Shakespeare & Company News

Initial casting for Arthur Miller's The Crucible is announced. Richard Armitage, Anna Madeley and Samantha Colley are to play John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams in Ya?l Farber's new production at The Old Vic, with previews from Tuesday 24 June. The cast also includes Sarah Niles, Rebecca Saire and Zara White, with further cast to be announced.

Due to popular pre-sale demand, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional week of performances of John W. Lowell's suspenseful psychological thriller THE LETTERS, the first fully staged production in the company's second stage performance space, Harry's UpStage. Award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson (The Arsonists, Salomania) returns to the company to direct this sixth addition to the season, featuring Beth Wilmurt (The Eccentricities of a Nightingale) and Michael Ray Wisely (The Arsonists). THE LETTERS now plays April 17 through June 1 (added performances: Wednesday, May 28, 8pm; Thursday, May 29, 8pm; Friday, May 30, 8pm; Saturday, May 31, 8pm; Sunday, June 1, 2pm) at Harry's UpStage, located in the Nell and Jules Dashow Wing at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($28, $32) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

The Royal Shakespeare Company announced today that Rebecca Preston has been appointed as the Company's new Director of Development.

theatreWashington today kicks off its celebratory theatreWeek (April 14 - 20, 2014), offering countless opportunities for both lifelong patrons and reticent newbies to explore Washington's diverse professional theatres-from discounted performances to ticket giveaways and promotions to behind-the-scenes events. A joint endeavor with presenting sponsor The Washington Post, the Washington theatre community, Destination DC, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the campaign spotlights Washington-area theatre through a regional ad campaign, to be seen by millions. The celebration culminates with the 30th Annual Helen Hayes Awards on April 21 at the National Building Museum.

I was once speaking over the phone with a man I had never met in person, yet he had given every indication to me that he bordering on lunacy. He rambled and ranted, but as he approached the end of his one-way conversation he offered to me that, in the end between two people in a relationship, what truly mattered was that they were able to laugh at the same things.

Today, we're featuring F. Murray Abraham circa 1982. Abraham has focused on stage work throughout his career, giving notable performances as Pozzo in Mike Nichols's production of Waiting for Godot, Malvolio in Twelfth Night for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice for the Off Broadway Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) in March 2007, which was performed at the Duke Theatre in New York and also at The Swan Theatre, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He reprised this role in February 2011, when he replaced Al Pacino in the Public Theater's production. In the 1997/98 Broadway season he starred in the new chamber musical Triumph of Love opposite Betty Buckley, based on Marivaux's classic comedy.

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) will present Martin McDonagh's award winning play 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore'. The dark Irish comedy will be directed by MET's founding Artistic Director, Tad Janes. 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore' will run every Thursday through Sunday(except Easter Sunday) at Maryland Ensemble Theatre from April 10 through May 4. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

The WEST END THEATRE SERIES is delighted to announce its third title; Richard Eyre's five-star, multi award-winning revival production of Ibsen's Ghosts. The Almeida Theatre production will be screened in over 200 cinemas across the UK and Ireland for one night only, Thursday 26 June '14 (www.westendtheatreseries.com).

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, directed by Devon de Mayo. The production will run at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, from May 2 - June 8, 2014. The Press Opening is Friday, May 9, at 7:30 pm.

David Suchet will star as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's much loved and exhilarating masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest. Directed by Adrian Noble, the new production will open in the West End on 1 July 2015, with previews from 24 June 2015.

Guthrie Director Joe Dowling today announced ten mainstage productions in his final season at the helm of the world renowned theater, culminating 20 years of remarkable leadership. The 2014-2015 lineup includes first-time Guthrie productions of plays by A.R. Gurney, Anne Washburn and Sarah Ruhl, three productions directed by Dowling, including a beloved Shakespeare comedy and iconic masterpieces by Arthur Miller and Sean O'Casey, the Guthrie debut of visionary writer and director Mary Zimmerman, as well as an all-American musical slated for summer.

One tragedy that is synonymous with Shakespeare is JULIUS CAESAR. It is one of the classics that, at some point, is forced upon by high school English teachers. The challenge with producing a famously known Shakespeare piece is keeping it fresh and relevant to today's audience.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes start previews tonight, April 11, opens on April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Plymouth's Spire Center for Performing Arts presents their premiere grand opening with a Gala Variety Show and reception tonight, April 11, 7 pm at 25 ½ Court Street, Plymouth. The event kicks off a 2-month long celebration of concerts, performances and Plymouth's first ever Plymouth Rock Assurance Jazz Festival.

During his decade of producing shoestring theatre in a proud but dilapidated auditorium, impresario Buz Davis could only dream of the day he might return to find that hall had received a multi-million dollar renovation, and that he was once again at the fore of creating captivating theatre there. That dream comes true this spring.

Timing is everything in theatre and the Old Carey Performing Arts Club seems to have got it right yet again. With school holidays having arrived Seussical could not have come at a better time, providing a wonderfully entertaining experience for kids and those who are kids at heart.

Philip McGinley (Game of Thrones, E4's Drifters, Herding Cats; Hampstead) and Jenny Rainsford (Headlong's The Seagull, No Quarter; Royal Court) reunite after starring alongside each other in Straight (Sheffield/Bush) for the world premiere of Matt Hartley's new play which opens for a three-week run on 9 May with previews from 7 May.

The Theatre Group at SBCC presents a touching new play, GROUND by Lisa Dillman, as the final offering in the 2013-2014 SeasonFor its final offering in the 2013/2014 season, The Theatre Group at SBCC will present the West Coast Premiere of the new play GROUND by Lisa Dillman, directed by R. Michael Gros, in the Jurkowitz Theatre, April 23-May 10, 2014.

Tonight, April 10, TheatreSquared will launch its first mainstage Shakespeare production with the playwright's signature drama, Hamlet, starring Grant Goodman. The production is helmed by director Sean Patrick Reilly and features a professional cast including T2 associate artistic director Amy Herzberg.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), North Fulton's only professional theatre company, will end its twenty-first season with the musical blockbuster that is Camelot, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. Georgia Ensemble Theatre audiences will be treated to this story and fabulous music by an extremely gifted ensemble of outstanding Atlanta artists. This long-loved show is now poised to touch in new ways a generation that was around when it opened on Broadway in the early 60s, and an entirely new generation as well. GET Artistic Director Robert F. Farley directs this production. Camelot runs tonight, April 10-27, 2014, at the Theatre's home, the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest Street, Roswell, GA. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!