Edward Albee News

FREUD'S LAST SESSION is set to open tonight, March 9th at 8 PM at Pittsburgh Public Theater. Under the direction of Mary B. Robinson, the Pittsburgh debut of FREUD'S LAST SESSION stars Jonathan Crombie as C. S. Lewis and David Wohl as Sigmund Freud.

Actor John Fredo and director Derek Campbell will reunite to bring to life the world-premiere production of Darryl Schneider's Clean Break, beginning Friday, March 9th, 2012, at the Road Less Traveled Theater.

In homage to one of America's greatest playwrights, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater hosts the Eugene O'Neill Festival, a two-month examination of the life and work of O'Neill. Similar to the Edward Albee Festival in 2011, this celebration will feature unique collaborations with other arts and education institutions in a diverse program of events. The Eugene O'Neill Festival runs March 9-May 6, 2012 and is sponsored by Joan and David Maxwell.

Signature Theatre has just introduced new supplemental programs which will allow more intimate and direct access to a playwright's vision and process. Just as the layout of The Pershing Square Signature Center encourages a dialogue between different plays and audiences, these supplemental programs invite theatregoers to go deeper into the world of a play, and the world of the artists behind it. The following three events are free of charge, and do not require a reservation.

New York's smash hit play FREUD'S LAST SESSION is set to open tomorrow night, March 9th at 8 PM at Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons will hold its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, June 11th at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Titled "The Highest Standard", the evening will celebrate its five Pulitzer Prize-winning productions and honor the creators of these memorable works for the theater. The honorees are James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George), Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park), Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George), Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy), Wendy Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles) and Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife).

The benefit will feature a segment from the 1976 musical Pacific Overtures revised, with new lyrics, especially for the occasion by its creators librettist John Weidman and composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim. BroadwayWorld.com is excited to premiere the text from creators John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim.

Signature Theatre today announced a second extension for EDWARD ALBEE'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE, directed by David Esbjornson. Extended last week through April 1, the production will now play two additional weeks, through Sunday, April 15. EDWARD ALBEE's THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE is the inaugural production in The End Stage Theatre at the company's new home The Pershing Square Signature Center. The production opened on Monday, March 5. Tickets during the extension week are $75 each. Check out performance highlights below!

On Sunday, March 11, the first anniversary of the great Japanese earthquake, Theater Communications Group is organizing performance events nationwide to raise funds for the Japan Playwrights Association to help the Japanese theater community affected by the disaster. The collective event is called: SHINSAI: THEATERS FOR JAPAN.

Signature Theatre today announced a second extension for EDWARD ALBEE'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE, directed by David Esbjornson. Extended last week through April 1, the production will now play two additional weeks, through Sunday, April 15. EDWARD ALBEE's THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE is the inaugural production in The End Stage Theatre at the company's new home The Pershing Square Signature Center. The production opened on Monday, March 5. Tickets during the extension week are $75 each.

Patti LuPone, Richard Thomas, Mary Beth Hurt, Jay O. Sanders and Henry Stram will join forces with the previously announced Michi Barral, Cindy Cheung, Joel de la Fuente, Angel Desai, Ann Harada, Jennifer Ikeda, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Ken Leung, Li Jun Li, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Paolo Montalban, Olivia Oguma, Jon Norman Schneider, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Jade Wu, Jonny Wo, James Yaegashi and Stacey Yen to raise funds that will go directly to Japanese theater artists devasted by last year's earthquake when they appear in this Sunday's March 11 benefit performances of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, at the Great Hall at Cooper Union (Seventh Street at Third Avenue).

In its opening moments, it would be completely understandable to assume that Assistance, Leslye Headland's viciously fun satire of the cutthroat dealings among entry-level twenty-somethings, might be mimicking David Mamet's dark comedy of film executives, Speed-the-Plow. 

As the final of three mainstage productions during the two-month Eugene O'Neill Festival spearheaded by Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, Long Day's Journey into Night rounds out this celebration of O'Neill's life and work. The English-born and Canadian-based director and former Stratford Festival Artistic Director Robin Phillips makes his Arena Stage debut to direct his fourth production of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play in a theatrical career spanning more than 50 years.

On March 11, 2012-the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Japan-American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) will join over 65 theaters across the country in presenting SHINSAI ("great quake" in Japanese), a benefit reading to support fellow theater artists on the other side of the world. Selections will be drawn from a menu of 10-minute plays and songs that were commissioned from major American and Japanese artists, who have donated their work for this one-night only event. Performance takes place at 7 p.m. at The Garret at the American Conservatory Theater. Tickets are $5 and can be ordered online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228. All proceeds will benefit the Japan Playwrights Association.

As previously announced, Elizabeth Marvel will return to the cast of its critically acclaimed production of OTHER DESERT CITIES, a new play by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Joe Mantello, beginning tonight at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45 Street).

Michi Barral, Cindy Cheung, Joel de la Fuente, Angel Desai, Ann Harada, Jennifer Ikeda, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Ken Leung, Li Jun Li, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Paolo Montalban, Olivia Oguma, Jon Norman Schneider, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Jade Wu, Jonny Wo, James Yaegashi and Stacey Yen will be featured in Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, a two performance benefit to raise funds that will go directly to Japanese theater artists devastated by last year's great earthquake (Shinsai). Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, will be performed this Sunday, March 11 at 3pm and 8pm at the Great Hall at Cooper Union (Seventh Street at Third Avenue).

On the centennial of Strindberg's death, Harvard University is hosting a two-day symposium of staged readings, expert lectures, an exhibit of rare artifacts, and film screenings that will provide a fresh look at the work of this Swedish playwright, author and artist who changed the course of the modern theatre. The symposium events will take place from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, March 2 - Saturday, March 3, primarily in Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street on the Harvard campus. All events are free and open to the public.

Lynn Cohen and Jake Robards set to headline the cast of the world premiere of Rivka Beekerman-Greenberg's EAVESDROPPING ON DREAMS, presented Off-Broadway by Barefoot Theatre Company with previews beginning April 20 prior to an official press opening of Friday, April 27 at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre (38 Commerce Street) in Manhattan. Ronald Cohen will direct.

Nicky Silver's play THE LYONS -- a critical and popular success when it debuted last fall at Vineyard Theatre -- will transfer to Broadway's Cort Theatre (138 W. 48 St.) with its entire original cast expected to be inteact, including the Tony Award-winning stars Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, along with Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley and Gregory Wooddell. Michael Esper is in negotionations to return as well. The Vineyard Theatre production of THE LYONS will be presented on Broadway by producer Kathleen K. Johnson. Mark Brokaw directs.