Ensemble Studio Theatre News

Rogue Machine presents Los Angeles Premiere of DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn, opening May 18, 2013 with reception to follow. The production runs 5pm Saturdays, 7pm Sundays, and 8pm Mondays through July 8, 2013, with Memorial weekend performances on May 23rd at 8pm and Sunday, May 26th at 7pm (No performance on June 24th).

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Kenneth Lin's Warrior Class. Kenneth Lin is a staff writer on Netflix's House of Cards and the creator of a new limited series, American Way, for USA Networks. Warrior Class, which won the Theatre Communications Group Edgerton New Play Prize, is directed by Wilson Milam and runs May 3 through June 2, 2013 on the Neuhaus Stage.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director), Barry Grove (Executive Producer), and Mandy Greenfield (Artistic Producer) have announced full casting for the world premiere of THE EXPLORERS CLUB, the new play by Tony Award nominee Nell Benjamin, directed by Marc Bruni.

After 34 years, The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon of One-Act Plays is the longest running, most acclaimed one-act play festival in the country. The theatre's artistic director, William Carden, has selected 16 plays to be presented on THREE separate programs for The Ensemble Studio Theatre's 2013 Marathon of One-Act Plays May 18 through June 29 at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.

A new THEATER TALK episode focuses on two of the season's best new plays. David Hyde Pierce and Kristine Nielsen, two of the stars of Christopher Durang's celebrated Broadway comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, lead off the two-segment episode, followed by playwright Joe Gilford and producer William Carden discussing Ensemble Studio Theatre's acclaimed off-Broadway production of FINKS, a look at the impact of the 1950s blacklist based on the experiences of Gilford's parents. The program premieres Friday, April 26, 2013 at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and repeats in New York City on CUNY TV* Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 12:30 PM, and Monday at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast Premiere of Bekah Brunstetter's quirky and tender comedy Be a Good Little Widow. Directed by Hal Brooks, Be a Good Little Widow will run May 11 - June 9, 2013 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run May 11 - May 15. Opening night is Thursday, May 16 at 8:00 p.m. Meet the cast in the photos below!

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the epic musical Les Miserables. Due to popular demand, the production's run has been extended by two weeks. Performances take place May 3 through June 1, 2013.

'I can't marry Ernest Hamilton. I love him! We wish to be free to keep together! In the old days when they had interests in common, marriage used to make man and woman one, but now, it puts them apart. Can't you see it all about you? No wonder one in eleven ends in divorce. The only way to avoid spiritual separation is to shun legal union like a disease. Modern marriage is divorce.' Helen is talking to her much befuddled family in Jesse Lynch Williams' comedy 'Why Marry?,' the first play to receive a Pulitzer Prize. A Broadway hit in 1917, it toured the country for a year, but had not been produced again until East Lynne Theater Company included it in its 2006 Cape May production season. The show was so successful, that ELTC revived it the following summer. On Friday, May 10 at 7:30p.m., 'Why Marry?' returns to a NYC stage for the first time since 1917 when ELTC presents a staged reading with most of the actors who were in the acclaimed 2007 production, at The Players Club, located at 16 Gramercy Park South (20th Street, East of Park Avenue).

There will be more Finks at the Ensemble Studio Theatre because Artistic Director William Carden has extended the widely-acclaimed production through Sunday, May 5 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. Finks opened Saturday, April 6.

New York Live Arts is set to present several Re: Awakenings performances as part of the inaugural Live Ideas festival. New York Live Arts' newest program initiative, Live Ideas is an annual humanities festival that will explore a different theme each year over several days. The inaugural festival, The Worlds of Oliver Sacks, will take place from today, April 17 through 21, 2013 and is comprised of more than 20 events, including performances, films and discussions that showcase works of art and spark conversations that engage the prevalent themes in the acclaimed neurologist's works.

Columbia Stages will present NEW PLAYS NOW, the annual festival of new plays by emerging artists from the MFA Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. NEW PLAYS NOW will run from tonight, April 17 to May 11 and will feature original works by Paulina Barros, Keith Boynton, Talya Chalef, Angelica Cheri, Pei-Chieh Chiang, Paola Lazaro Muñoz, Alessandra Most, Christina Quintana, Torrey Townsend, and Zhao Binghao.

Atlantic Theater Company has announced that Olivier and two time Tony Award winning playwright John Guare will make his Off Broadway acting debut in the world premiere production of his new play 3 KINDS OF EXILE, directed by Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe, featuring Atlantic ensemble members Peter Maloney and David Pittu and guest artists Alison Cimmet, Jeffrey Kuhn, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Martin Moran, Kate Rigg, Omar Sangare and Timothy Splain.

The Award-Winning Epic Theatre Ensemble, now in their 12th year presents William Shakespeare's RICHARD III: Born With Teeth, part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The production, directed by Ron Russell, begins previews Off-Broadway tonight, Tuesday, April 16th and opens Saturday, April 20th at 8:00 PM at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street). The play will run through May 4th.

Ego Actus (Bruce A! Kraemer and Joan Kane producers) will present Kate Fodor's 100 Saints You Should Know from May 9th thru May 26th at Urban Stages. Joan Kane directs. The cast features Rosie Cosch*, Eric Percival, Carolyn Cutillo, Phoenix Lee and Annette Hunt* (Ivanov at CSC Rep). (*Members of Actors' Equity)

Six children whose parents were on the blacklist of the 1950s will gather for a panel discussion after today's April 14, 5:00pm performance of Finks, playwright Joe Gilford's fictionalized account of his parents, Jack Gilford and MAdeline Lee Gilford, and their real life experience of the blacklist, at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.

The Award-Winning Epic Theatre Ensemble, now in their 12th year presents William Shakespeare's RICHARD III: Born With Teeth, part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The production, directed by Ron Russell, begins previews Off-Broadway on Tuesday, April 16th and opens Saturday, April 20th at 8:00 PM at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street). The play will run through May 4th.