Peter Shaffer News

The DC area is full of spring splendor with so many gorgeous trees and azaleas in full bloom, and our local theatres are filled with new colorful productions. So come visit the Nation's Capital and bask in the city's beauty and the power and joy of our local theatres.

The Alley Theatre was founded over sixty years ago as Houston's theatre company. It exists to provide audiences with the highest quality theatre, offering a wide variety of work including new plays, classics, the re-discovered and the rarely-performed, and new musical theatre, with an emphasis on new American works - to provide the inspirational and the provocative - to make our audiences think, feel, dream and be entertained. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Managing Director Dean Gladden, the Alley is committed to moving forward to increase its reach into the community, to further its collaboration with the best theatre artists working today, and to encourage and cultivate the new voices, new work, new artists of the American theatre. For more information call 713-220-5700.

According to the guardian, Alec Baldwin, Kate Mulgrew, Anthony Rapp and Sam Underwood are set to star in '3D Hamlet: A Lost Generation.' The film, presented by Fundamental Theater Project, will play the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

Village Scene Productions (VSP) in association with the Rialto Theatre is thrilled to present Peter Shaffer's Equus playing at the historic Rialto Theatre from April 13-24.

From the stages of Hampton Roads to the skies above, the 15thanniversary season of the Virginia Arts Festival will reach new heights with a spectacular lineup of performances and special events over 50 days in nine cities including Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg, April 12-May 30, 2011.

From the stages of Hampton Roads to the skies above, the 15thanniversary season of the Virginia Arts Festival will reach new heights with a spectacular lineup of performances and special events over 50 days in nine cities including Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg, April 12-May 30, 2011. Single tickets for Festival events go on sale February 6, 2011. Reserve your seats now for these history-making performances.

Today we lost one of the greats: the gentle giant of directors, Sidney Lumet. What a resume! Just to pick seven of perhaps the best known of the bunch, the bunch in question being over 100 titles strong: 12 ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - the films spanning fifty years from MEN in 1957 and DEVIL in 2007 - it is clear to see why Lumet was one of the most cherished and celebrated directors in Hollywood, especially known for his tough, gritty New York stories and his pristine stage-to-screen transfers. For an excellent example of the latter (in addition to LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and the others) check out DEATHTRAP - based on Ira Levin's play, the longest-running thriller in Broadway history - featuring Michael Caine in one of his best roles and Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in their finest performances on film. For an example of the former genre, look no further than NETWORK, containing one of the strongest screenplays ever penned, from the fiery and ferocious pen of Paddy Cheyefsky, and Faye Dunaway in her Oscar-winning performance for all the ages. As far as theatrical screenplays on screen, Lumet would be hard-pressed to even come close to the power, prescience and transformative brilliance at the core of the conceit of that film - yet he did just that; with his final, 2007 film no less. I am speaking, of course, of the underrated and riveting BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, with Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris. Taking an original screenplay that could just as well have been written for the stage - shades of 12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and SERPICO, certainly - Lumet made a bristling, biting brilliant work of staggering craft and ingenuity - all with verve, energy and drive of a man a quarter of his age at the time (80). His films were classics in his own time and, now, in his passing, they are just as timeless - if not more so. With each passing year, new layers of truth, beauty, sadness and soulfulness can be found in the countless frames in the innumerable unforgettable scenes in his many masterpieces.

Rover Dramawerks is proud to announce its 11th season, which will feature shows such as SUNDAY IN NEW YORK, MORPHIC RESONANCE, and BLACK COMEDY.

Starting in April on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's production of the thrilling and wickedly sharp Amadeus.

Starting in April on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's production of the thrilling and wickedly sharp Amadeus.

Village Scene Productions (VSP) in association with the Rialto Theatre is thrilled to present Peter Shaffer's Equus playing at the historic Rialto Theatre from April 13-24.

Starting in April on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's production of the thrilling and wickedly sharp Amadeus.

24/6: A Jewish Theater Company and New York's first one dedicated to Sabbath-observant artists, will present A DOLL HOUSE, a radically new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's world-renowned play directed by Ibsen scholar Yoni Oppenheim. The production will play on March 16th at 7:30 pm, March 20th at 9:30 pm and March 23rd at 7:30 pm. at The Tank, 354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th). Tickets can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/9726 or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006. On the day of the show, tickets will be available for cash only at the door 30 minutes before the start time of the show.

24/6: A Jewish Theater Company and New York's first one dedicated to Sabbath-observant artists, will present A DOLL HOUSE, a radically new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's world-renowned play directed by Ibsen scholar Yoni Oppenheim. The production will play on March 16th at 7:30 pm, March 20th at 9:30 pm and March 23rd at 7:30 pm. at The Tank, 354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th). Tickets can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/9726 or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006. On the day of the show, tickets will be available for cash only at the door 30 minutes before the start time of the show.

The Old Globe announces event listings through June.

24/6: A Jewish Theater Company and New York's first one dedicated to Sabbath-observant artists, will present A DOLL HOUSE, a radically new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's world-renowned play directed by Ibsen scholar Yoni Oppenheim. The production will play on March 16th at 7:30 pm, March 20th at 9:30 pm and March 23rd at 7:30 pm. at The Tank, 354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th). Tickets can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/9726 or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006. On the day of the show, tickets will be available for cash only at the door 30 minutes before the start time of the show.

92nd Street Y has announced that Jordan Roth, President of Jujamcyn Theaters, continues his popular multi-evening 92nd Street Y conversation series, 'Broadway Talks with Jordan Roth' with stage and screen star Daniel Radcliffe (How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying) on Monday, May 9th at 7:30 p.m. and four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage Aux Folles) on Sunday, June 26th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $29 and are available at www.92Y.org/BroadwayTalks or by calling 212.415.5500.

The Alley Theatre was founded over sixty years ago as Houston's theatre company. It exists to provide audiences with the highest quality theatre, offering a wide variety of work including new plays, classics, the re-discovered and the rarely-performed, and new musical theatre, with an emphasis on new American works - to provide the inspirational and the provocative - to make our audiences think, feel, dream and be entertained. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Managing Director Dean Gladden, the Alley is committed to moving forward to increase its reach into the community, to further its collaboration with the best theatre artists working today, and to encourage and cultivate the new voices, new work, new artists of the American theatre. For more information call 713-220-5700.

Walnut Street Theatre continues its landmark 202nd season with an all-new production of Peter Shaffer's AMADEUS, winner of the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play and 1985 Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by Malcolm Black, AMADEUS closes March 6th on the WST Mainstage.

Vintage Theatre presents Equus by Peter Shaffer February 18 through March 20 at Vintage Theatre, 2119 E 17th Ave in Denver, CO. Alan Strang, a young man of seventeen, has committed a brutal act against six horses; his brilliant psychiatrist (Dr. Dysart) works to unravel the motivation behind this violent act.