Shakespeare & Company News

Lamb's Players Theatre, Intrepid Shakespeare Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse came up big winners Monday, Feb. 9, at San Diego Theatre Critics Circle's 2014 Craig Noel Awards.

TIME Magazine's #1 Show of the Year, MATILDA THE MUSICAL, will premiere in Pittsburgh on May 31 - June 12, 2016 at the Benedum Center, located at 237 7th Street, downtown Pittsburgh. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company andthe Dodgers, the first national tour of MATILDA THE MUSICAL will be presented as part of the Pittsburgh CLO 2016 Summer Season and PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh 2015-16 Series.

London previews beginning at the Aldwych Theatre tonight 10 February 2015 with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015.

Next on Shakespeare Uncovered, Kim Cattrall goes back 2000 years to explore the epic love story between a Roman General and an Egyptian Queen, two of the most powerful people in the world. She says theirs was an almost sadistic love affair and although she has played Cleopatra twice, she still has questions about the woman.

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) celebrates 50 years as the flagship theatre for multigenerational audiences in North America with a mix of celebratory events and a continued commitment to creating new work for young audiences with a theatrical season that includes five premieres. Hailed by Time Magazine as the number one theatre for families in the nation, CTC celebrates 50 years of creating exciting new works for young audiences that have been in Beijing, Moscow, Tokyo, Canada, Scotland, most of the United States and Broadway; of being the largest and most honored theatre for multigenerational audiences in North America; and the being only theatre for young audiences to receive a Tony Award for sustained excellence.

Today the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) launches Shakespeare's Birthday Song Competition. Open to professional and amateur composers aged 18+, the RSC is asking for a new musical composition, setting the words from one of Shakespeare's much loved songs to music. The winning song will be performed at the RSC's 2015 birthday celebrations in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Ewan Stewart (Titanic) and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (Home, nut) will complete the cast of The Royale, joining the previously announced Frances Ashman, Clint Dyer and Nicholas Pinnock.

Royal Shakespeare Company has announed its Stratford-Upon Avon winter 2015 artistic program, including making the 600th anniversary of Agincourt and continues Shakespeare's Histories with Gregory Doran's production of Henry V, also screened 'Live from Stratford-upon-Avon' to cinemas and schools, Jonathan Munby's acclaimed production of Ella Hickson's Wendy & Peter Pan returns to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, two new plays premiere in the Swan Theatre - Hecuba by Marina Carr, directed by Erica Whyman, and Queen Anne by Helen Edmundson, directed by Natalie Abrahami and Congreve's Love for Love - first RSC staging of this glorious Restoration Comedy, directed by Selina Cadell.

Upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, February 8, 2015.

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Love and/or Marriage with the next installment of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that culminates in the company's 30th anniversary, February 19 -March 15, 2015.

Hot on the heels of winning five Barrymore awards, Inis Nua Theatre Company returns with the American premiere of Long Live the Little Knife by David Leddy at the Off-Broad Street Theater (First Baptist Church, 1636 Sansom Street). This fast-paced and hilarious romp features con artists turned art forgers as they tangle with Russian oligarchs, brothels, castrated labradoodles and spirit mediums.

Dunsinane, presented by The Shakespeare Theatre Company through February 21, shows us that the precarious balance among victor, vanquished, and peace-keeper is a timeless dilemma stretching from Macbeth's heaths to the Iraqi dessert. Dunsinane picks up where Shakespeare's Macbeth leaves off, when the English army, camouflaged as forest trees, kills the tyrant and takes the seat of power. But in the confusion of the skirmish a critical and messy mistake is made: the Queen of Scotland, Lady Macbeth, remains alive. With the queen living and with a claim to the throne, many in the country will refuse to accept a newly-installed king.

The Ustinov Studio, Bath has announced the cast for the first production in its spring 2015 season, the UK premiere of Pavel Pryazhko's wickedly funny comedy, THE HARVEST, directed by Michael Boyd.

Two double act veterans, Colin Lane (Lano from Lano and Woodley) and David Collins (the hairy one from The Umbilical Brothers), have teamed up to take on a comedy duo from a whole other era - Gilbert and Sullivan.

Writers Theatre presents The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Kimberly Senior. The show runs February 24 - June 28, 2015 at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The Press Openings are Wednesday, March 4, and Thursday, March 5, 2015.

The Daily Mail writes that INDIAN INK's Romola Garai will play 'Isabella' in Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE at the Young Vic from October 2, 2015. Joe Hill-Gibbins directs.

This week on PBS' SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED, Morgan Freeman and 'THE TAMING OF THE SHREW' and David Harewood and 'OTHELLO'. The episode airs tonight, February 6, 2015 AT 9PM & 10PM.

Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) continues its 20th season of the New Play Sounding Series (NPSS) with a free reading of William Missouri Downs' newest play HOW TO STEAL A PICASSO on Monday, February 16, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. Directed by Teresa Sanderson, the reading will feature local actors Daniel Beecher, Terence Goodman, Elise Groves, Jesse Peery, and Susan Dolan Stevens. The NPSS provides an essential testing ground where playwrights see and hear their works in progress and receive insightful feedback from the audience members during a post-play discussion.

With the third and fourth shows of the Shakespeare Theatre Company's current season underway, Artistic Director Michael Kahn announced today the Company's 2015-2016 Season. Kahn has put together a season of contrasts and striking new voices, with international directors and adaptors bringing provocative approaches to the classics to Washington, D.C.