John Gassner News

? Peninsula Players Theatre will present a reading of "Who Am I This Time? (& Other Conundrums of Love)" by Aaron Posner, adapted from stories by Kurt Vonnegut at Bjorklunden at 7590 Boynton Lane, Baileys Harbor at 7p.m., Monday, April 4.  Posner's charming comedy explores love, pure and complicated, by weaving short stories from Vonnegut's early masterpiece "Welcome to the Monkey House."   Join the Players reading of comedic love stories that explores, with warm hilarity, human foibles in a small town.  Admission is free.

Just beyond the elegant dining room of an Upper East Side restaurant, service workers angle for shifts, pray for tips and cling to dreams of life beyond their daily back-of-house grind. Armando Molina directs the Los Angeles premiere of My Mañana Comes by Elizabeth Irwin, opening April 16 at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood.

Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker are thrilled to announce the 50th anniversary season for the North Bay's leading non-profit professional theatre.

Fresh off its rolling World Premiere, the mind bending IN A WORDbrings playwright Lauren Yee back to The Hub. Three time Helen Hayes nominee Kerri Rambowleads the cast as Fiona, a mother wrestling with the loss of her son Tristan, kidnapped years earlier. Rambow is no stranger to Yee's work having earned rave reviews playing the Hatmaker's Wife in Hub's production of THE HATMAKER'S WIFE (formally A MAN, HIS WIFE, AND HIS HAT).

Hell in a Handbag Productions is pleased to announce casting for its Chicago premiere of THE DIVINE SISTER, the hilarious comic homage to nearly every Hollywood nun film ever made, by the divine high priestess of camp Charles Busch and directed by Shade Murray.

Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced that HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO by Jiehae Park is the 2016 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award recipient. Jiehae will also receive The Jay Harris Commission to write a new play, a prize worth $10,000.

Premiering in Sydney after an award-winning Off-Broadway season is the classic coming-of-age story, MY NAME IS ASHER LEV by Aaron Posner based on the novel by Chaim Potok. 

32 Actors, 8 Writers, and 8 Directors will gather at Abingdon Theatre Company for an entire weekend of pure creativity to produce FETE 24.

?Five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced the line-up for SUMMERWORKS, its annual series of new plays. Now in its 21st season, SUMMERWORKS will run May 27 through July 9 at The Wild Project (195 E 3rd Street) in Manhattan, and will feature productions of three new plays: EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL by Julia Jarcho and directed by Knud Adams; THE TOMB OF KING TOT by Eric Dufault and directed by Portia Krieger; and TUMACHO by Ethan Lipton and directed by Leigh Silverman. Festival passes are now on sale at: https://www.artful.ly/clubbedthumb/store/passes.

?Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has announced its four finalists for the 2016 Premiere Stages Play Festival, and will offer free public readings of the plays by professional actors during its 12th Annual Spring Readings Series. The readings will take place Thursday, March 10 through Saturday, March 12 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, March 13 at 3:00 pm in the Murphy Dunn Theatre, located in Vaughn Eames Hall on Kean's central campus (1000 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.).

The Pearl Theatre Company is pleased to present the New York premiere of Stupid Fu**ing Bird, Aaron Posner's award-winning wry riff on Anton Chekhov's masterpiece The Seagull. Directed by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Davis McCallum, the production, running March 15-May 8, scoops up Chekhov's tale of unrequited love, missed opportunities, and misplaced dreams and sets it down squarely in the bustle of 21st century life. With its rebellious title evoking Constantine's subversive play-within-a-play from the original, it captures the heartbreaking humor of the tale while playing as brilliantly with dramatic form as Chekhov himself once did.

32 Actors, 8 Writers, and 8 Directors will gather at Abingdon Theatre Company for an entire weekend of pure creativity to produce FETE 24.

Join Route 66 Theatre Company on February 22 at 7:30 pm at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro for HOW TO BUILD A CITY by Jeff Talbott, directed by Henry Godinez and featuring Justin Brill, Jennifer Coombs, Eric Lynch, and Steve Stafford.

The Dramatists Guild Fund (DGF) announces that playwright Madeleine George will conduct a master class with students and early career writers at the College of Charleston (66 George Street Charleston, South Carolina 29424) on February 5th at 4:00 PM, during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival as part of the Traveling Masters Program.

Strawdog Theatre Company and Artistic Director Hank Boland are proud to announce the third main stage production in its 2015 - 2016 season, Lauren Yee's In A Word, February 5 - March 19, directed by Jess McLeod, at Strawdog Theatre Company, 3829 N. Broadway St. Previews are Friday, Feb. 5 and 12, Saturday, Feb. 6 and 13 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 7 and 14 at 4 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. An industry performance is Monday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. and a fully accessible performance in conjunction with the Access Project at Victory Gardens is Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m.* Preview tickets are $15, regular run tickets are $28 and on sale now. Subscriptions, group, rush, senior and student discounts are also available. Tickets may be ordered online at strawdog.org or by calling OvationTix toll-free: 866-811-4111.

Ensemble Studio Theatre and EST's Youngblood are proud to present UNFILTERED 2015-2016, the annual festival series of brand new, full-length plays from emerging playwrights under the age of thirty. This year's Youngblood graduates are also the first beneficiaries of the new exit commission grant, donated this year by Tony-nominated playwright Robert Askins.

Epic Theatre Ensemble and Nilaja Sun are happy to announce that the first week of PIKE ST. post-show forums will include representatives from the NYC Emergency Management Department and L.E.S. Ready! -- two organizations dedicated to rebuilding New York City after Hurricane Sandy and preparing for the next big storm. Audience members (and any individual interested) are welcome to stay after preview performances of Nilaja Sun's one-woman show to discuss and ask questions about the relevant social issues presented in the work. PIKE ST. will begin performances tonight, November 10, 2015 in the experimental theater at Abrons Art Center (466 Grand Street) with post-show forums running from this evening, November 10 until Sunday, November 15, 2015.

Epic Theatre Ensemble and Nilaja Sun are happy to announce that the first week of PIKE ST. post-show forums will include representatives from the NYC Emergency Management Department and L.E.S. Ready! -- two organizations dedicated to rebuilding New York City after Hurricane Sandy and preparing for the next big storm. Audience members (and any individual interested) are welcome to stay after preview performances of Nilaja Sun's one-woman show to discuss and ask questions about the relevant social issues presented in the work.

The Drama Book Shop will host an evening with playwright and actress, Halley Feiffer, for a reading and signing of her latest published work, I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 5:00pm. The talk will be conducted by Pulitzer-Prize Nominee, Jon Robin Baitz, while the reading will feature Reed Birney and Betty Gilpin. Both of whom will reprise their roles from the Atlantic Theater Company premiere.