Royal Shakespeare Company News

Now in its sixth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents Vibrant 2014 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing and part of its 20 Premieres season, running between 2-20 November 2014.

The National Theatre's multi award-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, directed by Tony Award winning Marianne Elliott and adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon's best-selling novel, opened in New York to a rapturous reception.

John Douglas Thompson will lead a company of 19 actors playing 60 roles in the first major New York production since Broadway 1956 of Christopher Marlowe's 1587 epic Tamburlaine, Parts I and II, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience, announced. Directed and edited by Olivier Award-winner Michael Boyd, former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Marlowe's two-part drama will be performed as one 3.5-hour play, plus a 30-minute intermission.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announces its theater, music, dance, lectures and Theater for Young Audiences programming for the 2014-2015 Season, which begins today, October 7-19 with the Edinburgh-based Puppet State Theatre Company production of The Man Who Planted Trees in the Lovelace Studio Theater; and in the Bram Goldsmith Theater a new lecture series in partnership with Writers Bloc, presenting a conversation with Leon Panetta on October 15 and Marsalis Well Tempered: An Evening with Branford Marsalis featuring the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on October 16.

Marc Robin, the Artistic Director of the historic Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster, has announced the company's lineup for its 2014/2015 Mainstage Season and the first fully produced play of the Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series. The lineup includes a hilarious farce, a holiday hit based on a classic Irving Berlin film musical, an Agatha Christie thriller, a Broadway hit that's a sexy game of cat and mouse, the Mel Brooks musical that took home the most Tony® Awards in history, a feel-good musical based on a Best Picture Oscar® Nominated Film, and perhaps the most magical musical of all time.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT) will commence its 2014-15 season at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare with a Fall Repertory that features William Shakespeare's uproarious battle of the sexes, The Merry Wives of Windsor and a new production of Boublil and Schonberg's Tony Award-winning musical epic, Les Miserables. The productions will be performed in rotating repertory September 26 - November 9, 2014.

Playful Productions and the Royal Shakespeare Company's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies play at the Aldwych Theatre until today 4 October 2014.

The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, has sold one million tickets, just under three years since opening.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation's longest-standing, most distinguished ensemble theater, announced today new leadership and unveiled plans for a future campus expansion. Steppenwolf ensemble member and Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro will succeed Martha Lavey as artistic director at the conclusion of the current season in fall 2015.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to participate in a phone interview with the Tenth Doctor himself, David Tennant. The Scottish phenomenon is a huge star in the United Kingdom, and he's (finally!) making his long-awaited American television debut alongside BREAKING BAD's Anna Gunn in Fox's new ten-part murder mystery GRACEPOINT, and this recapper couldn't be more excited. The mini-series premieres this Thursday, October 2, at 9 PM ET and spotlights the small town as they grapple with the murder of a beloved young local boy.

Renaissance One and Tilt with Carnival Village and partners present 'London is the Place for Me 2014'. The second weekend festival of literature, music and limin' returns to celebrate the vibrancy of the Caribbean and its love affair with London, curated by Melanie Abrahams, Ray Funk and Alexander D Great and running at The Tabernacle, London W11 25th and 26th October 2014, with events from noon until late.

State Theatre Company and Adina Apartment Hotels in association with Arts Projects Australia and the Adelaide Festival Centre present PETER BROOK'S THE SUIT in a run exclusive to Adelaide from the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord. Based on THE SUIT by Can Themba, Mothobi Mutloatse and Barney Simon, the production will run today 1 October through 12 October 2014, with an opening slated for Friday 3 October at 8pm at the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.

This just in! Previously announced Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will be joined by Tony Award winner Roger Rees, seven-time Emmy Award winner Tracey Ullman, Academy Award nominee Michael McKean, Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes, Tony Award nominee Michael Berresse, and Don Stephenson in The Band Wagon, an Encores! Special Event from November 6 - 16, 2014 at City Center. The Band Wagon will open on Sunday, November 8.

Will Swenson will now return to Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil's LES MISERABLES a few days later than originally anticipated, BroadwayWorld has confirmed.

The Third Annual Workshop was held last week in Beijing for the China Collaborative Innovation Center for Theatre Arts Management (CCICTAM). Theatre management leaders and experts from around the world gathered to exchange ideas and discuss future cooperation and collaboration. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the event below!

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs open their season with two of Shakespeare's finest, most dynamic works. Cymbeline, under the direction of Caitlin Ryan O'Connell ('16), opens October 16 and Hamlet, directed by James D Palmer ('16) opens October 29, 2014. Cymbeline, a romantic comedy that focuses on rebellion, justice and reconciliation runs October 16-19. Next up, Hamlet, running October 29-November 2, follows a young man searching for truth while avenging his father's mysterious death. All performances take place at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Downtown Providence. General admission $10 with a discounted price of $5 for students and seniors. Tickets on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.trinityrep.com.

The National Theater Institute Semester is a 14-week, credit-earning program, offering college-aged students intensive theater immersion at the two-time Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Katie Brayben will play the title role in the West End production of Beautiful - The Carole King Musicalopening at the Aldwych Theatre in February next year. Alan Morrissey will play King's husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, with Lorna Want as song-writer Cynthia Weil, Glynis Barber as Genie Klein, King's mother, and Gary Trainor as music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. London previews beginning on 10 February 2015 and with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015. Press night will now take place on 24 February at 7pm. Final casting will be announced shortly.