Ensemble Studio Theatre News

New Feet Productions will present Leave the Balcony Open, a new play about learning how to live with loss written by Maya Macdonald.

Following their successful, off Broadway productions of Aliens with Extraordinary Skills by Saviana Stanescu at Theater 54 and Play Nice! at 59e59 Theaters, Ego Actus has announced their next production, Pizza Man by Darlene Craviotto. Pizza Man will be directed by Joan Kane, one of nytheatre.com's 2011 People of the Year in indie theatre. Joan has also recently directed in Lower East Side Festival, the Midtown International Festival, and the Planet Connections Festivity (Award for Best Direction).

Red Fern Theatre Company will present newly commissioned work by Rob Askins (Hand to God at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Joshua Conkel (MilkMilkLemonade with Horse Trade Theater Group), J. Hotham (Thicker Than Water at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Anna Moench(The Pillow Book at 59E59), Kristen Lee Rosenfeld (Musical Director, National Tour of Spring Awakening) and Luanne Aronen Rosenfeld, and Jen Silverman (Crane Story at the Cherry Lane Theatre), all addressing the meaning of equality within the landscape of the 2012 election.

Studio 42 will present the new play BILLY WITCH by playwright Gregory S. Moss (Soho Rep's ORANGE, HAT & Grace, PUNKPLAY).

The OBIE-winning HERE announced the line-up for its annual CULTUREMART festival, this year running January 24 - February 11. CULTUREMART makes process the focus, presenting work in various stages of development from the boundary-breaking artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). CULTUREMART provides a platform for HARP artists to blur the lines between dance, theatre, music, multimedia, puppetry and visual art, on their journey to mainstage productions. CULTUREMART 2012 features 12 workshop performances spanning topics as varied as civic engagement, human error, music of the spheres, war gaming and everything in between.

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA presents three weeks of non-stop staged readings: 47 plays in 18 days including new works by playwrights Nicholas Kazan, Tom Jacobson, Richard Martin Hirsch, Jacqueline Wright, Colin Mitchell, Jonas Oppenheim and many more.

Canal Park Playhouse will present the world premiere of INADMISSABLE, a dark comedy about the Machiavellian realties of the college admission process by D.B. Gilles.

Red Fern Theatre Company (Melanie Moyer Williams, Executive Artistic Director, Ken Hall, Managing Director, and Lori Singleton, Artistic Producer) will present newly commissioned work by Rob Askins (Hand to God at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Joshua Conkel(MilkMilkLemonade with Horse Trade Theater Group), J. Holtham (Thicker Than Water at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Anna Moench (The Pillow Book at 59E59), Kristen Lee Rosenfeld (Musical Director, National Tour of Spring Awakening) and Luanne Aronen Rosenfeld(Holly and Ivy - Seattle), and Jen Silverman (Crane Story at the Cherry Lane Theatre), all addressing the meaning of equality within the landscape of the 2012 election.

Barbara Ligeti and Wishing Well Productions by special arrangement with The Cherry Lane Theatre will present the world premiere production of Frank Strausser's PSYCHO THERAPY - a new play about couples therapy…for three.

The Polish Cultural Institute and Culture Project will present The Wild Finish written and performed by Monica Hunken and directed by Melissa Chambers.

Barbara Ligeti and Wishing Well Productions by special arrangement with The Cherry Lane Theatre will present the world premiere production of Frank Strausser's PSYCHO THERAPY - a new play about couples therapy…for three.

Women's Project's follow-up to its widely-acclaimed co-pro Milk Like Sugar is Catherine Trieschmann's How The World Began, her first play produced in New York since her highly-acclaimed and award-winning crooked and her debut film Angels Crest.

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA presents three weeks of non-stop staged readings: 47 plays in 18 days including new works by playwrights Nicholas Kazan, Tom Jacobson, Richard Martin Hirsch, Jacqueline Wright, Colin Mitchell, Jonas Oppenheim and many more.

According to a report in the New York Times, HAND OF GOD, which recently concluded an off-Broadway run at Ensemble Studio Theater, will return for their 2012 season in February for eight weeks. Additionally, the show, which is about a a Texas teenager and a demonic puppet, might make a transfer to Broadway in the 2012-13 season. NYT's Patrick Healy writes: 'Theater executives working on "Hand to God" said on Tuesday that among the producers considering the show were Kevin McCollum and Roy Miller, who have produced open-ended runs of new works, including the Broadway musicals "[title of show]" and "The Drowsy Chaperone."'

Director, teacher and actress Heidi Helen Davis known for her work in Los Angeles at the Theatricum Botanicum, Mark Taper Forum, East West Players and Ensemble Studio Theatre has died. She was 60. Ms. Davis died December 15th at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles after a yearlong struggle with breast cancer. Her son and ex-husband were by her side.

HERE announces the line-up for its annual CULTUREMART festival, this year running January 24 - February 11.

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Jonathan Caren's hard-hitting drama, The Recommendation. Directed by Jonathan Munby, The Recommendation will run Jan. 21 - Feb. 26, 2012 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run Jan. 21 - Jan. 25. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 26 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

Red Fern Theatre Company will present newly commissioned work by Rob Askins (Hand to God at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Joshua Conkel (MilkMilkLemonade with Horse Trade Theater Group), J. Hotham (Thicker Than Water at Ensemble Studio Theatre), Anna Moench(The Pillow Book at 59E59), Kristen Lee Rosenfeld (Musical Director, National Tour of Spring Awakening) and Luanne Aronen Rosenfeld, and Jen Silverman (Crane Story at the Cherry Lane Theatre), all addressing the meaning of equality within the landscape of the 2012 election.

'Open Rehearsal' by Lazarre Seymour Simckes, author of 'Seven Days of Mourning,' 'Ten Best Martyrs of the Year,' and 'Nossig's Antics,' is a Pirandellian farce in which a play about a chaotic family pretends to be just a chaotic rehearsal. The playwright is an award-winning author whose plays usually confront difficult questions of Jewish history with absurdist logic. This is his fourth production at Theater for the New City and his first time directing his own work.