Philadelphia Theatre Company News

Scenic designer, writer and professor, MARJORIE BRADLEY KELLOGG, and costume designer DEBORAH M. DRYDEN are among the 2014 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony tonight, May 2, at 6:30pm, at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street).

New Dramatists,Tony® Honor recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, announces that Emily Morse will assume the position of Artistic Director beginning in July. Morse, on staff at New Dramatists since 2001 and currently serving as Director of Artistic Development, assumes the position from Todd London who leaves New Dramatists after eighteen years to become the Executive Director/Professor of Drama at the University of Washington where he'll oversee undergraduate, MFA and PhD programs, training and productions. London's appointment is awaiting final approval by the university Board of Regent's.

LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists and engaging new audiences, will produce the New York premiere of brownsville song (b-side for tray), a new play by Kimber Lee, this fall. The production, to be directed by Patricia McGregor, will begin performances Saturday, October 4, running for six weeks only through Sunday, November 16 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Monday, October 20.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, TD Bank has foreclosed on the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. The Philadelphia Theatre Company, which is housed at the theatre, stopped making mortgage payments back in 2012. The company had been in discussing possible solutions with the bank, but they foreclosed on them before reaching a decision.

It's comedy time in the summer at Philadelphia Theatre Company with Unconstitutional, a new comedy written and performed by popular comedian and SNL veteran Colin Quinn, running July 1-July 13 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). This one-man show tackles 226 years of American constitutional calamities, offering Quinn's satiric take on our national character, from predator drones to the Kardashians.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre welcomes back Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner for the West Coast premiere of his latest play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, an epic tale of love, family, sex, money, and politics. Kushner reunites with one of his favorite collaborators, Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone, to bring this sweeping drama to the Roda Theatre. With his trademark mix of soaring intellect and searing emotion, the legendary writer unfurls a poignant story about an Italian family in Brooklyn. When retired longshoreman Gus Marcantonio decides to die, his kids come home with a raucous parade of lovers and spouses to find that even the house keeps secrets. A portrait of a dysfunctional family filled with weighty dialogue, humor, and passion, Kushner's four-act play previews Friday, May 16, opens on Wednesday, May 21, and runs through Sunday, June 29, 2014.

Bay Street Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of CONVICTION (May 27-June 15) by Carey Crim and directed by Scott Schwartz, Bay Street's new Artistic Director. The production is co-produced by Bay Street Theatre, Rubicon Theatre in California, Dead Posh Productions, London and Canada's Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley, directed by Patricia McGregor. The House that will not Stand will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) today, April 18-May 10. Opening Night is Thursday, April 24.

11th Hour Theatre Company presents its only mainstage production of the season, the hilarious, boy-band "holy hit" musical Altar Boyz running May 15-June 1, 2014 at The Arts Bank at the University of the Arts. With a book by Kevin Del Aguila and music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker, Altar Boyz is directed by Megan Nicole O'Brien with an ensemble cast of Robert Hager, Adam Hoyak, Billy Kametz, Michael Linden, and Nicholas Park.

Theatre Exile closes its 17th season with the Philadelphia premiere of Annapurna, a moving and explosive new play by critically acclaimed, emerging Broadway playwright Sharr White. Driven by the emotionally charged relationship between a husband and wife, Exile's production stars Barrymore Award-winning actors Pearce Bunting (Exile's A Behanding in Spokane, HBO's Boardwalk Empire) and Catharine Slusar (Iron, Any Given Monday) as Ulysses and Emma. Performances run today, April 17 - May 11 in Theatre Exile's South Philadelphia Studio X.

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company Ensemble has announced its newest member, playwright Bruce Norris. Among his many accomplishments, Norris is the author of The Qualms, playing July 3 - August 31 in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre. Since 2000, Steppenwolf has produced seven of Norris's plays, including Clybourne Park and the world premieres of A Parallelogram, The Unmentionables, The Pain and the Itch, We All Went Down to Amsterdam, Purple Heart and The Infidel.

Christopher Durang's 2012 Tony® and Drama Desk® award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike follows three middle-aged siblings during a whirlwind reunion weekend. Vanya and Sonia live a quiet, uneventful live in the Bucks County farmhouse where they grew up. Vanya (a gay man who may never have actually come out) and Sonia (the adopted sister as she frequently mentions) remained in the family home to care for their ailing parents and never got around to going out and making lives for themselves. The pair's static existence is abruptly disturbed when Masha, their movie star sibling who funds their life of unhappy leisure, returns for a weekend with her twenty-something boy toy in tow, announcing that she plans to sell the house.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley, directed by Patricia McGregor. The House that will not Stand will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) April 18-May 10. Opening Night is Thursday, April 24.

Colman Domingo is finding that you can go home again, as he returns to his native Philadelphia to perform for the first time since his Tony Award-nominated Broadway turn in the hit musical, The Scottsboro Boys. Philadelphia Theatre Company concludes its 2013-2014 season with the Philadelphia premiere of A Boy and His Soul, written and performed by Colman Domingo with direction by Tony Kelly. This solo play with soul music runs May 23-June 22 at Philadelphia Theatre Company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets).

Open Stage of Harrisburg continues its 28th season with the regional premiere of Bruce Norris' award-winning play, Clybourne Park, running from April 11 through May 3. Winner of a Tony Award for Best Play, the Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Award, and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this cutting-edge, wickedly funny satire digs into the heart of race and real estate in the suburbs of Chicago. Inspired by historical events, the play begins in 1959 when a white couple sells their home to the neighborhood's first black family, and thus sparks controversy. Fifty years later, the house is again changing hands, this time to a young white couple moving into the now black community.

Scenic designer, writer and professor, MARJORIE BRADLEY KELLOGG, and costume designer DEBORAH M. DRYDEN are among the 2014 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, May 2, at 6:30pm, at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Ms. Kellogg will receive the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design and Ms. Dryden was selected to receive the 2014 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design. Ms. Kellogg's award will be presented to her by director Kenny Leon and Ms. Dryden's award will be presented to her by designer David Woolard.

Master of Absurd Comedy Christopher Durang blends the characters and themes from Anton Chekhov's dramas in the hilarious Tony Award-winner Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike running today, March 21 - April 20 at Philadelphia Theatre Company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by James J. Christy, the ensemble features Grace Gonglewski, Deirdre Madigan, Kianne Muschett , Clare O'Malley, Alex Shaw, and Kraig Swartz.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the second installment in its new play reading series, called Play-By-Play: A Public Education by Jeff Talbott tonight and tomorrow, March 14 and 15, 2014. Guest artist Shana Gold directs the production.

Smokey Joe's Cafe-The Songs of Leiber and Stoller transports audiences to the golden age of rock, rhythm and blues this spring at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Director Randy Johnson returns to Arena Stage following the success of A Night with Janis Joplin (which enjoyed two runs at Arena Stage followed by a subsequent run on Broadway) to helm this Grammy Award-winning tribute to legendary songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, which originally opened on Broadway in 1995 and became the longest running musical revue, topping 2,000 performances. Bursting with hit tunes including 'Hound Dog,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' 'Stand by Me,' 'Love Potion #9' and 'On Broadway,' Smokey Joe's Cafe showcases choreography by Parker Esse (Arena Stage's The Music Man, Oklahoma!) and music direction by Victor Simonson (Center Stage's A Civil War Christmas, Arena Stage's 3 Mo' Divas) and runs April 25-June 8, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

Theatre Exile closes its 17th season with the Philadelphia premiere of Annapurna, a moving and explosive new play by critically acclaimed, emerging Broadway playwright Sharr White. Driven by the emotionally charged relationship between a husband and wife, Exile's production stars Barrymore Award-winning actors Pearce Bunting (Exile's A Behanding in Spokane, HBO's Boardwalk Empire) and Catharine Slusar (Iron, Any Given Monday) as Ulysses and Emma. Performances run April 17 - May 11 in Theatre Exile's South Philadelphia Studio X.