Playwrights Horizons News

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 January 16th through February 16th. Opening Night is January 25th.

92Y presents an evening with the stars and director behind the new Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County, on Sunday, January 5 at 7:30 pm. Four-time Tony Award-nominee Kelli O'Hara (Francesca) and Steven Pasquale (Robert Kincaid) join Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher for a conversation moderated by Tony Award winning composer/lyricist Adam Guettel. The evening will also include a few performances of songs from the show.

Today, we remember those within the entertainment industry that we lost in 2013.

Today, check out part two of this year's curtain call highlights 2013, and catch up on anything that you might have missed within the last 12 months!

The Wild Root Company, a new production endeavor committed to developing new works from emerging playwrights and screenwriters, announced today initial casting for its one-night-only benefit reading of Gloria, a brand new screenplay adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Beautiful and Damned. All profits raised from the evening, which will take place at The Mainstage at Playwrights Horizons on Monday January 6, 2014 at 8:00 pm, will go to the Ali Forney Center for Homeless LGBTQ Youth.

Playwrights Horizons has announced additional casting for its current 2013/2014 Season. The announcement includes final casting for the New York premiere of STAGE KISS, a new play by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl (Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH; The Clean House, In the Next Room...), directed by Rebecca Taichman (Milk Like Sugar at PH; Marie Antoinette, Orlando, The Scene, Luck of the Irish) and complete casting for the World Premiere of YOUR MOTHER'S COPY OF THE KAMA SUTRA, a new play by Kirk Lynn (Founder, Rude Mechanicals, Austin), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Detroit, Maple and Vine at PH; Belleville, The Thugs).

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents a free reading of Jean Anouilh's Antigone. Robertson Dean, a resident artist with the company, translated and directs the piece. Admission for the reading is free. Please RSVP via phone to 626-356-3100 x1 to reserve your seat.

Composer Jeanine Tesori just revealed in an interview with Variety that the upcoming Broadway production will be the one-act, 'retooled and trimmed' version that was presented at Encores in summer 2013. The changes made for that presentation will be 'retained and honed.'

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces new leadership of its board of directors and three new members. Diane Rodriguez, associate producer/director of new play production at Center Theatre Group, succeeds Phillip Himberg, producing artistic director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, as board president. Robert Hupp, producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre, joins playwright Lydia. R. Diamond as joint vice presidents. Tim Jennings, managing director of Children's Theatre Company, succeeds Roche Schulfer, executive director of Goodman Theatre, as treasurer. Ralph Bryan, managing director-investments of Wells Fargo Advisors, remains as secretary.

Religion, politics and theater collide when Bart DeLorenzo directs the Los Angeles premiere of Passion Play by Tony and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl, kicking off the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's 45th Anniversary Season in a co-production with Evidence Room. Performances begin Jan. 25 at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. and continue through March 16.

Ars Nova kicks off 2014 with Game Play, this year's incarnation of Ars Nova's annual Play Group production. Game Play, set to play 10 performances from January 29 - February 8, features original short plays and live music inspired by classic board game titles.

The Bushwick Starr will present an evening of two short works performed by award-winning and treasured actor, David Greenspan.

Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Frederick Weller and Tony® Award nominee Bobby Steggert will join Tony® and Emmy® Award winner Tyne Daly in the upcoming Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Mothers and Sons, it was announced today. Weller will portray Cal Porter opposite Daly's Katharine Gerard. Steggert, currently seen on Broadway in Big Fish, reprises the role of Will Ogden which he created in an earlier production of the play at Bucks County Playhouse. Mothers and Sons marks Mr. McNally's 20th Broadway show, and will be directed by Tony nominee Sheryl Kaller (Next Fall). It will play Broadway's John Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street). Preview performances have been set to begin Sunday, February 23, 2014, and the opening night has been announced for Monday, March 24, 2014. Mothers and Sons is produced on Broadway by Tom Kirdahy, Roy Furman, Paula Wagner & Debbie Bisno, and Barbara Freitag & Loraine Alterman Boyle. For tickets and more information, visit www.MothersAndSonsBroadway.com.

A book launch party for 'Wynn Place Show: A Biased History of the Rollicking Life & Extreme Times of Wynn Handman and The American Place Theatre' by Jeremy Gerard (Smith and Kraus Publishers) was held December 16, 2013 at The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, NYC. Stars attending the book launch celebration were Richard Gere, John Leguizamo and Frank Langella. Scroll down for photos from the event!

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

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Broadway's Tony Award for Best Play. London's Olivier Award for Best New Play. There's only one show in history that can claim all three honors. The Playhouse is proud to kick off the second half of its Marx Theatre season with Bruce Norris' CLYBOURNE PARK, running Jan. 18 through Feb. 16.

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company today announced the inaugural Keen Playwrights Lab. Under the leadership of Mark Armstrong, Keen's Director of New Work, each playwright will be developing a new full-length play inspired by Keen Company's mission - sincere story telling with heart, honesty and hope. The collaborative and supportive environment brings together three acclaimed American playwrights in mid-career to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. The program will culminate in three public readings in April, 2014. More details TBA. Keen Playwrights Lab made possible in part thanks to a Creative Space Grant with A.R.T./New York. This season's participants are Jessica Dickey, Gabe McKinley and Qui Nguyen.

During rehearsals for The Underpants by Steve Martin, Hartford Stage administrators learned of plans for an "accidental" wardrobe malfunction. Horrified, the administrators noted that Hartford Stage does not condone wardrobe malfunctions of any kind.

The Acting Company presents a benefit staged reading of Holiday by Philip Barry at 7 pm tonight, Monday, December 16 at the Mainstage Theater (at Playwrights Horizons), 416 West 42nd Street (9th-10th Avenues).