Seattle Rep News

The Colony Theatre presents the first production of its "Season of Premieres" with the Los Angeles Premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, written by Evan Smith and directed by award-winning Cameron Watson, the show stars three-time Los Angeles Drama Critics Award-winning actress Anne Gee Byrd. THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION opens tonight, June 16 at 8:00pm and continues through Sunday, July 8 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the world premiere of EASTLAND: A NEW MUSICAL, written by Artistic Director Andrew White with music by Ben Sussman and Artistic Associate Andre Pluess and directed by Amanda Dehnert. The production runs June 6 - July 29, 2012 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is tonight, June 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Mickey Rowe and Laurie Roberts, Arts on the Waterfront coordinators, hope to revitalize and reinvent this event to include both theater and visual art as well as of course the live music that made the series such a staple of the Seattle scene years ago. Arts on the Waterfront will be located next door to the Seattle Aquarium and blocks west of the Seattle Art Museum. Buy local produce at the Pike Place Market and enjoy it next door to the Aquarium while watching free public theater followed by live music and moonlit dancing. There will be performances by local bands SolBird, The Horse Thieves, Country Lips, Fortune Dwellers and more. The event will run from today, June 15-July 1.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, launches its 43rd season with the world premiere of UPRIGHT GRAND, a play with live music by acclaimed playwright Laura Schellhardt (Auctioning the Ainsleys). A hit at last year's New Works Festival, this tender and intelligent portrait of the complex relationship between a father and daughter will be helmed by TheatreWorks New Works Director Meredith McDonough. Dan Hiatt will star as aging songwriter "Pops," with Renata Friedman as "Kiddo" and Brett Ryback as "The Accompanist." UPRIGHT GRAND plays July 11 - August 10, 2011 (press opening July 14) at TheatreWorks at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. For tickets ($24-$73) and information the public may call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this week, David Mamet's 1984 play Glengarry Glen Ross is heading back to Broadway, this time starring Al Pacino as leading man, 'Shelly "The Machine" Levene.' Pacino previously played 'Richard Roma' the the 1992 film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Daniel Sullivan is attached to direct the project. The New York Times has confirmed that the show will begin previews on October 16 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. Opening night is set for November 11.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION will feature Love, Sex, the Meaning of Life and the Existence of God, a post-show talkback discussion with Mark Galli, Senior Managing Editor of Christianity Today, Stanton L. Jones, Provost of Wheaton College, and W. Jay Wood, professor and chair in the department of philosophy at Wheaton College, following the 8 p.m. performance on Friday, June 29 at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport in Chicago

The Washington Rogues return to the Capital Fringe Festival with a bold and timely comedy that dives headfirst into one of the most controversial debates of our time, and does so with heart, humanity and healthy dose of magic. Mitzi's Abortion (A Saints Guide to Late-Term Politics in America) by Elizabeth Heffron will play five performanes between July 12 and 25 at The Warehouse at Fort Fringe - 645 New York Ave NW.

Comedian and commentator Lewis Black shows off his playwriting prowess with ACT - A Contemporary Theatre's production of the wedding day comedy One Slight Hitch. The play is the West Coast debut of a new work by Black, who is not only a Comedy Central regular and a contributor to the award winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but also a stand-up performer and studied playwright. The play began previews June 8 and opens tonight, June 14, running until July 8.

Arden Theatre Company presents the inaugural production for The Writers' Room, an innovative playwright residency program, with Women in Jep by Wendy MacLeod.

Following critically acclaimed sell-out runs on Broadway and in the West End, Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer prize winning play, DRIVING MISS DAISY, starring Gwen Taylor as Daisy Werthan, Don Warrington as Hoke Coleburn and Ian Porter as Boolie Werthan will go on a national tour from 10 October 2012.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater produces the 2011 Tony Award-winning production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, directed by George C. Wolfe. Wolfe, who directed the show's sold-out Broadway engagement last season, mounts the professional D.C.-area premiere of this production, which features returning Broadway cast members Patrick Breen and Luke MacFarlane, among others. Presented by special arrangement with Daryl Roth, The Normal Heart runs tonight, June 8-July 29, 2012 in the Kreeger Theater.

Comedian and commentator Lewis Black shows off his playwriting prowess with ACT - A Contemporary Theatre's production of the wedding day comedy One Slight Hitch. The play is the West Coast debut of a new work by Black, who is not only a Comedy Central regular and a contributor to the award winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but also a stand-up performer and studied playwright.

Judith Light is the recipient of this year's Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role for OTHER DESERT CITIES.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) kicks off the 10th anniversary of its Uptown Series with the world premiere of The Bad Guys, written by Alena Smith and directed by Hal Brooks. The Bad Guys will feature Michael Braun (War Horse), Roe Hartrampf (Unnatural Acts), James McMenamin (Suicide, Incorporated), Tobias Segal (The Miracle Worker) and Raviv Ullman (Russian Transport). Opening night is tonight, June 4th.

The Yale Institute For Music Theater (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director) will select up to three original music theatre works to be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven today, June 4 through June 17, 2012.

Atlantic Theater Company presents world premiere of Fernanda Coppel's new play CHIMICHANGAS AND ZOLOFT, featuring Teddy Cañez, Zabryna Guevara, Alfredo Narciso, Xochitl Romero, and Carmen Zilles, directed by Jaime Castañeda.

Macha Monkey will present the northwest premiere of Stephanie Timm's Sweet Nothing, a (grim) fairytale at Annex Theatre's space beginning this month.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the 2012 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series. The three plays that will be presented are Foreclosure by Vincent Delaney, produced by Mondays Dark Theatre Company and Kenny Howard of The Broadway Consortium; Appendage by Derek Murphy, produced by Tweiss Productions (Sharon Weiss & Eileen B. Weiss); and The Sin Eater by Michael Bettencourt, produced by Block & Tackle Productions, Inc. and Elfin Frederick Vogel. The selected plays will be read on Mondays, June 4, 11, and 18 respectively, at 7pm at The Roy Arias Theatre, 300 W. 43rd Street, 5th Floor, Studio 500, NYC. Admission is FREE but reservations are required: email TRUStaff1@gmail.com or call 212-714-7628.

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was thrilled to sit down and speak with nearly all of this year's Tony Award nominees at the official Tony Brunch on May 2, 2012, and we will be bringing you special coverage on all of them throughout the awards season. Today we bring you Judith Light, nominee for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Other Desert Cities.