Playwrights Horizons News

The Guthrie today announced that two-time Tony Award nominee and Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Brian d'Arcy James joins the artist line-up for BEHOLD: A Gala Performance, honoring 50 years of the Guthrie, onSaturday, June 22, 2013. James is slated to sing an original song based on excerpts of text from Hamlet, as previously announced, which is being composed by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown specifically for the celebratory evening.

Kathy Evans, Founder and Executive Director, announced the nine musicals and eighteen writers selected for the third summer of the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. For nine consecutive weeks beginning June 23rd, each writing team will have an individual weeklong residency in Rhinebeck, New York to write their musical. All costs are fully funded by donors including The ASCAP Foundation, The Dramatists Guild Fund, and The Noel Coward Foundation. Writers include Tony-winners and nominees Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), and Heidi Rodewald and Stew (Passing Strange), and multi-award winners Adam Gwon, Laura Harrington, Joe Iconis, Kait Kerrigan, and Brian Lowdermilk.

Connecticut's premier outdoor Shakespeare will present As You Like It, June 13-30, 2013. The show is one of Shakespeare's most beloved and pastoral comedies. Claire Shannon Kelly, currently the Director of Youth Programming for Shakespeare on the Sound and the director of the company's touring educational program, 'Speaking Daggers,' will direct. Kelly previously worked at the Ordway Theater, the Guthrie Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and the George Street Playhouse. She is a resident of New Canaan.

Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, announced today directors of the eight projects selected for development at the 2013 Conference.

4TH WALL THEATRE closes its 16th season with the comedy Lucky Stiff, the first musical by one of Broadway's hottest writing teams, Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music). This musical farce is based on the book The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth. First produced at Playwrights Horizons off-Broadway (Richard Rodgers Award) the show later went on to win Washington's Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical.

Bay Street Theatre begins the 2013 Mainstage Season with Lend Me a Tenor (May 28 - June 23). This hilarious Ken Ludwig comedy, under the direction of Don Stephenson, includes Judy Blazer, Scott Cote, Betsy DiLellio, Donna English, Nancy Johnston, Noah Plomgren, Steve Rosen and Roland Rusinek as its hilarious cast.

The 2014 season of New York City Center's Tony Award-winning Encores! series will open with Little Me directed by John Rando and starring Christian Borle ('Smash,' Peter and the Starcatcher) on February 5, 2014. The season will continue with The Most Happy Fella, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and starring Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!, The Whale), followed by Irma La Douce, directed by John Doyle. Encores! Music Director Rob Berman will helm all shows.

The 58th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards ceremony was held tonight, May 20 at Webster Hall (125 East 11th Street, NYC). Check out the the full list of winners below!

Having earned a reputation as one of New York's most daring young theater companies, The Amoralists continue to grow in size, ambition and audacity. In the seven years since its founding, the Company has successfully produced 16 productions of ten plays, including nine world premieres, and has quickly moved from basement theaters to Off-Broadway. On the heels of these accomplishments, The Amoralists will kick off 'The Summer of The Amoralists' season with the New York premiere of Mark Roberts' Rantoul and Die, directed by Jay Stull and featuring performances by Derek Ahonen, Sarah Lemp,Matthew Pilieci and Vanessa Vache - all members of The Amoralists' 50-member ensemble.

11th Hour Theatre Company closes its season with the intimate chamber musical The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brownon June 20-30 at University of the Arts' Caplan Studio Theatre (211 South Broad Street, 16th Floor). Directed by Megan Nicole O'Brien, the two-person cast stars Michael Philip O'Brien as Jaime and Cara Noel Antosca as Kathy.

Two-time Tony Award-winner Katie Finneran (most recently on Broadway in "Annie") and husband Darren Goldstein ("Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson") are set to host the 15th Anniversary Benefit for the Off-Broadway theatre company Page 73 Productions onWednesday, May 22nd 2013 at City Winery (155 Varick Street) in Manhattan. The evening's festivities begin at 7:00pm and will include dinner, cocktails (including specialty cocktail "The Caroline McGraw" in honor of the 2013 P73 Playwriting Fellow) and the annual New Play Bake Off. Longtime Page 73 supporters Carson and Joseph Gleberman will be honored at this year's benefit.

Westport Country Playhouse will stage the classic comedy, "The Show-Off," described as a funny, surprising, and moving story of a family in upheaval when their youngest daughter becomes engaged to a brash loudmouth, playing from June 11 through June 29. Cast in principal roles are 2013 Drama Desk Award winner Jayne Houdyshell as the imperious Mrs. Fisher, and Drama Desk nominee Will Rogers as Aubrey Piper, the show-off of the title.

The acclaimed series 'Monday Nights, New Voices' will return to the Duplex Cabaret Theatre tonight, May 20th, 2013 produced by composer Scott Alan.

The Village Voice, the nation's first and largest alternative weekly newspaper, welcomes esteemed critic and longtime judge of the awards Michael Feingold as Obie chairman for the 58th Annual Village Voice OBIE Awards, replacing former Chairman Brian Parks who has moved on from The Village Voice.

Main Street Theater closes its 38th MainStage season with Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space, a comical and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate... in any language. With previews tonight, May 18, 19, and 22, Close Up Space opens May 23 and runs through June 16 at Main Street Theater - Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd.

Rogue Machine presents Los Angeles Premiere of DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn, opening tonight,, May 18, 2013 with reception to follow. The production runs 5pm Saturdays, 7pm Sundays, and 8pm Mondays through July 8, 2013, with Memorial weekend performances on May 23rd at 8pm and Sunday, May 26th at 7pm (No performance on June 24th).

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Sarah Ruhl'sChekhov's Three Sisters & Woolf's Orlando: Two Renderings for the Stage which includes an introduction by the author. The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist (The Clean House; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play) offers two new dramatic renderings for the stage. Ruhl's version of Three Sisters was commissioned by, and premiered in 2009 at, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Orlando was commissioned by, and premiered in 1998 at, the Piven Theatre Workshop, before receiving its NYC premiere in 2010 at Classic Stage Company.

Here's 'Brooklyn's Union Hall' by Joel Waggoner and Eric Price. 'The inspiration for the song was to write about the moment it was announced that Barack Obama had won the 2008 Presidential Election,' said Price. Zachary Prince (the Last Five Years) stars in this video from our most recent concert at Joe's Pub.

Directed by Stuart Bousel, Prelude to a Kiss previews tonight, May 17-19, opens May 21, and runs through June 16 at the Gough Street Playhouse.

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that FAR FROM HEAVEN, which began previews on May 8, and is set to play at Playwrights Horizons through June 30, is sold out. The musical is set to open on Sunday, June 2, at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).