Desdemona Chiang News

Pittsburgh Public Theater begins its 44th season with a new management team - Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski and Managing Director Lou Castelli - and the Pittsburgh premiere of Kate Hamill's innovative comedy, Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Desdemona Chiang, Pride and Prejudice runs September 27 - October 28, 2018 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District.

Get a first look at Heritage Theatre Festival's season-opening production of A Chorus Line!

The University of Washington School of Drama, under the leadership of outgoing Executive Director Todd London, incoming Executive Director Lynn M. Thomas and incoming Associate Director Geoff Korf, is pleased to announce our 2018 -2019 season.

The selection committee for the inaugural session of The 5th Avenue Theatre's new musical initiative, First Draft: Raise Your Voice, has been announced. This cycle is currently soliciting submissions nation-wide from womxn, gender non-conforming and non-binary folx with a submission deadline of June 15. Comprised of a team of outstanding womxn, the selection committee includes performers, producers, directors, playwrights and thought leaders in the Seattle theater landscape: Desdamona Chiang, Lauren DuPree, Keiko Green, Allison Narver, and Sarah Porkalob, lead by The 5th's Kelsey Thorgalsen and Bill Berry.

The Playwrights Realm, led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira, is pleased to present the lineup for their annual INK'D Festival of New Plays.

Seattle Shakespeare Company has never been one to shy away from a challenge and with their current production of "The Merchant of Venice" they certainly seem to have a challenge on their hands. As I see it they have one challenge they can, and hopefully will overcome as the production continues, the pace of the show, and one challenge inherit to the piece that they can never defeat but only embrace, the overt antisemitism.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's new Artistic Director, Marya Sea Kaminski, has assembled a collection of plays - some epic and timeless, others fresh and intimate - that invite us into the idea of home. These characters search for where they belong, who they love, and how they make a place for their families in poignant, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing circumstances. Marya welcomes you into their homes, and into ours: 'I am thrilled to invite Pittsburgh audiences into this season and to continue the Public Theater's legacy of telling a rich variety of stories with some of the most exciting artists working in the American Theater today. My favorite moment in the theater is when the artists and audience finally come together to bring a story to life. That feels like home to me. I look forward to having that experience in Pittsburgh, night after night.'

In The Merchant of Venice, a diverse and vibrant city comes alive in Shakespeare's interconnected tales of friendship, love, family, business, inequality, and intolerance. Desdemona Chiang directs the play for Seattle Shakespeare Company which runs March 20 -April 15, 2018 at the Center Theatre at the Seattle Center.

New Heritage Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Wales will mark her official return to her alma mater with a season that celebrates American stories, delivers entertaining and engaging professional theatre, and reflects on our uniquely challenging times.

Dear Readers, it's been quite a year and, hopefully, we've come through it unscathed. God knows we've needed some shows to help us escape and others to make us think. But through it all we've had several shows that have proven to shine as some of the best of the year. Out of all the shows I was fortunate enough to see this year, I've selected a few that stood out. Here are those stand outs, a few honorable mentions and a few special mentions about which I just couldn't help myself but to mention in their own special way.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

Lately friends have been asking me what shows I'm most looking forward to this holiday season. And while it's not a happy Christmas show I keep answering Building the Wall currently being offered from Azeotrope at 12th Avenue Arts. Then those friends look as me quizzically, I assume expecting some frothy musical or holiday classic at which point I say, the new play from Robert Schenkkan, who wrote All the Way and The Great Society about LBJ at which point those quizzical looks, rightfully, turn to ones of excitement and intrigue over another dose from a genius playwright. And now, Dear Readers, that I've virtually had the same conversation with you, you can understand why I tell you this is a play NOT TO MISS and how you MUST go get your tickets now. I'll wait. Did you do it yet? OK. Now on with the review.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

Seattle theatre company Azeotrope is pleased to announce the Seattle premiere of Building the Wall, by Tony Award winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (All The Way, The Great Society, The Kentucky Cycle), directed by Desdemona Chiang. Building the Wall begins opens Friday, December 1, 2017 and plays through December 23, 2017 at 12th Ave Arts Studio Theatre in Capitol Hill, Seattle.

Seattle Public Theater's 2017-18 Season opens with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness.

It's a world we may not know much about, that of old school Chinatown, with their family associations and insider customs. Hell, Lauren Yee grew up in this world and even she seems to be cut off from it and her Father Larry Yee runs the Yee Family Association. But that's the point of her play King of the Yees currently playing at ACT. Bur before you think this is another one of those dreadful family therapy on stage shows (and you know how I loathe those, Dear Readers) the show, with its quick witty dialog goes to a delightful meta and eventually metaphysical place making it an absolute joy.