, February 11 for a limited engagement through Saturday, March 7. Opening Night is Saturday, February 14 at 8 PM. The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8:00 PM. Performances are at the Access Theater (380 Broadway, just north of White Street). Tickets are $18 ($10 during previews) and are available by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com. Playwright David Johnston returns to Blue Coyote with the New York premieres of four short plays: CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE, PLAY RUSSIA, FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE LIVED IN FRANCE and MOTHRA IS WAITING. Each play examines the romanticism, idealism and absurdism of journeys to other countries (and sometimes other planets) through the prism of David Johnston's 'fertile imagination' and his 'trademark off-kilter sensibility' (New York Times). In PLAY RUSSIA-a must-see for theater nerds-Mr. Johnston upends the most revered Russian playwright, Chekhov, with hilarious results. MOTHRA IS WAITING finds two middle-aged chanteuses waiting for the cult-horror-classic bug Mothra to rescue them from their meaningless lives in Bridgeport to become Goddesses on Infant Island. The Francophile desires of Henry Kissinger, Mary Queen of Scots and modern-day American Lunelle Snead converge in FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE LIVED IN FRANCE. In CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE, we return to Russia where post-Cold War espionage and intrigue collides with Russia's literary masters.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award?-winner in years is coming to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will play a two-week engagement from February 10-22, 2009. Curtain times for the U.S. Bank Broadway Series presentation are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 & 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 15 at 2 & 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, February 22 at 2 p.m. There is also a weekday matinee on Thursday, February 19 at 1 p.m.

Join celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy when she celebrates Oscar with an evening featuring Academy Award-winning songs and winners as the theme of her Multi MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends on Monday, February 16th (7:00PM) at the New York hotspot The Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street - between 5th & 6th Avenues).