Northwestern University News

The FAC's Youth Repertory Ensemble, currently in its 15th season, is a 5-week conservatory training program for aspiring theatre performers, designers and technicians ages 14 to 18 - the only program of its kind in Colorado. The culmination of their work will take the form of a production of the knock-your-socks-off musical, Applause.

Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) has announced that Frank Almond will serve as MYSO's 2014 Artist-in-Residence, a newly created position generously sponsored by the Johnston Family. An internationally celebrated violinist who holds the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO), he founded and directs the beloved Frankly Music Chamber Concert Series in Milwaukee. A devoted educator, he has held academic positions at San Diego State University, Texas Christian University, and Northwestern University, and recently joined the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Signature Theatre is proud to announce the cast of Sunday in the Park with George, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning musical

According to Variety, acting teacher George Morrison, who throughout his career worked with such stars as Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Edie Falco and more, recently passed away. He was 86 years old.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is bringing back the bird and reuniting the entire cast and creative team of Aaron Posner's Stupid f**king Bird after its runaway success in the summer of 2013. Nominated for eight Helen Hayes Awards and winner for Outstanding Resident Play and Outstanding New Play or Musical, Stupid f**king Bird is directed by Woolly Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and runs for three weeks: July 28, 2014 through August 17, 2014.

Haven Theatre Company announces their 2014-2015 season. The company's second full season features two Chicago premiere productions: Catherine Trieschmann's Hot Georgia Sunday, directed by Marti Lyons, at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., and Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle, directed by Cody Estle, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets will go on sale at a later date and will be announced on the Haven Theatre Company website: www.HavenTheatreChicago.com.

Kristiana Colon's Octagon, the unlikely story of eight young poets' win-at-all-costs and damn-the-consequences approach to the three-minute competition of a poetry slam, has been named the 2014 winner of Arizona Theatre Company's National Latino Playwriting Award.

Co-founders John Stoops, Tim Evans, and Marc Grapey proudly announce the second season of Three Oaks Theater Festival, a summer theater festival that brings limited-engagement runs of highly-acclaimed, professional productions to audiences in Harbor Country, Michigan. This expanded season is being performed in creative venues throughout Harbor Country, including the Acorn Theater, Vickers Theatre, and the historic Lakeside Inn. Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented with major support by The Pokagon Fund.

Windy City Playhouse is proud to announce and welcome to the team our premiere season's fourth and final director: Jessica Thebus!

A musical based on a children's classic that won a Newberry Honor Book award -- and that speaks to the hearts of anyone who has ever needed a friend -- is back by popular demand. The family production is part of the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts 2014 SummerStage season. (The center was formerly known as the Theatre and Interpretation Center at Northwestern University or TIC, for short.)

Griffin Theatre Company will launch its 2014-15 season with a new, intimate version of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical TITANIC, with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston (Nine, Phantom), book by Peter Stone (Woman of the Year, 1776), new orchestrations by Ian Weinberger, directed by Scott Weinstein (Griffin Theatre's Spelling Bee, Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Seussical) and music direction by Elizabeth Doran (Timeline's Juno). TITANIC will play October 18 - December 7, 2014 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Casting will be announced shortly.

The National Alliance For Musical Theatre (NAMT) announced today its selections for the 26th Annual Festival of New Musicals. Beautiful Poison, Cubamor, Great Wall, How To Break, Mary Marie, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, String and Stu For Silverton make up the eight new musicals that will be presented at the 26th Annual Festival of New Musicals on Thursday, October 23, 2014 and Friday, October 24, 2014 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street).

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's the TOP TEN HOT TOPIX for the first half of 2014! Did your favorites make the list?

The New York Philharmonic will present its 11th season of Summertime Classics, July 2-6, 2014, featuring five themed concerts with Bramwell Tovey, who has been the host and conductor of the series since its founding in 2004. On the first program, July 2-3, 2014, titled 'Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Friends,' the New York Philharmonic will perform Shostakovich's Festive Overture; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Joyce Yang as soloist; Musorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain; Rachmaninoff's arrangement of his own Vocalise; and Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker, and Marche slave. The second program, July 4-6, 2014, titled 'Star-Spangled Celebration,' will feature the New York Philharmonic and United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps - 'The Commandant's Own,' which is celebrating its 80th-anniversary year - in a program that includes Copland's Clarinet Concerto, with Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist, and Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin's 'Strike Up the Band' from Strike Up the Band; Sousa marches; and more. In these performances Major Brian Dix, director and commanding officer of 'The Commandant's Own,' will share conducting duties with Bramwell Tovey.

Kicking off its 27th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Death Tax, by Lucas Hnath, and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. Death Tax runs September 2, 2014 - October 12, 2014 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Friday, September 12, 2014 at 7:30 p.m..

Co-founders John Stoops, Tim Evans, and Marc Grapey proudly announce the second season of Three Oaks Theater Festival, a summer theater festival that brings limited-engagement runs of highly-acclaimed, professional productions to audiences in Harbor Country, Michigan. This expanded season is being performed in creative venues throughout Harbor Country, including the Acorn Theater, Vickers Theatre, and the historic Lakeside Inn. Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented with major support by The Pokagon Fund.

Celebrating 85 years, the Music Institute of Chicago announces the 2014-15 season of its popular Faculty and Guest Artist Series. All concerts take place at the historic Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue in the heart of downtown Evanston.

Principal casting has been announced for the upcoming world premiere production of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. The cast will include Robert Fairchild as Jerry Mulligan, Leanne Cope as Lise Dassin, Veanne Cox as Madame Baurel, Jill Paice as Milo Davenport, Brandon Uranowitz as Adam Hochberg, and Max Von Essen as Henri Baurel.

Gilbert and Sullivan's hilarious operetta -- will be staged July 18 through Aug. 2 as the centerpiece of Northwestern University's summer theater season.

The Theatre @ Boston Court and Circle X Theatre Co. present Stupid f**king Bird, by Aaron Posner, directed by Michael Michetti. Opening night is Today, June 28, 2014 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.