Playwrights Horizons News

The Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC) concluded its Seventh Annual Colorado New Play Summit on a high note, with the announcement that one of its premieres has been signed for a production in New York. The three-day festival, which has rapidly become one of the nation's top tier new play festivals, included multiple standing-room-only showings of three play readings, a staged reading of a musical, a multimedia workshop, and two fully-produced main stage plays, one of which - The Whale, by 2011 Obie winner Samuel D. Hunter - will now be presented in October 2012 at New York's Playwrights Horizons.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) presents the New York premiere of ASSISTANCE, a new play by Leslye Headland (Bachelorette). Directed by Trip Cullman (A Small Fire, The Drunken City and Manic Flight Reaction at Playwrights Horizons, Bachelorette), the production began previews Friday, February 3 at 8PM with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, February 28 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, March 11 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

92YTribeca is set to host BEHIND THE MUSIC-AL: TEENAGE DREAMS, moderated by Steve Fickinger, Vice President of Creative Development for Disney Theatrical Group on Wed, Feb 22, 8pm, tickets from $10 adv / $12 door.

Peter Huntley Productions, in association with Southwark Playhouse, will present Floyd Collins.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater's (CST) 25th Anniversary Season production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by CST Associate Artistic Director Gary Griffin (CST's Follies, Broadway's The Color Purple) is now playing through April 8, 2012, and features a celebrated company of artists that includes stage and screen actor Ron Orbach as Nick Bottom, former Saturday Night Live funnyman Tim Kazurinsky as Peter Quince, and veteran CST actors Tracy Michelle Arnold as Hippolyta/Titania and Timothy Edward Kane as Theseus/Oberon. Performing the role of Puck is Elizabeth Ledo.

Arden Theatre Company today announced Wendy MacLeod as the first playwright to take up residence in The Writers' Room, an innovative new play program funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative and the Independence Foundation through its New Theatre Works Initiative. McLeod's unique residency will begin in April 2012 and over a four month period, she will write and rehearse a new play which will run on the Arden's stage July 5-15, 2012.

Did you ever have a boss who made your life a living hell? Do you have memories of being an assistant that will stay with you for the rest of your life? Are they pent up inside you, waiting to be shared with others? Was your experience reminiscent of the movie 'Swimming with Sharks'?

Actor/Writer Michael Cyril Creighton's theatre-centric online sitcom "JACK IN A BOX" received a Writers Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Original New Media. Winners will be announced at the 64th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards on February 19th, 2012.

Luna Theater Company will present the Philadelphia premiere of Leslye Headland's Bachelorette from January 28 - February 18 at the Skybox at the Adrienne Theatre 2030 Sansom Street.

The Strand Theater Company marks the midpoint of its fourth season with Sheila Callaghan's antic revenge story, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play.

The Strand Theater Company marks the midpoint of its fourth season with Sheila Callaghan's antic revenge story, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play. Blending fantasy, feminism, and satire with gonzo bouts of sex and violence, this dark, dark, dark comedy will shake audiences out of their theatrical doldrums and leave them talking well into the night, debating how the media portrays "dangerous women."

Avila Productions, LLC, by special arrangement with Cherry Lane Theatre in association with Jack Sharkey, today announced the world premiere of TERESA'S ECSTASY, written by Begonya Plaza and directed by Will Pomerantz.

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.

La MaMa and World In One Pan Arts Collaborative presents Loom Ensemble's World Premiere of Erosion: A Fable, directed by Tomi Tsunoda, written by the ensemble and choreographed by Neva Cockrell, with original music composed by Sasha Bogdanowitsch.

According to Deadline.com, OTHER DESERT CITIES star Justin Kirk has signed on for the eighth season of Showtime's 'Weeds.' Kirk plays 'Andy' in the series, which will ikey eneter its final season later this year.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC and WQXR, announce the third event in the series, TCG Playwrights in Conversation: Discussions and Readings - In Conversation with Anne Bogart. In celebration of TCG's 50th anniversary, four events featuring conversations with TCG authors and featured artists are being presented at The Greene Space, WNYC and WQXR's innovative broadcast studio and performance venue.

Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Don Gregory, has announced the full company for the new Broadway production of Mary Chase's Harvey starring Jim Parsons (Elwood P. Dowd), Jessica Hecht (Veta Louise Simmons), Charles Kimbrough (William R. Chumley, M.D.), Larry Bryggman (Judge Omar Gaffney), Carol Kane (Betty Chumley), Peter Benson (E.J. Lofgren), Tracee Chimo (Myrtle Mae Simmons), Holley Fain (Ruth Kelly, R.N.), Angela Paton (Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet), Rich Sommer (Duane Wilson), Morgan Spector (Lyman Sanderson, M.D.) and directed by Scott Ellis.

The Denver Center Theatre Company announced today that Playwrights Horizons, located in New York City, has selected THE WHALE, by Samuel D. Hunter, as part of its 2012/13 season. THE WHALE, which originated as a reading during the 2011 Colorado New Play Summit, has received critical acclaim and audience praise leading to the extension of the run at The Ricketson Theatre through February 25. Tickets are limited and can be purchased by calling 303.893.4100 or visiting www.denvercenter.org.

According to the New York Times, Playwrights Horizons will present FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath), in Spring 2013. The show will also play Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. The musical was adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Continuing its 25th Anniversary Season, the Shakespeare Theatre Company is set to present Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Strange Interlude.