Playwrights Horizons News

Tony nominee Daniel Breaker just announced via Twitter that he will soon join the cast of THE BOOK OF MORMON as tribal chief 'Mafala.' He writes: I'm pleased to join the @BookofMormon this Feb on B'way!!! Come see me play Mafala in this absolutely hilarious show!!! #LoveMormon'. Breaker will replace original cast member Michael Potts.

Playwrights Horizon begins accepting entries today, Wednesday, January 29, for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to the New York premiere of STAGE KISS, a new play by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl (Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH, The Clean House, In the Next Room..., Eurydice) and directed by Rebecca Taichman (Milk Like Sugar at PH, Marie Antoinette, Ms.Ruhl's Orlando, The Scene, Luck of the Irish).

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, now celebrating its thirty-sixth year. Chosen from over 100 submitted plays, the Finalists are

Ars Nova kicks off 2014 with Game Play, this year's incarnation of Ars Nova's annual Play Group production. An evening of original short plays and live music inspired by classic board game titles, Game Play features Peter Benson, Marcia DeBonis, Dashiell Eaves, Brandon Gill, Ben Graney, Susan Heyward, Jessica Love and Carmen Zilles. This production plays 10 performances, today, January 29 - February 8.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that Ken Urban's The Correspondent, directed by Stephen Brackett will begin previews tonight, January 29, 2014, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, west of Seventh Avenue South, between West 11th and Perry Streets. The official opening night is set for Thursday, February 13, 2014. The Correspondent is scheduled to run through Sunday, March 16.

Colt Coeur's Play Hotel reading series will present a free staged reading of She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange by Amelia Roper, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, January 28th at 7pm at SoHo House in Manhattan. The cast for the reading includes McCaleb Burnett (Scarcity, Rattlestick), Katya Campbell (How to Make Friends and then Kill Them, Rattlestick), Zuzanna Szadkowski ('Gossip Girl'), and Matt Stadelmann (The Grown-Up, Humana). The event is hosted by Sam Goldberg and Julia Jones.

Actors' Equity Association ('AEA' or Equity) and its Eastern Region Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, together with First Corinthian Baptist Church and Executive Producer and Artistic Producer Project1Voice present 'FOUR LITTLE GIRLS: BIRMINGHAM 1963,' a one night only staged reading event to be held on Monday, February 3rd at 7:30pm at First Corinthian Baptist Church (1912 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., between West 115th & 116th Streets, Harlem NYC). This Black History Month event is free and open to the public (doors open at 6:45pm; ticketing and entry will be handled on-site, day of show, on a first-come, first-served basis) and will be sign-language-interpreted for theatregoers who are deaf or hard of hearing. A panel discussion will take place immediately following the reading.

Laughter is coming from the stage floor when Bristol Riverside Theatre presents Neil Simon's sidesplitting comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor on March 18-April 13. Directed by Keith Baker, the ensemble cast features K.O. Delmarcelle, David Edwards, Bruce Graham, Benjamin Lloyd, Megan McDermott, Jason Silverman, and Carl N. Wallnau.

Manhattan Theatre Club will present its annual Winter Benefit, an evening of cocktails and dinner followed by a special one-night-only cabaret-style show featuring Broadway's brightest stars on Monday, February 3, 2014 at The Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Fredrick P. Rose Hall (Broadway & 60th Street).

CEW Productions, the producers of the hit off-broadway musical Mama and her boys will present a staged reading of Stopgap, a new play by Danielle Mohlman.

Artists Rep is honored to produce the world premiere of The Monster-Builder, a diabolical comedic treatise on modern architecture, by Amy Freed. As Freed is one of the nation's most lauded and respected new playwrights, Artists Rep is fortunate to host the inaugural production of this play. The Monster-Builder is directed by the esteemed and award-winning Art Manke and features a noteworthy West Coast cast.

The quintessential portrait of maniacal ambition and lust for power is on stage in William Shakespeare's epic history play Richard III at Folger Theatre. Robert Richmond

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents the world premiere of THESE PAPER BULLETS!, a modish ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Rolin Jones, with songs by Billie Joe Armstrong, and directed by Jackson Gay, March 14-April 5 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 20.

'Versailles' by Richard Ploetz is a dark and winding tale of a 28-year old single mother and 'party girl' fighting against desperate circumstances and dead-end relationships in a seedy North Florida community. Estranged from her family, her youth and beauty fading, she works as a pole dancer and tests her sexual powers on her boyfriend, her boss and her neighbors until a mysterious figure, Mr. Mason, appears, who may bring her deliverance or further entrap her. Her jagged story will be told February 20 to March 9 at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., presented by Nedworks Inc. Ian Streicher directs.

Cygnet Theatre kicks off 2014 by presenting the San Diego premiere of a new comedy that stirs up powerful questions about what people are willing to sacrifice for happiness. Cygnet has snagged the rights to present the Southern California premiere of Jordan Harrison's Maple and Vine, a sensation last season Off-Broadway at New York's Playwrights Horizons. Maple and Vine is a comedy about a couple who have become allergic to their 21st century lives and decide to move into a closed-community of 1950s re-enactors who forsake their cell phones and sushi for poodle-skirts, milkmen and Tupperware parties. Performances for Maple and Vine run now through February 16th. Opening Night is tonight, January 25th. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) just announced that Colin Donnell (Anything Goes) and Tony Award nominee Joshua Henry (The Scottsboro Boys) will join two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster in a Broadway production of VIOLET, directed by Leigh Silverman.

Cygnet Theatre kicks off 2014 by presenting the San Diego premiere of a new comedy that stirs up powerful questions about what people are willing to sacrifice for happiness. Cygnet has snagged the rights to present the Southern California premiere of Jordan Harrison's Maple and Vine, a sensation last season Off-Broadway at New York's Playwrights Horizons. Maple and Vine is a comedy about a couple who have become allergic to their 21st century lives and decide to move into a closed-community of 1950s re-enactors who forsake their cell phones and sushi for poodle-skirts, milkmen and Tupperware parties. Performances for Maple and Vine run now through February 16th. Opening Night is January 25th. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Pace University's Pace New Musicals (PNM) program (est. 2007 by Program Head Amy Rogers), dedicated to the discovery of new theater works, and Ryan Scott Oliver, composer- lyricist and producer, will present a staged reading of Little Miss Fix-It (book and lyrics by Kirsten A. Guenther and music by Joy Son) today, January 23-27, 2014.

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) announces their 30th Anniversary Season (2014-2015). In their upcoming season, the award-winning company will present three new premieres.