Playwrights Horizons News

Ars Nova presents, as part of the Out Loud series, a free reading of: THE NOISE by Rachel Bonds, directed by Portia Krieger. The cast includes Peter Friedman, Greg Keller, Meredith Holzman, Maryann Plunkett and Merritt Wever.

A new Chekhov-inspired play by Christopher Durang, an Edward Albee classic, and one of Shakespeare's late romances directed by Rebecca Taichman will be produced at McCarter Theatre Center during the 2012-2013 season. Two more productions will be announced at a later date.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I rounded 48th street towards the Walter Kerr. This time was different from every other trip I had taken here. This time I was going to be privy to the inner workings of a show and not just another benighted spectator of the final product. I was slightly nervous and I welcomed the cold day, as I concentrated on the nippiness of the air rather than the grandeur of the theater that lay ahead. This was going to be my first time backstage in a Broadway house.

Burning Coal Theatre Company presents BUSINESS SPEAK - How Business People Can Use the Tools of an Actor's Trade, a four week class that presents the non-actor with the fundamental tools of the actor's trade: confidence, articulation, improvisation, and how to concisely convey ideas, using your voice and your body. Burning Coal Theatre Company's Artistic Director, Jerome Davis, and Education Director Ian Finley will teach this class on the art of public speaking. Dates and times are May 7- May 28, 2012, Mondays from 6:30-9:30 pm. The class costs $120, due at the first class. Classes will take place at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC. For further information, visit www.burningcoal.org. To register, call 919-834-4001.

Jason Robert Brown's Off-Broadway show The Last Five Years takes the stage at Crossroads Theatre Company, April 12-29. The Last Five Years is a contemporary musical about the five-year relationship between two young New Yorkers: Jamie Wellerstein, a Jewish novelist whose career is rising at lightning speed, and Cathy Hiatt, an actress with integrity struggling to make it in a cut-throat business. The couple earnestly navigates the tumultuous waters of love, while their career successes and hardships tear them apart. Crossroads' production casts Cathy as an African-American, adding an interracial dimension to the show.

Linda Lavin (Broadway Bound), Sebastian Arcelus (Elf), LaChanze (The Color Purple), Emily Skinner (Side Show), Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!), Daniel Breaker (Passing Strange) and Sierra Boggess (Love Never Dies, The Little Mermaid) will be among the star players in the upcoming Broadway Hal Prince tribute, PRINCE OF BROADWAY, The New York Times reveals.

BASE Entertainment has just announced that DINER, a new musical based on the critically acclaimed 1982 film with a book by Academy Award winner and original DINER screenwriter Barry Levinson and music & lyrics by 9-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, will have its pre-Broadway world premiere at San Francisco's SHN Curran Theatre (445 Geary Street). Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, DINER will play a strictly limited four week engagement from Tuesday, October 23, 2012, through Sunday, November 18, 2012, with an opening night of Friday, November 2, 2012. Due to these confirmed San Francisco dates DINER will now bow on Broadway in the spring of 2013, instead of the fall of 2012 as previously announced. Design team and casting will be announced at a later date.

The New Group presents the world premiere of An Early History of Fire, a new play by Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe. Directed by Jo Bonney, this production features Deema Aitken, Gordon Clapp, Erin Darke, Jonny Orsini, Devin Ratray, Dennis Staroselsky, Theo Stockman and Claire van der Boom. Limited Off-Broadway engagement is slated April 5 - May 26 at The New Group at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Official Opening Night is set for Monday, April 30 at 7:00 PM.

Classic Stage Company's upcoming production of Bertolt Brecht's GALILEO (translated by Charles Laughton) starring Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham closes on Sunday, March 18.

Arden Theatre Company 2011/12 main stage season continues with Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, the winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Unexpected loss leads to an unlikely love story.

The American Theatre Wing (Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Heather Hitchens, Executive Director) is now accepting applications for the 2012 SpringboardNYC summer program, being held June 5 - 16 in New York City. Limited to 35 participants, SpringboardNYC provides financial aid and multiple scholarship programs to students who qualify.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) begins performances of the world premiere production FUTURITY: A MUSICAL BY THE LISPS, with music and lyrics by Cesar Alvarez with The Lisps; book by Molly Rice and Cesar Alvarez; directed by Sarah Benson.Performances run from Friday, March 16 through Sunday, April 15, 2012 at the A.R.T.'s second space, OBERON, at 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge.

The Broadway play Red comes to Berkeley Repertory Theatre in March, staged as a valedictory by Obie Award-winner Les Waters as he departs the Bay Area to take the reins at Actors Theatre of Louisville. John Logan, the Oscar-nominated author of Aviator and Gladiator, won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for this feverish 90-minute drama. Now Waters and two exceptional actors bring this powerful play to local audiences. Red begins previews on the intimate Thrust Stage on March 16, opens March 22, and runs through April 29.

As first reported on Deadline.com, Hamish Linklater, currently starring opposite Alan Rickman in Broadway's 'Seminar', is in final talks to take on the lead role in the upcoming Fox drama pilot THE ASSET.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) will present its LCT3 production of 4000 MILES, a new play by Amy Herzog, directed by Daniel Aukin beginning Thursday, March 15 in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Patrick Willingham) is set to present Ethan Lipton's NO PLACE TO GO for a limited engagement at Joe's Pub, beginning Wednesday, March 14.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Patrick Willingham) will begin previews on Wednesday, March 14 for NO PLACE TO GO, directed by Leigh Silverman and written by Ethan Lipton with music composed by Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra. NO PLACE TO GO is the first Joe's Pub commission, as part of its New York Voices Series, to become part of The Public Theater's season. Single tickets, priced at $30, are on sale now.