Royal Shakespeare Company News

Shakespeare's Macbeth opens Sheffield Theatres' autumn season in the Crucible, on a unique in-the-round stage from Wednesday 5 September until Saturday 6 October.

Two of the country's leading actors will appear in the orchestral performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Usher Hall tonight, 13 August as part of Edinburgh International Festival 2012.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's world premiere production of Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical has captured the imagination of young and old alike and continues to play to packed houses at London's Cambridge Theatre. In the video below, Meredith Viera goes behind the scenes of the show for an inside look. Click below to check it out!

Due to popular demand, the smash hit FREUD'S LAST SESSION today announced its final extension through November 11th at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport, in Chicago.

Olivier Award winner Kristin Scott Thomas and Tony Award nominee Lia Williams are set to join Rufus Sewell in the upcoming West End revival of Harold Pinter's OLD TIMES. In a decision reminiscent of Danny Boyle's FRANKENSTEIN, however, the actresses have each been cast as both Anna and Kate.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the regional premiere of the recent Broadway hit TIME STANDS STILL by Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Brooklyn Boy). The play will be helmed by Leslie Martinson and stars Rebecca Dines and Mark Anderson Phillips in the pivotal roles of the photojournalist and war correspondent, with Rolf Saxon and Sarah Moser completing the cast. TIME STANDS STILL runs August 22 - September 16, 2012 (press opening August 25) at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces casting for the 2012 Fall Season. The Tony Award® and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine will be staged by CST Associate Artistic Director Gary Griffin, September 26-November 4, 2012 in CST's Courtyard Theater. The season continues with The School for Lies by David Ives, adapted from Moliere's The Misanthrope and staged by CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines, December 4, 2012-January 20, 2013 in CST's Courtyard Theater.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's world premiere production of Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical has captured the imagination of young and old alike and continues to play to packed houses at London's Cambridge Theatre.

Bay Street Theatre presents the World Premiere of a musical as the third production of the 2012 Mainstage Season. Tony Award winner Lillias White plays Maybelle Smith in BIG MAYBELLE: SOUL OF THE BLUES, written and directed by Paul Levine. The show runs tonight, August 7 through Sunday, September 2.

Bay Street Theatre, Martin Richards and The Gilead Company present the World Premiere musical BIG MAYBELLE: SOUL OF THE BLUES with Tony Award-winner Lillias White starring as legendary blues singer Maybelle Smith; written and directed by Paul Levine. Michael Mitchell is the Musical Director; Orchestrations are by Musical Supervisor Kenny Seymour. The show runs tomorrow, August 7 through Sunday, September 2. Scroll down for photos of White performing onstage at Bay Street!

Youth Music Theatre UK's residential Summer Skills courses are back for 2012. Theatre fans between the ages of 11 and 21 are invited to discover their potential, meet like-minded friends and earn a grade 6 certificate in musical theatre from the prestigious Trinity Guildhall. All skills courses are fully residential with accommodation and rehearsal space located in some of the country's best universities and boarding schools.

Ferdinand Kingsley plays both God and Jesus opposite Coronation Street villain Graeme Hawley who takes on the role of the Devil in the York Mystery Plays being staged throughout August against the backdrop of the St Mary's Abbey, York. Kingsley and Hawley are joined by more than 2,500 people in the staging of what is believed to be the UK's biggest outdoor theatrical event of 2012. With over 1,700 local volunteers comprising the two casts of community ensemble, musicians, choir and crew, the York Mystery Plays run now through 27 August at 7.30pm. Check out photos of the cast onstage below!

Founded in 1979 by its artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience is a modern classical theatre that produces Shakespeare alongside other major authors in a dialogue that spans centuries. Its 33rd season, the last before moving to its first home adjacent to BAM in the new Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District, features boldly diverse works from William Shakespeare, Franz Kafka in a theatrical adaptation by Colin Teevan, Samuel Beckett and Wallace Shawn. In a co-production with The Public Theater, Mr. Shawn's plays will be part of The Wallace Shaw-Andre Gregory Project.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION will feature a post-show talkback discussion with Dr. Jeffrey W. Barbeau, Associate Professor of Theology in the Graduate School of Wheaton College; Dr. Tracy L. Caldwell, Associate Professor of Psychology at Dominican University; and Dr. Larry Arnhart, Presidential Research Professor of Political Science at Northern Illinois University, following the 1:00 p.m. performance on Sunday, August 19 at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport in Chicago. The scholars will discuss the thought-provoking themes addressed in the play, such as the existence of God and the meaning of life.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Patrick Willingham) and Theater for a New Audience (Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz; Managing Director Dorothy Ryan and Chairman of the Board, Henry Christensen III) will present THE WALLACE SHAWN-ANDRÉ GREGORY PROJECT in 2013, a celebration of the remarkable 40-year collaboration between Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory. The two plays, THE DESIGNATED MOURNER and GRASSES OF A THOUSAND COLORS, will offer a long overdue retrospective of Shawn's work as well as an opportunity for him to appear on the New York stage again under Gregory's direction. The Public Theater presented Shawn's first play in New York, Our Late Night, in 1975, directed by Gregory.