Jordan Harrison News

For many Americans - okay, white suburban middle classers into traditional gender roles - the 1950s was an idyllic time when the country could rest easily with our post-war status as the world's super-power before the internal unrest of the 60s began exposing the ugly imperfections.  For stressed out, caffeinated 21st Century urbanites, a trip to the world depicted in period sitcoms like Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet or the nostalgic recreation, Happy Days, might offer a welcome mental vacation to a less-complicated era of structured roles and lower expectations.  Or perhaps even a permanent lifestyle change.

No matter how early you enter the house for New York Theatre Workshop's production of Once, the play is already well underway.  Most of the thirteen-member ensemble, all of whom play musical instruments, seem to have long been gathered inside designer Bob Crowley's cozy Dublin pub, playing traditional folk songs, dancing a bit and singing their hearts out.  The festive mood resembles the kind of improvised jam session you might luckily stumble upon some night and never want to leave, especially since audience members are welcome to join them on stage, purchase a drink or two and linger a while.

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will welcome Award-winning comedian Kate Clinton and playwright Paul Rudnick (who is receiving rave reviews for his Standing On Ceremony short plays "My Husband" and "The Gay Agenda") for a post-performance Q&A following the 8:00 PM performance on Wednesday, December 7 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane).

Following the success of Bill Irwin's season opener, Scapin, in 2010, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) welcomes another Pickle Family Circus alumnus to its stage with Humor Abuse, Lorenzo Pisoni's celebrated one-man show cocreated with director Erica Schmidt.

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will welcome Award-winning comedian Kate Clinton and playwright Paul Rudnick (who is receiving rave reviews for his Standing On Ceremony short plays "My Husband" and "The Gay Agenda") for a post-performance Q&A following the 8:00 PM performance on Wednesday, December 7 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane).

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that the Off Broadway premiere production of Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will play its final performance at the Minetta Lane Theatre on Sunday, December 18. The show will have played 7 preview performances and 41 regular performances. The producers then plan to take the play, which opened to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from critics and audiences alike on November 13, 2011, to markets where marriage equality is not yet a reality, in an effort to help invigorate audience members in battleground states and raise money for marriage equality organizations.

This morning it was announced that, after an extensive national search, Obie Award-winner Les Waters has been chosen to lead the renowned Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Obie Award-winning director Les Waters today has been named as the new artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Waters, who for the past eight years has been the associate artistic director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, will begin transition to his new post effective January 9, 2012 and assume full-time duties at Actors Theatre in late March.

The Off Broadway production of Standing On Ceremony kicked off its open-ended run on November 7, and featured an introduction from EVan Wolfson, Founder and President of Freedom to Marry. Conceived by Brian Shnipper and directed by Stuart Ross, Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays began as a series of benefit events in Los Angeles, taking on a life of their own as an inspiring theatrical evening. Click below to check out an interview with star of the show, Mark Consuelos, below.

Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre on November 13, assembles some of America's most illustrious and Award-winning playwrights, including Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick and Doug Wright, all responding to one of the defining issues of our day -- the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States - in a heartfelt, funny and altogether illuminating evening of short plays that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship - any relationship.

The Off Broadway production of Standing On Ceremony kicked off its open-ended run on November 7 and opened on Sunday, November 13, 2011. Broadway Beat was on hand to cover the show's opening night!

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced that an evening of short plays by modernist master Samuel Beckett replaces Twelfth Night for the 2011-12 season. The evening includes ENDGAME, Beckett's timeless rumination on the end of life, featuring two-time Tony Award winner and A.C.T. favorite Bill Irwin, who was recently hailed by The New York Times as 'an actor deeply steeped in the traditions of clowns, according to both the commedia dell'arte and Samuel Beckett,' and PLAY featuring A.C.T. core acting company members René Augesen, Anthony Fusco, and Omozé Idehenre. A longtime Bay Area favorite as one of the founders of the Pickle Family Circus, Irwin returns to A.C.T. after stealing the hearts of the Bay Area audiences last season as the loveable title character in Moliére's SCAPIN, which he also adapted and directed. Perloff, who has previously directed Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT at A.C.T. and will helm the production, said: 'It was in Endgame that Beckett famously wrote: 'nothing is funnier than unhappiness.' And I cannot think of a more consummate artist than Bill Irwin to demonstrate that fact, undertaking the lead role of Hamm in this astonishing play. Endgame is a play Bill and I have wanted to do together for many years; when the opportunity suddenly presented itself to do it this season, we could not say no. I am thrilled to present Endgame in tandem with a comic gem from 1963 called PLAY, which will give our core company a chance to shine a spotlight on a hilarious tale of marriage and adultery that represents a very different side of Beckett's oeuvre. I hope that this Beckett pairing will add a rich chapter to A.C.T.'s explorations of the great modernists, Beckett and Pinter.' Endgame and Play play May 9-June 3, 2012, at the American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Press night is Wednesday, May 16, 2012, at 8 p.m. Tickets (starting at $10) are available by calling A.C.T. Ticket Services at 415.749.2228 or at www.act-sf.org.

The Off Broadway production of Standing On Ceremony kicked off its open-ended run on November 7. Conceived by Brian Shnipper and directed by Stuart Ross, Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays began as a series of benefit events in Los Angeles, taking on a life of their own as an inspiring theatrical evening. The New York cast features Craig Bierko, Mark Consuelos, Polly Draper, Harriet Harris, Beth Leavel and Richard Thomas. The production opened officially last night, November 13, and BroadwayWorld was there!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, November 13, 2011 - Sunday, November 13, 2011.

Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which is now in previews and opens at the Minetta Lane Theatre tonight, November 13, assembles some of America's most illustrious and Award-winning playwrights, including Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick and Doug Wright, all responding to one of the defining issues of our day -- the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States - in a heartfelt, funny and altogether illuminating evening of short plays that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship - any relationship.