Second Stage Theatre News

OBIE Award winner Russell Hornsby (Jitney, Eddie Sutton on ABC's Lincoln Heights) and LADCC and NAACP Award recipient Charlayne Woodard (Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life) star when L.A. Theatre Works records Crumbs from the Table of Joy, a sly coming-of-age comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Emerging playwright Marisa Wegrzyn is the recipient of the 2009 Wasserstein Prize for her play Hickorydickory. The Wasserstein Prize was established in memory of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died in 2006. The $25,000 prize is awarded for an outstanding script by a young woman who has not yet received national attention. The Wasserstein Prize is funded by the Educational Foundation of America (EFA) and administered by Theatre Development Fund. It will be presented by Wendy's life-long friend and EFA Board member Heidi Ettinger and TDF's Executive Director Victoria Bailey at a reception at The Players at 16 Gramercy Park South in New York City on Tuesday, December 1. In addition to the $25,000 prize, Ms. Wegrzyn's play, Hickorydickory, will receive a reading at Second Stage Theatre in New York City.

William Shakespeare's witty, playful and totally magical As You Like It is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando's celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden.

Actors Theatre Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are proud to announce the lineup of the 34th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, the nation's pre-eminent and longest-running new play festival. This season, the Humana Festival is slated for February 21 through March 28, 2010.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC's Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group's premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway's Coram Boy, Off Broadway's Streamers) playing Doug.

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College presents the first show of the Fall 2009 Season The Art of Justice Series, which integrates the performing arts and issues on justice, 'DE NOVO' - Part 1: Lil' Silent, running from November 12-14, 2009 at 7pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Admission is $15 (CUNY Students FREE).

Julia Cho's THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE will receive its premiere at the South Coast Repertory Theatre as a part of their 2010 season. The show received a reading in 2009 as a part of SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festivals. The show will be directed by Mark Brokaw and will play March 26th to April 25th at the Segerstrom Stage.

Page 73 Productions (Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Executive Directors) and New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Associate Director) will present the world premiere of Heidi Schreck's riveting new play "CREATURE," directed by Leigh Silverman. This Off Broadway engagement will be performed at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street (between Spring and Broome Streets). Previews begin on Wednesday, October 28, and the official Opening Night will be Monday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. Performances will run through November 21.

Page 73 Productions (Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Executive Directors) and New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Associate Director) will present the world premiere of Heidi Schreck's riveting new play "CREATURE," directed by Leigh Silverman. This Off Broadway engagement will be performed at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street (between Spring and Broome Streets). Previews begin on Wednesday, October 28, and the official Opening Night will be Monday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. Performances will run through November 21.

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College presents the first show of the Fall 2009 Season The Art of Justice Series, which integrates the performing arts and issues on justice, 'DE NOVO' - Part 1: Lil' Silent, running from November 12-14, 2009 at 7pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Admission is $15 (CUNY Students FREE).

Anna Deavere Smith's new play, LET ME DOWN EASY, currently playing off-Broadway, evolved from an original set of interviews done by Smith. While at Yale, the chairman of the department of medicine asked her to produce a play based on interviews with patients and doctors to present to the medical staff.

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College presentsthe first show of the Fall 2009 Season The Art of Justice Series, which integrates the performing arts and issues on justice, 'DE NOVO' - Part 1: Lil' Silent, running from November 12-14, 2009 at 7pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Admission is $15 (CUNY Students FREE).

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center will honor celebrated Tony Award-winning producer Robyn Goodman at its 12th Annual Women's Event on November 7 at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center will honor celebrated Tony Award-winning producer Robyn Goodman at its 12th Annual Women's Event on November 7 at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers.

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College presentsthe first show of the Fall 2009 Season The Art of Justice Series, which integrates the performing arts and issues on justice, 'DE NOVO' - Part 1: Lil' Silent, running from November 12-14, 2009 at 7pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Admission is $15 (CUNY Students FREE).

Variety reports that stage and screen stars Annette Bening and Anthony Hopkins will star in Andy Garcia's latest film, Hemingway and Fuentes. The film is a period piece that Garcia co-wrote with Hilary Hemingway, granddaughter of author Ernest Hemingway. Garcia will also direct and star in the piece alongside Bening and Hopkins. Filming will begin next summer.

MADISON STREET PRODUCTIONS in association with BOO-Arts PRODUCTIONS are pleased to announce their production of the 2008 Midtown International Theatre Festival nominated play, PENANG by James L. Larocca, directed by Donya K. Washington.

Parsons Dance presents REMEMBER ME, an all-new version of last season's collaboration with the lead vocalists of East Village Opera Company (EVOC), featuring the music of the acclaimed rock opera band at The Joyce Theater from February 2-14, 2010.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's exciting new version of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS by Sarah Ruhl, one of America's most acclaimed young playwrights and author of THE CLEAN HOUSE opens tonight, October 29th. John Doyle, the Tony Award-winning director of COMPANY directs the production