Jane Austen News

International City Theatre opens its 33rd season with a musical "rags-to-riches" tale of newfound love. Daddy Long Legs, with music and lyrics by Tony Award-nominated composer/lyricist Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre) and book by Tony-winning librettist John Caird (Les Miserables), opens on February 23 at ICT's home in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, where performances continue through March 11. Two low-priced previews take place on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22.

PRIMARY STAGES (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) announced today Saturday Night Strings, a special post-show concert series following select Saturday night performances of A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ, written by James Inverne and directed by Andrew Leynse. All ticketholders for the evenings of Saturday, February 10 (Mariella Haubs); Saturday, February 17 (Edward W. Hardy of Sterling Strings); and Saturday, February 24 (Luisa Bastidas) are invited to remain after the performance to enjoy live music performed by special guest violinists. The concerts are free for all ticketholders for that evening's performance.

PRIMARY STAGES (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) announced today additional programming and events for the Winter 2018 season.

Portland Center Stage at The Armory's 2018-2019 season will feature 11 productions along with a special 10th anniversary return engagement of Storm Large in Crazy Enough, a show that had its world premiere at The Armory in 2009 and became one of the company's biggest hits.

Daniel Evans and Rachel Tackley said: 'We're enormously grateful for the warm welcome extended to us by our local community and those visiting from further afield during our first season, which welcomed Chichester's largest-ever Festival audience.

Robin Hood is heading to the stage in a brand-new tale written by John Johnson of the Astral Theatre Collective. Wolf's Head: A Tale of Robin Hood and the Sheriff, based on the ancient ballads and history of Robin Hood, is gearing up to begin performances at the Alban Art Center in St. Albans, WV in March.

Artistic Director Mark Clements and Managing Director Chad Bauman are thrilled to announce Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 65th Anniversary Season which will be the largest season in over a decade featuring 15 productions across four venues with nearly 700 performances including expanded programming in the Stiemke Studio.

West Side Theatre Company will conclude its successful inaugural season in March with the Utah premiere of the Broadway-bound PRIDE & PREJUDICE - THE MUSICAL.  It is one of the first full productions of the musical following workshops with Broadway names such as Tony nominee Laura Osnes (CINDERELLA), Margo Seibert (ROCKY) and Teal Wicks (JEKYLL & HYDE). Richard Rodgers Award finalist Lawrence Rush, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, will fly to Utah from New York City especially to participate in final rehearsals of the production.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the Tony Award-winning musical The Bridges of Madison County, based on the 1992 bestselling novel by Robert James Waller about love both lost and found. Set amidst the cornfields of Iowa in 1965, this passionate musical follows the unexpected affair of a devoted Italian-born housewife and a roving National Geographic photographer set over four sensual, heart-stirring days. Brilliantly adapted by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Marsha Norman ('night Mother, The Secret Garden, The Color Purple) with music and lyrics by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade), it captured the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical Score. The Bridges of Madison County, directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Director and founder Robert Kelley will be presented April 4 - 29, 2018 (opening night: April 7) at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For tickets ($40-$100) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

LA's own Impro Theatre continues their residency at The Edye at The Broad Stage, presenting a different style of their signature improvisation for one weekend, each month.  February brings Chekhov UnScripted. For each performance Impro will create a full-length play, in the style of the great Russian master.  Starting with audience suggestions, each performance will feature characters dreaming of a different life, all the while dealing with the everyday unpredictability of feeling love, disillusionment and the certain catastrophe that is the comedy of life! LA Weekly called Chekhov UnScripted a "Pick of the Week," adding, "You don't have to be a Chekhov aficionado to appreciate this entertaining and clever mock-up of his art."

Austentatious: The Improvised Jane Austen Novel will extend its run in London's West End with three performances announced at the Savoy Theatre following this month's date at Piccadilly Theatre.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival will launch its 83nd year with preview performances beginning on February 16. The 2018 season officially kicks off Friday night, February 23, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's Othello (director, Bill Rauch). On Saturday afternoon, Shakespeare's Henry V (director, Rosa Joshi) opens in the Thomas Theatre, and the West Coast premiere of Kate Hamill's adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility (director, Hana S. Sharif) opens that evening in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. On Sunday afternoon, Karen Zacarias's Destiny of Desire (director, Jose Luis Valenzuela) will be staged in the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

Artistic Director Daryl Cloran unveiled his 2018/19 season today, inviting audiences to ReImagine the stories, perspectives, and characters that come alive on the Citadel stages.

PRIMARY STAGES (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) announced today Saturday Night Strings, a special post-show concert series following select Saturday night performances of A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ, written by James Inverne and directed by Andrew Leynse. All ticketholders for the evenings of Saturday, February 10 (Mariella Haubs); Saturday, February 17 (Edward W. Hardy of Sterling Strings); and Saturday, February 24 (Luisa Bastidas) are invited to remain after the performance to enjoy live music performed by special guest violinists. The concerts are free for all ticketholders for that evening's performance.

When the name Jane Austen is bandied about, one does not necessarily think slapstick comedy. However, somehow Kate Hamill has adapted SENSE AND SENSIBILITY to be a vehicle for uproarious laughter, to the delight of the audiences at the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel.

Charles Fee, Producing Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theater (GLT), unveiled an ambitious, six-production array of classics to headline the company's 2018-19 season. Great Lakes Theater's fifty-seventh year is scheduled to run from September 2018 through May 2019 at Playhouse Square's Hanna and Ohio Theatres.

Lifeline Theatre Artistic Director Dorothy Milne and the artistic ensemble announce their 2018-19 season of Big Stories, Up Close. It's another year of unforgettable stories brought to life, from beloved classics to modern titles.

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, proudly welcomes New York's Bedlam for Hamlet andSaint Joan in repertory. The two productions feature a brand new cast of 4 actors, playing a total of 49 characters for two riveting, stripped down, stagings, both directed by Bedlam founder Eric Tucker.