Lillian Hellman News

Abingdon Theatre Company will present a reading of Hellman V. McCarthy by Brian Richard Mori, featuring Dick Cavett with Peter Brouwer, Susanne Marley, Carole Monferdini, Ricky Oliver, and Jeff Woodman and directed by Jan Buttram on Monday, July 15 at 7pm.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 22nd season with the Bay Area Premiere of Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog's (4000 Miles, Belleville, The Great God Pan) family drama AFTER THE REVOLUTION. Joy Carlin (Body Awareness, Jack Goes Boating,Awake and Sing!) directs this drama about what we do with history and how we appropriate it for our own personal needs. Featuring Adrian Anchondo, Jessica Bates, Peter Kybart, Sarah Mitchell, Ellen Ratner, Rolf Saxon, Victor Talmadge, and Pamela Gaye Walker, AFTER THE REVOLUTION plays August 30 through September 29 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Shakespeare, Jean Anouilh and Tom Stoppard will be featured in Promethean Theatre Ensemble's eighth season as they present Something Wicked This Way Comes: An Evening of Shakespeare; The Lark; and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Broadway vet Patti Lupone is among the all-star cast set for the highly-anticipated third season of FX's AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN.

Village Green Productions has announced the return of THE BOOMERANG EFFECT, written by Matthew Leavitt, produced by Del Shores and directed by Damaso Rodriguz. THE BOOMERANG EFFECT will mark the final production Mr. Rodriguez will direct in Los Angeles prior to his becoming Artistic Director of the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. THE BOOMERANG EFFECT will preview tonight, June 6 & Friday, June 7 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, June 8 and will run through Saturday, July 27 at the Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., in West Hollywood.

Director Brian Kulick sets Classic Stage Company's interesting and spirited new production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle during the fall of the Soviet Union, 'when the hammer and sickle were replaced by the Coca-Cola bottle.'  The production's Playbill cover depicts a satisfied looking Christopher Lloyd scribbling over that iconic communist emblem with a piece of chalk.  This is certainly an unusual take for a play that, when it premiered in 1948, was intended to depict the fairness to be found in Soviet leadership.

Monday night, Julia Jordan, Theresa Rebeck, Marsha Norman, Tim Sanford and The Committee for Recognizing Women in Theatre presented the 4thAnnual Lilly Awards at Playwrights Horizons. Named for playwright Lillian Hellman, The Lilly Awards were created to recognize the extraordinary contributions made by women to the American Theater. Producers, playwrights, actors, designers, and directors were honored last night for their continued excellence in the theater community. Check out a look back at the ceremony below!

If I were a classical music critic I might describe The Giacomo Variations as an ambitious exploration of common themes expressed in the three operas Mozart composed with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Jiehae Park will receive the 2013 Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers at the fourth annual Lilly Awards held tonight, June 3rd, 6pm at Playwright's Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street in New York.

Mississippi Mud Productions is proud to present The Blonde Bombshell Project, a new solo play written and starring Jen Danby and directed by Tony Nominee and Obie-Winning Director Austin Pendleton. Fresh from their collaboration as Catharine Holly and Dr. Sugar in Suddenly, Last Summer with Mississippi Mud, this new solo work is about about legendary Hollywood 'Blonde Bombshell' Marilyn Monroe in her final summer of 1962.

On June 3, 2013 Julia Jordan, Theresa Rebeck, Marsha Norman, Tim Sanford and The Committee for Recognizing Women in Theatre will present the 4th Annual Lilly Awards at Playwrights Horizons. Named for playwright Lillian Hellman, The Lilly Awards were created to recognize the extraordinary contributions made by women to the American Theater. Producers, playwrights, actors, designers, and directors will be honored for their continued excellence in the theater community.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's highly successful MADE IN AMERICA season concludes with Jon Robin Baitz's Broadway sensation Other Desert Cities, nominated for the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Other Desert Cities is directed by Rob Ruggiero, whose recent Broadway credits include High starring Kathleen Turner and Looped starring Valerie Harper. He was last at The Public to direct Ella. Other Desert Cities runs tonight, May 30 - June 30, 2013 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org. The engagement of Helena Ruoti in this production has been generously supported by Richard W. Moriarty, M.D.

Jiehae Park will receive the 2013 Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers at the fourth annual Lilly Awards held on June 3rd, 6pm at Playwright's Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street in New York. Her award winning new play, HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO, will have a public reading, directed by Jose Zayas on Tuesday, June 4 at 7pm at Primary Stages located at 307 W 38th St #1510 (between 8th and 9th Avenue) in New York. For reservations, email leahryansfeww@gmail.com.

Mississippi Mud Productions is proud to present The Blonde Bombshell Project, a new solo play written and starring Jen Danby and directed by Tony Nominee and Obie-Winning Director Austin Pendleton. Fresh from their collaboration as Catharine Holly and Dr. Sugar in Suddenly, Last Summer with Mississippi Mud, this new solo work is about about legendary Hollywood 'Blonde Bombshell' Marilyn Monroe in her final summer of 1962.

Artists Rep is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's play Ten Chimneys from April 23 through May 26, 2013. This revealing comedy peers into the backstage lives of Broadway power-duo Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and summers spent at their legendary Wisconsin estate, Ten Chimneys.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's highly successful MADE IN AMERICA season concludes with Jon Robin Baitz's Broadway sensation Other Desert Cities, nominated for the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Other Desert Cities is directed by Rob Ruggiero, whose recent Broadway credits include High starring Kathleen Turner and Looped starring Valerie Harper. He was last at The Public to direct Ella. Other Desert Cities runs May 30 - June 30, 2013 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org. The engagement of Helena Ruoti in this production has been generously supported by Richard W. Moriarty, M.D.

TimeLine Theatre Company, dedicated to presenting plays inspired by history that connect to today's social and political issues, announces that The How and the Why by Sarah Treem (Netflix's House of Cards, HBO's In Treatment), directed by Keira Fromm and starring Janet Ulrich Brooks and Elizabeth Ledo, will be the third production of its 2013-14 season.

Village Green Productions has announced the return of THE BOOMERANG EFFECT, written by Matthew Leavitt, produced by Del Shores and directed by Damaso Rodriguz. THE BOOMERANG EFFECT will mark the final production Mr. Rodriguez will direct in Los Angeles prior to his becoming Artistic Director of the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. THE BOOMERANG EFFECT will preview on Thursday, June 6 & Friday, June 7 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, June 8 and will run through Saturday, July 27 at the Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., in West Hollywood.