Gordon Davidson News

Change is coming for the Ojai Playwrights Conference. Artistic Director/Producer Robert Egan has decided to step down at the end of 2022, OPC’s 25th Anniversary Season. Egan has led the organization for 21 years, bringing the Ojai Playwrights Conference to national attention and making it one of the leading new play development programs in the U.S.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced that the Breakout Award will be awarded to Jon Rua. The SDCF Awards, which will feature the presentation of the Breakout Award along with the previously announced Gordon Davidson Award and Zelda  Fichandler Award, will be hosted by Anne Kauffman virtually on Monday January 24, 2022 at 8pm ET. 

Join the Segal Book Talk series Wednesday, December 1 at noon, for a conversation with Alexis Greene & Emily Mann about Greene's new book, Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater. The discussion will be moderated by Frank Hentschker.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has named director and playwright Emily Mann, the former artistic director of the McCarter Theatre, as the recipient of its annual Gordon Davidson Award.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, announces the election of Justin Emeka, Doug Hughes, and Seema Sueko as the newest members of the SDCF Board of Trustees. They join President Mark Brokaw, Vice President/Secretary Anne Kauffman, Sheldon Epps, Linda Hartzell, Dan Knechtges, Laura Penn, and Victoria Traube as Trustees of the Foundation. Hughes will serve as the Foundation's Treasurer.

Luis Alfaro, celebrated Chicano artist and MacArthur “genius” fellow, has joined Center Theatre Group as the newest Associate Artistic Director, announced Artistic Director Michael Ritchie and Managing Director/CEO Meghan Pressman.

YI Love Jewish will host and present a play reading of Lessons by playwright Wendy Graf! The event will be 7 pm Monday, August 30 at The Betsy Hotel in South Beach.

Michael Ritchie announced that he will retire as Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group on December 31, 2021. Having taken over the position from Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson in January, 2005, for more than 16 years, Ritchie has led one of the country’s largest nonprofit regional theatres, producing and presenting 266 productions.

Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC) will be presenting their virtual celebration CONNECTIONS benefiting their 2021 season June 12, 2021. CONNECTIONS will feature new or adapted works by playwrights: Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Julia Izumi, James Morrison and his son Seamus Morrison, Jeanine Tesori and Charlayne Woodard. Performers include Brian Cox, Eileen Galindo, Tzi Ma, Rose Portillo, Samantha Quan, John C. Reilly, Israel López Reyes, Nikkole Salter, Jimmy Smits, and Phillipa Soo; as well as some of the playwrights performing their own pieces.

A starry cast, some of whom will perform their own work, has been set for the Ojai Playwrights Conference presentation of “Connections,” a virtual celebration to benefit the OPC 2021 season, on Saturday, June 12 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time/ 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Woodie King's New Federal Theatre has set plays by Mustapha Matura, S. Shephard-Massat and Larry Muhammad for the June, 2021 edition of its Annual Ntozake Shange Readings Series, which will be held three Tuesdays in June--June 8, 15 and 22-- all in live streamed readings on Zoom.

SDCF has announced that the Breakout Award will be awarded to Jenn Rose. The SDCF Awards, which will feature the presentation of the Breakout Award along with the previously announced Joe A. Callaway Awards, Gordon Davidson Award and Zelda Fichandler Award, will be hosted by Jack O’Brien virtually on February 8, 2021 at 8pm EST.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced that the 2020 Joe A. Callaway Awards will be awarded to Danya Taymor for excellence in directing for Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons) and Travis Wall for excellence in choreography for The Wrong Man (MCC Theater).

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has named Seret Scott the 3rd annual Gordon Davidson Award recipient.

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Producing Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry, is stepping down after more than two decades leading America's only Equity theatre company devoted exclusively to developing and producing new work by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations playwrights.

A chance meeting in an airport lounge leads to a Burmese odyssey and a search for a missing monk... and maybe love. John Lacey directs the 'virtual premiere' of Unemployed Elephants-A Love Story, a romantic comedy by Wendy Graf (No Word in Guyanese for Me, Exit Wounds).

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle announced the recipients of its 51st annual awards for distinguished achievement in theatre today, Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the nominees for theatrical excellence for the year 2019. This year they are forgoing their annual event ceremony and will instead post the award recipients online in the upcoming weeks: 

Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena - the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights - has announced its 2020 Season of World Premieres which include: RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER by Inda Craig-Galván, and FABULOUS MONSTERS by Diana Burbano.

Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena – the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights – is thrilled to announce the cast for RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, which includes Michelle Bonebright-Carter, Tracey A. Leigh, Leo Marks, Christopher Salazar, Jocelyn Towne, and Peter Van Norden.