Kwame Kwei-Armah News

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet to chat with the recipients and some of the guests about the big night!

Just last night, the Lilly Awards celebrated women of distinction in musical theater at Playwrights Horizons. As previously announced, the 2014 Lilly Award winners include Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Susan Bernfield, Johanna Day, Winnie Holzman, Joyce Ketay, Mary Mitchell Campbell, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Dominique Morrisseau, Kelli O'Hara, Jen Silverman, Jeanine Tesori and Liesl Tommy. The 2014 Lilly Award presenters include Neena Beber, John Doyle, Branden Jacobs Jenkins, Julia Jordan, Anne Kaufman, Lisa Kron, Tony Kushner, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Justin Levine, Audra McDonald, Marsha Norman, Steven Pasquale, Stephen Schwartz and Stacey Mindich. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the red carpet below!

This year the Lilly Awards will celebrate women of distinction in musical theater in a special cabaret at West Bank Cafe (407 W 42nd Street, NYC), following the awards ceremony, which is set for Monday, June 2, at Playwrights Horizons. The cabaret will feature Kelli O'Hara, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Rebecca Luker, Kate Baldwin, Kenita Miller, The Broadway Boys, Graham Rowat, Katie Thompson, Lauren Pritchard, Taylor Noble, Jay Armstrong Jonson, The Skivvies (Lauren Molina & Nick Cearley) and Jason Robert Brown.

Center Stage presents the exciting new comedy Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo. This heartwarming adventure through love and loss begins tonight, May 28, and runs through June 29, under the direction of Jeremy B. Cohen.

The 2014 winners of the Lilly Awards, honoring women of distinction in American theater, were announced today by the Lilly Awards Foundation. The winners will be celebrated at the 5th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony set for Monday, June 2, 2014 beginning at 5 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd Street, NYC).

Christopher Durang won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play with this hilarious comedy.

On Monday, May 5, Center Stage celebrates the 28th Annual Young Playwrights Festival with live performances of honored plays, an awards ceremony for the recognized playwrights, and the world premiere of six new My America/My Baltimore filmed monologues. The festival takes place Monday, May 5, at 7 pm.

Leading the cast is Forrest McClendon as the grief-stricken Gil, a young man dealing with both heartbreak and his mother's death. Mr. McClendon has appeared in numerous regional productions, and was a Tony Award nominee for his role in The Scottsboro Boys, opposite playwright Colman Domingo.

Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah announced today the next Fourth Space initiative in Center Stage's 2013-14 Season, Global Cities. Presented as a lobby installation, May 31–June 29, Global Cities brings together videos created by artists in five international cities, asking each artist to comment on the role of art in public discourse. The installation will kick off on Saturday, May 31, with a live streaming discussion with artists and civic leaders from two of the cities, Durban and Reykjavik, and their counterparts here in Baltimore. After the launch, the installation will stay up through the run of Wild with Happy.

Previews begin at Center Stage next week for Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the show arrives from a run that was hailed by critics as 'Undeniably funny' and 'excellent!' (Kansas City Star). The co-production is under the direction of Kansas City Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and brings to Baltimore three of Kansas City's cast members, including Tony Award-nominee Barbara Walsh, who last appeared at Center Stage as Desiree in 2008's A Little Night Music.

A.C.T. kicks off its 2014-15 season with the West Coast premiere of the Signature Theatre production of Old Hats (September 10-October 5, 2014), starring Tony Award winners Bill Irwin and David Shiner. Using music, technology, and movement - plus a few other tricks up their sleeves - Old Hats combines the inimitable magic, slapstick and hilarity of Irwin and Shiner into a wild and remarkable outing of theater for generations old and new. Directed by Tina Landau, Old Hats was the recipient of the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience and the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue. Old Hats marks the first collaboration for Irwin and Shiner since the smash Broadway hit Fool Moon, which set A.C.T. box office records during its sold-out 1998 run and their return engagement in 2001. Press night for Old Hats will be on Wednesday, September 17, 2014.

Previews begin at Center Stage next week for Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the show arrives from a run that was hailed by critics as 'Undeniably funny' and 'excellent!' (Kansas City Star). The co-production is under the direction of Kansas City Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and brings to Baltimore three of Kansas City's cast members, including Tony Award-nominee Barbara Walsh, who last appeared at Center Stage as Desiree in 2008's A Little Night Music.

SCRIPTOPIA - a new software application that will usher play development and theater collaboration into the 21st century - is being launched May 1st, according to its founder, stage director Kay Matschullat. Ms. Matschullat was joined in the creation of SCRIPTOPIA by Andrew Mirsky and Marc Huey.

Previews begin at Center Stage next week for Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the show arrives from a run that was hailed by critics as 'Undeniably funny' and 'excellent!' (Kansas City Star). The co-production is under the direction of Kansas City Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and brings to Baltimore three of Kansas City's cast members, including Tony Award-nominee Barbara Walsh, who last appeared at Center Stage as Desiree in 2008's A Little Night Music.

Center Stage has announced the honorees for this year's Young Playwrights Festival, an annual competition that welcomes Maryland students in grades K-12 to submit original scripts. This year, student playwrights submitted nearly 500 plays. The plays selected will be showcased with workshops, in-school performances, and select pieces will be staged at the Annual Young Playwrights Festival performance at Center Stage on Monday, May 5, at 7 pm.

Signature Theatre has announced eight productions for the 2014-15 Season at the company's Frank Gehry-designed Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). All subscriber tickets for the 2014-15 Season are $25 each as part of the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Subscription packages start at just $125.

Only one play in history has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Broadway's Tony Award for Best Play, and London's Olivier Award for Best New Play. Securing the 'Triple Crown' of theatre has made Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park one of the most acclaimed American plays in recent memory, earning accolades from such diverse critics as Entertainment Weekly ('indisputably, uproariously funny') to The New Yorker ('superb, elegantly written and hilarious'). Cleveland Play Housewill present this wickedly funny and fiercely provocative play from today, March 21 - April 13 in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.

Center Stage announced today the extension to the run of its current production of Shakespeare's beloved romantic adventure, Twelfth Night. With rave reviews from both audiences and critics, the Theater seeks to meet the demand for the production, which will now run through Sunday, April 13.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, runs tonight, March 14 - April 6 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a co-production with Center Stage in Baltimore.

Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah announces today Center Stage's 2014/15 Season-and invites audiences to step into new worlds. Highlights include a new revival of the classic Amadeus; Kemp Powers' critically acclaimed new play One Night in Miami..., presented in co-production with New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and The Classical Theatre of Harlem; and a one-of-a-kind festival celebrating the work of American playwright Amy Herzog.