Peter Brook News

FREUD'S LAST SESSION will celebrate Halloween today, October 31st by offering free tickets to the 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. performances to anyone who comes to the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport, dressed as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It's time to brush the dust off your old tweed jacket, find your round spectacles and don a white beard. Bring a cigar! The production has been extended multiple times and is now in final weeks, ending its successful Chicago run on November 11.

Jermyn Street Theatre announces the cast for the UK premiere of the vintage off Broadway musical Boy Meets Boy. The line up comprises Stephen Ashfield, Craig Fletcher, Johnjo Flynn, Ben Kavanagh, Anna Nicholas and Benjamin Bailey, Carly Mackelvie, Gregory Sims, Biancha Szynal, Helen Turner, Jay Webb and Aron Wild.

The second production in Charing Cross Theatre's second season will be the Olivier Award-winning OperaUpClose production of LA BOHEME directed by Robin Norton-Hale in a new English version by Robin Norton-Hale, with musical direction and piano accompaniment by Elspeth Wilkes.

The French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, is thrilled to welcome back Belgian actor and master of laughter and physical comedy Jos Houben who presents his acclaimed The Art of Laughter, winner of the Total Theatre Award at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival, today, October 27 at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall.

Genevieve Angelson, Shalita Grant, Billy Magnussen, Kristine Nielsen, David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver will be featured in the New York premiere of Lincoln Center Theater's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, a new play by Christopher Durang, to be directed by Nicholas Martin, beginning performances tonight, October 25 and opening Monday, November 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION will celebrate Halloween on Wednesday, October 31st by offering free tickets to the 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. performances to anyone who comes to the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport, dressed as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It's time to brush the dust off your old tweed jacket, find your round spectacles and don a white beard. Bring a cigar! The production has been extended multiple times and is now in final weeks, ending its successful Chicago run on November 11.

The Country Playhouse will present Murdering Marlowe by Charles Marowitz, in its Black Box venue for three weekends only, November 2 - 17. Performances are on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with a Sunday matinee on November 11 at 2:00 p.m., plus a weeknight show on Thursday, November 15, at 7:30 p.m.

This morning the theatre's Artistic Director, Gene David Kirk, has announced his departure at the end of this year. He is to be replaced by Jermyn Street Theatre's current Associate Director Anthony Biggs.

Simon Chandler (Bernard/Terence), Rachel Finnegan (Halina/Betty/Margaret), Natasha Gordon (Connie), Ryan Kiggell (Charles), Ferdinand Kingsley (Casmir/Henry), Charlotte Lucas (Ellen), and Eugene O'Hare (Pierre) join Adrian Lester (Ira Aldridge) to complete the cast for Red Velvet. Written by Lolita Chakrabarti, and directed by theTricycle's Artistic Director, Indhu Rubasingham, Red Velvet runs from tonight, 11 October - 24 November, with press night on 16 October. Check out photos of the cast and creative team in rehearsal below!

In March 2012, German director-composer Heiner Goebbels was awarded the prestigious International Ibsen Award for his "genuinely groundbreaking" work. Previous winners include directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine. This November, Lincoln Center's White Light Festival presents the celebrated director's staged concert in three tableaus, I went to the house but did not enter, set to texts by T.S. Eliot (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock), Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho), Maurice Blanchot (The Madness of the Day), and Franz Kafka ("Excursion into the Mountains"), that unfold as meditations on aging, mortality and the vicissitudes of modern life.

The French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, is thrilled to welcome back Belgian actor and master of laughter and physical comedy Jos Houben who presents his acclaimed The Art of Laughter, winner of the Total Theatre Award at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival, on Saturday, October 27 at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall.

The Flea Theater announces the U.S. Premiere of I HATE f**kING MEXICANS by Luis Enrique Gutierrez Ortiz Monasterio "the enfant terrible of contemporary Mexican theater." Translated by Debbie Saivetz, Ana Graham, and Danya Taymor and directed by Ms. Taymor, a Flea Resident Director; the production will feature members of The Bats and The Riot Group's Adriano Shapman. Previews begin tonight, October 9, with opening night slated for October 18 at 9pm.

Jermyn Street Theatre-the smallest theatre in the heart of the West End-presents another major production for this autumn. Three giants of the British stage come together as Trevor Nunn directs Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon in All That Fall, a radio play by Samuel Beckett. The work, which has never been seen in London before, continues and extends this small and intimate theatre's burgeoning reputation for attracting the very best talent in British theatre in order to rediscover and stage lesser-known works by major writers.

Malin Ackerman shined at the 2012 Environmental Media Awards Sunday evening. She wore a crimson cocktail dress by the Los Angeles based eco friendly line Alexx Jae & Milk.

Simon Chandler (Bernard/Terence), Rachel Finnegan (Halina/Betty/Margaret), Natasha Gordon (Connie), Ryan Kiggell (Charles), Ferdinand Kingsley (Casmir/Henry), Charlotte Lucas (Ellen), and Eugene O'Hare (Pierre) join the previously announced Adrian Lester (Ira Aldridge) to complete the cast for Red Velvet. Written by Lolita Chakrabarti, and directed by theTricycle's Artistic Director, Indhu Rubasingham, Red Velvet runs from 11 October - 24 November, with press night on 16 October. Check out photos of the cast and creative team in rehearsal below!

FREUD'S LAST SESSION will feature a post-show talkback series in October to discuss Love, Sex, the Meaning of Life and the Existence of God at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport in Chicago. Winner of the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play, the Midwest Premiere of FREUD'S LAST SESSION has received rave reviews and three Jeff Award nominations, including Best Play. The production has been extended multiple times and is now in final weeks, ending its successful Chicago run on November 11. Written by Mark St. Germain, under the direction of Tyler Marchant, the production stars local theater legend, Mike Nussbaum (Emmy, Drama Desk Award, four-time Jeff Award winner, and recent Sarah Siddons Award recipient), as "Sigmund Freud" and Coburn Goss (Vigils at the Goodman Theatre, Dead Man's Cell Phone at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Off Broadway When the Messenger is Hot at 59E59) as "C.S. Lewis."

Tonight, September 23rd, there will be an invitation only industry reading of Susan Ferrara's new play BUZZ at The Atlantic Theater Stage 2. The cast will include Sam McMurray (A Soldier's Play, Raising Arizona), Anatol Yusef (Richard III, Boardwalk Empire), Marcia DeBonis (Fran's Bed, 13 Going on 30), Vince Gatton (Drama Desk Nominee-Candy & Dorothy), Tom Riis Farrell (Coram Boy), Julie Ann Emery (Hitch), John Preston (As You Like It), Zack Calhoon (Hamlet), and Lori Prince (Lyric is Waiting) as Buzz.

Anticipation for the revived and revised version Frank Wildhorn's acclaimed musical JEKYLL & HYDE is building in Houston, TX. The tour opened in La Mirada, California on September 7, 2012 and will be make a whirlwind stop in San Diego, California before coming home to Houston in October. To give me the inside scoop on this new Broadway-bound production, Constantine Maroulis, starring in the titular dual roles, chatted with me from La Mirada.