Ensemble Studio Theatre News

After an acclaimed premiere in San Diego, Wonderlist Productions and Neighborhood Productions presents the New York Premiere of BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS by award-winning playwright Lila Rose Kaplan. Directed by Sarah Rasmussen, the production begins previews begin June 14 at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater. Opening is slated for June 19.

InFusion Theatre Company has announced its second collaboration with award-winning playwright Qui Nguyen with the Midwest premiere of Fight Girl Battle World, directed by InFusion Artistic Director Mitch Golob, May 14 - June 16, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Meet the show's lead Sheila O'Connor below!

The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) has announced Willy Russell's (Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine) BLOOD BROTHERS, musical staging by Christine O'Grady, musical direction by Julianne B. Merrill, and directed by Tom Wojtunik. BLOOD BROTHERS will play a limited engagement at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church (30-44 Crescent St, Astoria, NY 11102. Entrance on 30th Road.) Performances begin Thursday, May 2 and continue through Saturday, May 18.

Members of The Sandbox Artists Collective will present the Sandbox One-Act Play Festival (aka SOAP Fest), premiering new works by some of Seattle's most provocative playwrights. Innovative and inspiring, each piece is a fully realized story of approximately 20-30 minutes and packed with dramatic intensity.

At Hand Theatre Company (Letters to the End of The World, Broadway Recycled) presents the World Premiere of Joshua Conkel's I WANNA DESTROY YOU, a romantic comedy that tears the trope of the gay sidekick to shreds. Produced by Matthew DiCarlo and Justin Scribner and directed by Dan Horrigan (As Wide As I Can See), previews begin May 17 at the Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row. Opening is slated for May 22.

3rd Kulture Kids launches its In Transit reading series taking place on the 8th, 15th and 22nd of April at Somethin' Jazz, 212 E 52nd Street at 6:30pm (readings will start at 7).

The World Premiere new musical PARADISE, is extending through May 4th, 2013, at Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, Calif. The run will take a hiatus from March 31st - April 12th, no performance on April 28th. Award winning director Dan Bonnell has assembled an outstanding cast for this memorable new musical, with live music on stage.

Casting directors James Dreisbach from Pat McCorkle Casting, Jamibeth Margolis Casting, Jennifer Peralta-Ajemian and Robin Carus of J&R Casting, Barry Moss of MKA Casting, Helene Galek of Helene GalekCasting; manager Bob Luke; and agents Albert Bramante of Emerging Talent, Sue Winik of Sheplin Winik Artists and Emily Sclar of Judy Boals Agency are among the more than 40 theater professionals attending the upcoming TRU 2013 Combined Audition Event on April 6 and 7, 2013.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre will honor two of Broadway's most distinguished producers, Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, at its 45th Anniversary Gala, Monday evening, May 20, at 6:30pm at SIR Stage 37, 508 West 37th Street. Tickets are $500 and $1,000.

Finks is playwright Joe Gilford's fictionalized account of his parents, Jack Gilford and Madeline Lee Gilford, and their real life experience of the blacklist. It is a tale of a scoundrel time, a time of paranoia, loyalty and betrayal, show business and show trials, told from the life of two young entertainers who, at the birth of their careers, had to confront the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). This play is about names, the naming of names, career-determining choices and finks.

Kumu Kahau Theatre will present the world premiere of ALL THAT REMAINS, a story of loyalty and betrayal told by ghost soldiers from the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat team who return just one night to a forest in France to recreate a single act of violence that torments both the living and the dead. Using an experimental style drawing from Japanese Noh theatre, ALL THAT REMAINS offers a challenging, provocative look at the heroism and despair of war.

Playwright Tommy Smith returns to The Flea and once again brings you to the brink with the New York Premiere of WHITE HOT. Previews begin April 26 with opening night slated for May 7.

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 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.

BEN RIMALOWER: "PATTI ISSUES" - the hit solo play hailed as "ecstatically vivid" by The New York Times and praised for its "wit, feeling and conviction" by Time Out New York - has announced a sixth extension after more rave reviews and a host of awards. The show will now run through June 29 at The Duplex in the West Village. Since "PATTI ISSUES" opened in August, it has become a must-see show on the downtown theater scene, garnering great word-of-mouth from attendees such as Alan Cumming, Michael Kors, Justin Vivian Bond, Tonya Pinkins, Perez Hilton and Ms. LuPone herself ("I was moved," she said. "He's a very talented man and I'm so proud of him.") Included as "Best New York Theater of 2012," The Advocate called the show "smart, poignant and dishy as hell," while it was dubbed "pithy and unforgettable" by The Huffington Post and "a very fierce comedy" by BroadwayWorld.com. "PATTI ISSUES" received a special Bistro Award for solo play in March and just won the MAC Award for "Male Debut." The show will be performed in Berkeley, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles between March 26 and March 30. BEN RIMALOWER: "PATTI ISSUES" is directed by Aaron Mark (Another Medea with Tom Hewitt, Random Unrelated Projects).

The Flea has announced that Thirteen WNET will be filming the critically acclaimed production of THE VANDAL on March 29. A broadcast date has not been slated. Written by actor Hamish Linklater (School for Lies, Twelfth Night, Recent Tragic Events & The Busy World is Hushed, and TV's The New Adventures of Old Christine), The Vandal runs through March 31. It is directed by Flea Artistic Director Jim Simpson starring Zach Grenier, Deidre O'Connell, and Noah Robbins.

Hidden secrets are unearthed and family tensions fly high in Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin Baitz's contemporary family drama Other Desert Cities. Helen Hayes Award winner and former Arena Stage Associate Artistic Director Kyle Donnelly returns to direct the D.C.-area premiere of the show with a cast that features Tony Award nominee and two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Helen Carey (Mary Tyrone in Arena Stage's Long Day's Journey into Night, Broadway's Hedda Gabler) as matriarch Polly Wyeth and two-time Tony Award nominee Larry Bryggman (Broadway's Harvey, CBS's As the World Turns) as patriarch Lyman Wyeth. Rounding out the cast are Emily Donahoe (Broadway's 33 Variations) as daughter Brooke Wyeth, Scott Drummond (Cherry Lane Theatre's A Perfect Future) as son Trip Wyeth and Martha Hackett (Pacific Resident Theatre's Nora) as their aunt Silda Grauman. Other Desert Cities runs April 26-May 26, 2013 in the Fichandler Stage.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is excited to announce the first 30 of more than 40 companies that will be in attendance at the TRU 2013 Combined Audition Event on April 6th and 7th. Actors must register by Monday, March 25th to ensure an audition slot for this opportunity to be seen at this unique casting event. Representatives from both not-for-profit theater companies and commercial producers and production companies will be in attendance, as well as casting directors and agents. The companies have a wide range of casting needs and produce at all levels, union and nonunion, including off-Broadway and regional.