Shakespeare & Company News

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 18th season is the Bay Area Premiere of Stephen Karam's fiercely funny SPEECH & DEBATE. Robin Stanton (Betrayed, The Busy World is Hushed, and Permanent Collection) directs this distinctive new play Entertainment Weekly called 'One of the top ten plays of the year...Even if you're not fluent in IM, you'll LOL at this subversive comedy.' Featuring Jayne Deely, Jason Frank, Maro Guevara, and Holly Hornlien, SPEECH & DEBATE plays June 11 through July 18 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($34-55) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Contains mature themes and subject matters.

Streamlined, gender-bending versions of classic plays are the name of the game in a five-week summer theater festival from the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company. Longtime fans of the company's all-female explorations of classic texts will be intrigued to discover this festival's inclusion of male actors - although not always in the roles one might expect.

Michael Attenborough will direct Dimitri Leonidas, Ian McElhinney, Justin Salinger and Ruth Wilson in the world premiere of a new stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Through A Glass Darkly. Previewing from June 10 with press night on June 16 and booking until July 31, Jenny Worton's new adaptation of Through A Glass Darkly has designs by Tom Scutt, lighting by Colin Grenfell and sound and music by Dan Jones.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 30 th Season (2009/10) with a four-week run of Gruesome Playground Injuries, created by the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Rajiv Joseph (playwright of Animals Out of Paper and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo ) and directed by John Vreeke. Gruesome Playground Injuries stars Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey and Tim Getman.

The Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble, presenters of the "Naked Shakespeare" series, announces that the company's abridged version of The Tempest, which will be performed on Thursday, March 18 and Friday, March 19 at Luther Bonny Talbot Hall on the USM Portland campus, will also be performed twice at the St. Lawrence Arts Center on Monday, April 19 and Tuesday, April 20. These added shows will take place on "dark nights" during the upcoming Maine Playwrights Festival. Naked Shakespeare's production of The Tempest features 9 actors from the Naked Shakespeare company and is directed by company member Harlan Baker, who has given the piece a Caribbean flair to evoke the island on which the action of the play takes place. All four performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public, with a $5 suggested donation.

Stage and screen star James Aubrey died earlier this month at the age of 62. Aubrey made his screen acting debut in the 1963 adaptation of Lord of the Flies. He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company during their 1974-1975 season at several British theatres, including the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Comedy Theatre, and the Old Vic.

'TalkOut Mondays' (after the performance) continues April 19th with David McReynolds (American historian and literary critic) & Matthew Scheck (cast member) at the critically acclaimed hit show 'The Temperamentals' by Jon Marans at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). Daryl Roth, Stacy Shane and Martian Entertainment are presenting the new American play.

The Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble, presenters of the "Naked Shakespeare" series, announces that the company's abridged version of The Tempest, which will be performed on Thursday, March 18 and Friday, March 19 at Luther Bonny Talbot Hall on the USM Portland campus, will also be performed twice at the St. Lawrence Arts Center on Monday, April 19 and Tuesday, April 20. These added shows will take place on "dark nights" during the upcoming Maine Playwrights Festival. Naked Shakespeare's production of The Tempest features 9 actors from the Naked Shakespeare company and is directed by company member Harlan Baker, who has given the piece a Caribbean flair to evoke the island on which the action of the play takes place. All four performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public, with a $5 suggested donation.

Chequered Blue Theatre in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre will end their run of the London premiere of The Northerners by Harold Brighouse on April 19th.

Baz Bamigboye is reporting in today's UK Daily Mail that Trevor Nunn has Follies on the list of shows that he wants to direct as part of his year-long committment for 2011 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

San Francisco's African-American Shakespeare Company closes its 15th season with a thrilling interpretation of William Shakespeare's OTHELLO on April 18th.

Finishing up their 19th season, the Seattle Shakespeare Company is presenting one of William Shakespeare's most beloved histories (at least it's one of my personal favorites), "Henry V". But this time they have traded in their tunics and swords for uniforms and guns by transplanting it to 1962. And while the show is a solid one I question the decision to retell it in this era.

Oscar®-Grammy®-Emmy®-Tony®- award-winning composer, conductor, and pianist Marvin Hamlisch, the renowned young British jazz/cabaret singer Jacqui Dankworth, and the popular gypsy-klezmer-rock band Golem are celebrating music and the human spirit on Monday, May 10, 2010; 6 to 10:30 p.m.

California Institute of the Arts' Coffeehouse Theater presents the Pulitzer Prize nominated play In the Blood, written by Suzan Lori-Parks and directed by Fran Bennett. In this modern day drama, Hester, a homeless mother of five fatherless children, struggles to create a home on the streets for her family. Despite Hester's fierce love for her children, poverty and desperation lead to a tragic end. In the Blood will be performed at CalArts, Coffeehouse Theater, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia CA, 91355.

American Stage Theatre Company's new Cabaret Series performed in the Susan R. Hough performance space in the Raymond James Theatre continues with four new productions in April, TOO LEGIT TO QUIT, SHAKESPEARE OPEN MIC, ROMANTIC JAZZ JAM, HAVING FLASHBACKS and the return of THE DUMB SHOW.

Good Night Out Presents The World Premiere of A MODEL FOR MANKIND By James Sheldon 27th March - 17th April 2010.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is thrilled to present Opus, a New England Premiere by Michael Hollinger. Opus opens for the press on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 7:30pm and plays through Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

For its third show of its 30th anniversary season, Theatre for a New Audience will present the New York premiere of C.I.C.T. / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord production of Love Is My Sin, the sonnets of William Shakespeare adapted by Peter Brook and performed by his wife, Natasha Parry and Michael Pennington.

Jonathan Pryce stars in The Caretaker, which concludes its run April 17. The production is the first West End run of the show since Harold Pinter's death in December last year. The Caretaker began at Trafalgar Studios January 12, and officially opened January 18, 2010.

The York Shakespeare Company will present Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, directed by Seth Duerr. LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT will play a three-week limited engagement at the Lion Theater (410 West 42nd Street address). Performances begin Friday, May 28 and continue thru Saturday, June 12. Opening Night is Saturday, May 29 (8 p.m.).