Peter Sellars News

Kansas City opera fans have been waiting 10 years for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City to produce the audience favorite, La Traviata. On March 14, 16, 18, 20, & 22, 2009 the Lyric Opera of Kansas City will present Verdi's spellbinding tragedy, La Traviata at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Kansas City. Under the spell of one exquisite party, Violetta is tempted - and eventually swayed - to abandon her life of endless immoral pleasure to join lovesick Alfredo in the love affair of a lifetime despite Violetta's secret terminal disease. Violetta's colored past proves to be a hurdle for Alfredo's father, who persuades her to leave Alfredo for his own good. The pair is only reunited for the final moments of Violetta's life.

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce casting for ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN, by Charles Fuller and directed by Stephen McKinley Henderson. ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN is the final production of Signature's 2008-09 season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Director, John Ortiz; co-Artistic Director, Philip Seymour Hoffman; co-Artistic & Executive Director, John Gould Rubin) announces its forthcoming SALON benefit, with Toni Morrison and Peter Sellars, on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 7:15 p.m. in The Frieda & Roy Furman Gallery at The Film Society of Lincoln Center (165 West 65th Street). The LAByrinth fund-raiser is hosted by Jennifer Chambers, Michael & Marlene Fine, Mara Manus, and Marianne & Steve Mills, and the evening includes supper & cocktails.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance continues Harris Theater 5.0, its Fifth Anniversary Season, and concludes its inaugural Harris Theater Presents 2008-2009 series with a special engagement featuring legendary countertenor David Daniels with The English Concert, directed by Harry Bicket, Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets for this performance, which range from $30-$110, are on-sale now and available at the Harris Theater box office located in Millennium Park at 205 E. Randolph Dr., by calling 312-334-7777 or by visiting www.harristheaterchicago.org.

Kansas City opera fans have been waiting 10 years for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City to produce the audience favorite, La Traviata. On March 14, 16, 18, 20, & 22, 2009 the Lyric Opera of Kansas City will present Verdi's spellbinding tragedy, La Traviata at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Kansas City. Under the spell of one exquisite party, Violetta is tempted - and eventually swayed - to abandon her life of endless immoral pleasure to join lovesick Alfredo in the love affair of a lifetime despite Violetta's secret terminal disease. Violetta's colored past proves to be a hurdle for Alfredo's father, who persuades her to leave Alfredo for his own good. The pair is only reunited for the final moments of Violetta's life.

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce casting for ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN, by Charles Fuller and directed by Stephen McKinley Henderson. ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN is the final production of Signature's 2008-09 season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

Kirsten Chavez will sing the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met on January 14, replacing Stephanie Blythe, who is ill.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2008-09 season with John Guare's Rich & Famous, directed by John Rando (Urinetown, The Musical and Wedding Singer on Broadway) in its first major revival since its 1976 New York debut. From the ingenious mind of John Guare, who brought Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves to the American stage, this delicious dark comedy springs to life with twisted humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and outrageous plot twists. The revival script includes significant rewrites to the original text, as well as hilarious songs freshly scribed by Guare himself. In Rich and Famous, playwright Bing Ringling yearns to savor the sweet taste of celebrity, and he's hoping play number 844 will be his lucky break. But on opening night, he slips into a nightmarish phantasmagoria that shows him just how wrong things can go.

Director-choreographer Mark Morris's much-lauded 2007 production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice returns to the repertoire, with Stephanie Blythe taking on one of the pinnacles of the mezzo-soprano repertory, the role of Orfeo, for the first time in her career. Soprano Danielle de Niese, an acclaimed singer of eighteenth-century music and a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, sings Euridice for the first time at the Met. Heidi Grant Murphy returns as Amor, which she performed at the production's premiere in 2007.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2008-09 season with John Guare's Rich & Famous, directed by John Rando (Urinetown, The Musical and Wedding Singer on Broadway) in its first major revival since its 1976 New York debut. From the ingenious mind of John Guare, who brought Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves to the American stage, this delicious dark comedy springs to life with twisted humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and outrageous plot twists. The revival script includes significant rewrites to the original text, as well as hilarious songs freshly scribed by Guare himself. In Rich and Famous, playwright Bing Ringling yearns to savor the sweet taste of celebrity, and he's hoping play number 844 will be his lucky break. But on opening night, he slips into a nightmarish phantasmagoria that shows him just how wrong things can go.

Brett Batterson, executive director of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (ATRU), is pleased to announce the return of Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah to Chicago's National Historic Landmark Auditorium Theatre. For two performances only, Friday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 14 at 3 p.m., the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, will be filled with the sounds of this soulful reinvention of Handel's Messiah. This joyful musical experience is quickly becoming one of Chicago's favorite annual events. Tickets are now on sale.

LAByrinth Theater Company (John Ortiz, Artistic Director; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Co-Artistic Director; John Gould Rubin, Co- Artistic & Executive Director) opens its alternative festival of free staged readings, Live Nude Plays (November 16-19, 2008).

LAByrinth Theater Company (John Ortiz, Artistic Director; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Co-Artistic Director; John Gould Rubin, Co- Artistic & Executive Director) opens its alternative festival of free staged readings, Live Nude Plays (November 16 ? 19, 2008).

Brett Batterson, executive director of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (ATRU), is pleased to announce the return of Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah to Chicago's National Historic Landmark Auditorium Theatre. For two performances only, Friday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 14 at 3 p.m., the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, will be filled with the sounds of this soulful reinvention of Handel's Messiah. This joyful musical experience is quickly becoming one of Chicago's favorite annual events. Tickets are now on sale.

Great writers and great works of literature are the thematic thread running through the 2008-09 season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers 'New Visions' series, this year subtitled, 'The Literary Muse.' A work by celebrated English novelist Virginia Woolf is the inspiration for the third presentation of the series. Opening on November 12, The National Theatre of Great Britain's award-winning, multi-media production of Waves will have its U.S. Premiere at The Duke on 42nd StreetSM, a New 42nd Street project.

Peter Wing Healey, dancer, actor, writer, choreographer, director, known for his portrayal of female characters, will be featured in his new play, THYESTES' FEAST, based on fragments of lost Greek plays set in a high fashion version of the culture of ancient Mycenae.

Thyestes' Feast, a new Greek tragedy based on fragments of lost plays written and directed by Peter Wing Healey, will have its world premiere when it opens at the Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center in Los Angeles on October 26, 2008.

Peter Wing Healey, dancer, actor, writer, choreographer, director, known for his portrayal of female characters, will be featured in his new play, THYESTES' FEAST, based on fragments of lost Greek plays set in a high fashion version of the culture of ancient Mycenae.

Great writers and great works of literature are the thematic thread running through the 2008-09 season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers 'New Visions' series, this year subtitled, 'The Literary Muse.' A work by celebrated English novelist Virginia Woolf is the inspiration for the third presentation of the series. Opening on November 12, The National Theatre of Great Britain's award-winning, multi-media production of Waves will have its U.S. Premiere at The Duke on 42nd StreetSM, a New 42nd Street project.

Thyestes' Feast, a new Greek tragedy based on fragments of lost plays written and directed by Peter Wing Healey, will have its world premiere when it opens at the Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center in Los Angeles on October 26, 2008.