Contemporary Stage News

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO officially opens at the Broadway Theatre tonight, April 21, 2015. Let's see what the critics had to say...

L.A. Theatre Works celebrates its 40th Anniversary and honors Geoffrey Cowan, President of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and University Professor at the University of Southern California and the L.A. Theatre Works Company of Artists.

Avenue Q star Julie Atherton is to play Janet in the highly anticipated Rocky Horror sequel, a role previously played by Jessica Harper in the film and made famous by Susan Sarandon in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As well as her roles as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the original London cast of Avenue Q, Atherton also starred as Sister Mary Robert in the first UK tour of Sister Act: The Musical and recently won critical acclaim in the title role inTherese Raquin at the Finborough Theatre and the Park Theatre. Her third album, Rush of Life, was released at the end of 2014.

L.A. Theatre Works celebrates its 40th Anniversary and honors Geoffrey Cowan, President of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and University Professor at the University of Southern California and the L.A. Theatre Works Company of Artists.

Few exhibitions call more persuasively for complementary programming than the Frick's upcoming Coypel's Don Quixote Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France.

Hang A Tale's Kim Martin-Cotten will direct The Little Prince at The Pearl Theatre running now through March 22nd. The cast is lead by Tarah Flanagan as The Prince and Christopher Gerson as the Aviator, while a mercurial ensemble (Kimiye Corwin, Michael Arden Larson, Jacques Roy, Jude Sandy and Paola Styron) shape-shifts its way through the host of beautiful, hilarious, and bizarre characters that surround them. With live musical performance by Alexander Sovronsky, puppets and masks created by Matt Cotten of Puppets Among Us, and space travel courtesy of Christopher Gersons's video design, Hang A Tale creates a theatrical landscape to match the magic, poignancy and humor of this beloved classic. For the open-hearted, aged six to a hundred and six.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is a fresh and funny new play about love, intimacy, and marriage. It's the 1880s and electricity is all the rage. In a quiet home office, a doctor experiments with a new instrument for treating 'hysteria.' The device? A vibrator. In this genuinely touching, original, and wickedly funny play, playwright Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House) explores relationships and sexual fulfillment while managing to stay discreetly beneath the crisp white sheets of Victorian propriety.

Few exhibitions call more persuasively for complementary programming than the Frick's upcoming Coypel's Don Quixote Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is a fresh and funny new play about love, intimacy, and marriage. It's the 1880s and electricity is all the rage. In a quiet home office, a doctor experiments with a new instrument for treating 'hysteria.' The device? A vibrator. In this genuinely touching, original, and wickedly funny play, playwright Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House) explores relationships and sexual fulfillment while managing to stay discreetly beneath the crisp white sheets of Victorian propriety.

Quintessence Theatre Group continues its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS. As part of the centennial celebration of Kafka's groundbreaking masterpiece, Rebecca Wright directs Steven Berkoff's timeless stage adaptation.

Theatre for a New Audience, which last week extended the run of Tamburlaine The Great, starring John Douglas Thompson, through January 4, has added four more events to 'Celebrating Christopher Marlowe' in conjunction with this epic production now on stage at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director, announced.

Quintessence Theatre Group continues its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with Simon Reade's stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's ALICE's ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Last Christmas Quintessence took you on an adventure across the English countryside and into the wild wood. This year we will venture down the rabbit hole. A theatrical event for the whole family, Quintessence's special brand of imagination theatre will take you on a whirlwind adventure with Alice and allow you to escape the holiday madness in Wonderland. Bringing together the best professional actors and designers from Philadelphia and across the country, Artistic Director Alexander Burns leads this collective of artists on a mission to ignite the classics through visceral, actor-focused and text-driven productions. ALICE's ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND will begin previews today, December 10 at 7pm and open on Saturday, December 13 at 7pm. All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave in Mt Airy, Philadelphia, 19119. To purchase tickets visit QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 215.987.4450.

Tamburlaine the Great starring John Douglas Thompson, edited and directed by Olivier Award-winner Michael Boyd into one fast-moving three-hour event with choreography by Sam Pinkleton and music composed by Arthur Solari, extends its broadly-acclaimed run for an additional two weeks through January 4 at Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Theatre for a New Audience Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz announced. The original closing date was December 21.

The O'Shaughnessy presents TU Dance as the celebrated dance company opens its 11th performance season with a world premiere work by renowned Icelandic choreographer Katrín Hall, commissioned by The O'Shaughnessy.

Quintessence Theatre Group continues its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with Simon Reade's stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's ALICE's ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Last Christmas Quintessence took you on an adventure across the English countryside and into the wild wood. This year we will venture down the rabbit hole. A theatrical event for the whole family, Quintessence's special brand of imagination theatre will take you on a whirlwind adventure with Alice and allow you to escape the holiday madness in Wonderland. Bringing together the best professional actors and designers from Philadelphia and across the country, Artistic Director Alexander Burns leads this collective of artists on a mission to ignite the classics through visceral, actor-focused and text-driven productions. ALICE's ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND will begin previews on Wednesday, December 10 at 7pm and open on Saturday, December 13 at 7pm. All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave in Mt Airy, Philadelphia, 19119. To purchase tickets visit QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 215.987.4450.

Monologues and scenes are vital instruments in every actor's toolbox. During an audition, performing a monologue gives casting directors a sense of the actor's skill level and personality. But not every monologue fits every actor, and there is an ongoing need for a variety of material that actors in the modern world can relate and connect to.

Quintessence Theatre Group has launched its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with an all-male Shakespeare repertory: AS YOU LIKE IT presented in rotating repertory with RICHARD II.

The O'Shaughnessy presents TU Dance as the celebrated dance company opens its 11th performance season with a world premiere work by renowned Icelandic choreographer Katrín Hall, commissioned by The O'Shaughnessy.

Quintessence Theatre Group launches its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with an all-male Shakespeare repertory: AS YOU LIKE IT presented in rotating repertory with RICHARD II. Bringing together the best professional actors and designers from Philadelphia and across the country, Artistic Director Alexander Burns leads this collective of artists on a mission to ignite the classics through visceral, actor-focused and text-driven productions. AS YOU LIKE IT will begin previews today, October 1 at 7pm and open on Saturday, October 4 at 8pm. RICHARD II will begin previews on Thursday, October 9 at 7pm and open on Saturday, October 18 at 8pm. All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave in Mt Airy, Philadelphia, PA.

Since high school I have found Greek tragedy a repetitious, tedious bore - lots of emoting with zero action and no laughs. As I watched the magnificent SITI Company from New York perform Aeschylus' very first tragedy Persians at the Getty Villa in Malibu, things took a different turn, I somehow became fascinated ... primarily by Anne Bogart's fluid staging and the company of 9 impeccably disciplined and graceful actors.