Samuel Beckett News

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater proudly announces the lineup for its 15th season. The season opens in October with the World Premiere of SIDEWINDERS by Basil Kreimendahl, directed by M. Graham Smith, followed by Alfred Jarry's UBU ROI in January, directed by Yury Urnov, in a new translation by Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose. RISK IS THIS…THE CUTTING BALL NEW EXPERIMENTAL PLAYS FESTIVAL returns in February with five new works, including two new plays from resident playwright Andrew Saito, in staged readings that push the boundaries of what theater can be. Rounding out the season in April is the American Premiere of Samuel Galett's COMMUNIQUE N°10 in a World Premiere translation, and directed, by Rob Melrose. In addition to the main stage season, Cutting Ball Theater continues its Hidden Classics Reading Series with six new installments. The entire 2013-14 season will be staged in San Francisco at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street at Ellis). Season memberships on sale May 13; single tickets on sale September 1. For tickets and information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205.

Tony Award winners Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley will join Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in the limited season repertoire of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, directed by Sean Mathias, on Broadway at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, this fall. 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.

Amalgamate Dance Company (ADC) is not your typical dance company. Moving beyond concert dance as a beautiful art form to watch to dance for a purpose, ADC presents 'Giving Back and Moving Forward' as an artistic platform for communities to actively engage in charity work. For their annual Spring Gala, ADC has chosen to raise aphasia awareness in conjunction with The National Aphasia Association (NAA). ADC will offer two exciting programs including the premiere of a new dance work inspired by Aphasia research and a documentary of the making of the dance work.

The Ensemble of Shattered Globe Theatre is pleased to present AN EVENING OF BECKETT starring renowned Beckett protege and San Quentin Drama Workshop founder Rick Cluchey. The Chicago-born actor performs Beckett's classic one-act KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, featuring original direction by the playwright himself. The program concludes with SAM AND RICK, a moderated discussion with Cluchey about his personal experience with Beckett, the playwright's influences on art and theatre, life at San Quentin State Prison, and much more. AN EVENING OF BECKETT will play eight performances only, May 2 - 12, 2013 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are available at www.shatteredglobe.org or by calling the Stage 773 Box Office at (773) 327-5252. The press opening is Wednesday, May 1 at 8 pm.

I'm a big fan of the St. Louis Actors' Studio because they always seem to manage to mix the old with the new in intriguing fashion during their theme based seasons, and you can wind up catching a classic like WAITING FOR GODOT along the way. It's always a fun and engaging ride no matter what they offer up, and this time around they're presenting the absurdly profound work I just mentioned. Playwright Samuel Beckett's wacky characterizations and dialogue, along with it's see-through symbolism, is given a wonderful presentation by the company, with excellent performances and expert direction.

Marin Theatre Company closes its 2012-13 Season with a revival of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane in Mill Valley from May 23 to June 16. Named San Francisco Chronicle's MVP of 2012 Bay Area theater, Mark Jackson (Shotgun Players, Aurora Theater Company) directs this "gloriously funny; wickedly amusing; unalloyed delight" (The Telegraph). Opening night is on Tuesday, May 28.

The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street) continues its seventh season of the Irish Rep Reading Series, with a free reading of Nate Rufus Edelman's THE BELLE OF BELFAST on Friday, April 26 at 3:00 p.m. at the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

Theatre for a New Audience, whose vision is based on its core commitment to ideas, to language, and to artists and audiences, has scheduled the first three of its new Open Books Series of free lectures beginning Today, April 25, at 6:00pm with Kenneth Gross, author of Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life (University of Chicago Press, 2011), and continuing with Penelope Niven, author of Thornton Wilder: A Life (Harper, 2012) Tuesday, May 21,at 5:00pm and Jonathan Kalb, author of Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater (University of Michigan Press, 2011), Today, May 30, at 6:00pm.

Performances begin in just five weeks for the third annual Next Up, continuing Steppenwolf Theatre Company's commitment to Chicago's next generation of theater artists. Next Up features three productions presented in rotating repertory, in collaboration with Northwestern University's MFA programs in Direction and Design. Next Up 2013 showcases the work of graduates of those programs with casts of professional Chicago actors-including nine alumni of the School at Steppenwolf: Fat Pig by Neil LaBute, directed by David Prete; The Drunken City by Adam Bock, directed by Johnny Michael DiResta; and The Internationalist by Anne Washburn, directed by Erin Murray.

Tonight, at the annual gala celebrating the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the nonprofit's artistic director thrilled the crowd with a surprise announcement: Tony Taccone informed the guests that legendary actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will perform at Berkeley Rep in a pre-Broadway engagement of No Man's Land. Award-winning director Sean Mathias stages Harold Pinter's masterwork in the Roda Theatre for an exclusive and strictly limited run in August.

In the modern theater, unsung artists called Sound Designers are quietly engaged to flesh out theatrical productions with recordings of crickets, doorbells and phone rings. They fill your Tempests with winds, your Streetcars with street noise and your Vanyas with gunshots. They mix your incidental music with your offstage voices and invisibly support the director's vision. If they're doing their job correctly, you won't even notice their contribution.

No Accidents Productions presents the world premiere of FOUR MESSAGES, a new musical by Ned Massey, author of the NYMF hit BLOODTIES, with previews set to begin tonight, April 17, prior to an official press opening on Tuesday, April 23, at Theatre Row's Studio Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). Larry Loonin directs.

The Loyola University Evergreen Players present "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett, directed by Natka Bianchini, Friday, April 12th and Sat., April 13th at 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 14th at 2 p.m.; Friday, April 19th at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 20th at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Theatre for a New Audience, whose vision is based on its core commitment to ideas, to language, and to artists and audiences, has scheduled the first three of its new Open Books Series of free lectures beginning Thursday, April 25, at 6:00pm with Kenneth Gross, author of Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life (University of Chicago Press, 2011), and continuing with Penelope Niven, author of Thornton Wilder: A Life (Harper, 2012) Tuesday, May 21,at 5:00pm and Jonathan Kalb, author of Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater (University of Michigan Press, 2011), Thursday, May 30, at 6:00pm.

The distinguished actor and playwright Don Reid passed away peacefully at 5pm on Tuesday April 9, 2013 after a fall the previous day.

Author Olayinka Olaleye, announcing the publication of his new play "The Comedy of Ijimere, President of Niger Area" (published by Trafford Publishing), cites Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett as his influences, and offers his new book as an entrant into the theater of the absurd.