Kimber Lee News

ACT Theatre ACT Theatre and One Coast Collaboration announce the second year of their partnership on a new play festival. The ACT|One New Play Festival, scheduled at the end of August, includes a playwright-driven new works process, centering creative collaboration and conversation between local and national artists.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is announcing the cast for a?oeWAKE UP! Combating Climate Change,a?? one of two special Intersection Events being presented as part of the 2019 New Works Festival of new play readings and special performance events (August 4--11).

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announces casting and creative teams for the summer season of new musicals and plays selected for development at the National Music Theater Conference and National Playwrights Conference.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2019 summer season with The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Wendy Arons and adapted by Tony Kushner, playing July 3 through July 21, 2019 at the Bruns Amphitheater. A Pay What You Can performance will be held on Wednesday, July 3. Tickets will be available starting at 10am on the day of the show through TodayTix and the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666.

Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has selected its four finalists for the 2019 Premiere Play Festival. Now in its 15th year, the Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts that offers developmental opportunities to playwrights with strong affiliations to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. This year's finalists were selected from a record 659 submissions, a 15% increase from the previous record set in 2018.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 TheatreWomen Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

The University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance at Austin presents UTNT (UT New Theatre), March 12-31, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the F. Loren Winship Drama Building. Established in 2007 by nationally renowned playwright Steven Dietz, UTNT (UT New Theatre) is an annual showcase of newly developed works for the American stage from playwrights of the Department of Theatre and Dance's master of fine arts program and Michener Center for Writers. Now in its twelfth year, UTNT brings to the stage compelling works by I-Chia Chiu, Hannah Kenah, Daria Miyeko Marinelli and Thom May.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 Theatre Women Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org. 

The Old Globe today announced it will present the sixth annual Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today, playing January 18-20, 2019.

Victory Gardens Theater, with Actors Theatre of Louisville, to present the Co-World Premiere of How to Defend Yourself, written by Lily Padilla and directed by Marti Lyons. How to Defend Yourself will be presented at the 2019 Humana Festival of New American Plays (March 21 - April 7, 2019) and as part of the Victory Gardens Theater 2019/2020 Season (January 24 - February 23, 2020).

Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 has announced a special event - THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP, an 80-minute solo show written and performed by Lucy Alibar and directed by Neel Keller.  BURNPILE will have 3 performances only - Thursday, December 6; Friday, December 7; and Saturday, December 8 - all at 7pm at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street).

Center Theatre Group will world premiere Eliza Clark's new comedy QUACK at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Already in previews (with opening set for October 28, 2018), QUACK ever so timely illustrates the vulnerability of an adoring public eager to follow, without question, the advice of TV personality Dr. Irving Baer. I had the opportunity to throw a few questions out to Jackie Chung, a Center Theatre Group alumni who plays the talk show guru's nurse Kelly.

The Old Globe announces its inaugural New Voices in the Community series: free public performances at libraries across San Diego County, followed by conversations with the playwrights and experts in the community. The first New Voices in the Community features three solo shows by women: Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, "A" Train by Anne Torsiglieri, and Unveiled: A One-Woman Play by Rohina Malik.

The Lark is thrilled to announce five plays and playwrights have been chosen through its Open Access Program for the 25th Annual Playwrights' Week. This year's plays, selected from a pool of over 1,200 submissions, will be: Sistren by Erin Buckley; Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes by Franky D. Gonzalez; As Is: Conversations With Big Black Women in Confined Spaces by Stacey Rose; form of a girl unknown by Charly Evon Simpson; and Desarrollo by Juliany Taveras. The selected playwrights will participate in an intensive seven-day retreat, designed to foster a peer-based community among the writers, their creative teams, and The Lark's staff.

The Lark, a theater company devoted to the support of visionary playwrights and the development of new plays, is thrilled to announce five New York City-based playwrights have been named as the 2018-19 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellows. The group spans a wide range of backgrounds and professional experiences and will meet regularly throughout the year to develop new plays.

Stunned when an annual mammogram delivered a diagnosis of breast cancer, Emmy®-winning TV host and lifestyle expert Sandra Lee embarked on a challenging voyage through treatment and recovery.

California Shakespeare Theater announced today the return of its record-breaking hit play black odyssey for a special limited engagement, September 25 through October 7, 2018 at the Bruns Amphitheater. Marcus Gardley's music-filled journey through African-American folklore garnered box office records, critical acclaim, sold-out houses, and standing ovations during its initial August 2017 run.

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) announced further details today for the Shakespearean centerpiece to the 2018 Epic Season, The War of the Roses. The War of the Roses is a monumental evening of theater spanning four history plays-the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III. Presented as an action-packed evening, The War of the Roses will deliver a fast-paced, far-ranging, vividly theatrical depiction of two powerful families-the Lancasters and the Yorks-and their decades-long fight for the English throne. Political unrest and power grabs collide with weak leadership and civil strife as the country fights against the threat of tyranny.

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts have announced playwright Mfoniso Udofia as the 2018 Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage.

The Core Writer program at the Playwrights' Center gives 25-30 of the most exciting playwrights from across the country the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. The Center is announcing new Core Writers Darren Canady, Erin Courtney, Marisela Treviño Orta, Stacey Rose, Ariel Stess and Ray Yamanouchi. In addition, the Playwrights' Center is pleased to welcome three new student playwrights to its Core Apprentice program for 2018-19: Lily Padilla, Drew Paryzer and Lauren Wimmer.