Gertrude Stein News

Beginning May 1, two walls of the Jewish Museum's lobby will be filled with 34 new portraits by the London-based painter Chantal Joffe. This body of work explores Jewish women of the twentieth century, focusing on those who made major contributions to art, literature, philosophy, and politics - including Diane Arbus, Nancy Spero, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Susan Sontag, and Hannah Arendt.

After recently concluding its 2015 Cabaret Trilogy, Boiling Point Players Theatre prepares for its main stage production of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder. This delicious drama, winner of the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival for Best Overall Production, spotlights five fascinating females of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, a group of widows who together celebrate feminism and their united savor of quiche. When the sisters assemble in 1956 for their annual quiche-tasting competition, they encounter issues amongst and around themselves, challenging the foundations of their lives, their society, and the world as they know it. Bringing comedy, tragedy and excitement to the stage, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche promises a dynamic experience for its captive audiences.

Target Margin Theater, dedicating its 24th season to the exploration of works created by the great American novelist, poet and playwright, Gertrude Stein, concludes the 2015 Season with the world premiere of Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity, a new solo performance piece from Obie Award-winner David Greenspan, and The TMT Stein Spring Lab: When This You See Remember Me, that will run in tandem at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, Manhattan).

Kristen Gehling, who plays Rosemary Kennedy in Steven Carl McCasland's 28 Marchant Avenue, recently visited The Kennedy Library in Massachusetts to research her character and the Kennedy Family. In the play, audiences will spend five summers with the Kennedys as they grapple with the decision to lobotomize and institutionalize Rosemary. This family secret remained hidden for years. Scroll down for photos from Gehling's trip!

It's 1956, at the height of the Red Scare, and the great US of A is as hysterical as a lady on her monthly. Meanwhile, the presiding officers of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are calmly having their annual quiche breakfast. But they become girls interrupted when communists strike and drop a bomb. How will the sisters survive?

Compared by critics to Kafka and Joyce, H. G. Adler is quickly gaining recognition as a key figure in 20th-century fiction. Adler is author of The Wall, a fictional account of his life as a survivor of the Holocaust; and Theresienstadt 1941-1945: The Face of a Coerced Community, the first scholarly monograph to describe the particulars of a single concentration camp, to be published in a new translation in October 2015. The Jewish Museum will present H.G. Adler: A Survivor's Dual Reverie, an author talk featuring Daniel Mendelsohn, Peter Filkins, Ruth Franklin, and H.G. Adler's son Jeremy Adler, on Thursday, May 7 at 7pm. Edwin Frank will serve as moderator for the discussion. This program is co-presented with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, May 4-10, 2015.

Five plays by Steven Carl McCasland will be presented in repertory during a month-long celebration of the young playwright. Each play focuses on a different character from history, with a cast of 25 portraying such historical figures as Laurette Taylor, Rose Kennedy, Tennessee Williams, Agatha Christie, Joseph Goebbels, Gertrude Stein, Lillian Hellman and John F. Kennedy. Performances begin May 7, 2015. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!

HISTORY MATTERS/BACK TO THE FUTURE, a coalition of theatre professionals, announced the winner of the 1st annual Judith Barlow Prize is Selina Fillinger, a student at Northwestern University, who wrote a one-act play inspired by Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal. Ms. Fillinger will receive $2,500, a trip to New York City and a staged reading of her play on Sunday, May 3rd at 3 pm at Helen Mills Theater, 139 West 26th Street, NYC. Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will direct the reading which is free and open to the public.

On the heels of its hit production of The Full Monty, Kokandy Productions is pleased to continue its 2015 season with LOVING REPEATING, a musical tribute to the life and loves of celebrated American author Gertrude Stein. Using Stein's own works as lyrics, LOVING REPEATING is adapted by Frank Galati (The Grapes of Wrath, The Accidental Tourist), with music by Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island, Seussical) direction by Co-Artistic Director Allison Hendrix, music direction by Resident Music Director Kory Danielson and choreography by Andrea Louise Soule.

According to The New York Times, actor and director Judith Malina, who founded The Living Theatre with her husband, Julian Beck, passed away today, April 10, 2015 in Englewood, N.J. at the Lillian Booth Actors Home. She was 88.

Beginning May 1, two walls of the Jewish Museum's lobby will be filled with over 30 new portraits by the London-based painter Chantal Joffe. This body of work explores Jewish women of the twentieth century, focusing on those who made major contributions to art, literature, philosophy, and politics - including Diane Arbus, Nancy Spero, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Susan Sontag, and Hannah Arendt. Portraits of these women and others will be hung salon-style across two walls of the lobby. Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe will be on view from May 1 through October 18, 2015.

On Friday, May 15 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall presents celebrated mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in recital with pianist Warren Jones in a program of popular songs by Poulenc, Ferré, Brel, Britten, and Coward. One of the most respected and versatile artists of her generation, Ms. Blythe recently starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere production of Ricky Ian Gordon's Twenty-Seven, an opera commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In 2013, Innova Records released Ms. Blythe's first crossover album As Long as There are Songs, featuring selections from the Great American Songbook arranged together with pianist Craig Terry. Together Ms. Blythe and Mr. Jones have performed recitals in major concert halls across the United States.

After recently concluding its 2015 Cabaret Trilogy, Boiling Point Players Theatre prepares for its main stage production of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder. This delicious drama, winner of the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival for Best Overall Production, spotlights five fascinating females of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, a group of widows who together celebrate feminism and their united savor of quiche. When the sisters assemble in 1956 for their annual quiche-tasting competition, they encounter issues amongst and around themselves, challenging the foundations of their lives, their society, and the world as they know it. Bringing comedy, tragedy and excitement to the stage, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche promises a dynamic experience for its captive audiences.

Spend a mesmerizing night with one of our most cherished writers this March, when William Shuman's insightful, moving and award-winning solo show En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams will receive a special, one-night-only performance in Beautiful Soup Theater's play festival on May 25th at 7:00 pm at New York's Clarion Theatre.

What ever happened to Abigail Williams? Combining a provocative parable of sin and redemption with a good, old-fashioned ghost story, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Carrie, Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark, Fox's Glee) explores what might have come next for the real-life Puritan villainess at the center of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. ICT artistic director caryn desai [sic] directs the West Coast premiere of Abigail/1702, opening May 1 at International City Theatre in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Two low-priced previews are set for April 29 and 30.

Following critically acclaimed workshop presentations, McCasland's plays will return to NYC in a month-long festival celebrating the young playwright. Together with The Clarion Theatre, they'll present six plays beginning on May 6th, 2015, with a company of actors performing in repertory. All of the plays focus on historical figures, including Laurette Taylor, Billie Holiday, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, Lillian Hellman and more.

The League of Professional Theatre Women honored actor Kathleen Chalfant and four other female artists at its annual awards ceremony.

Kaliyuga Arts presents Natalie Symon's acclaimed play LARK EDEN tonight March 13 and Saturday March 14 at 7:30pm and on Sunday March 15 at 2:00pm at the Bridge Street Theatre Speakeasy, 44 West Bridge Street in Catskill, NY.

Minnesota Opera Music Director Michael Christie leads the world premiere performances of The Manchurian Candidate, tonight, March 7-15, 2015 in the Music Theater at Ordway.