Samuel Beckett News

Berkeley Repertory Theatre kicks off its 46th season this September with Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play. The hilarious Broadway blockbuster from three-time Obie Award-winner Christopher Durang begins previews in the Roda Theatre on September 20, opens September 25, and runs through October 20. Durang, the renowned author of rollicking comedies such as Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Marriage of Bette & Boo, turns Chekhov on his head with this witty and incisive farce. In bucolic Bucks County, Vanya and Sonia fritter their lives away in their family's farmhouse amid regret, angst, and the alarming prophecies of an addled housecleaner. Enter their sister Masha, a self-absorbed movie star with her prized boy toy Spike, and the stage is set for an absurd weekend of hilarity and global warming. Acclaimed director Richard E.T. White returns to Berkeley Rep to stage the laugh-inducing Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a loving homage to Chekhov's themes of heartbreak and hope.

Acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Noah Haidle returns to Chicago with his newest work, Smokefall, which examines life's big questions through the prism of an ordinary family. Hailed by The New Yorker as "formidably talented, with a sort of freewheeling intuitive daring," the Michigan native playwright most recently wrote the 2012 film Stand Up Guys (starring Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken and Al Pacino) and previously authored Mr. Marmalade, Vigils (at the Goodman in 2006) and Persephone for the stage. Director Anne Kauffman, in her Goodman debut, assembles an ensemble cast for the Goodman production, including legendary Chicago actor Mike Nussbaum (Henry VIII at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) as the Colonel; Catherine Combs (The Delling Shore at Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival) in the roles of Beauty and Blessing; Katherine Keberlein (Boeing, Boeing at Drury Lane Oakbrook) as Violet; Guy Massey (Failure: A Love Story at Victory Gardens Theater) as Footnote and Fetus Two; and Eric Slater (Gloryana at New York City's Public Theater) as Daniel and Fetus One. A world-premiere co-production with South Coast Repertory, Smokefall runs October 5 - November 3 in the Owen Theatre (opening night is Monday, October 14). Tickets ($10-$40; subject to change) are on sale now at GoodmanTheatre.org/Smokefall, by phone at 312.443.3800 or at the box office (170 North Dearborn). Bank of America is the 2013/2014 Owen Season Sponsor.

The New Yiddish Rep is staging the first-ever production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in Yiddish. In an unusual collaboration with the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street, where the world premiere runs from Friday September 20 to Sunday October 13, diverse audiences will see this seismic landmark of the modern theatre in an entirely new light. Directed by Moshe Yassur, with an authorized translation by Shane Baker, the production marks the 60th anniversary of "Waiting for Godot's" Paris premiere in January of 1953. This "Waiting for Godot" opens on Sunday September 22 at 2pm.

Two of the most iconic plays of the 20th Century, Harold Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND and Samuel Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT will open on Broadway at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, this fall, starring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley directed by Sean Mathias . Performances will begin Saturday, October 26 at 8pm. The official opening is Sunday, November 24, 2013. This limited season will run for 14 weeks only. For performance schedule and more information, visit TwoPlaysInRep.com. BroadwayWord brings you photos of the cast in action below!

The cast of a season of short plays by maverick writer, director and actor Steven Berkoff has been announced. Fresh from her departure from Eastenders as Jean Slater, Gillian Wright will star, with Anthony Barclay, Lucy Hollis, Tom Lincoln and Clive Mendus. The season will present five world premieres and will be co-directed by Berkoff himself and Jermyn Street Theatre Associate Director Max Barton.

Arts on the Waterfront returns for a second year with an innovative outdoor production of Samuel Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT. Touching on themes of homelessness, uncertainty, and generational disconnect, the play is given fresh immediacy in this insightful and humorous production.

Violinist and artistic director Gil Morgenstern's acclaimed Reflections Series International is pleased to announce its 2013-2014 season at a new home adjacent to New York's Highline Park, Avenues: The World School (259 Tenth Ave.). Reflections'relationship with Avenues is particularly appropriate, as the school seeks to integrate learning across subject areas in a globally aware setting. Avenue's state of the art black box theater, designed by architecture firm Perkins Eastman and interior design firm Bonetti/Kozerski Studio, is the perfect setting for Reflections' sophisticated but relaxed performances. Throughout the year, Gil Morgenstern will work with the students at Avenues on interdisciplinary projects both in and out of the classroom.

Rubble,' written by 'The Simpsons' long-time staff writer and producer Mike Reiss and starring 'Hollywood Square' Bruce Vilanch, has more one-liners than a comedian's stand-up routine, and not much more of a plot.

Last week, I had the opportunity to drop in on the cast of Horse Head Theater Productions upcoming presentation of Annie Baker's THE ALIENS. Drake Simpson empathically said that the group is excited to present the Houston premiere of the play. Annie Baker is an up and coming and award winning playwright, who had her Houston premiere with Stark Naked Theatre Company's production of her first full length play BODY AWARENESS. Her second play CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION shared the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play with her third play THE ALIENS. Annie Baker's THE ALIENS was also a finalist for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In March 2013, Annie Baker was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize at Houston's Alley Theatre for her fifth play THE FLICK. Needless to say, the enthusiasm surrounding this Houston premiere is high, and the cast was thrilled to chat about Horse Head Theater Company's upcoming production of THE ALIENS.

Harold Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND starring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley, directed by Sean Mathias, opened August 11 at 7pm at Berkeley Rep. This brief engagement will play through August 31.

Harold Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND starring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley, directed by Sean Mathias, opens this Sunday, August 11 at 7pm at Berkeley Rep. This brief engagement will play through August 31.

Cutting Ball Theater opens its 15th season with the World Premiere of Basil Kreimendahl's SIDEWINDERS, beginning Oct. 18 and running through Nov. 17. SIDEWINDERS owes as much to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot as it does to SF Pride. In this absurdist-Western romp through gender queerness, Dakota and Bailey find themselves lost, possibly upside down, in a strange world with even stranger characters. Their journey to getting right side up provokes questions of sex anatomy, transgenderism, and who we really are from the inside out. M. Graham Smith makes his main stage directing debut at Cutting Ball with SIDEWINDERS, featuring DavEnd, Sara Moore, Donald Currie, and Norman Munoz.

The Kennedy Center hosts its 12th annual Page-to-Stage new play festival from Saturday, August, 31 to Monday, September 2, 2013, featuring more than 40 theaters from the D.C. metropolitan area, all with a mission to produce and support new work. The three-day, Center-wide event offers a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers. A performance schedule appears on the following pages. Participating theaters include:

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company led by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, begins its 22nd season and the third season in its new Pasadena home with William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, opening Saturday, September 14 and closing Sunday, November 24, 2013, with previews starting September 7. Pericles is performed in repertory withThe Guardsman by Ferenc Molnar, October 5 through November 30, and Endgame by Samuel Beckett, October 26 to November 23.

The Velocity of Autumn, a new two-character play from Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, opens at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith and by special arrangement with HOP Theatricals, LLC.

The 2013 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to embark upon a journey inspired by the way technology seizes and shifts our perceptions of a world, translated by such visionaries as J S Bach, Samuel Beckett or Richard Burton, John Cage, Jean Cocteau or Francois Couperin, Leonardo da Vinci or Allen Ginsberg, Sergei Prokofiev or Nam June Paik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis or Frank Zappa. Click below to watch a trailer for this year's festival!

The 2013 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to embark upon a journey inspired by the way technology seizes and shifts our perceptions of a world, translated by such visionaries as J S Bach, Samuel Beckett or Richard Burton, John Cage, Jean Cocteau or Francois Couperin, Leonardo da Vinci or Allen Ginsberg, Sergei Prokofiev or Nam June Paik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis or Frank Zappa. Scroll down for a sneak peek at some of the shows and artists that are a part of the 2013 festival!

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is proud to announce the line-up of shows for the Fall 2013 Season. All performances take place at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Ticket prices and performance schedules vary. For tickets, call Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.59e59.org.

Following two highly successful sold-out runs in London in 2012 at the Jermyn Street and Arts Theatres, Trevor Nunn's critically acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's radio play ALL THAT FALL starring Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon will have a limited run at 59E59 Theaters in New York from Tuesday 5 November to Sunday 8 December 2013.