Dallas Theater Center News

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announces nine awards granted from their National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its sixth year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $35,500 to nine organizations across the country.

Dallas Theater Center announced today the two recipients of the 2013-2014 Project Discovery Distinguished Educator of the Year Award. Shawn Brentham from Irving High School and Catherine Hopkins from W. H. Adamson High School are the first ever co-recipients of the award. The educators have been involved with Project Discovery for five years and together have brought 2,500 students to 28 productions at DTC.

The Pearl Theatre Company has named Hal Brooks as its new Artistic Director, it was announced today by the Board of Trustees. Brooks succeeds J.R. Sullivan, who served as The Pearl's Artistic Director from 2009 to 2013. Kate Farrington, The Pearl's Resident Dramaturg and Artistic Associate, has been Interim Artistic Director since Mr. Sullivan's departure.

Upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, May 4, 2014.

People's Light is proud to announce new play commissions for Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Kate Fodor, Karen Hartman, Dominique Morisseau, and Kathryn Petersen. These six playwrights are the first participants in our New Play Frontiers residency program. New Play Frontiers is an initiative to conceive, develop, and produce new plays that explore our American identity through stories of deep meaning to specific populations in the five-county region that surround our theatre.

Scenic designer, writer and professor, MARJORIE BRADLEY KELLOGG, and costume designer DEBORAH M. DRYDEN are among the 2014 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony tonight, May 2, at 6:30pm, at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street).

Brave New World Rep announces the latest in its NEW WORKS series featuring Brooklyn playwrights, #therevolution by Kristoffer Diaz. The production, directed by Liesl Tommy, will play May 5th, 2014 at 7 p.m. at 61 Local, 61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY (F/G to Bergen Street). Admission for all events is free

This just in! Leslie Odom Jr. ("Smash") will join Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo in the New York City Center Encores! Off-Center production of Jonathan Larson¹stick, tick… BOOM!, running for five performances, June 25 ­ 28. The opening show of City Center's acclaimed Encores! Off-Center series of landmark Off-Broadway musicals will be directed byOliver Butler with choreography by Camille A. Brown and music direction by Chris Fenwick. Jeanine Tesori is Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for recent Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Appearing in titles roles are Resident Actor Jeffrey Bean as Vanya, Sharon Lockwood returning to the Alley as Sonia, Alley Artist Josie de Guzman returning as Masha, and Resident Actor Jay Sullivan as Spike. Rounding out the cast and making their Alley debuts are Rachael Holmes as Cassandra and Sarah Nealis as Nina. Jonathan Moscone, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater, helms the production and returns after having directed the Alley's 2011 production of Amadeus.

Paper Mill Playhouse concludes its 75th Anniversary Season with America's favorite musical, Grease. With book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Grease will be directed by Daniel Goldstein with original choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter. Additional songs are by John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Scott Simon and Louis St. Louis. Grease will play the Millburn, New Jersey, theater from May 28 through June 29, 2014. The official press opening night is Sunday, June 1, at 7:00pm. Paper Mill Playhouse's 75th Anniversary Season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank.

Tony Award winner, Theater Hall of Fame member and legendary Broadway star Betty Buckley returns to Denver to teach her third consecutive Summer Intensive Song Interpretation & Monologue Workshop, June 9-13th. The workshop is a master class for actors and singers of all levels: high school students, college students, professionals, educators and anyone aspiring to refine their communication skills in word or song.

Dallas Theater Center brings the world's greatest detective to the stage in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, written by Steven Dietz and directed by DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. Audiences will be thrilled by Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, which is based on the original 1899 play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle and opens in previews tonight, April 25 with a Pay-What-You-Can performance and runs through May 25 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.

Tony-Nominated Director Randal Myler and multi-talented Music Director Dan Wheetman return to Lone Tree Arts Center (LTAC) to create a new vision for Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after setting the bar high with Hank Williams: Lost Highway last spring and John Denver Holiday Concert in 2012. Returning to the roots of Mark Twain's classic American folktale, this production of Big River focuses on the talent and voices of the cast as they each become storytellers.

The 2013-2014 season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with the compelling world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent. Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center, this incredibly thought-provoking production is inspired by the real life court case between the Havasupai Indian tribe and Arizona State University, and sparks an intriguing debate on both ethicality and morality. Directed by Sean Daniels and Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth, Informed Consent will serve as the centerpiece to CPH's 2014 New Ground Theatre Festival and will run from today, April 23 - May 18 in the Second Stage.

Upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, April 20, 2014.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced yesterday that Dallas Theater Center is one of 886 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. DTC is recommended for a $15,000 grant to support The Neighborhood Initiative.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley, directed by Patricia McGregor. The House that will not Stand will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) today, April 18-May 10. Opening Night is Thursday, April 24.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes began previews Friday, April 11, opens tonight, April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

For the final show of the its 50th Anniversary Season, Hartford Stage will present Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - the most popular play in America this year and the winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play - from May 22 to June 15. Maxwell Williams, Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director, will direct this rollicking comedy by Christopher Durang (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and Betty's Summer Vacation).

Dallas Theater Center brings the world's greatest detective to the stage in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, written by Steven Dietz and directed by DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. Audiences will be thrilled by Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, which is based on the original 1899 play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle and opens in previews on April 25 with a Pay-What-You-Can performance and runs through May 25 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. Tickets to Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 880-0202.