Shakespeare & Company News

2014 sees the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and to mark the occasion internationally acclaimed all-male Shakespeare company, Propeller, return to Coventry's Belgrade Theatre with their adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors on the Main Stage from Tues 11 to Sat 15 Feb.

In the aftermath of the massacre of children in Connecticut in December 2012, I found myself mesmerized watching Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre on "Meet the Press." I remember the horror I felt, as he struggled to articulate his defense, as he interrupted with his solution to violence in our schools: "More guns." He said arming adults in U.S. schools was the answer to decreasing future violence in U.S. schools. Here, I thought, was the perfect, tragic embodiment of our country's need to teach our children Romeo and Juliet differently. Five children end up dead in that story and they were likely whisked there due to their parents' foundationless rage.

Following two previous much-acclaimed seasons of American drama, the Ustinov now presents The American Season 2014: three brand new works, all UK premieres. The three plays are Dan LeFranc's THE BIG MEAL, directed by Michael Boyd, Keith Huff's gritty two-hander, A STEADY RAIN, directed by David Grindley and Lynn Nottage's multi award-winning INTIMATE APPAREL, directed by Laurence Boswell.

Today in 1982, Macbeth opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran for 21 performances. Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre.

Mark Bazeley and Kristin Davis will join the previously announced Natascha McElhone in Trevor Nunn's production of Fatal Attraction to play Dan and Beth Gallagher. Written by James Dearden, the world stage premiere of Fatal Attraction will open at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 25 March 2014, with previews now starting on 11 March and currently booking to 21 June 2014. Designs are by Rob Jones with lighting by Paul Pyant and sound by Paul Groothuis.

The Broadway Cast - led by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock - will appear in the internationally celebrated Kneehigh production of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, which will have a 43-performance limited engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts February 15 to March 23, 2014 (press opening February 19). Yelland and Sturrock are joined by fellow New York cast members Joe Alessi, Dorothy Atkinson, Damon Daunno, and Annette Laughlin. Musician David Brown appeared in the show in the UK and musician James Gow joins the company for The Wallis engagement.

Academy Award, Tony Award and Emmy Award winner Christopher Plummer takes the stage for 16 performances only in a Center Theatre Group special event, "A Word or Two," which opened at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre on Wednesday, January 22, 2014. Written and arranged by Plummer and directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff, "A Word or Two" is presented in association with the Stratford Festival of Canada and continues through February 9, 2014. Click below to watch interviews with Plummer and McAnuff on opening night!

Passion. Love. Vengeance. African-American Shakespeare Company continues its 19th season with MEDEA, Euripides' infamous tragedy about a jilted wife exacting the ultimate revenge on a cheating husband. Dawn Monique Williams, a veteran of staging the classics, directs, with Leontyne Mbele-Mbong in the title role. MEDEA plays Saturdays and Sundays, March 8-30 at the Buriel Clay Theater at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street (at Webster) in San Francisco.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its 2013 nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County theatre. The 45th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, March 17, 2014 at The Colony Theatre, located at 555 N. Third Street in Burbank.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company brings a sweeping, youthful, full-cast production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the Duncan-Williams Performance Hall at Germantown Performing Arts Center on January 28 and 30 at 7:00 pm. Opening night tonight, January 28 will include a complimentary post-show reception with the actors.

The quintessential portrait of maniacal ambition and lust for power is on stage in William Shakespeare's epic history play Richard III at Folger Theatre. Robert Richmond

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents the world premiere of THESE PAPER BULLETS!, a modish ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Rolin Jones, with songs by Billie Joe Armstrong, and directed by Jackson Gay, March 14-April 5 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 20.

The 'MIZ Kids' have been announced for Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schonberg's Tony Award-winning musical masterpiece LES MISERABLES, which returns to Broadway beginning Saturday, March 1 at the Imperial Theatre. The official opening night isSunday, March 23.

Full casting is announced for the first two plays in the 'Roaring Girls' season. Led by Royal Shakespeare Company Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman these rarely performed Jacobethan plays reveal some of the great parts written for and about women.

Last week a theatre in Northern Ireland cancelled the Reduced Shakespeare Company scheduled performance of The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) on religious grounds.

The Atlanta Shakespeare Company at The New American Shakespeare Tavern presents The Taming of the Shrew (in repertory with Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing) (Slight cast change: Matt Nitchie is playing Petruchio). The Taming of the Shrew runs February 6, 9, 16, 21, 27 and March 2, 8, 14, 20, 23, 29 (in repertory). Directed by Jeff Watkins.

The Atlanta Shakespeare Company at The New American Shakespeare Tavern presents Much Ado About Nothing (in repertory), running February 8, 13, 20, 23, March 1, 7, 13, 16, 22, 28, 2014 (in repertory). Directed by J. Tony Brown.

New Repertory Theatre presents the New England Premiere of THE WHIPPING MAN, today, January 25 through February 15, 2014.

Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Machinal, starring Rebecca Hall, written by Sophie Treadwell and directed by Lyndsey Turner, began previews on December 20 and opened on January 16, 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Machinal is a limited engagement through March 2. Below you can check out photos of Suzanne Bertish in the BroadwayWorld.com series 'In The Spotlight' by acclaimed photographer Walter McBride!